Early Acceptance Program: TTUHSC School of Medicine

 

 

Cultivating Outstanding, Well-Rounded Professionals in Medicine

 

The joint TTU-TTUHSC Early Acceptance Program (EAP) offers an exciting opportunity to select Honors College students by allowing them to waive the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and to apply early to the TTUHSC School of Medicine (SOM), typically in the junior year. Successful Early Acceptance Program applicants are notified of their acceptance to the SOM in February and complete their baccalaureate degrees prior to admission to the SOM.

The primary goal of this special program is to encourage Honors students to broaden their educational experiences before they enroll in their professional studies. The waiver of the MCAT allows students to become actively involved in the Honors College and to include coursework or other experiences in areas such as languages, the humanities, mathematics, and business, enabling them to become more well-rounded professionals. This is not an accelerated program. Therefore, the School of Medicine reserves the right to deny acceptance through this program to students who may contemplate early graduation.

 

 

Eligibility to Apply

 

General Requirements for Application: Early acceptance is available to Honors College students within any major, so long as the requirements for entry to the School of Medicine are met and the student is judged to be an exceptional candidate by the School of Medicine Admissions Committee in the circumstances under which she or he applies.

 

 

Students who

• Are officially enrolled in the Honors College,

• Enter Texas Tech University as incoming first-time-in-college students (students classified as transfer students upon entering TTU are ineligible),

• Have earned a composite score of 1360 on the SAT (verbal and math portions only) or a 30 on the ACT upon matriculation from high school (the composite score must be earned in one test administration),

• Are Texas residents,

• Are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents,

• Are graduates of a high school in Texas

• Submit a "checklist" form to Honors during semester of application, and

• Meet all of the following criteria are eligible to apply.

Please note: The TTUHSC School of Medicine expects that all eligibility requirements be met for any student applying to EAP, otherwise the submitted application will not be considered.

 

 

Required Application Components

 

Step 1: Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service application (a.k.a., primary application)  – opens May 1st; submit by August 31st

 

Step 2: Honors College Early Acceptance Program checklist  – submit by September 15th

This document should be submitted to the designated Honors College representative, who will confirm its contents and then provide it to the Admissions staff at the TTUHSC School of Medicine.

 

Step 3:Casper Assessment – October 26th (last test date for this application cycle)

The Casper test is an online screening tool designed to evaluate key personal and professional characteristics that the TTUHSC School of Medicine feels is important for medical students and graduates. A completed Casper test taken and submitted by the application deadline is required to maintain admission eligibility.

 

Step 4: TTUHSC School of Medicine application (a.k.a., secondary application) – submit by November 30th

This application is sent to the EAP applicant by the School of Medicine after the TMDSAS application is submitted and the student's information is verified. This process usually takes about two weeks so students applying to EAP ideally need to submit the primary application by the end of August.

 

Coursework Requirements

 

The Texas Tech University/Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Early Acceptance Program (TTU/TTUHSC EAP) is NOT an accelerated program. Students are required to attend four academic years at Texas Tech University. The Early Acceptance Program does not require applicants to submit an MCAT score for admission to the TTUHSC Medical School. The TTUHSC Medical School Admissions Committee instead relies upon science coursework and GPA to discern a student's academic capabilities. Therefore, coursework requirements are specific and taken very seriously. Though a student may meet the initial eligibility requirements, if the necessary coursework is not completed by the time of matriculation to the School of Medicine, the student will not be allowed to matriculate.

 

Students must complete all science courses with a grade of B or better, and have a minimum science GPA of 3.6 and a minimum overall GPA of 3.7. Students that receive a "C" in any of the required science courses may retake the course once to maintain eligibility. All grades (even from courses that have been taken again to improve the grade) will be used in calculating the BCPM GPA and Overall GPA.

 

 

Prerequisite Course Requirements

 

A total of 53 semester hours of prerequisite coursework is required of all students before matriculation to the School of Medicine. This consists of 8 hours of General Chemistry, 8 hours of Organic Chemistry, 8 hours of Introductory Biology, 9 hours of upper-level Biology, and 8 hours of General Physics. Please note that 32 science semester hours (including one semester of Organic Chemistry) and MATH 2300 are needed at the point of application to the Early Acceptance Program.

Using Texas Tech course listings, the TTUHSC School of Medicine requires the following courses:

 

 

Early Acceptance candidates must have 32 of the 38 prerequisite hours either complete or in progress as students in the Honors College by the time of their interview in the fall of their junior year, with at least one semester of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 3305/3105) either complete or in progress.

 

ALL coursework must be taken at Texas Tech University as a student in the Honors College. Students who have come in with AP, IB, or dual credit for any specific course within the required coursework may take upper-level credit within that specific discipline to avoid retaking the course. For example, a student may take an additional 8 hours of upper-level biology coursework if he or she received college credit for both Introductory Biology courses, with the alternative option of retaking both Introductory Biology courses.

 

Credits earned through Texas Tech University and Reciprocal international study programs are allowed (when grades contribute toward to the student's TTU GPA are earned on a TTU transcript and the student is continuously enrolled at TTU). Credits earned through non-affiliated international study programs are NOT allowed (if grades from these programs do not contribute toward the student's TTU GPA.)

 

 

Volunteer Recommendations for Application

 

Students wishing to apply to the Early Acceptance Program are strongly encouraged to maintain 100 hours of community service per academic year. Volunteer, shadowing, and research hours are earned by the academic year: September 1st through August 31st. Hours earned before September 1st of a student's First-year student year (i.e., the summer between graduating high school and attending Texas Tech University) do not count.

The TTUHSC School of Medicine prefers the majority of volunteer/shadowing hours be conducted in a health-care setting. As well, no more than 20% of the hours should be dedicated to research activity.

Students should keep track of their volunteer hours and be prepared to provide them on the Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service application. Students admitted to EAP will be required to continue maintaining 100 hours of volunteering/shadowing annually and will submit this update directly to the SOM Admission Office.

 

 

The Application and Interview Process

 

Students begin their application following their second year as Honors College students at Texas Tech. The application opens annually on May 1st and closes on October 1st. Students must return an eligibility checklist to the Honors College by September 15th to indicate that they are participating in the Early Acceptance application process. Interviews, for those students invited to do so by the TTUHSC Medical School, will take place in December (fall semester of 3rd year) or January for those selected, and students will be notified of final decisions at the beginning of February.

 

Students are expected to complete their bachelor's degrees in the Honors College in the spring of their 4th academic year at TTU and begin medical school the following fall.

 

 

After Acceptance

 

If granted acceptance, a student may waive the MCAT requirement. If a student elects to take the MCAT for any reason, he or she MUST score at or above the mean of the current First-year student class in the SOM to maintain Early Acceptance status. Because the School of Medicine is granting a substantial privilege to Early Acceptance students, the School expects that students who accept the Early Acceptance opportunity to be a full-time enrolled student in their senior year following their medical school acceptance and commit themselves to matriculation at the TTUHSC School of Medicine in the fall following graduation. If a student subsequently chooses to apply to other medical schools, he or she must notify the TTUHSC SOM prior to applying to other schools and must surrender his/her Early Acceptance seat.

After graduation in May, submission of final transcripts MUST be sent to TTUHSC School of Medicine, Registrar's Office and TMDSAS for final verification of grades and eligibility in the summer before matriculation to medical school.

After transcripts are submitted and verified by TMDSAS, if the cumulative and/or science GPA falls below the required 3.7 and 3.6, the medical school will review the student's ability to raise and maintain his or her GPA and Early Acceptance seat.

 

 

To Apply

 

Primary application materials are available at Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service and required secondary materials are available at TTUHSC SOM Admissions. Please note “TTU/TTUHSC Honors Early Acceptance Program" on the primary application. Students interested in the MD/MBA program will instead choose the appropriate box for that program. Students are also expected to complete, in conversation with the Honors College, the Early Acceptance Program Check-sheet.

 

Program Timeline

 

 

PLEASE NOTE:

 

We encourage you to consult the Early Acceptance Programs webpage hosted by the TTUHSC School of Medicine.  Since their Admissions staff coordinate the admission process via the EAP pathway program, any details, deadlines, or updates contained on their webpages are given primacy.  For any questions or concerns along those lines, please contact the SOM Admissions Office.