MD Admissions Process

• We accept students in good standing who will be graduates of accredited colleges and universities before matriculation to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
• International students are eligible to apply, but may need to submit additional documentation.
• Due to the structure of our curriculum, VUSM does not accept transfer students.
• There are no restrictions on the type of major a student chooses; we provide recommendations of courses for applicants in their preparation for the study of medicine.
• The school does not require a minimum GPA or minimum MCAT score, but strong competition tends to eliminate applicants with low GPAs and/or MCAT scores. The GPA range for the most recent entering class was 3.5-4.0, and the MCAT range was between the 74th and 100th percentile.

• It is a university requirement that Vanderbilt has a complete record of your undergraduate and/or graduate preparation with degree(s) conferred prior to your matriculation to medical school.
• Applicants must have attended a regionally accredited institution of postsecondary education. Preparation in foreign universities, in most cases, should be supplemented by a year or more of course work at an approved university in the United States.
• All official credentials, including transcripts from foreign universities and letters of recommendation must be sent from the source and cannot be accepted from the applicant.
• Once admitted, please send all official final transcripts with degree awarded and date of graduation by July 1 of the year you will be entering medical school.
  • Transcripts sent to AMCAS during the application process do not fulfill this requirement.
  • Digital copies of your transcripts sent via Secure Electronic Delivery (such as Parchment, National Student Clearinghouse, etc.) will be accepted.
  • We cannot accept emailed transcripts from you. If your institution is unable to provide a digital copy of your transcript, please email the admissions team at mdadmissions@vanderbilt.edu for  accommodations.

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine recognizes that the undergraduate academic experience of applicants varies greatly. Therefore, we have made the decision to move away from “requirements” to “recommendations.”

The expansive and ever-changing landscape of medicine and its practice necessitates that an applicant have demonstrated competencies in the natural and life sciences, social sciences, and mathematics. These competencies can be met through traditional and/or newly established interdisciplinary courses of study in an accredited institution of higher learning. The use of AP or other credit is acceptable, but it is strongly encouraged to build stronger competencies through courses taken in college.

Although there is no timeframe in which students must meet the above competencies, it is recommended that students have recent exposure to most or all of these areas. Competitive applicants should demonstrate in-depth competency in each of the following areas of study, based on the AAMC-HHMI Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians and AAMC-Behavioral and Social Science Foundations for Future Physicians. Mastery of competencies is reflected by a strong performance in the classroom and on the MCAT, as well as in letters of evaluation.

• Biology: Applicants should demonstrate competence in the understanding of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and how they regulate organ and organismic structure and function. Fields of study analyzing diverse human properties are view in a strong, positive light.
• Chemistry/Biochemistry: Applicants should demonstrate competence in the basic principles of chemistry as it pertains to living systems. Studies in biochemistry are an exemplary way to prepare students for training in medicine science.
• Mathematics/Statistics and Physics: Applicants should demonstrate competence in the basic principles of physics and mathematics underlying living systems. Applicants should demonstrate basic competence in statistics or biostatistics, which is important to understand the quantitative aspects of medicine and biomedical research.
• Social Sciences and Communication: It is imperative that the applicant demonstrate competence in the humanistic understanding of patients as human beings and as part of a familial and social structure. In this regard, studies in psychology and sociology are viewed favorably. It is required that the applicant speaks, writes, and reads English fluently.

International Applicants: If you have taken your coursework at an international university where English is not the language of instruction, your application may benefit from taking additional science courses at an English-speaking university.

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine requires the final MCAT score to be officially received from the AAMC before the candidate's file will be reviewed for secondary application consideration. Vanderbilt will accept the old test scores for three years. For applicants who have more than one test score, our committee has elected to consider the super scored MCAT, taking the highest score from each section to create the highest possible composite score. We have no minimum score requirement for the MCAT.

The latest MCAT Vanderbilt University School of Medicine will accept are September 2025 scores from applicants applying to enter medical school in 2026. Applicants who change their dates for the MCAT must submit their changes to AMCAS and notify the Office of Enrollment Services at VUSM of the change in their MCAT decision date. Email this information to mdadmissions@vanderbilt.edu.

Applications are processed strictly according to what is submitted by the applicant on the AMCAS application. If an applicant makes any changes from what was originally submitted on the AMCAS application, they must notify AMCAS and VUSM. Unless an applicant enters a "next MCAT date" in their AMCAS application when taking an additional MCAT, we will not consider the MCAT scores after AMCAS submission, nor will we reconsider our initial screening decision.

For the 2025-2026 Admissions Cycle

• MCAT required: Yes
• Latest MCAT considered: September 2025
• Oldest MCAT considered: January 2022

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine receives letters of evaluation through the AMCAS Letter Writer Application for the incoming 2026 class. Applicants are individually responsible for ensuring receipt by AMCAS. Please designate Vanderbilt University School of Medicine as one of the institutions assigned to receive your letters when you submit your primary AMCAS application. Please note that failure to have letters sent to AMCAS will delay your application review at VUSM.

Note: If your college writes a pre-med advisor letter or a committee letter, and you elect not to use it, this may cause concern to our Admissions Committee.

Vanderbilt will accept the following options:

1. Committee Letters. If your college writes a committee letter WITH additional faculty letters attached, this will meet our requirement. We understand if the total number of letters in that committee letter packet contains more than five letters; the additional letters will not negatively impact you. If you then send an additional letter outside of the committee packet, please reflect on if the additional letters will truly give us additional insight on you. If your college writes a committee letter WITHOUT additional faculty letters attached, you will want to send additional letters. We accept 3-5 letters from candidates.
2. Pre-Health Advisor Letters. If your college writes a Pre-Health (or Pre-Med) Advisor letter and does not provide additional letters from others in that letter, you will want to send additional letters. We accept 3-5 letters from candidates.
3. Individual Letters. We accept 3-5 letters from candidates and are more concerned with the quality (and information gathered) rather than quantity of letters. The vast majority of applicants will only send three letters, but we know everyone’s journey to medicine is different; it may be better to collect an additional letter or two to document that journey.

Vanderbilt University supports the movement for letters to cover the AAMC Guidelines and encourages applicants to solicit letters from evaluators who can address competencies.

If you have advanced degrees or at least one year of postgraduate full-time employment, it is advisable to ask your supervisor at work or a member of the graduate faculty to send a letter of evaluation.

Background checks will be conducted on all admitted students to the M.D. and M.D./Ph.D. programs at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Read the full policy.

Learn more:

• AAMC Background Check Details
• Certiphi Screening Inc. will procure a background report on early decision program applicants at the point of acceptance and all other applicants at the point of acceptance after January 1st. An e-mail will be sent to applicants by Certiphi Screening Inc., at the preferred e-mail address entered in the AMCAS application by the applicant.

Applying to an American Medical School

• Because we have so many international applicants express interest in attending Vanderbilt, we wanted to explain a bit how the American medical system works. This information is mainly for pre-med students who are in their baccalaureate studies abroad, and are not U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.
• The typical structure of American medical education is as follow: baccalaureate degree at any accredited institution, medical school, then residency training. During the baccalaureate degree phase, students may major in any subject they wish and take recommended courses to prepare them for medical school. They will next take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) exam and apply to a variety of allopathic medical schools that they can learn more about in the Association of American Medical Colleges‘ (AAMC) Medical Schools Admissions Requirements (MSAR) resource. Unfortunately, it is a competitive application process and not every qualified applicant matriculates to medical school. The typical four years of allopathic medical school leads to a M.D. degree, which is a general medical degree. In order to learn more about a specific area of medicine, and gain prescriptive and diagnostic rights, the M.D.
  completes residency training.
• In the U.S., candidates to allopathic medical schools need to apply through a common application called the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). The AMCAS application traditionally opens at the beginning of May for candidates to submit their application in early June. Starting in July, the medical schools the candidate applied to will be able to access the AMCAS application and will determine which candidates will move forward in their school specific application process. Because AMCAS cannot verify international (excluding Canadian) transcripts, Vanderbilt requires candidates to send a copy of their international transcripts (see Official Transcripts section below) once their AMCAS application has been verified and sent to medical schools.
• For U.S. medical schools, selected candidates will be invited to interview with the school. For Vanderbilt, interview season is typically from the beginning of September to the end of January. The final offers of acceptance are usually made at the end of February and we start class in mid-July. This year-long application process is the norm at all medical schools, but the specific dates may change, depending on the school.
• All candidates to Vanderbilt, and most other medical schools will need to complete the MCAT during the initial part of the application process. It is encouraged to take the MCAT by late spring/early summer of the calendar year before the candidates wishes to matriculate to medical school.
• Most medical schools, Vanderbilt included, participate in rolling admissions – reviewing applications in the order they are received. If a medical school lists their application deadline in AMCAS as October 31st, candidates who apply October 29th via AMCAS will most likely be too late in the admissions cycle to be considered for admission. Medical schools encourage applicants to apply at the beginning of the cycle.
• Vanderbilt’s holistic admissions process holds all candidates to the same high standards; other than the step regarding international transcripts, we do not have additional requirements for international students. In our incoming class of 96 students, we have no cap on how many of these students are international.

Accredited Institution

The university or universities that you have attended must be fully accredited. In most cases, students who have attended universities exclusively outside the United States have chosen to supplement their studies with at least one year of course work at an accredited university in the United States. If you have taken your coursework at an international university where English is not the language of instruction, your application may benefit from taking additional science courses at an English-speaking university.

Official Transcripts

Applicants who have completed college or university coursework at an institution in a country other than the United States or Canada must obtain a complete course-by-course evaluation of the native transcripts, degrees, and other relevant documents. In all instances, the evaluating agency will require original, official documentation. Please note, the evaluating agency must send both the course-by-course report and copies of the native documents. If the agency does not provide copies of the documentation used to do the course-by-course evaluation, the applicant must submit their official documentation to Vanderbilt. Please do not send us a copy of your transcripts until your AMCAS application has been verified, since AMCAS cannot verify international (except Canadian) transcripts. We encourage the candidate to email our office to let us know they have sent their transcript(s) to us; please include the AAMC ID number in that email as it helps us match up transcripts and applications in a prompt manner.

Evaluating agencies include:

World Education Services (WES)
Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. (ECE)
Josef Silny & Associates, Inc. (Josef Silny)

Official transcripts and course-by-course evaluation reports should be sent to the following address:

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Attn: MD Admissions
PMB 407712
224 Eskind Biomedical Library and Learning Center
Nashville, TN 37240-7712

For further questions regarding prior degrees, please visit our University Registrar’s website.

Coursework

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, like many American medical schools, requires applicants to have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution.

Because Vanderbilt has moved away from “prerequisites” and instead offers “recommendations,” we recommend international applicants ensure they have taken the proper foundational coursework for success. For most international candidates (not including Canadian applicants whose transcripts have been verified by AMCAS), it is recommended that they supplement their international coursework at an American university. This allows the admissions committee to feel confident in the candidate’s ability to thrive in medical school.

Extracurriculars and Other Expectations

Vanderbilt expects all applicants to have strong extracurricular involvement. This includes medical exposure, community engagement, leadership, and research. In addition, we recommend that candidates also think about activities that will set them apart from other competitive applicants.

Vanderbilt also requires letters of evaluation. These letters must be written in English for our admissions committee to read.

Visa

If you need a student visa (F-1 or J-1), you must be able to document that you have the financial resources to pay for (at a minimum) one year’s expenses each year. For more information on visas necessary for studying at Vanderbilt, see International Student & Scholar Services.

Costs for International Medical Students

Vanderbilt does not have specific aid opportunities set aside for only international students; admitted candidates to VUSM are eligible for both merit and need based scholarships regardless of citizenship status. To be eligible for Federal loans, you need a permanent resident visa or an immigrant visa if you are not a U.S. Citizen. Because international students are not eligible for federal aid, VUSM recommends that applicants line up loan opportunities before making a commitment to attend a U.S. medical school. A helpful website is Financial Aid for International Students. International students can generally obtain a private alternative loan if a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident is willing to co-sign the loan.

Transferring to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Due to the competency based curriculum at the School of Medicine, we do not accept transfer students. For candidates who wish to “start over” with medical school, they will need to apply to Vanderbilt via AMCAS. There is a section on the AMCAS application where candidates should indicate if there was a previous matriculation and will be able to explain what has occurred.

No matter what level of training individuals already have in medicine, all students will start at the same point in their medical education and will complete at least four years of medical education.

Attending Vanderbilt for a Baccalaureate Degree

If you are interested in attending Vanderbilt for a baccalaureate degree, please visit https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/ as the application process is not handled by our office. The Office of  Undergraduate Admissions also handles transfers for the baccalaureate degree.

Applying for a Visiting Student Rotation while a Medical Student at an International Medical School

For individuals who are completing an international medical degree, but wish to complete a visiting student rotation at Vanderbilt, that process is not handled by our office. We encourage the individual to review the information on our Visiting Medical Student website for more information. If you have any questions about the process, please email visitingmed@vanderbilt.edu.

Completing a Residency at Vanderbilt

For candidates who have an international medical degree, but wish to do their residency at Vanderbilt, that process is not handled by our office. We encourage the individual to review the website of their residency program of interest for more guidance.