MD · Boston, MA · private · applies through AMCAS
Boston University Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine
Known as Boston University (BU)
Prerequisite coursework
Verify with the school| Course | Status | Hours | Lab | Pass/fail | AP credit | Online | Community college | Notes from the school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biochemistry CHEM | Recommended | — | Yes | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science course are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Biology BIOL | Required | — | Yes | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Biostatistics MATH | Recommended | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level statistics courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level statistics courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Chemistry CHEM | Required | — | Yes | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Composition & Rhetoric ENGL | Required | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level English courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Any writing intensive course(s) can be counted towards the English requirement. |
| Molecular Biology BIOL | Recommended | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Physical Chemistry CHEM | Recommended | — | Yes | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Physics PHYS | Required | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Psychology BESS | Recommended | — | No | Case-by-case | Case-by-case | Case-by-case | Case-by-case | |
| Sociology BESS | Recommended | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level sociology courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | |
| Zoology BIOL | Recommended | — | No | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Accepted when other advanced level science courses are taken in college. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. | Case-by-case Courses taught online during Covid are accepted. |
Community-college pathways
We prefer coursework be taken at a four-year college or university. Other types of courses will be considered on a case by case basis.
Source: MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Premed Course Requirements 2027 (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Admission policies, in the school's words
The Admissions Committee evaluates each application with a rigorous holistic review. We will base our interview decisions on a review of the entire application; however a final admissions decision will not be made without an MCAT score on file. The CAMED supplemental application will be sent to all applicants who express interest after completing the AMCAS application, and should be submitted as early as possible, even if an MCAT test or score is not currently available. Using holistic review, we will continue to evaluate each application individually for core competencies desired in medicine and that align with the mission of Chobanian & Avedisian SOM. Applicants are expected to earn a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university that is located in and accredited in the U.S. or Canada. Applicants who have not graduated from an accredited U.S. or Canadian institution, but who completed a minimum of two (2) years in such an institution, including all of the prerequisites, may be considered to be eligible and should bring the details of their record to the attention of the Committee on Admissions. Applicants currently enrolled in a professional or graduate school program must be in the terminal year of the degree program to be considered for admission to the first year class. Applicants must complete all requirements for any academic program in which they are enrolled prior to matriculation. Individuals who have previously matriculated at another medical school are not eligible to apply.
Source: MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Admission Policies and Information 2027 (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Who can apply
- Out-of-state applicants
- Yes All applicants
- Canadian applicants
- Yes All applicants
- International applicants
- Yes Review requirements: https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/admissions/applicationprocess/requirements/
- DACA applicants
- Case-by-case Chobanian & Avedisian SOM has extremely limited financial resources for DACA status students.
- DACA details
- Chobanian & Avedisian SOM has extremely limited financial resources for DACA status students.
- Residency preference (school's page)
- Residency is not a requirement and there is no limitation on consideration of out-of-state or international students.
Source: (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Interview
- Format
- Interviews are required with at least one faculty member. These are by invitation only.
- Invitations sent
- August
- Typical interview day
- We require three virtual activities which may be scheduled on the same or different days: an interactive orientation to the school with the Associate Dean of Admissions, an individual faculty interview and a student-run information session.
- Regional interviews
- no
- Video interviews
- Interviews conducted via Zoom.
Tags are derived from the text above by keyword; read the text before relying on a tag.
Source: MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Interview Procedures 2027 (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Situational-judgment tests and MCAT dates
- Casper
- Required source · secondary lists: MSI required, IMA —
- AAMC PREview
- Not used "We are not using PREview scores in the admissions process" source
- Latest MCAT considered
- September 12, 2026
- Oldest MCAT considered
- July 2023
Casper status comes from the school's own admissions page where it states one, otherwise from published requirement lists; PREview from the school's page or the AAMC PREview policies report. Both change between cycles. Verify with the school.
Secondary application
- Required
- Yes
- Fee
- $110
- Fee waiver available
- Yes
- Deadline
- Dec 1, 2026 December 1, 2026
- Who receives it
- All applicants.
Source: (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Letters of evaluation
- Committee letter
- Accepted
- Letter packet
- Accepted
- Individual letters
- Accepted
Source: (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13). Verify with the school.
Waitlist and deposit
- Typical waitlist positions
- 300
- Offers made from the waitlist
- 20
- Procedure
- Wait List offers are extended by telephone and applicants are given a time-frame by which a decision must be made. Financial Aid offers made available during this time to help with decision-making.
- Deposit required
- Yes in state $500 · out of state $500
- Deposit due
- July 1, 2026
- Refundable / applied to tuition
- Yes Yes
Cost of attendance and debt
| In state | Out of state | |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition and fees | $73,965 | $73,965 |
| Health insurance | $3,642 | $3,642 |
| Total cost of attendance, year 1 | $104,107 | $104,107 |
82% of students receive aid. Average indebtedness of indebted graduates: $212,435.
Official AAMC counts, 2025-2026
- Applications
- 11,429 (8.6% in-state)
- Matriculants
- 138 (32.6% in-state, 67.4% out-of-state; 52.9% women)
- Applications per seat
- 83
Source: AAMC FACTS Table A-1: Applications and Matriculants by School, State of Legal Residence, and Gender, 2025-2026 (AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13).
Entering class 2025
- Matriculated
- 138
- MCAT (median)
- 517 (10th–90th percentile 512–522)
- GPA (median)
- 3.84
- Women
- 53%
Source: the school's published class profile (page), retrieved 2026-10-13. Statistics describe one entering class and are not cutoffs.
Transfer applications
No
Mission statement
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine is dedicated to the educational, intellectual, professional, and personal development of a diverse group of exceptional students, trainees, and faculty who are deeply committed to the study and to the practice of medicine, to biomedical research, and to the health of the public. We, as a community, place great value on excellence, integrity, service, social justice, collegiality, equality of opportunity, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Chobanian & Avedisian SOM is a social justice medical school. This emphasis on social justice is evident in our curriculum and extra-curricular activities for students, in our faculty’s areas of research and expertise, and in the patients we take care of. Curriculum and Student Activities Our curriculum was updated several years ago to emphasize patient context and social determinants of health. In the classroom, our patients are never simply a patient with a disease, they are a person with a family who lives in a specific place and does a certain type of work…in the clinical setting, our students learn to address each patient’s upstream health needs as well as their acute medical needs; because we’ve learned that the best medical care in the world will fail to make patients healthier if they still lack food, housing, etc. Outside the classroom, our students’ most common activity is to participate in some of the 17 or so service learning groups, which range from the “Outreach Van” street medicine initiative to the “Teen and Tot” facilitated support group for young parents to the Socially Responsible Surgery Club which allows students to visit surgical patients pre-discharge to ensure their understanding of their surgical problem and procedure and plan for follow-up. Faculty Research and Expertise A unique feature of our social justice medical school is that we are in the context of a Tier 1 research university. While our research enterprise is very broad, you see the social justice mission thriving there as well. Examples include the Grayken Center for Addiction, which supports research, education and treatment in addition medicine, in the Health/Care Disparities Research Program within internal medicine, and the Boston SOAR (Surgical Outcomes Analysis and Research) which investigates inequalities in surgical care. 85% of our medical students engage in Research during their time at Chobanian & Avedisian SOM. Patient Population Chobanian & Avedisian SOM’s primary teaching hospital is Boston Medical Center, which serves a primarily under-served and extraordinarily diverse patient population. More than half of our patients are from vulnerable populations who rely on Medicaid and/or medicare for their health insurance; and 32% don’t speak English as their primary language. Through our 12 affiliated neighborhood health centers, we reach deep into the communities of Boston to find the patients that need us the most.
Notes
2025 Entering Class Profile: 138 total (92 Four-Year MD, 5 MD-PhD, 8 EMSSP, 20 Seven-Year BA-MD, 13 MMEDIC); mean MCAT 517 (94th percentile); 10th-90th percentile ranges (GPA 3.4-4.0, MCAT 512-522) reflect three years of matriculated student data; age range 20-34; 21 states represented. No minimum GPA or MCAT; holistic review with no strict cutoffs or formulas. Secondary fee amount not stated on pages reviewed.
Sources for this page
- MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Premed Course Requirements 2027 · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Admission Policies and Information 2027 · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- MSAR Report for Applicants and Advisors: Interview Procedures 2027 · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- School website (class profile and admissions pages)
- LCME Directory - Accredited Programs
- AAMC FACTS Table A-1: Applications and Matriculants by School, State of Legal Residence, and Gender, 2025-2026 · AAMC, retrieved 2026-10-13
- https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/admissions/application-process/selectionfactors/ · school website, retrieved 2026-10-13
- https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/admissions/ · school website, retrieved 2026-10-13
- https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/admissions/application-process/faqs-for-current-applicant/ · school website, retrieved 2026-10-13
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