• International Student
• Study Centers
• Study Guide by Subject
• Study Medicine in the US
• AACOMAS

AACOMAS

The AACOMAS makes it possible for students to apply to many schools of Osteopathic Medicine with the same application. Although you will still have to send out your letters of recommendation on your own, everything else will be taken care of by AACOMAS. Thanks to the streamlining of the application process, you will be able to ensure that your one application is as good as it can possibly be.

The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS) allows prospective students of osteopathic medicine to fill out one standardized application which can be sent to whatever school the student wishes. The service was created by the non-profit group the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and its purpose is to help simplify and expedite the application process for prospective students of osteopathic medicine. The service works for domestic and international students alike.

Before Applying

To verify the information on your application, the AACOMAS requires that students have official school transcripts sent to their offices. They do not accept copies of transcripts, so you will have to have the registrar of your college send the information to this address:

You will also need to make sure you have completed the spring semester of your junior year and that the grades for that semester are on your transcript before having it sent out. The AACOMAS does not allow students to apply who have not yet gotten this far in their academic year, so it is very important that you check on this.

Also, any college courses or coursework that was taken in a school outside of the US and not a part of a US sponsored program will have to be evaluated by an approved organization to determine a US equivalency. This is especially important for international students, who have are much more likely to have attended a non-US sponsored school.

After doing these things you are ready to set up an online account. Like any other online account, you will need to provide an active email address and create a password so you will be able to keep this information private. Now you are ready to begin the application process.

Filling Out The Application

There are several parts to the AACOMAS application, each of which are briefly outlined below.

• Biographical Information: Here you will need to provide information such as your address, citizenship, as well as information on your high school.
• Family Information: This section consists of general questions regarding your family members.
• Personal Information: Questions here will mostly be focused on demographic information your social security number (if you have one) and your legal name.
• Personal Statement: The personal statement section will be your chance of convincing schools why you are passionate about medical school and why they should choose you with a brief essay. The statement can be as long as 4,500 characters but no longer.
• Work Experience: If you have any experience working in a hospital or some other related field, this is where you can let schools know. This section is only for related jobs, so do not include any jobs that you have had if they do not have to do with the medical field.
• Extracurricular, Volunteer, Community Service: If you have not had a job in the medical field, but you have shadowed a doctor or spent time volunteering in a hospital, you can put the experience here.
• Additional Academic, Professional and Personal Profile: There will be a series of questions in this section regarding your academic history, your medical background, and your legal background.
• MCAT information: It is okay if you have not yet taken the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) when you fill out the application, but it is required that you take it before applying to medical school so don't put it off. After you take the MCAT you can have the scores sent to AACOMAS by logging into the MCAT website and select AACOMAS as a recipient of the results.

It is also important to mention that medical schools require letters of recommendation as part of the application process, but they cannot be sent through AACOMAS. To send your letters of recommendation you will have to either mail them directly to the colleges that you apply to or you can use a website that is affiliated with AACOMAS called Interfolio. Interfolio is very similar to the AACOMAS site, and it can help you organize and send all of the extra paperwork that AACOMAS does not.

Now that the application is filled out you will have to select which schools you would like to send the informationa to and then pay for the applications. As of 2012, the first school applied to costs $175, and each additional school costs $32. Of course, these prices can change at any time, and are only intended to provide international students a general idea of the price.

When all of this is done, the applications will go out on their own and medical schools will contact you directly to set up interviews.