How to Get Into UT Southwestern Medical School: The Definitive Guide (2026-2027)

So, you want to be a doctor. Becoming a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) is a noble pursuit that thousands of students take on every year. The process begins with your desire, your goal, your dream. Then you fill out a primary application, such as the AMCAS for most U.S. medical schools, and send in your secondary applications. The question is, where do you want to send them? Or, in other words, which medical schools do you want to apply to?

We are taking you through this process in our series of definitive guides on how to get into medical school. Each school we cover is broken down by its programs, cost of attendance, statistics, admissions requirements, secondary essay questions and interview process. We believe the medical school admissions process is easiest when handled in bite-size pieces, so we give you the information you need one medical school at a time.

In this guide, we cover the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. It is also known as UT Southwestern Medical School, and it is the medical school of UT Southwestern Medical Center. The medical center serves a dual purpose: M.D. students learn medicine there, and its physicians treat real patients who come seeking care for every kind of problem, from routine checkups to the most complex conditions.

UT Southwestern describes itself this way: few medical schools nationally, and none in the Southwest, can match the overall educational excellence it offers at its tuition. Students train at seven affiliated hospitals, including Parkland, Dallas County’s public hospital, William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, which gives them a wide range of patients for clerkships, selectives and electives.

This guide covers the 2026-2027 application cycle, which fills the class that starts in August 2027. UT Southwestern does not use AMCAS for its M.D. program. Like every public medical school in Texas, it takes applications through the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service (TMDSAS). The only exception is the M.D./Ph.D. program, which uses AMCAS. All facts in this guide were checked on November 13, 2026. Let’s look at everything UT Southwestern Medical School has to offer and how to earn a seat in its next class.

Key Takeaways

• Apply through TMDSAS. For Entry Year 2027, the TMDSAS application opened on May 1, accepted submissions from May 15 and closed on October 1, 2026. The fee is a flat $235 with no fee waivers. The M.D./Ph.D. program uses AMCAS instead.
• Texas residents fill at least 90% of the class. State law limits non-Texas residents to 10% of the class. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are considered for the M.D. program.
• Academic context. The Class of 2030 had an average GPA of 3.93 and an average MCAT of 517. UT Southwestern sets no minimum GPA or MCAT and reviews every applicant holistically.
• Mission fit matters. The admissions committee looks for alignment with a mission that emphasizes training primary care physicians, educating doctors for medically underserved areas of Texas and preparing physician-scientists.
• Key dates. Secondary due November 1, 2026. CASPer taken by October 27, 2026, with scores sent by November 1. Letters to TMDSAS by October 15. Offers begin October 15, 2026.
• Costs. First-year tuition and fees for 2026-2027 are $25,436 for Texas residents and $38,536 for nonresidents. The estimated first-year cost of attendance is $66,847 and $79,947.
• Distinctive training. Clerkships start in the second year at Parkland and other Dallas hospitals, every student completes a 12-week Scholarly Activity, and six faculty-led Academic Colleges mentor students for all four years.
• Next step. Plan your clinical, shadowing and service experiences early, prepare your TMDSAS application in the spring and draft your five secondary essays before your invitation arrives.

Key Statistics About UT Southwestern Medical School

The snapshot and table below gather UT Southwestern’s key numbers. Each figure carries its class year or academic year. The school publishes averages for its newest class, the Class of 2030, which entered in August 2026. Interview counts and medians for accepted applicants are for the 2025 entering class. Applicant and acceptance-offer counts are not published, so no acceptance rate is given.

Mission and Educational Priorities

UT Southwestern Medical School’s mission statement was approved by its Medical Education Curriculum Committee on January 27, 2025. It reads:

“UT Southwestern Medical School is committed to training physicians who excel in providing high-quality, safe, and compassionate patient care, advancing medical knowledge through innovative research, and educating future generations of healthcare professionals. The medical school cultivates students who are dedicated to addressing the health care needs of diverse communities, reducing healthcare disparities, and leading the way in collaborative, patient-centered care with a focus on quality and safety as every level.”

The admissions office adds a sharper version of the same priorities. The committee assesses each candidate’s motivation for medicine and alignment with a mission “which emphasizes the importance of training primary-care physicians, educating doctors who will practice in medically underserved areas of Texas, and preparing physician-scientists who seek careers in academic medicine and research.” The 2026-2027 catalog repeats this three-part goal and lists the mission-related factors that count in the final score: career interests in underserved areas, primary care, subspecialty care or academic medicine and research.

What the mission means for your application

• Patient care first. “High-quality, safe, and compassionate patient care” is the first commitment. Your application should show that you have spent real time with patients and understand what compassionate care looks like in practice, not just in theory.
• Quality and safety. UT Southwestern names quality and safety twice in its mission, and it backs that up with a Quality Improvement and Patient Safety pathway and a QI Boot Camp. If you have worked on a project that improved a process, measured an outcome or caught an error, it is worth describing.
• Research. The school is a major research center with six Nobel Prize winners in its history. Research is not required for the M.D. program, but 98% of the 2025 entering class reported research experience, and every student completes a 12-week Scholarly Activity.
• Diverse communities and disparities. The mission names diverse communities and reducing disparities. The secondary asks directly about people whose backgrounds differ from yours, and the optional fourth essay asks about community service.
• Texas. Training doctors for underserved areas of Texas is part of the admissions mission. Texas residents fill at least 90% of the class by law, and experience serving Texas communities fits the school’s stated goals.

UT Southwestern also reports that over 50% of its graduates match into one of the primary care specialties each year: internal medicine, geriatrics, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics. That figure surprises some applicants who see UT Southwestern only as a research school. Both sides of the mission are real, and the strongest applications usually show genuine interest in at least one of the three mission goals.

Accreditation and Institutional Identity

UT Southwestern Medical School is fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the body that accredits M.D. programs in the United States and Canada. It is part of UT Southwestern Medical Center, a public academic health science center in The University of Texas System, located just north of downtown Dallas.

The medical school was founded in 1943, and since then it has graduated more than 12,000 physicians. Today UT Southwestern Medical Center has four degree-granting schools: the Medical School, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Health Professions and the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health. The medical school admits about 230 students a year, trains about 950 medical students at any time and supports about 1,300 clinical residents.

A few points of identity help applicants avoid confusion:

• “UT Southwestern,” “UTSW” and “Southwestern Medical School” all refer to this school. Older alumni records use “Southwestern Medical School,” the school’s earlier name.
• UT Southwestern is not UTHealth Houston. McGovern Medical School is a separate UT System school in Houston with its own guide.
• University hospitals and county hospitals are different institutions. William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Zale Lipshy Pavilion are UT Southwestern’s own hospitals. Parkland is Dallas County’s public hospital, and Children’s Medical Center Dallas is a private, nonprofit children’s hospital. UT Southwestern faculty staff all of them, and students train in all of them.

The faculty includes 6 Nobel Prize winners in the school’s history, 28 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 26 members of the National Academy of Medicine and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The admissions office also notes that UT Southwestern’s faculty includes more National Academy of Sciences members than all other academic medical centers in Texas combined.

Medical Programs and Affiliations

UT Southwestern offers four degree options for future physicians:

• Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) Degree
• Doctor of Medicine / Master of Business Administration Dual Degree (M.D./MBA)
• Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health Dual Degree (M.D./M.P.H.)
• Doctor of Medicine / Ph.D. (Medical Scientist Training Program, MSTP)

On top of the degree, students can follow one of five pathways that can lead to an M.D. with Distinction: Community Health, Global Health, Medical Education, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, and Research. Each is described below.

Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) Degree

The M.D. is a four-year program in three phases: pre-clerkship, clerkship and post-clerkship, followed by residency and fellowship after graduation. The school describes its curriculum goals as:

• Expanding individualized student learning pathways
• Providing students with specialized faculty mentorship
• Enhancing opportunities for active learning
• Treating each student as a unique member of a learning community
• Eliminating redundancies and enriching topics in the pre-clerkship period

Students can find evidence of these goals throughout their time in the program. The full curriculum is explained in the Curriculum Overview section below. You apply to the M.D. program through TMDSAS.

Doctor of Medicine / Master of Business Administration Dual Degree

If your goals go beyond the white coat, you might consider a dual degree. If you want to work in health care leadership, administration or management, the M.D./MBA is a strong option. It is a joint program of UT Southwestern Medical School and UT Dallas’ Naveen Jindal School of Management. The medical degree is awarded by UT Southwestern and the MBA by UT Dallas.

If you are interested, apply to the medical program first through the standard admissions process. Application to the MBA portion should be made in the second year at the earliest, in consultation with a UT Southwestern M.D./MBA adviser. The business curriculum is 53 credit hours, including 23 hours of electives. All students take the MBA core:

• Global Business
• Marketing Management
• Information Technology for Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Strategic Management
• Business Economics
• Financial Accounting
• Financial Management
• Managerial Accounting
• Operations Management
• Statistics and Data Analysis

In the most common path, students complete the first three years of the medical curriculum, take a one-year leave of absence to complete the business coursework at UT Dallas, and then return for the fourth medical year. The program can also be completed between years 2 and 3 if the student chooses. Either way, the combined program takes five years, and students work with an adviser to build a plan around their goals. The M.D. contact listed for the program is Angela Mihalic, M.D., and the MBA contact is Lisa Shatz, Assistant Dean of MBA Programs at UT Dallas. Their contact information is at the bottom of this page.

Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health Dual Degree

The M.D./M.P.H. combines clinical medicine with population health through UT Southwestern’s own Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health. Students build skills in health promotion, health economics and policy, data sciences, epidemiology, biostatistics, health systems science and implementation science.

To join, you must meet the requirements of both schools and be admitted to the UT Southwestern M.D. program first. You can start the public health application in the school’s online portal, but you should not submit it until you receive your M.D. acceptance. The M.P.H. application asks for a personal statement of 1,000 words or less on your reasons for pursuing an M.P.H., your relevant public health experience and why UT Southwestern is a good fit. You do not need public health experience, and the GRE is not required. You may reuse the letters of reference from your medical school application. Do not confuse this program with UTHealth Houston’s School of Public Health, which has its own separate application at UT Health. The UT Southwestern dual degree runs through the O’Donnell School of Public Health on the Dallas campus.

The program can be completed in four years. M.P.H. coursework is concentrated in the two summers just before and after the first year of medical school, with mostly online courses in the first summer. Students who apply after starting medical school follow a five-year path. The M.P.H. curriculum totals 45 credits:

• Core courses (18 credits)
• Shared credits from UT Southwestern Medical School (12 credits)
• Advanced public health coursework (9 credits)
• Integrative learning experience (3 credits)
• Practicum (3 credits)

For the three-credit practicum, called the Applied Practice Experience, every student completes a community service-learning experience with UT Southwestern mentors and community partners. The integrative learning experience ends with a scholarly paper. Graduates have matched into anesthesiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, plastic surgery and psychiatry at programs such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, UCSF and UT Southwestern itself. Full details and the completion plan are on this page.

Doctor of Medicine / Ph.D. (Medical Scientist Training Program)

This dual degree program is not for the faint of heart. The Perot Family Scholars Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) has been funded continuously since 1982, and 10 to 12 students with substantive laboratory experience are chosen each year. The program takes seven to eight years, beginning the summer before matriculation with four or more weeks of laboratory research. Students complete the pre-clerkship medical curriculum, move into graduate school for their Ph.D. research, and then return to finish their clinical training.

The MSTP is a separate application through AMCAS, not TMDSAS, with an October 1 primary deadline and a free MSTP secondary due November 1. Applicants who also want to be considered for the M.D.-only program must file a TMDSAS application and the M.D. secondary as well, and send letters to both services. All MSTP students receive full tuition, health insurance and a stipend of $40,000 per year (2025 figure).

During the Ph.D. portion, students:

• Choose a dissertation lab and mentor from any laboratory across UT Southwestern
• Join small, faculty-led MSTP Firms that connect students across all program years
• Receive structured mentoring on lab selection, grant writing and the transitions between Ph.D. and clinical years

The program’s director is Denise Marciano, M.D., Ph.D., and its admissions office can be reached through the program coordinators listed on the MSTP pages. You can find the MSTP curriculum and contacts through the program coordinators page.

Pathways and the M.D. with Distinction

Every UT Southwestern student completes a Scholarly Activity, and students who want more depth can follow a pathway that leads to an M.D. with Distinction:

• Community Health. Students learn community-based participatory research and the social and structural determinants of health while working with underserved communities across Dallas-Fort Worth. Entry routes include the four-year Community Action Research Track (CART), which students can join in the first or second year, and the nine-week Community Health Fellowship Program for first-year students.
• Global Health. The Office of Global Health has supported global health activities for more than 700 students since 2010 in more than 35 countries. The International Medical Exchange Program (IMEP) with Université Paris Descartes lets selected students spend a year in Paris and partner countries during the clerkship phase.
• Medical Education. Electives such as Med Ed I, II and III build teaching skills, from basic teaching to curriculum design.
• Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. A five-day QI Boot Camp at the end of the first year, electives and a QI scholarly activity.
• Research. The Office of the Associate Dean for Medical Student Research supports basic and clinical research, a nine-week Summer Research Program after the first year, a Dean’s Research Scholar option and the Medical Student Research Forum.

Choosing among these options can be challenging. After all, you have to narrow down your interests. Keep your goals high, and know that it is fine to change your mind. Once you have a sense of what you want to study, review the requirements below.

Curriculum Overview

UT Southwestern’s curriculum fully integrates the basic sciences and clinical disciplines across four years. It is divided into three phases: pre-clerkship (the start of Year 1 through January of Year 2), clerkship (February of Year 2 through Year 3) and post-clerkship (Year 4). Teaching uses lectures, team-based learning, simulation, laboratories, case-based discussions and clinical activities. Students may attend lectures in person or view them online, but team-based learning, simulations and small-group exercises are required.

Pre-Clerkship Curriculum

The first 18 months build knowledge in the basic and clinical sciences through team-based learning in the classroom, laboratories, simulation environments and small groups. All pre-clerkship courses are pass/fail, so students can focus on learning in a team-oriented environment. Students meet standardized patients and hospitalized patients early.

• Academic Colleges. Small learning communities bring experienced faculty together with groups of about six students. Students join one of six Colleges on their first day and stay in it for all four years, meeting weekly in the first two years and monthly after that. Topics include the medical history and physical exam, medical ethics, case-based learning, professionalism, communication, clinical reasoning and interprofessional education. The Colleges allow students to learn foundational clinical skills on a deeper level than classroom instruction alone allows.
• Strive. Strive (Personal and Professional Development for Careers in Medicine) is about taking care of yourself as a student and growing as a professional. Weekly sessions cover seven themes: personal wellness, study skills, transitions in the curriculum, financial wellness, cultural competency, personal growth and finding your path in medicine. Medical school can be strenuous and exhausting, and what Strive teaches will help you throughout your career.
• Body Structure Foundations. The curriculum begins with embryology, gross anatomy and microanatomy integrated with radiological imaging. Dissection teams of three to four students per cadaver give each student about 48 hours of dissection experience.
• Fundamentals of Biomedical Sciences. Students learn the fundamentals of:
  • Molecular biology
  • Cell biology
  • Biochemistry
  • The cellular basis of physiology and neuroscience
  • Genetics and immunology
  • Host responses (inflammation), pathology, pharmacology and microbiology
  • The courses are Macromolecules, Cells, Tissues, Genetics, Introduction to Pharmacology, and Organisms and Host Responses.
• Integrated Medicine: Health to Disease. Organ-system courses cover normal and abnormal structure and function, infections, immunology, therapeutics, evidence-based medicine, genetics, aging and wellness and disease prevention. The systems studied are:
  • Musculoskeletal and Skin
  • Hematopoietic System
  • Cardiovascular
  • Respiratory
  • Renal and Genitourinary
  • Gastrointestinal System
  • Endocrinology, Energy Homeostasis and Reproductive Health
  • Brain and Behavior
• Foundations of Clinical Reasoning. Evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, quality improvement, systems engineering, information management and biostatistics, integrated with the Colleges and organ-system courses.
• Transition to Clerkships. A final week that prepares students for clinical rotations.
• Optional, noncredit electives. Choices include Medical Spanish, the Spanish Interpreter Apprenticeship Program, Global Health, International Service Learning, Community Service Learning, Homeless Health Care Management, Introduction to Bioethics, Medical Finance, Health Care Economics, Medicine and Cinema, Medical Humanities, Clinical Needs-Finding and Innovating Health Care Solutions.

After these courses, students apply their knowledge to patient cases and begin the clerkship phase.

Clerkship Curriculum

Clerkships begin in the second semester of the second year. Starting before the third year gives students more time to explore clinical fields before choosing a specialty.

• Flexibility and Personalization. This 18-month period lets students mix research, early electives and other opportunities with their required clerkships and build a personalized learning plan. You might already know what kind of medicine you want to practice, or you might change your mind. This flexibility helps you figure it out.
• Preparation for USMLE Step 1. Students have six dedicated weeks at the beginning of the clerkship phase to prepare for and take Step 1, a critical licensing exam.
• Clerkships. The required clerkships take 48 weeks: Internal Medicine (8 weeks), Surgery (8), Pediatrics (6), Obstetrics and Gynecology (6), Psychiatry (6), Ambulatory Care (6), Neurology (4) and Family Medicine (4).
• Faculty and Peer Mentorship. The Academic Colleges continue monthly, covering ethics, professionalism, health systems, quality improvement, clinical reasoning and career advising.
• Scholarly Activity. A required 12-week block, scheduled during the clerkship and post-clerkship periods, devoted solely to a mentored project in one of six tracks: basic research, clinical and translational research, community health, global health, medical education, or quality improvement and patient safety. It ends with a 5- to 10-page thesis and is graded pass/fail. Dual degree students apply their dual degree work to this requirement.

Clerkship grades are Honors, Near Honors, High Pass, Pass and Fail, and quartile rank is based only on core clerkship grades.

Post-Clerkship Curriculum

The final year builds on clinical experience and prepares students for residency.

• Growth and Exploration. Eight weeks of required selectives (subinternships, critical care and emergency medicine), 18 weeks of electives in total (six during the clerkship phase and 12 in the post-clerkship phase) in two- and four-week blocks, and up to eight weeks to interview for residency.
• Frontiers in Medicine. Every student chooses one four-week course that revisits the biomedical sciences after clinical rotations, with advanced evidence-based medicine and biostatistics. Current courses include:
  • Healthy Aging
  • Neoplasia and Neoplastic Disease
  • Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Microbiome in the 21st Century
  • Behavioral Health and Neuromedicine
  • Conception, Obstetrics, and Child Health
  • Resuscitation Medicine
  • Autoimmunity
  • Hematology
• Physicians and Society. Multiculturalism, health economics and systems, medicine and the law, ethics, therapeutic conversations and behavioral and social determinants of health.
• Residency Essentials. The last course prepares students for the transition from student to resident, using the weeks between Match Day and graduation for transitional clinical training.

After completing every phase and passing the required exams, graduates move on to residency and, eventually, independent practice.

Admissions Requirements and Application Process

This section explains what you need before you apply, how the TMDSAS and UT Southwestern applications work and the dates that matter for the 2026-2027 cycle. The process described here is for the M.D. program. For dual degree programs, see the program pages above. Go here for Medical Scientist Training Program admissions.

Prerequisite Courses

All prerequisite courses must be completed by the time you enroll, though UT Southwestern suggests finishing them before you apply. Courses must be taken at a regionally accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university, each with a grade of C or better. Foreign coursework does not count, even if a U.S. or Canadian school gave transfer credit. Advanced placement credit is accepted if your school lists the specific courses and units on your transcript. Pass/fail, online and community college courses are accepted. For a broader view, see our medical school prerequisites checklist.

• Biology (14 semester credit hours)
  • At least 12 lecture hours and 2 lab hours, in courses that count toward a degree in a traditional science field.
  • Acceptable courses include Anatomy and Physiology, Botany, Ecology, Entomology, General Biology, Genetics, Herpetology, Immunology, Marine Biology, Microbiology, Ornithology, Parasitology, Pathophysiology and Zoology.
  • If you complete two semesters of biochemistry, one may count toward biology.
  • Courses for nonscience majors or for nursing, pharmacy or allied health majors are not accepted.
• Biochemistry (3 semester credit hours)
  • May be taught in biology, biochemistry or chemistry. It cannot be an introductory course.
• Chemistry (12 semester credit hours)
  • 4 hours of general (inorganic) chemistry with lab and 8 hours of organic chemistry with lab, all for science majors.
  • Organic courses must have the word “organic” in the title.
  • Inorganic courses include general chemistry, physical chemistry and quantitative analysis.
• English (6 semester credit hours)
  • Any course an English department approves to fulfill general education English. Remedial, developmental and English as a Second Language courses are not accepted.
  • Humanities or social science courses with significant expository writing may count.
• Mathematics (3 semester credit hours)
  • College calculus or statistics, preferably biostatistics. Statistics must be math-based.
  • Business calculus and precalculus are not accepted.
• Physics (8 semester credit hours)
  • Any physics courses with lab that count toward a traditional science degree. Courses designed for nonscience majors are not accepted.

If you are unsure whether a course qualifies, ask your pre-health adviser first. TMDSAS evaluates your coursework when you apply.

Residency and Citizenship

UT Southwestern accepts out-of-state applicants, but state law limits non-Texas residents to 10% of the class. TMDSAS makes all residency decisions based on Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board rules. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are considered for interview and admission to the M.D. program. Applicants with DACA status and international applicants are not accepted for the M.D. program. The MSTP does accept international applicants who completed their undergraduate studies at a regionally accredited U.S. or Canadian school.

MCAT and CASPer

• MCAT. You must take the MCAT between January 2022 and September 2026 to be considered for the 2027 entry year. You may apply before your scores are released, but action on your application may be delayed until your scores arrive. The admissions committee considers your highest total score. There is no minimum MCAT. Register through the AAMC’s MCAT pages.
• CASPer. All M.D. applicants must complete Casper, now part of the Altus Suite (formerly at CASPer). For 2026-2027, the last test date UT Southwestern accepts is October 27, 2026, and scores must be distributed by November 1, 2026. If you are invited to interview, your scores must reach UT Southwestern before your interview date. Casper is a 75- to 90-minute online test of video and written scenarios. Results are valid for one cycle, so reapplicants must retake it.

Experience and Letters

Physician shadowing is required, and UT Southwestern describes clinical experience and shadowing as vital for understanding the demands of medicine. Applicants who have interacted with patients and shadowed physicians in a variety of settings, the school notes, tend to understand their own motivation more clearly. In the 2025 entering class, 96% of matriculants reported shadowing or clinical observation, 92% clinical volunteering, 55% paid clinical work, 92% community service and 98% research. If you need more patient contact, pre-med internships that place you on a supervised clinical team are one way to build it.

Letters of evaluation go to TMDSAS, not to the school. You can send one health professions committee letter or packet, or three individual letters (up to four). TMDSAS asks that letters be uploaded or postmarked by October 15. UT Southwestern accepts committee letters, letter packets and individual letters, and it accepts letters of intent, letters of interest and update letters at any point, though none is required.

How UT Southwestern Reviews Applications

The admissions committee is appointed by the Dean and made up of faculty from basic science and clinical departments. It considers:

• The rigor of the undergraduate curriculum
• Personal qualities such as leadership, self-appraisal, determination, social and family support, and maturity and coping capabilities
• Personal integrity and compassion for others
• Motivation for a career in medicine
• MCAT scores
• College grade-point average
• Recommendations from the premedical committee or faculty
• Extracurricular activities
• Socioeconomic background
• Time spent in outside employment
• The ability to communicate in English

Under the 2026-2027 catalog’s evaluation policy, interview invitations are based first on academic criteria the committee sets for GPA, MCAT, health care experience, community service and letters. Applicants who do not qualify on those criteria alone may still be invited based on qualities related to the mission, such as socioeconomic background, being the first in the family to graduate from college, multilingual ability, working while in school, region of residence, community involvement or coming from a medically underserved area. After the interview, each candidate gets an individualized score based on academic achievement, interview characteristics, mission-related factors and personal qualities.

Applying Through TMDSAS

In addition to taking the prerequisite courses, you will need MCAT and Casper scores. Then you submit your primary application through the Texas Medical and Dental School Application Service (TMDSAS). TMDSAS is different from the AMCAS system most other states use. It has its own essays, activity sections and a match for Texas public schools. If you are applying in both systems, our AMCAS application guide covers the national service.

For Entry Year 2027, the TMDSAS application became available on May 1, 2026, opened for submission on May 15 and closed on October 1, 2026. The fee is a flat $235, payable by credit card, with no fee waivers. UT Southwestern uses rolling admissions. For students unfamiliar with the term, it means your application is reviewed when it is complete, rather than all applications being reviewed together after the deadline. We recommend applying as early as possible, because interview slots and offers are filled throughout the season.

The Secondary Application

Once UT Southwestern receives your primary application from TMDSAS, you will get an email prompting you to create an account. Check your spam and junk folders. You complete the secondary in the UT Southwestern portal at this link. The secondary must be submitted by November 1, 2026, and you must have both your primary and secondary on file to be considered for an interview. There is no secondary application fee. Supporting documents, including letters of evaluation, transcripts and test scores, should reach TMDSAS by October 15. Late documents can cause serious problems, so plan ahead. We cover the five secondary essays in detail later in this guide.

Decisions, the TMDSAS Match and Deferrals

UT Southwestern begins sending offers of admission on October 15, 2026, in a pre-match period that continues through January. Texas public schools then take part in the TMDSAS admissions match: applicants rank their schools by January 29, 2027, and results are announced on February 12, 2027, when the rolling admissions period begins again. By April 30, applicants holding more than one offer must choose one school. After 5 p.m. Central time on May 15, no Texas medical school may offer a seat to an applicant already accepted by another Texas school.

No deposit is required. Applicants who are not invited to interview are notified after the interview season ends, in mid-February. Admitted students may request a one-year deferral, which is reviewed case by case and must be requested before June 1. UT Southwestern is not accepting transfer students.

2026-2027 Timeline

If you are planning for a future cycle, use the months before you apply wisely. Many students fill a summer with pre-med summer internships, research or a clinical job so they enter the application season with experiences that are already finished and easy to describe.

Tuition, Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid

Texas subsidizes medical school tuition at its public universities, which makes UT Southwestern far less expensive than most medical schools. The school’s own comparison uses AAMC figures for 2022-2023: UT Southwestern’s tuition and fees were $22,465 that year, against an average of $37,080 at public medical schools and $58,889 at private ones. The gap is even wider for non-Texas residents who receive a competitive scholarship, because many of those scholarships let out-of-state students pay the much lower in-state rate.

2026-2027 Tuition and Fees

For 2026-2027, first-year tuition and fees are $25,436 for Texas residents and $38,536 for non-Texas residents. The total combines three parts:

Fees fall slightly in later years as the anatomy and imaging fees end, so tuition and fees in the cost of attendance are $25,358 in the second year, $25,302 in the third and $25,162 in the fourth for Texas residents. Fees are subject to change.

Total Cost of Attendance

Before you get too excited about the tuition, remember to factor in housing, meals, transportation, insurance and supplies. The financial aid office’s estimated first-year budget for 2026-2027 is:

The estimated totals for later years are $67,384 and $80,484 in the second year (including the Step 1 exam fee), $70,098 and $83,198 in the third year (including Step 2) and $65,652 and $78,752 in the fourth year (including residency application expenses). Over four years, a Texas resident’s estimated budget comes to about $270,000 before any scholarships. The health insurance line can matter: if you already have comparable coverage, ask the student health insurance office whether you can waive the school plan.

The school notes that many students find these estimates generous and live for less. Dallas has a lower cost of living than many other cities with large medical schools, and the school publishes a student housing survey to help new students compare neighborhoods.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

UT Southwestern offers financial aid and scholarships to qualified students. The application process is simple:

• File the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It is the only application needed for all types of aid at UT Southwestern, and it opens October 1 of the year before you start.
• No parental data is required, and no supplemental aid applications are needed.
• Every student offered admission is considered for a UT Southwestern scholarship, awarded at the time of admission or later if funds are available.
• Loans include federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, the state College Access Loan and private education loans. Federal student aid rules changed recently, so check the financial aid office’s notice on federal changes before you borrow.

Students are also encouraged to apply for public and private scholarships, including the NHSC Scholarship Program, the AAMC Loan Repayment / Forgiveness / Scholarship and Other Programs Database and the Texas Medical Association Scholarship Programs. Details on these programs can be found through their links.

In 2024-2025, 65% of UT Southwestern’s enrolled and graduated students received financial aid. The average medical school debt for the Class of 2024 was $147,223. For comparison, the school cites AAMC averages of $203,606 at public medical schools and $227,839 at private ones for the same class. The school also offers DebtMD, a plain-language guide to borrowing, repayment and financial wellness for medical students.

Campus Facilities and Student Life

UT Southwestern’s campus sits just north of downtown Dallas in the Southwestern Medical District, next to the hospitals where students train. Dallas is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the fastest-growing areas of the country, with a diverse population and plenty of cultural, recreational and entertainment options. The 68-acre Dallas Arts District, the largest contiguous urban arts district in the nation, is close to campus.

Where Students Learn and Live

• Team-Based Learning Center and Student Commons. Much of the pre-clerkship teaching happens in team-based learning spaces, and the Academic Colleges have commons areas where students study and gather.
• Student Center. The Bryan Williams, M.D. Student Center includes a large gym, fitness equipment and spaces for social gatherings.
• Housing. Affordable housing is available within 5 to 10 miles of campus. UT Southwestern’s Medical Park Apartments is a gated community with one- and two-bedroom units, a study center, an exercise room and a pool.
• Getting around. Students are not required to have a car or a driver’s license, though many find one useful for reaching affiliated hospitals across Dallas.

Student Support

• Academic Colleges. Each student belongs to one of six Colleges, named for former faculty members: Cary, Estabrook, Fashena, Pritchard, Seldin and Sprague. The groups of about six students and a faculty mentor stay together for four years.
• Student Wellness and Counseling Center. Personal counseling, psychotherapy, group therapy and psychiatric services for students.
• Student Academic Support Services. Accommodation support, learning skills assessment, time management help, peer tutoring and national board support.
• Office of Student Empowerment and Engagement (OSEE). Supports students across UT Southwestern’s four schools with lunch-and-learn sessions, a Medical Spanish workshop, leadership grants for student organizations and community programs such as the Binational Health Fair and health screenings at community events.
• Accessibility. Reasonable accommodations are available, and every admitted student must confirm they can meet the school’s Essential Functions with or without accommodation.

Student Organizations and Service

UT Southwestern has more than 100 registered student organizations, from biomedical innovation to badminton, along with intramural sports, student government and cultural groups. PRIDE at UT Southwestern supports sexual and gender minority students and allies. Students also run and staff free clinics, and the school offers service-learning and international service-learning electives.

For college students still preparing to apply, OSEE runs Explore Scholars, which gives undergraduate and early postbaccalaureate students mentorship and workshops on building competitive applications, and it hosts an annual Research and Health Careers Conference for College Students. Programs like these, along with medical internships for undergraduates, help students test their interest in medicine before they commit to an application.

Clinical Rotations and Research Opportunities

Clinical Training Sites

UT Southwestern students train across more than 2,000 beds at affiliated hospitals that serve patients of every background and level of access to care:

• Parkland Memorial Hospital. Dallas County’s only public hospital, with 862 beds, and the primary teaching hospital of the medical school. Students spend a significant share of their clinical training here.
• William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. UT Southwestern’s 12-floor, 460-room university hospital.
• Zale Lipshy Pavilion, William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. A 148-bed facility focused on neurological care.
• Children’s Medical Center Dallas. A private, nonprofit children’s hospital with more than 400 beds and over 50 specialty clinics.
• Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
• Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
• Methodist Hospitals of Dallas.

Patient contact starts in the first semester through the Academic Colleges and continues through all four years. Required clerkships are internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, ambulatory care, neurology and family medicine, and electives are available in every specialty. Each year, more than 50 graduates stay at UT Southwestern for residency.

Research

Research is woven through the curriculum, and students can go as deep as they want:

• Summer Research Program. A nine-week, full-time program in the summer after the first year with a faculty mentor, weekly seminars and a stipend. Applications open November 1 and are due March 1.
• Scholarly Activity. The required 12-week mentored project, with a thesis, in one of six tracks.
• Electives and year-long programs. Four-week research electives in the third and fourth years, plus internal or external year-long research programs.
• Medical Student Research Forum and Dean’s Research Scholar recognition for students who complete substantial work.
• The MSTP for students who want full Ph.D. training.

Students can work in any of the school’s laboratories. The school’s honors include six Nobel Prizes, among them the 1985 prize to Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein for their cholesterol research, which helped lay the groundwork for statins.

Global Health

UT Southwestern’s Office of Global Health has supported more than 700 students in more than 35 countries since 2010, and 15% of graduating seniors in the 2025 AAMC Graduation Questionnaire reported a global health experience. Students in the International Medical Exchange Program have completed rotations in countries including Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Senegal, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. If you are interested in global health before medical school, pre-med internships abroad can give you supervised experience in a health system very different from your own. Applicants who want to build Spanish for patient care, which is useful at Parkland and in the school’s Medical Spanish and interpreter programs, might also look at a medical internship in Peru.

Notable Alumni, Faculty, Leadership and Admissions Staff

The people below hold current roles at UT Southwestern or are graduates of its medical school. Roles were checked on November 13, 2026. These profiles describe each person’s work and connection to the school; they do not imply that any of them reviews applications or that you will work with them.

Leadership

W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D. is Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School, a role he has held since February 2019. An international leader in hand transplantation, he previously chaired plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins, where his teams performed the first double hand transplant (2009) and first above-elbow arm transplant (2010) in the United States. He studied at Harvard College and trained in medicine and surgery at Johns Hopkins and in plastic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. As dean, he leads the school’s academic mission, and his “Message from the Dean” is a useful read before you write about why UT Southwestern fits you.

Sherry C. Huang, M.D. is Vice Provost and Senior Associate Dean for Education and Professor of Pediatrics. She is responsible for the leadership and quality of education across UT Southwestern’s medical, health professions, public health and graduate schools, and serves as the education liaison with clinical partners. A pediatric gastroenterologist and former residency program director, she came from Rutgers, where she was the inaugural vice chancellor and enterprise-wide designated institutional official overseeing graduate medical education.

Norberto Rodriguez-Baez, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, is Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the Office of Student Empowerment and Engagement and the medical school’s listed contact for prospective students. His office runs the Explore programs for students from elementary school through college, student leadership grants and community service programs.

Denise Marciano, M.D., Ph.D., directs the Perot Family Scholars Medical Scientist Training Program. She is an NIH-funded nephrologist and associate professor of internal medicine who studies kidney development, repair and hereditary kidney disease. She trained in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program at Weill Cornell, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering and at UCSF, and she is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Future M.D./Ph.D. applicants should read her program’s admissions guidance closely.

Faculty

Benjamin F. Chong, M.D., is Associate Dean for Medical Student Research and director of the Scholarly Activity Program, the 12-week project every student completes. A professor of dermatology who joined UT Southwestern in 2008, he studies cutaneous lupus erythematosus and leads the UT Southwestern Cutaneous Lupus Registry with NIH funding. He served as dermatology service chief at Parkland from 2012 to 2025. His office is the starting point for summer research and the Research pathway.

Michael S. Brown, M.D., Professor of Molecular Genetics, shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph Goldstein for discovering how cells control cholesterol. He was a founding director of the MSTP and still provides scientific and career guidance to trainees, which shows how closely the school ties its physician-scientist training to its research leaders.

Alumni

Joseph L. Goldstein, M.D., earned his M.D. at UT Southwestern in 1966 and now chairs the Department of Molecular Genetics as a Regental Professor. With Michael Brown, he discovered the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, work that helped lay the conceptual groundwork for statin drugs. They shared the Lasker Award and the Nobel Prize in 1985 and the National Medal of Science in 1988. He is one of the clearest examples of the physician-scientist path the school’s mission describes.

W. Gary Reed, M.D., a native of Crosbyton, Texas, earned his M.D. at UT Southwestern in 1977, completed his internal medicine residency there and joined the faculty in 1980. He was chief of general internal medicine from 1983 to 2006. Today he leads the Academic Colleges as their dean and serves as Associate Dean of Quality, Safety, and Outcomes Education, connecting two things applicants hear about often: the four-year mentoring groups and the school’s quality and safety training.

David G. McFadden, M.D., Ph.D., a Midland, Texas native, earned both degrees at UT Southwestern in 2004. After residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an endocrinology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral research at MIT, he returned in 2015. He treats patients with advanced thyroid cancer, runs a lab that searches for new treatments in sarcoma and thyroid cancer, and serves as an MSTP assistant director. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2023.

Bret Evers, M.D., Ph.D., is an alumnus of the UT Southwestern MSTP who did his doctoral work in the laboratory of Drs. Brown and Goldstein. After anatomic pathology residency and neuropathology fellowship at UT Southwestern, he became director of autopsy at UT Southwestern and Parkland and director of the Histo Pathology Core. He teaches widely in the pre-clerkship curriculum and mentors MSTP students as their Colleges mentor.

Andrew R. Zinn, M.D., Ph.D., is also an MSTP alumnus. After internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at the Whitehead Institute, he returned to UT Southwestern in 1993, ran an NIH-funded genetics lab for nearly 25 years, directed the MSTP from 2008 to 2025 and has served as Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences since 2013.

Admissions Staff

UT Southwestern’s admissions office is part of Enrollment Services and can be reached at 214-648-5617 or [email protected]. The admissions committee is made up of faculty from basic science and clinical departments, and its chair is appointed by the Dean. The school’s admissions pages do not list individual admissions officers, so contact the office directly with questions about your file. MSTP admissions has its own office at 214-648-5291.

Admissions Statistics and Class Profile

The Class of 2030

UT Southwestern’s newest class profile is for the Class of 2030, which entered in August 2026:

• Standard class size: 239
• Average GPA: 3.93
• Average MCAT: 517
• Average age: 23
• First-generation college students: 10%
• Spoke a non-English language in their childhood home: 33%
• Students with master’s degrees: 5%
• Undergraduate majors: 59
• Home states: 31
• Home countries: 15 (Algeria, Canada, China, Greece, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Venezuela and the United States)
• Colleges attended: 74 schools in 24 states

The class includes graduates of large Texas public universities such as UT Austin, UT Dallas, Texas A&M and the University of Houston, smaller Texas schools such as Austin College, Trinity and Abilene Christian, and universities across the country. Majors range from biochemistry and neuroscience to economics, finance, history, philosophy and humanities. Typically about 70% of accepted students are science majors, and the other 30% major in fields such as psychology, business, English and music. As you can see, UT Southwestern enrolls a highly varied student body.

Accepted Applicants and Interviews, 2025 Entering Class

A few cautions help you read these numbers correctly. The school’s averages (517 MCAT, 3.93 GPA) describe enrolled students in the Class of 2030, while the medians (518 MCAT, 3.96 GPA) describe accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class, so they measure different groups in different years. Medians are not minimums: UT Southwestern sets no minimum GPA or MCAT and admits students with a range of scores. The interview count shows how competitive the interview stage is: UT Southwestern interviewed 883 applicants in the 2025 cycle for an entering class of roughly 240. Because the number of applications and acceptance offers is not published, no acceptance rate can be calculated, and we do not estimate one.

Premedical Experiences of the 2025 Entering Class

The pattern is clear: nearly every student arrived with research, shadowing, clinical volunteering and community service. Paid clinical work is common but not universal. These are shares of students, not hour counts, and the school publishes no minimum hours.

Tips and Strategies for Admission

Apply early and complete everything quickly

UT Southwestern uses rolling admissions and begins making pre-match offers on October 15, while interviews run from August through early December. An application completed in June has more chances than one completed in late October. Submit your TMDSAS application soon after May 15, have your letters at TMDSAS well before October 15, and return the secondary within about two weeks of receiving it. Take Casper early in the summer instead of near the October 27 cutoff.

Prepare the secondary before it arrives

The five secondary prompts for 2026-2027 are known (see the next section), and they change little from year to year. Draft all three required essays in the spring. The group project essay and the ethics essay both need specific stories, so start a list of candidates now.

Build real clinical depth

Shadowing is required, and nearly all recent matriculants reported clinical volunteering. Admissions readers look for sustained, hands-on patient contact, not a list of one-time events. Volunteering at a free clinic, working as a scribe, medical assistant or EMT, or joining clinical internships for pre-med students where you take vitals and help with intake under supervision are all ways to build experience you can describe in detail. Choose depth over a long list.

Show where you fit the three-part mission

UT Southwestern names three mission goals in admissions: primary care, underserved Texas communities and physician-scientists. You do not need to fit all three, but your application should make at least one of them obvious. Research-heavy applicants should explain the questions they pursued and what they learned. Applicants drawn to primary care or underserved care should show sustained service in those settings.

Use the Texas advantage, or plan around the cap if you are out of state

Texas residents fill at least 90% of the class. If you are a Texas resident, apply broadly through TMDSAS and rank UT Southwestern honestly in the match. If you are not, you are competing for a small share of seats, so your application needs a clear reason for UT Southwestern, such as ties to Texas or interest in a specific program, and you should apply to a broad list of schools.

Treat Casper as part of your application

Casper is required for every applicant and assesses interpersonal and professional judgment. You do not need to study content, but take the practice test, learn the format and answer each scenario with fairness and specific actions.

Choose letters that show more than grades

UT Southwestern considers recommendations from premedical committees or faculty. A committee letter or packet is ideal if your school offers one. If not, choose three or four writers who know you well, including science faculty and someone who has seen you with patients.

Plan the timeline if you need another year

Many successful applicants take one or more gap years. The average age of the Class of 2030 is 23, which suggests many students took time between college and medical school. If you need more clinical experience, a stronger MCAT or a finished research project, a planned gap year with paid clinical work, research or pre-med gap year programs can make your application much stronger. Reapplicants should retake Casper, since scores are valid for one cycle, and show what has changed.

Do not overlook MSTP if you are a serious researcher

If you have substantial research experience and want a physician-scientist career, consider the MSTP through AMCAS. Remember that you must also apply through TMDSAS if you want to be considered for the M.D.-only program.

Secondary Application Questions, Example Responses and Analysis

While not every student enjoys writing essays, the admissions committee at UT Southwestern expects them. Secondary essays help the committee get to know you beyond test scores and your TMDSAS activities. Some essays are required and others are optional. Unless an optional essay truly does not apply to you, we recommend taking every chance to show the committee who you are.

How the 2026-2027 secondary works

• Who gets it: every M.D. applicant whose TMDSAS application is transmitted to UT Southwestern. You will get an email to create an account in the portal.
• Essays: five prompts, each with a 2,500-character limit (including spaces). The first three are required. The fourth and fifth are optional: answer them only if they apply to you.
• Deadline: November 1, 2026. Your secondary must be on file before you can be considered for an interview.
• Cost: there is no secondary application fee.
• What changed this cycle: the third prompt now asks about people whose backgrounds differ from yours, and the optional fourth prompt now asks about community service instead of a year or more of public service.

UT Southwestern shows its secondary questions in the portal rather than on a public page. The 2026-2027 questions are below. If anything in your portal differs, answer the question your portal shows and follow its limit. For other schools’ prompts, see our medical school secondary essay prompts database.

A note on length: 2,500 characters is roughly 400 to 450 words. You do not need to use every character. A complete answer that addresses every part of the question matters more than length, but never go over the limit, because the portal will not accept it.

The examples below are original teaching examples written for this guide. They show one way to structure an answer. Do not copy them; your essays must come from your own experiences.

Essay 1: Group project or collaborative experience (required)

“Describe a group project or collaborative experience that you are most proud of. What was your role, and how did you contribute to the group’s success? Reflect on how you navigated challenges or differing perspectives.” (2,500 characters)

What it asks. Four things: one project you are proud of, your specific role, how you contributed to the group’s success and how you handled challenges or disagreement. There will be many group projects and team-based learning sessions in medical school, and UT Southwestern wants to know how you work with others.

How to approach it. If you have had a hard experience with a group, you can approach this almost as an adversity essay. If your experiences were smooth, use the “this is what I learned” lens, but still describe a real challenge, since the prompt asks for one. Pick a project where you can name your role in one sentence and point to a result.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,226 characters):

In my junior year, five of us in a biomedical engineering design course took on a project from a local free clinic: their fingertip pulse oximeters seemed to read high on some patients. Our goal was a simple bedside protocol to flag readings that needed an arterial or repeat check.

I was the data lead. I wrote the study plan with our faculty adviser, built the spreadsheet that paired each oximeter reading with the clinic’s reference values, and taught the team to log skin tone with a standard color scale so we could see whether error grew in patients with darker skin.

Our hardest moment came in week six. Two teammates wanted to switch to building a new sensor, which felt more like engineering. Two others wanted to finish the protocol. I understood both sides, but a sensor could not be built and tested in the eight weeks we had left, and the clinic needed something they could use. Instead of arguing in circles, I suggested we each write down what “success” would mean for the clinic, not for our grade. Every list put the clinic’s staff first. We agreed to finish the protocol and add a one-page proposal for a future sensor team, so the idea was not lost.

The disagreement also showed me a mistake of my own. I had been fixing the data errors myself late at night instead of explaining what went wrong, which made the others feel shut out. I started a fifteen-minute Monday check-in where each person showed one problem they had solved. Our work got faster and the quiet member of our team, who had found the best calibration method, finally got credit for it.

What makes me proudest is not our grade. It is that the clinic still uses our two-step flag, and a nurse told me it caught a patient whose oxygen was much lower than the first reading showed. I learned that a good team result depends on a shared definition of success, and that a leader shares the work and the credit.

UT Southwestern teaches through team-based learning and small Academic Colleges that keep the same group of students and faculty mentor for four years. I want to bring the habits I learned on this project to a group like that: agree on the goal early, say out loud what is not working and make sure every member’s work is seen.

Why this example works. How it answers every part: it names one specific group project and why the writer is proud of it (the clinic still uses the result), states the writer’s role (data lead) and concrete contributions (study plan, spreadsheet, skin-tone logging), and reflects on handling a real disagreement (sensor versus protocol) with the method used to resolve it (a shared definition of success). It also owns a personal mistake and the fix, which shows growth rather than heroics. The closing ties the lessons to UT Southwestern’s verified team-based learning and four-year Academic Colleges without flattering the school. Mistakes to avoid: making yourself the hero who solved everything, describing a project with no conflict when the prompt asks about challenges, and spending most of the space on technical detail instead of teamwork.

Essay 2: Unethical behavior, harassment or discrimination (required)

“Describe a time that you have witnessed someone acting unethically or dishonestly, or experienced a behavior of harassment or discrimination. What did you do? Describe your reaction. Is there anything you might do differently now in retrospect?” (2,500 characters)

What it asks. One specific situation, what you did, your reaction and what you might do differently now. The final question matters: the committee wants honest self-assessment, not a story where you did everything perfectly.

How to approach it. This type of prompt is challenging because you want to write a strong response, but you do not want to share too much information, as medical student Mekinzee Elliott told us in her interview. You might feel more comfortable writing about a time you witnessed dishonesty or harassment and responded to it, rather than a time you were harassed yourself. If you do have a personal story you are comfortable sharing, that can work too. Either way, we caution against very sensitive subjects you would not want to discuss in an interview, and against naming or shaming individuals.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,298 characters):

During my two years as an emergency department scribe, I worked beside another scribe I will call Dana, who had more experience than I did and who trained me in my first month. On a busy night I noticed that several of her notes listed a full review of systems and a normal exam of every organ system, even for patients the physician had seen for less than two minutes. The text was the same word for word across charts. She was copying a template forward without checking what the physician had actually asked or examined.

My first reaction was to do nothing. Dana was respected, the physicians signed her notes and I was new. I also worried I might be wrong about what the physician had done. But I kept thinking about a patient with chest pain whose note said “no shortness of breath” when I had heard him say he could not climb stairs. A physician reading that chart the next day could make a different decision.

I started by talking to Dana privately at the end of a shift. I asked whether the template was something the physicians wanted, and I showed her the chest pain note. She said everyone did it and that she did not have time to type every exam. I said I understood the pressure but that I was not comfortable with notes that did not match what happened. She was annoyed and we did not speak much for a week.

When I saw the same pattern again, I went to our lead scribe and described what I had seen, without accusing Dana of anything beyond the charts themselves. The lead scribe reviewed a sample, retrained the whole team on documenting only what the physician performed and changed the default template so the exam fields started blank.

The situation hurt more than I expected. I lost a mentor’s friendship for a while, and I questioned whether I had overstepped. In time Dana told me the retraining had made her own job easier, because physicians stopped asking her to fix notes.

If I could do it again, I would go to the lead scribe sooner, after the first conversation, rather than waiting to see it again. I would also frame my concern from the start as a patient safety problem, not a personal one, which would have made it easier for Dana to hear. The lesson I carry is that the chart belongs to the patient, and accuracy is a duty even when speaking up costs something.

Why this example works. How it answers every part: it describes what the writer witnessed (copied exam documentation), what the writer did (a private conversation, then a report to the lead scribe), the writer’s reaction (hesitation, worry about being wrong, the cost to a friendship) and what the writer would do differently now (escalate sooner and frame it as patient safety). The example avoids naming or shaming the colleague and keeps the focus on the patient. Mistakes to avoid: choosing a trivial event, telling a story where you only observed and did nothing without reflecting on it, sharing private details you would not want discussed in an interview, and skipping the ‘differently now’ question, which asks for honest self-assessment.

Essay 3: People whose backgrounds differ from your own (required)

“Describe an experience that deepened your understanding of people whose backgrounds or life experiences differ from your own. How did this experience shape your perspective?” (2,500 characters)

What it asks. One experience and the change it caused in how you see people and, ideally, how you will care for patients. This prompt connects directly to the mission’s commitment to diverse communities and reducing health care disparities.

How to approach it. Choose a sustained relationship or role rather than a short trip. Show the assumption you started with, the moment it changed and what you now do differently. Describe the other person with respect and detail.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,232 characters):

For two years I tutored adults preparing for the U.S. citizenship test at a community center in a Dallas neighborhood where many refugee families resettle. My first student was Mr. A., a former schoolteacher from Afghanistan in his sixties who now worked overnight stocking shelves.

I came in with a plan: flashcards for the 100 civics questions and a practice test each week. After a month he had not improved, and he often arrived late or not at all. I privately decided he was not trying very hard.

That changed one evening when he brought a stack of mail and asked me to read it before we studied. It held a letter about his wife’s insurance, a past-due utility bill and a notice from his son’s school. He could speak English well enough for work, but he could not read official letters, and each one felt like a threat. He had been missing our sessions to stand in lines at offices, trying to solve problems no one had explained to him. The civics questions were the least urgent thing in his life.

We changed our sessions. We spent the first twenty minutes on whatever letter he brought, and I used those letters to teach reading skills he also needed for the test. I learned to ask what had happened that week before I asked about the lesson. I also learned how much I did not know: about the dignity of a man who had taught for thirty years and now had to ask a college student for help, and about the many small systems that are easy for me and hard for a newcomer. He passed his interview fourteen months after we met, and he brought me a plate of his wife’s food.

This experience shaped how I see “noncompliance.” In clinics I have since seen patients described as not following instructions, and I now ask what else is happening in their lives before I accept that label. Often the plan, not the patient, is the problem. I also learned to ask before I assume. My first plan for Mr. A. was built on my life, not his.

UT Southwestern trains students at Parkland, which cares for patients from every background in Dallas County, and offers a Community Health Pathway built around community-based research. I want to learn there how to build care plans with patients, starting from the questions I learned to ask Mr. A.

Why this example works. How it answers every part: it gives one specific relationship with someone whose background and life differ from the writer’s, shows the writer’s first wrong assumption, describes the moment that changed it and states how the experience shaped the writer’s perspective (rethinking ‘noncompliance’ and asking before assuming). It connects that perspective to patient care at Parkland and the Community Health Pathway, both verified UT Southwestern opportunities. Mistakes to avoid: writing a travel story where you were a tourist, describing the other person as a lesson for you rather than a full person, using labels instead of a concrete story, and claiming you now fully understand a whole community.

Essay 4: Community service (optional)

“(OPTIONAL) Tell us about a community service experience that had a significant impact on you. What made it meaningful, and what did you learn through your involvement?” (2,500 characters)

What it asks. One service experience, why it mattered and what you learned. This prompt is new for 2026-2027.

How to approach it. If you have a long service commitment that your required essays do not cover, answer this one. Focus on one experience and one or two moments. If you have served in the military, Peace Corps, Teach for America or a similar program, this is also a natural place to describe it. If you have not been active in community service, you can skip this question.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,050 characters):

For three years I delivered meals every Saturday morning for a home-delivered meals program that serves older adults in my county. Most of my clients lived alone. I was asked to deliver the food, check that the client was safe and report anything unusual to our coordinator.

At first I treated the route like a job to finish quickly. I had twelve stops and a chemistry exam to study for. The change came with Mrs. L., a retired seamstress in her eighties who always had a question ready to keep me at the door. One morning she asked me to read the label on a new prescription bottle because the print was too small. I noticed her ankles were badly swollen and that she was short of breath walking to the door. She said it was nothing. I called our coordinator from the driveway, as we were trained to do, and a nurse visited that afternoon. Mrs. L. was admitted for heart failure. When she came home two weeks later, she told me I was the only person she had seen that week.

That sentence stayed with me. I had thought the service was the meal. For many clients, the most important part was a person who knew what normal looked like for them and would notice when something changed. I started spending a few more minutes at each stop and keeping short notes on each client, with permission, so the next volunteer would know to ask Mr. T. about his garden or check whether Mrs. L. had her scale.

I learned three things. First, isolation is a health problem, and it is often invisible until someone looks. Second, a small, steady presence can matter more than one big effort. Third, my job was to notice and report, not to diagnose, and knowing the limits of my role made me more useful, not less.

The experience is a large part of why I want to practice medicine that reaches people outside the hospital. UT Southwestern’s Community Health Pathway, with its Community Action Research Track and the community health scholarly activity, would let me keep learning how to find and serve people like Mrs. L. before they reach the emergency department.

Why this example works. How it answers every part: it names a community service experience, explains what made it meaningful (a client’s words about isolation) and states what the writer learned (isolation as a health problem, steady presence, the limits of a volunteer’s role). The writer acted within the role by reporting to the coordinator rather than giving medical advice. The close links the lesson to UT Southwestern’s Community Health Pathway and Community Action Research Track. Mistakes to avoid: listing every service activity instead of reflecting on one, exaggerating your clinical role, and skipping this optional prompt when you have long, meaningful service that the required essays do not cover.

Essay 5: Academic discrepancies or extenuating circumstances (optional)

“(Optional) Please explain any academic discrepancies or extenuating circumstances that you feel the Admissions Committee should know.” (2,500 characters)

What it asks. An explanation of anything in your record that needs context: a hard semester, a withdrawal, a gap or a circumstance that affected your work.

How to approach it. You might dread this question if there are discrepancies, but it is your chance to explain what happened. No one is perfect, and the admissions committee knows that. What it wants to know is what happened and why. Explaining honestly shows that you acknowledge the issue and have moved forward. Keep it short and factual, and spend most of the space on what you did next.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (1,428 characters):

My grades in the spring of my sophomore year, a 2.9 semester GPA with a W in Organic Chemistry II, do not reflect my ability or effort, and I want to explain what happened.

In February of that semester my father had a stroke. He lost strength on his right side and could not drive or work. My mother works night shifts as a nurse aide, so I moved home, commuted an hour each way to campus and became his main help during the day: driving him to therapy, managing his medications and handling calls with his insurance. I kept my part-time job because our family needed the income.

I tried to keep all five courses, which was a mistake. By April I was behind in organic chemistry and had to withdraw. I passed the rest, but with lower grades than I had earned before.

That summer I made a plan with my adviser. I took a lighter fall load, retook Organic Chemistry II and earned an A, and arranged my class schedule around my father’s therapy, which ended the next year when he regained enough strength to drive. Since that semester my GPA has been 3.91 across 60 hours, including biochemistry, physics and upper-level biology.

The experience taught me to ask for help early and to plan my time around real limits rather than hope. It is also part of why I want to become a physician. I saw how much the therapy team and a patient pharmacist changed my father’s recovery, and how hard it is for families to manage care at home.

Why this example works. How it answers the prompt: it names the exact discrepancy (one semester’s GPA and a withdrawal), explains the cause briefly and factually, takes responsibility for a planning mistake, and shows evidence of recovery (an A on the retake and a 3.91 GPA over the next 60 hours). It ends with one short line on what the writer learned, without turning the essay into a second personal statement. Mistakes to avoid: making excuses, oversharing medical details about family members, leaving the committee to guess at a visible weak spot, and writing this optional essay when you have no discrepancy to explain.

M.D./Ph.D. (MSTP) secondary

MSTP applicants complete a separate, free MSTP secondary sent automatically after AMCAS transmits their application, due November 1. The 2026-2027 MSTP questions are not published. In the 2025-2026 cycle, the MSTP secondary asked applicants to describe the research they most wanted to pursue in Ph.D. training (500 characters), explain why they wanted M.D./Ph.D. training at UT Southwestern in particular (500 characters), list up to five UT Southwestern faculty whose research interested them and say whether they could start a laboratory rotation by a given date. Use those topics for practice, and answer the questions your portal shows.

Practice with earlier UT Southwestern prompts

UT Southwestern’s questions have changed slowly over time. The prompts below are from earlier cycles and are not part of the 2026-2027 secondary. They are still useful practice, because they ask about the same qualities.

Earlier group project prompt (2025-2026 wording): “Describe a group project or activity that you are most proud of. Consider the following in your response: What aspect makes you most proud? How was it accomplished? How did you deal with disagreement or conflict in the group? How did you get fellow group members to embrace a position or view your perspective?” (2,500 characters)

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,121 characters):

I wanted to be an effective communicator and I love literature, so I majored in English for my undergraduate studies. In one of my senior courses, I anticipated writing a 20-page paper examining a topic in literature. Instead, the professor decided on a group project where three students would come together to write a 60-page paper. Each person was responsible for 20 pages. Fifteen of those pages would be dedicated to the student’s choice from a selection of literary topics. The other five pages would integrate the other students’ writing and make further comparisons in literature.

It was already a difficult assignment. But Professor Grover made it ten times more difficult. Not only did we have a difficult project, but we had to find topics in literature that would work together in an advanced, senior-level paper. If I recall correctly, 90% of our meetings were spent ensuring that we weren’t getting off-track in our individual work.

We all got along, and we all did our parts. That was a rare feat for a group project! The challenge was in 60 pages of individual writing coming together for the most important grade of our undergraduate studies. We overcame it by sending every five pages we wrote to each other. If anyone got off track, we were able to quickly rectify it. We overcame it by writing together in group settings and getting each others’ thoughts. When we got stuck, we read sections out loud until we found the right place to continue our analyses. Over the course of three months, we produced a project I am very proud of to this day.

While I initially resented Professor Grover for giving us a seemingly impossible assignment, I now respect her for it. She understood that an assignment of that magnitude would force us to work with each other on the same level we would need to in the work place. I’ve never taken on a project of the same magnitude in the work place, but I know I could take it on should I need to. And now that I know I want to be a doctor, I look back on that project as a precursor to solving complex patient cases. Because of that, I’m grateful for that experience.

Anyone would be daunted by a group project of that size. The feelings this student expressed are normal and relatable. The group’s only real obstacle was completing the assignment, so the essay focuses on process: sharing every five pages, writing together and reading sections aloud. To fit the 2026-2027 prompt, the writer would need to state their role more directly and describe a real disagreement.

Earlier difficult-task prompt (2020-2021 wording, required that cycle): “Describe an example of a very difficult assignment, task, or situation that you did not think you could accomplish. Consider the following in your response: How did you approach it? If you were tempted to quit, why did or didn’t you? What made you stay the course despite obstacles? What did you learn from the experience?” (2,500 characters)

For a prompt like this, you can discuss a school assignment, a workplace situation or any task that overwhelmed you. The idea is to show how you work under stress.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (2,231 characters):

I worked as a manager in the women’s department at Macy’s while I earned my undergraduate degree from my local community college. The most stressful part of my job was keeping my department clean during sales. We had a sale every month. Every night after the store closed, we had a time period called “recovery.” After the customers were gone, we had to clean our department until it looked spotless. No one was allowed to go home until we were finished, even if their shift had ended.

Recovery took anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours, depending on how big the sale was. If we were offering an extra 65% off clearance prices, we would have hundreds of pieces of clothing scattered all over our dressing rooms. Each item had to be removed from the dressing room and placed back on the rack.

I had a difficult time during recovery because I had to make sure that my team stayed and cleaned up. No one wanted to work past their shift, even though they were still paid for it. They just wanted to go home. Additionally, we had frequent call-ins from associates who didn’t want to work during a sale. And fewer people working meant longer clean-up times, which only added to complaints.

As their manager, I felt like it was my responsibility to keep my team in a positive mood and to make work as fun as possible. But even I struggled to feel positive during sales! Customers were rude and thoughtless, breaking hangers and sometimes damaging clothes. After being yelled at by customers who wanted regular-priced items at sale prices and dealing with employees who didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to, either.

I worked there for two years. During that time, I learned that I didn’t always need to be positive. It was too exhausting. So, I transitioned from being hyper-positive to instructive. I told my team what to do and asked if they had any questions. Then, I put an AirPod in (just one so that I could hear them) and listened to music as I cleaned. This helped me keep my sanity while looking forward to going home. I realized that I wasn’t responsible for their attitudes. I was just responsible to make sure that they did their work, and that, at the end of the night, our floor was recovered, and we could go home.

This is a realistic response. Most of us have one part of a job we dread, and learning to handle it responsibly is a useful trait in medical school and beyond. A stronger version would say more about what the writer learned about leading people, since the prompt asks what you learned.

Earlier public service prompt (2025-2026 wording, optional that cycle): “(Optional) Have you engaged in any public service activities for a duration of one year or greater in length (examples: Military, Peace Corps, Teach for America, etc.). Yes or No? If so, please describe the experience and impact on your personal and professional development.” (2,500 characters)

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (1,808 characters):

I enlisted in the military when I was 18 years old. I was fresh out of high school and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I felt like serving my country might be a good first step. It turned out to be one, but it was a step I was ill-prepared for. I was always active in high school, but I didn’t realize how much physical rigor would be required for the Army. Simply put, it was exhausting, and I almost didn’t survive.

I remember throwing up during field exercises, getting sweat in my eyes, and miserably pushing forward just to keep the drill sergeants from screaming in my face. In those moments, I didn’t think I could do it. To this day, I will acknowledge that my lack of preparation interfered with my ability to follow all the orders I was given. But while I could focus on that, I want to discuss what I learned and what becoming a soldier taught me.

My lack of physical preparation thankfully didn’t equate to a lack of mental preparation. I wanted to prove myself. Every time a drill sergeant screamed in my face, I remained as stoic and disciplined as possible. Every time I threw up, I told myself that I was getting stronger.

I remember the day I didn’t throw up anymore. I don’t think anyone other than me noticed. But it was a powerful moment for me. I realized that I was getting stronger physically. The best part was realizing that both my physical and mental strength was improving.

My time in Basic Combat Training taught me that I can always improve, no matter how hard it might be. When combined, mental and physical strength can be used to accomplish the impossible. And soon enough, what seems impossible can become part of your daily routine. Though I didn’t know it at the time, my time spent in the Army was preparing me for the challenges that lie ahead in life.

This essay works because it is honest. The applicant admits a lack of preparation but focuses on how he pushed through hard moments to reach a much better place. In 2026-2027, a military applicant could adapt this story for the optional community service essay by adding what the service taught him about serving others.

Getting help with your essays

If you are having trouble with any of your essays, we are here to help. International Medical Aid offers consulting services. We can brainstorm topics, help you structure your essay and review it when you are done. We also recommend running your essays through tools like Grammarly or Hemingway, or having a friend or family member read them. A second set of eyes never hurt anyone.

Interview Format and Preparation

Earning an interview at a medical school is a big deal. The admissions committee has reviewed your application and wants to get to know you better. You are not guaranteed a seat, but you are much closer than before, and making the most of your interview day will improve your chances.

What to expect in 2026-2027

• Invitations: sent by email beginning in mid-July. An invitation means your application has reached an advanced stage, but it does not guarantee admission.
• Dates: interviews run from August through early December, and they are held on Wednesdays.
• Format: every candidate has two back-to-back interviews with UT Southwestern faculty members in a standard (traditional) interview format, each lasting 25 minutes. UT Southwestern does not use the multiple mini interview (MMI) format.
• Virtual: all interviews for the 2026-2027 cycle are conducted virtually.
• The rest of the day: a virtual medical school overview presentation by an associate dean, a student panel and a virtual campus tour video.
• Casper: your Casper scores must reach UT Southwestern before your interview date.

How to prepare

Prepare as though both interviewers have read your application closely, and be ready to give detailed answers about anything in it. You can expect questions like “Why UT Southwestern?” and “Why do you want to be a doctor?” Our list of the medical school interview questions applicants hear most often is a good place to start. Other preparation steps:

• Know your file. Reread your TMDSAS essays, activities and all five secondary essays. Interviewers often ask you to expand on a story you wrote.
• Prepare a specific “Why UT Southwestern?” Connect your experiences to verified features: Parkland and its patient population, the Academic Colleges, early clerkships, the Scholarly Activity tracks, the pathways to an M.D. with Distinction or the MSTP.
• Practice ethics and teamwork stories. The secondary asks about group work and ethics, and interviewers may follow up.
• Test your setup. For a virtual interview, use a quiet room, a stable connection, good lighting and a camera at eye level, and dress professionally.
• Ask good questions. The student panel is your best chance to learn about daily life, the Colleges and clinical training at Parkland.

After the interview, letters of intent and update letters are accepted at any time but are not required. Interviewed applicants placed on the waitlist receive an email explaining the procedure, and waitlist offers are made as seats become available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is UT Southwestern Medical School hard to get into?

Yes. The Class of 2030 had an average GPA of 3.93 and an average MCAT of 517, and the school interviewed 883 applicants in the 2025 cycle for an entering class of about 240. UT Southwestern does not publish its number of applications or acceptances, so there is no official acceptance rate. Texas residents have a large advantage because state law reserves at least 90% of seats for them.

Does UT Southwestern accept out-of-state applicants?

Yes, but state law limits non-Texas residents to 10% of the class. TMDSAS decides your residency status under Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board rules. Out-of-state applicants should show a clear reason for choosing UT Southwestern and apply broadly. Many out-of-state students who are admitted receive a competitive scholarship that lets them pay the in-state tuition rate.

Does UT Southwestern accept international or DACA applicants?

Not for the M.D. program. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are considered for interview and admission, because the school wants students who are certain to complete all four years. The MSTP (M.D./Ph.D.) does accept international applicants who completed their undergraduate studies at a regionally accredited U.S. or Canadian college.

What GPA and MCAT do I need for UT Southwestern?

There is no minimum GPA or MCAT. For context, the Class of 2030 averaged a 3.93 GPA and a 517 MCAT, and accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class had a median GPA of 3.96 and a median MCAT of 518. The committee considers your highest total MCAT score and reviews every application holistically, so a lower number can be offset by strong experiences and mission fit.

Does UT Southwestern use AMCAS or TMDSAS?

The M.D. program uses TMDSAS, the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service. For Entry Year 2027, the TMDSAS deadline was October 1, 2026, and the fee is $235. Only the MSTP (M.D./Ph.D.) uses AMCAS. If you apply to the MSTP and also want to be considered for the M.D.-only program, you must submit both applications.

How many secondary essays does UT Southwestern require, and is there a fee?

The 2026-2027 secondary has five essays of up to 2,500 characters each: three required (a group project, an ethics or harassment experience, and an experience with people whose backgrounds differ from yours) and two optional (community service and academic discrepancies). There is no secondary fee, and the deadline is November 1, 2026.

Is the UT Southwestern interview MMI or traditional?

Traditional. Each candidate has two back-to-back 25-minute interviews with faculty members. All interviews for the 2026-2027 cycle are virtual and take place on Wednesdays from August through early December. The day also includes an overview presentation by an associate dean, a student panel and a virtual tour.

How much does UT Southwestern Medical School cost?

For 2026-2027, first-year tuition and fees are $25,436 for Texas residents and $38,536 for nonresidents. The estimated first-year cost of attendance, including housing, food, insurance and supplies, is $66,847 for Texas residents and $79,947 for nonresidents. Every admitted student is considered for a school scholarship, and the FAFSA is the only aid application.

Does UT Southwestern require Casper or PREview?

UT Southwestern requires Casper, part of the Altus Suite, from every M.D. applicant. For 2026-2027, the last accepted test date is October 27, 2026, and scores must be distributed by November 1, 2026. It does not list the AAMC PREview exam as a requirement. Casper scores are valid for one cycle only.

Is research required to get into UT Southwestern?

Research is not a stated requirement for the M.D. program, but it is nearly universal among admitted students: 98% of the 2025 entering class reported research experience. Every UT Southwestern student also completes a 12-week Scholarly Activity during medical school. For the MSTP, substantial laboratory experience is expected, and letters from every research mentor are expected.

How much clinical experience and shadowing do I need?

UT Southwestern lists physician shadowing as required but does not publish minimum hours. In the 2025 entering class, 96% of students reported shadowing and 92% reported clinical volunteering. Aim for steady, hands-on patient contact over months, such as a clinic, hospital or scribe role, or internships for pre-med students where you work with patients under supervision.

Does UT Southwestern have early decision or early assurance?

No. UT Southwestern does not offer an Early Decision Program or a baccalaureate/M.D. program. Some other Texas schools run early decision programs through TMDSAS with an August 1 deadline, but UT Southwestern is not one of them. Everyone applies in the regular TMDSAS cycle.

When will I hear back from UT Southwestern?

Interview invitations are sent by email starting in mid-July. Offers begin on October 15 and continue on a rolling basis outside the TMDSAS Match period, with match results on February 12, 2027. Applicants who are not invited to interview are notified after the interview season ends, in mid-February. The school cannot tell individual applicants when they will hear.

Can I defer my admission to UT Southwestern?

Possibly. Admitted students may request a one-year deferral, which is reviewed case by case and is not automatic. Requests must be received before June 1 using the school’s deferral application, with a detailed reason. Deferrals longer than one year are considered only in unusual circumstances.

Can I transfer into UT Southwestern from another medical school?

No. The medical school is not currently admitting transfer students, because its clinical rotations are at maximum capacity.

Related Medical School Guides

If UT Southwestern is on your list, these guides cover schools that share its state, application system or applicant pool. They are not ranked and are not claims of equal selectivity.

• Texas A&M College of Medicine: another large Texas public M.D. school that admits through TMDSAS and appears on many of the same applicants’ lists.
• TCU Burnett School of Medicine: a newer M.D. school in Fort Worth, in the same Dallas-Fort Worth area as UT Southwestern.
• UT Tyler School of Medicine: one of UT Southwestern’s sister medical schools in The University of Texas System, located in East Texas.
• UTMB School of Medicine: a UT System medical school on Galveston Island that also applies through TMDSAS.
• The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine: a UT System school in South Texas, useful for applicants focused on underserved communities.
• UT Austin Dell Medical School: a much smaller UT System M.D. program in Austin with a very different curriculum and a video secondary.

To compare every school in the state, read our guide to medical schools in Texas, and for the application itself, our TMDSAS guide covers each section step by step.

More medical school guides

We also encourage you to read more of our medical school guides:

• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• McGovern Medical School at UT Health
• UNT Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
• University of Houston College of Medicine
• Baylor College of Medicine
• George Washington University School of Medicine
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• St. George’s University School of Medicine
• Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (in Pennsylvania)
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
• Wake Forest University School of Medicine
• Western University of Health Sciences (in California)
• Drexel University College of Medicine
• Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago
• Georgetown University School of Medicine
• Yale School of Medicine
• Perelman School of Medicine
• UCLA Medical School
• NYU Medical School
• Washington University School of Medicine
• Brown Medical School

How International Medical Aid Can Help

UT Southwestern looks for applicants who have spent real time with patients, understand the demands of medicine and can reflect on what they saw. International Medical Aid (IMA) helps pre-health students build that kind of experience.

• Clinical internships. IMA’s pre-health internships place students with local health care teams, where interns take vitals, do intake and triage and help with direct care under the supervision of licensed clinicians. IMA offers medical internships abroad in Kenya and other sites, and you can compare every program on our healthcare internships abroad overview.
• Reflection you can write about. Supervised patient care in a very different health system gives you specific stories for essays like UT Southwestern’s question about people whose backgrounds differ from your own, and practice explaining what you learned.
• Admissions advising. Our medical school admissions consultants help with school lists, TMDSAS and AMCAS essays, secondaries and interview preparation.

IMA is independent of UT Southwestern. Our programs are not affiliated with the school and do not give any admissions advantage. What they offer is experience and reflection that you earn and describe yourself. If you are planning your next summer or gap year, start by reviewing the internship options and talking with an IMA adviser.

Final Thoughts and Sources

We wish you the best of luck as you apply to UT Southwestern Medical School. It offers a strong education at one of the lowest tuition rates in the country, training at Parkland and its university hospitals, four years of faculty mentoring in the Academic Colleges and room to pursue research, community health, global health, education or quality improvement. To give yourself the best chance: submit your TMDSAS application early, take Casper early, draft your five secondary essays before the portal opens and prepare for two faculty interviews.

Sources

Facts in this guide were checked on November 13, 2026, for the 2026-2027 application cycle (Entry Year 2027). Class profile figures are for the Class of 2030; AAMC MSAR figures are from the 2026 edition (2025 entering class); costs are for 2026-2027 unless noted.

• UT Southwestern Medical School, Admissions, Application Timeline, Class Profile and Prerequisite Courses.
• UT Southwestern Medical School, About Us (mission and LCME accreditation) and Curriculum pages.
• UT Southwestern Office of Student Financial Aid, 2026-2027 Cost of Attendance; Student Accounting, 2026-2027 Tuition and Fees; Cost and Financial Aid page (Class of 2024 debt).
• UT Southwestern Medical School Catalog 2026-2027, Admission to the Medical School.
• UT Southwestern Graduate School, MSTP Admissions and FAQs and MSTP Leadership.
• TMDSAS, Deadlines and Important Dates, Entry Year 2027, About the Application and Letters of Evaluation.
• AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR), UT Southwestern Medical School profile, 2026 edition (2025 entering class data; Tuition and Student Fees survey 2025-2026; LCME Part I-B 2024-2025).
• 2026-2027 secondary prompt wording: Med School Insiders secondary prompts database and the Student Doctor Network 2026-2027 UT Southwestern applicant thread (identical wording), checked November 13, 2026.
• UT Southwestern faculty profiles and leadership pages for the people in this guide.

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