Office of Student Admissions

General Information

Pre-Medical Requirements

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNM SOM) encourages application from all interested students, regardless of their area of academic study. The minimum prerequisites requirements to apply to the School of Medicine are:

8 semester hours general biology or zoology (including labs)
8 semester hours general chemistry (including labs)
8 semester hours organic chemistry (including labs)
6 semester hours general physics
3 semester hours biochemistry
- Combined organic chemistry/biochemistry courses are inadequate. The biochemistry course should be at the junior/senior level.
- All of the prerequisites, except for organic chemistry labs (both I and II) and biochemistry, must be completed prior to the submissions of the application. The organic chemistry labs and biochemistry prerequisites must be completed prior to matriculation.

All of the prerequisites must be completed with a letter grade of C or better (C- is not acceptable). Pass/Fail (CR/NC) grading is not accepted. Advance Placement (AP) Credit will be accepted for introductory Biology, Chemistry, or Physics only if college credit was granted by the institute. College Level Examination Program (CLEP) Credit will be accepted as long as the applicant has the sufficient number of semester hours to fulfill the required prerequisites.

To receive consideration for the admissions process, applicants must have total numerical Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) score of 22 or greater and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or greater.

Applications and Deadlines

The University of New Mexico uses the centralized American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) that is supported by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The AMCAS application of those applicants who wish to apply to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine will be electronically forwarded to our school.

Applications/transcripts must be received by AMCAS by the deadlines listed below:

	Early Decision Program (EDP)	Regular Decision Program
Earliest Date to Apply	June 1	June 1
Latest Date to Apply	August 1	November 15
Admissions Decisions Sent	October 1	March 15

Applicants will be notified by email if they have been approved to complete the Secondary Application and a residency form. Letters of recommendation may be sent to the Office of Admissions prior to your invitation to complete the secondary application to ensure that they are received in a timely matter.

Residency

To receive consideration for the admissions process, applicants must be a resident of New Mexico for at least one year at the time of application or have strong ties to New Mexico. Strong ties include graduating from a New Mexico high school in which you attended for at least one year or being financially dependent on a New Mexico resident.

Consideration is also given to enrolled members of the Navajo Tribe who reside on the Navajo Reservation, as certified by the Navajo Department of Higher Education. For more specific information regarding UNM's Residency Policies, visit the Office of the Registrar’s page on Residency Information.

The university is also a member of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). Therefore, consideration is given to residents of participating states that at present have no medical schools (Montana and Wyoming). WICHE applicants must apply through the Early Decision Program and must also have at least the average MCAT/GPA as the last year's entering class in order to receive consideration. The 2009 entering class average MCAT composite score was 28 and the average cumulative GPA was 3.6.

Foreign national applicants who would like to be considered for admission to the UNM School of Medicine are expected to have the equivalent of at least two years of full-time undergraduate or graduate studies at an accredited college or university in the United States, and to have all the same required course prerequisites. Foreign national applicants must also reside in New Mexico for a least one year prior to application in order to fulfill the residency requirement.

Tuition and Fees

Estimated tuition and fees for the 2009-2010 academic year: