{"id":56,"date":"2025-09-29T12:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/md\/admissions\/how-to-apply\/admissions-requirements\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:48:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:48:53","slug":"admissions-requirements","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/md\/admissions\/how-to-apply\/admissions-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Admissions Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you for your interest in our program. The UNC SOM seeks students who will thrive in our rigorous educational program. We are looking for curious and caring individuals who are on a genuine journey to impact society through a career in medicine. Our students demonstrate excellent communication skills, strong interpersonal and leadership skills, and the altruism and passion for service that sets Tar Heel Doctors apart.<\/p>\n<h2>Testing Requirements<\/h2>\n<p>The MCAT examination is required and should be completed within 3 years of matriculation. For the <strong>2027<\/strong> Admissions cycle, we will accept scores from <strong>January 1, 2024<\/strong> to <strong>September 13, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Degree Requirements<\/h2>\n<p>A bachelor\u2019s degree from a regionally accredited institution within the Unites States or Canada is required for admission. If your bachelor\u2019s degree was completed elsewhere, a Master\u2019s degree or postbaccalaureate work within the U.S. or Canada with at least 30 hours of AMCAS designated BCPM coursework with letter grades is required.<\/p>\n<h2>Course requirements:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A minimum of 30 credit hours of AMCAS designated <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/applying-medical-school-amcas\/amcas-course-classification-guide\">BCPM<\/a> coursework with letter grades is required.<\/li>\n<li>Coursework must include one <strong>Biochemistry<\/strong> <strong>course<\/strong> and <strong>2 upper-level Biology courses<\/strong>. Examples of upper-level Biology courses include Anatomy\/Physiology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, and Immunology. These courses should be taken at a baccalaureate granting institution or as courses taken as part of a Masters or PhD program.<\/li>\n<li>A statistics course and coursework in the humanities are recommended.<\/li>\n<li>In-person classwork is strongly preferred to online classwork. A substantial majority of the coursework needs to be in person. Contact the Office of Admissions if you are considering utilizing online courses for degree completion.<\/li>\n<li>AP credits, CLEP credits, verification from the World Education Services (WES) or other organizations do not count towards required coursework or the 30 hours of BCPM coursework described above.<\/li>\n<li>All degree granting programs and classwork must be completed prior to matriculation. Acceptance is contingent on successful completion of all degree-granting programs and coursework listed on your AMCAS application.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Academic expectations:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Our matriculants average MCAT score is 512 and BCPM GPA is 3.6-3.7.<\/li>\n<li>A competitive In-state applicant has a BCPM GPA over 3.2 and MCAT 500 or higher.<\/li>\n<li>A competitive Out-of-state applicant has an overall undergraduate GPA of 3.59 and BCPM GPA over 3.49 and MCAT 514 or higher.<\/li>\n<li>If you are completing a post-baccalaureate program or Masters degree because you did not meet these academic expectations, you must complete 30 hours of <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/applying-medical-school-amcas\/amcas-course-classification-guide\">BCPM<\/a> coursework in the new program.<\/li>\n<li>If you graduated from your degree granting program more than 5 years from the matriculation year, but have completed prerequisite requirements and taken the MCAT within 3 years of matriculation (refer to <strong>Testing Requirements<\/strong> for specific dates), you are not required to repeat coursework. We recommend that you discuss how you will be prepared for a rigorous, in person, academic curriculum if you have not been in the classroom for 5 or more years in the <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/media\/14261\/download\">Other Impactful Experience<\/a> section of the AMCAS application.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Letters of Recommendation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The total number of <strong>required letters is three (3).<\/strong> Applicants may provide <strong>two (2) optional letters<\/strong>, for a total of five (5).<\/li>\n<li>A Pre-Health Committee letter may count as the 3 required letters.<\/li>\n<li>Letters from Professors are recommended for at least 2 of the letters.<\/li>\n<li>LORs from faculty and organizations must be on their letterhead and signed.<\/li>\n<li>Recommended deadline for submission is <strong>August 31st<\/strong> so your application is complete and ready to review as soon as possible.<\/li>\n<li>All letters are to be submitted through the <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/applying-medical-school\/article\/amcas-letter-service\/\">AMCAS Letter Service<\/a>. It is your responsibility to designate the UNC School of Medicine as one of the schools to receive your letters. If you have questions about how to do this, please <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/contact-aamc\/\">contact AMCAS directly<\/a> or refer to the <a href=\"https:\/\/students-residents.aamc.org\/media\/11616\/download\">online AMCAS instruction manual<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Application Deadline<\/h2>\n<p>The UNC SOM AMCAS submission deadline is <strong>October 1, 2026<\/strong>. We do not participate in the AMCAS Early Decision Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you for your interest in our program. The UNC SOM seeks students who will thrive in our rigorous educational program. We are looking for curious and caring individuals who are on a genuine journey to impact society through a career in medicine. Our students demonstrate excellent communication skills, strong interpersonal and leadership skills, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/md\/admissions\/how-to-apply\/admissions-requirements\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Admissions Requirements\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79967,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-56","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Admissions Requirements - Office of Admissions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/md\/admissions\/how-to-apply\/admissions-requirements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Admissions Requirements - Office of Admissions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thank you for your interest in our program. 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