Requirements

Applicants for admission to Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine are required to complete both the American Medical College Application Service application and a SOM Secondary Application. The AMCAS Deadline is December 1, 2022, and the Deadline for the SOM Secondary Application is December 8, 2022.

Degree and Course Requirements

Applicants for admission to SOM are required to have completed all course prerequisites (see below) and are required to have earned a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university by the time of matriculation. The SOM will accept Advanced Placement (AP) credits only if the credits appear on the applicants’ transcript as earned credit(s).

Regardless of focus of the degree, the following courses are required as prerequisites for admission to the SOM:

Three semesters of humanities, social, and behavior sciences (must be from at least two different disciplines) such as, but not limited to:

  • Philosophy
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Anthropology
  • Law
  • Religion
  • Performing Arts, Visual Arts
  • History
  • Education
  • Criminal Justice
  • Linguistics
  • Classics

Two semesters of both:

  • Biology, with laboratory
  • General Inorganic Chemistry, with laboratory

Two semesters with laboratory selected from the following:

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Physics
  • Anatomy/Physiology
  • Zoology
  • Botany

One semester of each of the following:

  • English Composition
  • Literature
  • Mathematics/Science-related such as, but not limited to:
    • Statistics
    • Biostatistics
    • Epidemiology
    • Genetics
    • Calculus

The following are recommended, but not required, as prerequisites for admission.

  • Ethics
  • Spanish (2 semesters)
  • Cell Biology
  • Ecology
  • Leadership
  • Economics
  • Political Science
  • Engineering
  • Computer Sciences

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
The MCAT must be taken no later than September 30th of the year before you expect to begin medical school. For students entering in July 2023, the oldest acceptable MCAT is 2019. If you take the MCAT multiple times: The highest eligible score will be considered.

Three Letters of Recommendation

  1. At least one from a health care professional (does not need to be a physician – can be a nurse, social worker, physician assistant, occupational therapist, psychologist, etc.).
  2. At least one from an academic professor who is familiar with the applicant’s scholarly work.
  3. At least one from these or another appropriate source: a physician, a second academic professor, a supervisor who can speak to the applicant’s attributes, a related health care professional who held a supervisory position to the applicant, or service recommendation letter from a mentor.
    • A letter packet from a pre-medical committee can be accepted if it contains the required letters listed above.

The following are not appropriate sources: a teaching assistant, a non-physician-trained government or political official, a friend or family friend, a family member, a co-worker or other similar peer.

Two of the required letters must be within the last 2 years of your application date.

Citizenship

In order to be considered for admission, an applicant must be a citizen of the United States or a Permanent Resident Alien (PRA) with a Green Card.

Criminal Background Check (for accepted applicants only)

As a condition for admission and matriculation, all accepted students will be required to authorize the SOM to obtain a criminal background check and no offer of admission will be considered final until a criminal background check with results deemed acceptable to the SOM has been performed.

Technical Standards for Admission

All students are required to read, acknowledge and meet the technical standards with or without reasonable accommodations. The technical standards for the HMSOM are based on the essential cognitive, emotional, and physical demands required to succeed in the curriculum, and the ability to perform as a successful physician.