Admissions Policies | Office of Admissions

Pre-requisite coursework

Academic preparation must include all the prerequisite courses on our website regardless of your field of study or advanced degree (the prerequisites must be current), or the medical school program type selected on the AMCAS application.

We require that your undergraduate coursework has been completed at a regionally accredited college or university within the U.S. or Canada and that your grades are documented in letter-grade format on your transcript and not pass/fail. Narrative evaluations are not accepted in lieu of GPAs.

All prerequisite coursework must be completed at a regionally accredited institution in the U.S. or Canada
A minimum of 30 credit hours of natural science coursework is required at the time of application.
Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate coursework cannot substitute for the prerequisites. We require college level coursework for all the prerequisites.
We require seated (in-class) prerequisite coursework for you to acquire the interpersonal skills required to succeed in our curriculum and in medical practice. On-line courses will only be considered if your institution is unable to offer you a place in a seated class, and we recommend contacting our Admissions office for confirmation of acceptability. The exception to this requirement is if online instruction is the only option offered due to a pandemic.
Substitutions are not allowed for the coursework identified in the categories, or the required laboratory. For example, Biochemistry cannot substitute for one of the Biology Sciences, as we have identified Biochemistry as one of the required courses for the Chemistry requirements.

Typically, the prerequisite courses are taken during an undergraduate, post baccalaureate (after college), or graduate degree program. Your grades must be documented in letter-grade format on your transcript and not pass/fail. There is a five-year limit on prerequisite coursework. We begin calculating the elapsed time from the YEAR you graduated from the given program, not the year the course was taken. Whichever path you choose, your degree and your prerequisite coursework must be satisfactorily completed within five (5) years prior to submitting an AMCAS application to our school.

If you are not within the five (5) year limit, you are required to complete one of the choices below before applying to our medical school:

Demonstrate current mastery in the natural sciences by satisfactorily completing a graduate science program in the natural sciences, prior to applying (letter-grade format is required) – OR –
Complete 30 credit hours of post baccalaureate coursework in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc. prior to applying to demonstrate mastery within the natural sciences.

Please note that CLEP credits are not accepted for required courses, and we do not accept verification from the World Education Services (WES) for the required coursework.

Transcripts

You must send final official transcripts with degree designations (if applicable) from each U.S or Canadian institutions you have attended by July 1st of the matriculating year. Please note, we will begin collecting final official transcripts from accepted applicants after January 1^st of the matriculating year. Each transcript will be verified to ensure that all required coursework has been completed, as well as degree notations and dates of conferment. After the transcripts are verified, you will see a green check mark next to the transcript in your transcript checklist. This process is labor intensive, and your patience will be appreciated.

Hard copies of final official transcripts should be sent to the Office of Admissions, 1001 Bondurant Hall, CB# 9500, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-9500.

Electronic Transcripts

If your school uses an electronic service to, please send transcripts to: admissions@med.unc.edu

If your school uses the National Clearinghouse service to send transcripts, we have our own account,

National Clearinghouse: UNC School of Medicine – Office of Admissions – 00297400sm – PDF. Make sure the correct school on our campus is selected!

Failure to provide the required transcripts confirming successful completion of coursework, and degrees earned, could result in one of the following:

- A stop on your account which will prevent you from receiving financial aid
- Revocation of your acceptance and/or matriculation if you do not provide transcripts with degree designations indicating that you have completed your program prior to matriculation.

IMPORTANT– AMCAS will not send your transcripts to us; it is your responsibility to provide the Office of Admissions with your final official transcripts by July 1st!

Remember: your acceptance is contingent upon demonstrating the successful completion of all required UNC School of Medicine prerequisites, and programs indicated on your AMCAS application, or any courses you have taken after the submission of your AMCAS application.

MCAT Scores

Prospective students should plan to take the MCAT exam no later than September prior to the year of matriculation. We will not use MCAT scores that are not valid. Every cycle, we will post the last exam date we will accept MCAT scores from, on our website as well as in the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR). Please use the table in this link to determine which AMCAS cycles your MCAT scores are valid. https://www.med.unc.edu/admit/requirements/academic-requirements/

GPAs that are significantly below our averages

If you do not meet the minimum GPA requirements, we require that you either enroll in a post-baccalaureate or science graduate program, in the natural sciences, and complete at least 30 credit hours or more before applying. This gives you the opportunity to show an improvement in your academic ability, and to prepare for graduate level coursework. Make sure that you receive a letter-grade for your course work, and not P/F, or medical schools will not be able to determine the GPA improvement, as P/F grades will not be calculated in your post-baccalaureate or graduate GPAs. Again, it is also important that your post-baccalaureate or graduate work be completed before applying, as this will enable us to consider and evaluate your success in the program. Remember, your goal is to demonstrate proficiency in the natural sciences, and only having a few credit hours of post-grad work on your AMCAS application will not give us the evidence that we need.

Reapplications

Applications to UNC School of Medicine are limited to a total of four (4) cycles of application—the initial application—plus three (3) re-applications. This applies to all applications submitted prior to the 2017 application cycle.

Acceptance requirements and transcripts

Acceptance into the UNC School of Medicine is contingent upon demonstrating successful completion of all required UNC School of Medicine prerequisites, and programs indicated on your AMCAS application, or any courses taken after submission of your AMCAS application. In addition, you are required to submit final official transcripts from each U.S. or Canadian institution attended, showing successful completion of the required coursework or degree granting programs by July 1st of the matriculating year. Each transcript will be verified to confirm that the prerequisites have been completed and are up to date and (within the five-year limit at the time of application), as well as your degree granting program(s).

Deferrals

Admitted students who have paid their enrollment deposits may request to be considered for a one-year deferment of their matriculation no later than June 1st of the matriculating year. Deferment requests are considered individually, and we typically grant deferrals for research, academic programs—additional year of graduate studies—or scholarship for medical internship or service programs. Please note, if you anticipate that you will need a deferral prior to applying to our program, it is best to consider waiting until you are ready, and applying to a future application cycle.