Early assurance medical schools offer early decisions and guaranteed admission, some of them with provisional or conditional terms. Students may be admitted to medical school earlier than usual, skip taking the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and have an M.D. or D.O. degree in six or seven years instead of eight. Students are required to stay with the institution for the duration of the program, with very few exceptions. Completion of a specific undergraduate major as certain programs require, limits options for the student. These programs are also extremely rigorous, more so than the traditional pathway.
The University of California San Diego admits just 12 high school students each year. Seniors are provisionally accepted into medical school, provided that certain requirements are met: completion of all premedical courses, a grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 or higher and completion of six quarters of liberal arts courses in the humanities and social sciences. The MCAT is omitted. Applicants must possess a 4.0 GPA and high SAT/ACT scores and also be involved in lots of community volunteering and activities, demonstrating their potential for leadership. Highlights include individual mentoring by medical school faculty, as well as opportunities for research. Program participants are permitted to apply to other medical schools, if desired.
High school students who are admitted to the Howard University College of Arts and Sciences right after graduation can obtain a bachelor's and a medical degree within six years. Acceptance is determined by ACT and SAT scores, MCAT scores and GPA. Students must have completed foreign languages, biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics courses while in high school. Applicants are required to submit recommendations and an essay and to attend an interview.
This program is specifically for students with an interest in providing care to under-served rural communities. Offered jointly with Indiana State University, state residents are given priority consideration for admission. Students admitted to the program must complete the bachelor's degree, take the MCAT and maintain a certain GPA in order to continue on to medical school. A complete waiver of tuition for the bachelor's degree is a chief advantage of the program.
The New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) offers two joint programs with the State University of New York at New Paltz and at Geneseo (SUNY). Students admitted to the program complete three years at SUNY and four years at NYCOM, obtaining a bachelor's and doctorate of osteopathic medicine degrees within seven years. Applicants must be freshmen majoring in biology. Admission into NYCOM is guaranteed as long as students complete undergraduate degree requirements, maintain a 3.50 GPA and submit MCAT scores equal to that of newly admitted medical students. Admission to this program is determined by high school record and SAT and ACT scores.