FAQs

The Admissions Committee seeks the following attributes and life experiences:

• Personal attributes that include (but are not limited to) the following:
  • Teamwork and collaboration
  • Communication and interpersonal skills
  • Intellectual excellence
  • Ethical responsibility to yourself and others
  • Leadership
  • Resilience and adaptability
• Life experiences that include (but are not limited to) the following:
  • Experience with rural and/or underserved communities and populations
  • Connection and Commitment to Washington
  • Clinical exposure
  • Community service (non-healthcare)
  • Experience beyond the classroom

Read the complete list of admission requirements, attributes and experiences our college is looking for. Please do not submit an AMCAS application if you do not or will not meet the requirements to receive a secondary application as your application will not be considered.

Yes, but the college does not require that your bachelor’s degree be in any specific discipline. The degree must be completed by July 15 of the year you would enroll in our program. Take a look at course prerequisites to ensure that you will meet these requirements. The bachelor’s degree must be completed at an accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university.

If you do not have a bachelor’s degree because you enrolled in a doctoral-level (terminal degree) program from a U.S. accredited institution that did not require a bachelor’s degree for entrance, you may apply if you will earn or have earned the doctoral degree by July 15 of the year you will begin medical school.

We do not accept WES evaluations. We require that you must earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in the U.S. or Canada by July 15 of the year you would begin medical school.

We require all coursework to be completed at an institution accredited by a U.S. regional accreditation body, whether it is online or in person.

Yes, we accept any coursework taken at an institution regionally accredited in the U.S. or Canada.

Advanced Placement (AP), CLEP, and International Baccalaureate (IB) credits that are acceptable to your undergraduate college may be used to satisfy the prerequisites. AP, CLEP, and IB credits must be documented on an official transcript.

Yes, pre-requisite course changed to Pass/Fail due to COVID-19 during calendar years 2020, 2021, and 2022 coursework will be accepted to meet these requirements. Graded courses are required starting 2023 calendar year. We already accept online coursework taken at accredited institutions. The MCAT is required.

If you do not meet a “resident student” of Washington definition, you must demonstrate ties to Washington by meeting three of these four requirements:

• Born in Washington
• Childhood address in Washington
• Graduated from a Washington high school
• Current parent/guardian lives in Washington

Review the “State Residency Requirements” description on our Requirements page.

If you do not meet any of these requirements, you will not be considered and will not receive a secondary application.

Not at this time. Please see our policy related to this.

We only accept applications from U.S. citizens and those with valid U.S. permanent resident cards (green cards). In addition, you must meet our residency requirements.

These are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. If your graduate GPA is approved to meet the combination thresholds in lieu of the undergraduate GPA and you meet all of the other secondary requirements you will be sent a secondary application. If you do not receive a secondary application, it means your graduate degree did not qualify to be considered due to not being a medical/clinical or basic science degree and/or not enough hours taken to be considered.

If you do not meet 3 of our 4 “from Washington” ties via information from your AMCAS application, you will be asked to provide official documentation that you meet a Washington “resident student” definition. The WSU College of Medicine uses the definition of “resident student” in RCW 28B.15.012(2) to determine state residency, however in consultation with the Attorney General’s office, we established our own date to determine residency – residency must be met by January 1 of the enrollment year.

Depending on what definition of “resident student” you meet will impact the forms required to submit. These will be emailed to you once we receive your AMCAS application and have verified you have met the other secondary requirements. Please do not send us documents until we request them. Some common examples of documentation requested can include the following:

• A copy of your state and federal IRS tax return from the most recent tax year
• A copy of the state and federal IRS tax return of your parent(s) for the most recent tax year
• Housing documentation (e.g. home purchasing agreement, lease agreements, rent receipts, etc.)
• Pay stub
• State of Washington voter’s registration
• State of Washington driver’s license or identification card
• State of Washington vehicle registration
  • Please note: all documentation requested will be for the entire 12-month period leading to January 1 of the enrollment year to the College of Medicine.

If you have questions about your specific situation, please contact the Admissions team at medicine.admissions@wsu.edu.

The WSU College of Medicine references the WAC 250-18-035 to determine if a student is considered financially independent or dependent. If you are a dependent applicant, all documents requested will be in the name(s) of your parents/guardians.

If you do not meet 3 of our 4 “from Washington” ties but have just recently moved to Washington, you will need to verify your residency with our office to prove you meet a Washington “resident student” definition for at least the entire 12-month period leading to January 1 of the enrollment year to the College of Medicine. Do not send us documents until we request them.

For students entering in fall of 2025, the oldest acceptable MCAT is from the 2021 calendar year.

We consider the highest total percentile rank.

You can; however, your application will be on hold until your score is received.

All applicants must apply through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). Before you apply:

• Read about the complete application process.
• Review admission requirements, attributes and life experiences we are seeking.
• Review the secondary application requirements. There are no waivers or exceptions to the requirements to receive a secondary application; thus, if you do not meet all of these requirements, you will not be considered further. This should inform whether you pay the submission fee to AMCAS for our program.

• October 15 at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time): AMCAS applications accepted until this time. No extensions are considered under any circumstance.
• December 2 at 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time): Secondary application and fee are due. No extensions are considered under any circumstances. The secondary fee is waived if you received approval for the Fee Assistance Program through the AAMC.

Yes, please contact us at 509-358-7518 or medicine.admissions@wsu.edu. Please note that while you are an active applicant (your application has been submitted and is still under consideration), we will not conduct any detailed advising on your application. However, we are happy to answer general questions you may have.

No, we do not accept any updates to the submitted application at any point in the cycle. If you have updated contact information, we will accept that.

The exception to this is if you have received a new criminal conviction and/or institutional action since submitting your application, per your agreement when you submitted your application with AMCAS, you are required to notify us of this update within two weeks.

We do not consider letters of interest or intent at any point in our process. While applicants are free to send them, they will have no impact on your application, and they are not shared with the Admissions Committee.

Yes, applicants who meet the requirements to receive a secondary application will be invited to submit one. Take the time to review the required criteria before submitting your AMCAS application; there are no exceptions made to these requirements and your AMCAS application is not reviewed if you do not meet these. The secondary application is required for further consideration.

Yes. The secondary application has a nonrefundable fee of $50. This fee is waived if you received approval for the Fee Assistance Program (FAP) through the AAMC.

We require three letters of evaluation. If your premedical advising office provides a committee letter compiling feedback from multiple sources, this letter will count as your three required letters of recommendation. All letters should be submitted through AMCAS Letters of Evaluation/Recommendation Service by your evaluators. We do not weigh the committee letter more than three individual letters. We prefer that applicants only send us our required number of letters.

Select writers who know you well and can speak to your qualifications for entering the field of medicine, particularly relative to the desired selection criteria. If you are still in school, try to include at least one faculty member who has gotten to know you during the course of your studies. If you have been out of school and no longer in touch with faculty members, consider a supervisor. The College does not accept letters from family members and/or friends.

Letters should be dated for the current application cycle. They should also be on letterhead and signed.

You will be required to submit official transcripts to AMCAS as part of their process. We only request official transcripts from those who have been accepted and only for certain coursework (AMCAS does not forward transcripts to the schools). We will notify those who have been admitted in the spring with what we need.

Screeners review completed applications (AMCAS, secondary, and letters) for interview eligibility on a rolling basis. This means we can make interview invitations all the way until the last February interview date. If you are selected to interview you will be contacted by email to schedule a date. Interviews will take place virtually from August through February. The College sends all communications via email, so please include a valid and regularly monitored email address on your AMCAS and secondary applications. As soon as the decision is made not to interview you, we will communicate that decision.

NOTE: To ensure you receive all of our correspondence, please ensure medicine.admissions@wsu.edu is a recognized address to receive emails from. If not, our emails may go to your junk or promotions folders (check these regularly if you are an applicant).

If you are a prospective applicant and have not yet applied or a decision has been rendered on your application, we would be happy to meet with you for advising. To keep the process fair to all applicants, the college does not offer individual advising once you have submitted your application and are under consideration. You can schedule an appointment with one of our team members.

In the spring, the college offers an applicant symposium for prospective applicants. Our upcoming events are posted on our website. We also provide mini-webinars on our website. Our team also provides one-on-one advising for prospective applicants by contacting. You can also schedule directly with an advisor.

We will notify those who have been denied after interview on a rolling basis starting in September. Applicants who have not been invited for an interview will be notified as soon as that decision has been made. Following interviews, once an application has gone through the Admissions Committee process, applicants will be notified of one of three updates related to their candidacy:

• Eligible: they are in consideration for seats to fill the initial class
• Waitlisted: they will be waitlisted
• Denied: they are no longer in consideration

Waitlist applicants will be notified no later than March 15. If you have not received a secondary application by December 1, you can assume you are not eligible for acceptance and no longer being considered; official communication will be sent soon after our deadline date has passed.

Not at this time.

You may hold more than one acceptance nationally until April 30. After that time, if you have accepted multiple offers, it is important to decide on one and withdraw from the others. Please review the AAMC Application and Acceptance Protocols for Applicants.

If you decide not to attend the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, please decline your offer or withdraw your acceptance by emailing medicine.admissions@wsu.edu. This allows the College to admit another applicant in a timely manner.

If you are on the waitlist and no longer considering our College, please communicate your wish to withdraw by emailing medicine.admissions@wsu.edu.

We do not. We only accept information we receive directly from AMCAS or through our Secondary application in order to maintain an equitable process.

We do beginning mid-March. Applicants can follow our process for receiving updates on their rank after that time until we matriculate the class in mid-August.

Yes, we provide detailed feedback via application reviews with our team. A team member will meet with you via zoom and provide thorough feedback about strengths and weaknesses in your application to help you when you reapply. They will not provide a reason for not being selected. Application reviews are only provided between October 1 and May 31. You can only receive one application review from us even if you are a reapplicant. You can request an application review by emailing medicine.admissions@wsu.edu.

View cost of attendance, financial education, and scholarship information.

If you are an admitted student with ties to Washington, you will receive a waiver for out-of-state fees. We only charge in-state tuition.

Satisfactory/no pass. Near Honors and Honors are available in the clerkship years.

80 students.

Please seek advice from your pre-health advisor at your undergraduate campus. You may also schedule an advising appointment with one of our team members.

Yes, you may schedule an advising appointment with one of our team members.