How to Get Into Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine: The Definitive Guide (2026-2027 Cycle)

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM) is a private, nonprofit MD school in Pasadena, California. It opened in 2020 and quickly became one of the most selective and innovative medical schools in the country. Kaiser Permanente itself has been educating medical students and residents since 1946 and runs an integrated health system that combines health coverage, hospitals and medical offices.

KPSOM made national headlines when it offered free tuition to its earliest entering classes, with no strings attached. There was no required specialty and no obligation to practice in a particular region. Applications surged. That offer has now ended. Tuition was waived for all four years for the first seven entering classes, the students who enrolled from 2020 through 2026. The class entering in 2027 is the first class that will pay tuition: $69,212 for the 2027/2028 academic year, including books and supplies, with a total estimated cost of attendance of $113,232. Starting with that same class, the new KPSOM Impact Scholarship covers the full cost of attendance for all four years for selected students.

This guide covers the 2026-2027 application cycle, which is for students who want to start medical school in July 2027 (the Class of 2031). It explains the new tuition model and the Impact Scholarship, the Class of 2030 statistics, the INSPIRE curriculum and its Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships, the requirements and deadlines, and all eight secondary application questions, with full illustrative examples and analysis for every essay. It also covers the hybrid virtual interview, match results and the people who lead the school. Facts were checked on October 17, 2026.

Key Takeaways

• KPSOM is no longer tuition-free for new applicants. The tuition waiver covered students who enrolled from 2020 through 2026. The class entering in 2027 pays tuition of $69,212 for 2027/2028, and the total estimated cost of attendance is $113,232.
• The Impact Scholarship is new. It covers the full cost of attendance for all four years for selected students, beginning with the 2027 entering class. You nominate yourself on the secondary application. The school also offers need-based, debt-free institutional aid.
• The class is tiny and the pool is huge. The Class of 2030 had 50 students, drawn from 6,756 primary applications. Mean and median MCAT were 515, and the median total GPA was 3.86. For the 2025 entering class, 729 of 6,596 verified applicants were interviewed. There is no minimum GPA or MCAT.
• Eligibility is limited. Only U.S. citizens, permanent residents and DACA recipients may apply. KPSOM does not accept international students on student visas or transfer students.
• Deadlines are firm. AMCAS is due October 1, 2026, and the secondary and AAMC PREview scores are due November 1, 2026. Extensions are not granted.
• Training starts with patients. Students begin a primary care Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship at one of seven Kaiser Permanente medical centers in the greater Los Angeles area at the start of Year 1.
• Mission fit is the center of the application. The secondary asks about setbacks, leadership and inquiry, lifelong learning and the social drivers of health.
• Next step: take the PREview exam early, submit AMCAS well before October 1, and start drafting the four required essays and your scholarship self-nomination now.

Key Statistics About Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

The snapshot below shows the figures applicants ask about first. Class statistics are for the Class of 2030, the 50 students who entered in 2026 after applying in the 2025-2026 cycle. Interview figures are for the 2025 entering class, the newest year with interview counts. Cost figures are for the 2027/2028 academic year, the first year the class entering in 2027 will pay. The table gives the source and definition for each figure.

The number of applicants who receive offers is not published, so no true acceptance rate can be calculated. What the numbers do show is scale: 50 seats for 6,756 primary applications in the 2025-2026 cycle. For the 2025 entering class, 729 of 6,596 verified applicants were interviewed, about 11 in every 100, and 49 students enrolled. Almost everyone who applied also submitted a secondary (6,646), which makes sense because every applicant who completes AMCAS and submits an MCAT score is invited to complete one. Treat KPSOM as one of the most competitive schools on any list. For a side-by-side view of other schools’ class numbers, see our list of average GPA and MCAT scores by medical school.

Mission and Educational Priorities

KPSOM’s mission is “to provide a world-class medical education that ignites a passion for learning, a desire to serve, and an unwavering commitment to improve the health and well-being of patients and communities.” Its vision describes graduates who are “compassionate healers,” “lifelong learners” and “courageous leaders of change” with the skills and resilience to improve how healthcare is delivered (see the school’s mission, vision and values page).

The school lists six values: Collaboration, Equity, Excellence, Innovation, Service and Trustworthiness. It also names its context plainly. KPSOM is built to use the capabilities of Kaiser Permanente’s integrated system, including the relationship between the independent Permanente Medical Groups and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, to prepare students for future clinical practice and health system leadership.

The school is named for Bernard J. Tyson, the late chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. It is not part of a university, but it partners with nearby universities for dual degrees, including Caltech, UCLA, USC and Pepperdine.

What does this mean for you as an applicant? Four things stand out.

First, the mission shows up directly in the secondary. Three of the four required essays track the vision statement almost word for word. Essay 2 asks how your values align with graduating “courageous leaders who lead change through inquiry and innovation.” Essay 3 asks about lifelong learning. Essay 4 asks how knowledge of the social drivers of health can support community health advocacy. If you read the mission and vision before you write, you will understand what each prompt is really about.

Second, KPSOM reviews academics in context. The admissions philosophy is “mission-aligned.” Your academic record is “always considered in relation to your experiences, milestones, and personal attributes.” There is no minimum MCAT or GPA. That does not mean numbers are unimportant. The Class of 2030 had a median MCAT of 515. It means your experiences have to carry real weight in the review.

Third, health systems thinking is part of the training from day one. KPSOM teaches Health Systems Science, “the science of how human relationships, organized in systems, influence health,” as one of three pillars across all four years. Applicants who have noticed a broken process, measured it and helped fix it have direct evidence of the habits this curriculum builds.

Fourth, service is required, not optional. Every student completes a two-year Service-Learning course with a federally qualified health center and a community medicine rotation outside Kaiser Permanente. Sustained community work before medical school is the kind of experience that maps onto this training.

The school does not give preference to California residents, and it does not ask students to commit to primary care or to a Kaiser Permanente residency. KPSOM states that it seeks students who are “intelligent, curious, and creative,” who are committed to its mission, and who show “a passion for learning paired with a collaborative spirit.”

Accreditation and Institutional Identity

KPSOM is a young school, and a lot has happened since it enrolled its first students. If you are considering applying, these milestones matter because they speak to the school’s trajectory, credibility and institutional stability.

Full LCME Accreditation

KPSOM has full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accreditor for U.S. MD programs. The school received preliminary accreditation in February 2019 and full accreditation in June 2024. Its next full LCME survey visit is scheduled for the 2028/2029 academic year (see the KPSOM accreditation page). Full accreditation confirms that the school meets the educational standards expected of U.S. MD-granting programs. It is not a ranking or a promise about any one student’s outcome.

The school also has approval from the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) and institutional initial accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). WSCUC granted initial accreditation in early 2025, applied retroactively to May 13, 2024, for six years, with the next review scheduled in 2030. In its decision, WSCUC commended the school for its mission alignment, its curriculum built around scholarly projects and population health, its strong financial resources and its student outcomes on licensing exams and the Match.

Leadership: Founding Dean and Current Dean

Mark A. Schuster, MD, PhD, was hired as the school’s founding dean in 2017 and led KPSOM as founding dean and CEO through its opening in 2020 and its first graduation. John L. Dalrymple, MD, became dean and CEO in mid-2024. Dr. Dalrymple previously served as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Harvard Medical School. A leadership change at a young school is worth paying attention to, and Dr. Dalrymple’s background in medical education at a major institution signals continued investment in the school’s academic mission. His full profile is in the people section below.

Graduating Classes

KPSOM graduated its first class in May 2024. The Class of 2025 followed with 48 graduates and a 100% residency match rate, and the Class of 2026 followed with 36 graduates and another 100% match. Match details are in the clinical training section.

Institutional Identity

A few points help avoid confusion:

• Private and independent. KPSOM is a private nonprofit institution. It is not part of a university. There is no KPSOM undergraduate college or pre-med major, so applicants complete their prerequisites and build experience at other colleges, through campus programs, local clinical jobs or medical internships for undergraduates.
• One campus. All students attend the Medical Education Building at 98 S. Los Robles Ave. in downtown Pasadena, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Clinical training happens at Kaiser Permanente medical centers across Southern California.
• Part of a large health system. Kaiser Permanente has been educating medical students and residents since 1946 and runs its own residency programs in more than 30 specialties. KPSOM students do not have to apply to those programs, but they train inside the system that runs them.

Medical Programs and Affiliations

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine offers the following programs. The dual-degree programs are offered in partnership with other universities. We’ll review each one in detail.

• Doctor of Medicine (MD)
• Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy (MD-PhD with Caltech)
• Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health (with UCLA)
• Doctor of Medicine / Master of Health Administration (with USC)
• Doctor of Medicine / Master of Business Administration (with Pepperdine)

All graduates receive a Doctor of Medicine degree. Only the MD-PhD is applied for at the same time as the MD. For the three master’s programs, students apply separately during medical school, typically in their second or third year, and must be admitted by both schools. A master’s program usually adds an extra year between the final two years of medical school, with some part-time work in the third or fifth year depending on the program. Financial aid may be available for the additional degree.

Doctor of Medicine

The Doctor of Medicine program is the traditional, four-year program that KPSOM offers, with about 50 students per class. It uses the INSPIRE curriculum, described in detail in the next section. Clinical training takes place at Kaiser Permanente medical centers in the greater Los Angeles area from the first weeks of Year 1. There are no special admissions tracks, early decision, early assurance or linkage programs for the MD.

Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy (MD-PhD with Caltech)

The MD-PhD program is a fully funded, dual-degree program jointly offered by KPSOM and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Students receive their MD training at KPSOM and their PhD training at Caltech. There are up to three MD-PhD seats in each cohort, making this an extremely competitive track. If you are drawn to physician-scientist careers that combine clinical practice with original research, this program is designed specifically for that path.

Key features from the KPSOM MD-PhD program page:

• Structure. Students complete their first two years at KPSOM, including all core clinical clerkships, then about four years of PhD work at Caltech, then two final years back at KPSOM. The whole program generally takes eight years.
• Research rotations. Students do three four-week summer research rotations at Caltech: before Year 1, between Year 1 and Year 2, and after Year 2.
• Clinical skills during the PhD. While at Caltech, students keep up their clinical skills with roughly monthly half-day sessions in Kaiser Permanente urgent care.
• Fields. PhD work can be done in any of Caltech’s research options, from bioengineering and biochemistry to computational and neural systems.
• Funding. For 2026-27, the KPSOM stipend is $44,892 (including health insurance and the summer rotation requirement) and the Caltech stipend is $45,000.
• Applying. Apply through AMCAS and the KPSOM MD-PhD secondary. You do not submit a separate Caltech application and you do not need the GRE. The MCAT and PREview are required.
• Interviews. Applicants interview with KPSOM first (October or November 2026), then selected candidates interview with Caltech (November 2026 to January 2027). KPSOM and Caltech make the final decision jointly. Offers are expected in December 2026.

The MD-PhD Admissions Committee looks for “alignment to the KPSOM mission and a commitment to research.” Regular MD students can occasionally transfer into the MD-PhD program at the program director’s discretion. The program director is Brian Roehmholdt, MD.

Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health

The Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health dual degree comes from a partnership between KPSOM and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health. If you are interested in learning more about how an MD-MPH program works and whether it is right for you, we have a separate guide on that topic.

You’ll complete the full MD curriculum as outlined below and add an extra year of study at UCLA. The Fielding School has five academic departments, which define the areas you can focus on:

• Biostatistics
• Community Health Sciences
• Environmental Health Sciences
• Epidemiology
• Health Policy and Management

You can learn more about these areas on the UCLA website.

Doctor of Medicine / Master of Health Administration

The Doctor of Medicine / Master of Health Administration dual degree is offered through KPSOM’s partnership with the University of Southern California (USC) Sol Price School of Public Policy. In addition to the MD curriculum, you’ll spend a year at USC completing the MHA. The program covers healthcare management and policy related to:

• Technology
• Behavioral science
• Economics
• Healthcare law
• Finance

It is designed for doctors who want to become leaders within hospitals, health plans, medical practices and community health organizations. If you want to practice medicine and hold a leadership role, an MD/MHA might be a strong fit.

Doctor of Medicine / Master of Business Administration

KPSOM students can also apply to the Full-Time MBA program at the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, which is taught on Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. Pepperdine’s program offers personalized career coaching, global learning opportunities and a small professional network. An MD/MBA fits students interested in the business side of healthcare, such as running clinical operations, health plans or healthcare companies.

Doctor of Medicine / Healthcare Systems Engineering

KPSOM’s current list of additional degrees includes Caltech, UCLA, USC and Pepperdine. A Master of Healthcare Systems Engineering with Loyola Marymount University, which covers Lean methods, project management, systems engineering for patient safety, integrated healthcare, healthcare technology and population health, is not on that list, so confirm with the school before planning around it. Students interested in systems improvement now have two strong routes: the MHA with USC and the Health Systems Science curriculum that every KPSOM student completes.

Curriculum Overview

The curriculum is called INSPIRE. Each letter stands for a value the curriculum is built on:

• Integration
• Nurturance
• Scholarship
• Population Health
• Innovation
• Resilience
• Equity

KPSOM’s curriculum is “built on the three pillars of Biomedical Science, Clinical Science, and Health Systems Science.” Instead of two years of basic science lectures followed by two clinical years, students study all three pillars across all four years. The curriculum uses a case-based, spiral approach: students return to key concepts several times, in more depth and more complex clinical settings each time. You can read the full outline on the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine website.

The Four Threads

Woven into all four years are four longitudinal threads:

• Advocacy and Leadership. Students learn their own leadership style, build collaborative skills and practice managing change.
• Inclusive Practice. Students learn to provide high-quality care for patients and communities across all backgrounds and to address factors that affect access and outcomes.
• Health Promotion. Students study prevention, nutrition, stress management and social connection, starting with their own well-being.
• Interprofessional Collaboration. Students learn and practice team-based care alongside other health professionals, including in simulation.

Year 1

• Early Immersive Experience. Medical school begins with an orientation block covering the school’s history and mission, the spiral case-based curriculum, introductions to the three pillars, professional identity formation, team-building and early clinical skills. For the class entering in 2027, it starts July 20, 2027.
• Integrated Sciences. Over the first two years, Integrated Sciences courses use patient cases that unfold over one to two weeks to combine biomedical, clinical and health systems content. Learning happens in small groups with faculty facilitators, plus simulation and lab sessions in anatomy, pathology and clinical reasoning. Students also have significant unstructured time for independent study.
• Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC). At the start of Year 1, each student begins a primary care clerkship in Family Medicine or Internal Medicine with a physician preceptor and the preceptor’s care team. Students care for a panel of patients one half day per week.
• Service-Learning. Students begin a required, monthly Service-Learning course at a federally qualified health center.
• REACH. REACH (Reflection, Education, Assessment, Coaching, and Health and well-being) weeks take place every quarter in one-week blocks and focus on personal and professional development, with a physician coach.

Year 2

Year 2 applies first-year skills to more complex patients and health systems. Students continue Integrated Sciences and the Family Medicine or Internal Medicine clerkship with the same preceptor and patients, so they may follow some patients for two years. They also complete longitudinal clerkships in the remaining core specialties:

• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine / Internal Medicine
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Surgery

The LIC model replaces traditional block rotations. Students learn core skills by following panels of patients over time and keeping one-on-one relationships with preceptors, seeing patients through diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Year 2 also includes five one-week Inpatient Immersion experiences, where students work with attending physicians and residents in the hospital.

Years 3 and 4

In Year 3, students begin directing advanced training toward their chosen specialty in a longitudinal immersion that runs through the final two years. Advanced clinical experiences include:

• Sub-internships or selectives in Advanced Medicine, Critical Care and the student’s chosen specialty, with intern-like responsibility under supervision
• A community medicine rotation outside Kaiser Permanente, such as a federally qualified health center, free clinic, street medicine program or a correctional health setting
• At least 16 weeks of clinical electives, chosen from more than 140 options

Year 4 begins the transition to residency with an individualized preparation program and ends with the Residency Immersive, a capstone course for concentrated practice in the student’s chosen specialty.

Assessment and Grading

All Phase 1 courses (Integrated Sciences, LIC and REACH) are pass/fail. In Phase 2, Integrated Sciences and REACH remain pass/fail, while the LIC is graded on a tiered basis. All Phase 3 clinical experiences are tiered, which gives residency program directors a way to see distinction in clinical skills. Each student works with a designated coach over four years. Students also take a longitudinal Progress OSCE: the same graduation-level cases once a year, so performance can be compared over time.

Scholarly Project

Every student completes a scholarly project in an area of personal interest, guided closely by a faculty member. Students who want to pursue publishable work have access to the Kaiser Permanente research enterprise. Research experience is common in the class: 100% of the Class of 2030 had research experience before matriculating.

Learning Spaces

Anatomy is taught through Anatomy Beyond Cadavers. In the Anatomy Resource Center, students learn in small groups with pre-dissected, plastinated specimens, augmented reality, digital 3D anatomy, virtual microscopy and ultrasound simulators. The 8,800-square-foot Simulation Center uses standardized patients, mannequins, part-task trainers and the electronic health record to practice interviews, exams, procedures and emergencies.

If you are interested in Spanish-language care, note that the community medicine program offers ¡KPasa!, an eight-week Spanish immersion course for students who serve in clinics with mostly Spanish-speaking patients. KPSOM also recommends coursework in a language other than English before you apply. Applicants building clinical Spanish sometimes choose a medical internship in Peru to practice with patients.

Admissions Requirements and Application Process

Does one of the programs offered at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine interest you enough to consider applying? Let’s look at what it takes to get in. All requirements below apply to the 2026-2027 cycle unless noted, and you can confirm each one on the KPSOM admission requirements page.

Who Can Apply

• Citizenship. KPSOM accepts applications only from U.S. citizens, permanent residents and DACA recipients. It cannot accept international students on student visas.
• Degree. You need a bachelor’s degree in any major from a regionally accredited college or university in the U.S. or Canada by spring of the year you matriculate. Online bachelor’s degrees are not considered.
• No transfers. Students who previously attended medical school or are transferring from another school are not eligible, because the integrated curriculum runs across all four years.
• Other degree programs. Students enrolled in another degree program may apply only if they will finish that degree before enrolling.

Required Coursework

To be considered for admission, you must complete the following courses before you begin medical school. You can apply with courses still in progress.

• Behavioral or social science (one-half academic year: one quarter or one semester), for example:
• Anthropology
• Economics
• Ethnic Studies
• Psychology
• Sociology
• General biology with lab (one academic year)
• General or inorganic chemistry, or equivalent, with lab (one academic year: three quarters or two semesters)
• General physics with lab (one academic year)
• Humanities (one-half academic year), for example:
• Art
• English
• History
• Literature
• Philosophy

While the following courses aren’t required, they are recommended:

• Organic chemistry and biochemistry
• Calculus
• Statistics
• Population health, epidemiology or another public health course
• A language other than English (for example, Spanish, Mandarin or American Sign Language)

AP credit counts if your college awarded credit toward graduation and it appears on your official transcript. Online lecture courses are accepted for biology, chemistry and physics, but the associated labs must be taken on-site. Community college courses are considered, and 24% of the Class of 2030 had completed community college coursework. If you are still early in your pre-med coursework and want a broader look at what to know before getting into medical school, we have a guide that covers the fundamentals.

MCAT Scores

KPSOM considers MCAT scores no older than three years before the year you plan to matriculate. For the 2026-2027 cycle, you must take the MCAT no later than September 2026, and the oldest score considered is from July 2024. Scores from outside that window are not accepted. There is no minimum MCAT score, because the admissions committee weighs scores in the context of your experiences and qualities.

Plan your MCAT timeline accordingly, especially if you are applying to other schools with different score windows. Testing by early summer lets your score reach schools while your application is fresh. For help choosing a target, see our guide on what MCAT score you need.

AAMC PREview Professional Readiness Exam

KPSOM requires the Association of American Medical Colleges Professional Readiness Exam (AAMC PREview) for regular MD and MD-PhD applicants. Your PREview score is due November 1, 2026, and your application is not complete without it. There is no minimum score, and PREview scores do not expire.

The PREview exam is a situational judgment test. It asks how you would respond to realistic scenarios and assesses pre-professional competencies such as service orientation, social skills, cultural competence, teamwork, ethical responsibility, reliability, resilience and capacity for improvement. It is not an academic knowledge test, so it is different in format and purpose from the MCAT. Test dates fill up, so register early and take it well before the November 1 deadline.

Clinical Experience, Shadowing and Research

KPSOM does not publish minimum hours for clinical work, shadowing, service or research. Its class profile shows what admitted students bring: the Class of 2030 averaged 136 shadowing hours, and every member had research experience. These are averages for admitted students, not requirements, but they show the level of preparation in the pool.

The school’s emphasis on patient care from the first weeks of medical school makes direct clinical experience especially useful. Paid roles such as medical assistant, scribe, EMT or patient care technician, hospital and free clinic volunteering, and structured internships for pre-med students all count when you can describe what you did with patients and what you learned. If you will be planning around school terms, pre-med summer internships are one way to add focused clinical hours before you apply.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters are submitted through AMCAS. You can send either:

• One committee letter that combines comments from several recommenders, written by a pre-health committee or advisor, or
• Three to six individual letters from professionals who know your academic performance and personal attributes.

KPSOM asks letter writers to address one or more of the following: collaborative teamwork, communication, creativity and resourcefulness, critical thinking and problem-solving, leadership potential, integrity, intellectual curiosity, passion for medicine and healthcare, persistence and resilience, reliability and accountability, responsiveness to feedback, and self-awareness. Share this list with your writers, and ask each one to focus on the qualities they have actually seen.

Primary and Secondary Applications

If you’re ready to apply to KPSOM, you’ll need to complete your primary and secondary applications. You’ll submit your primary application through AMCAS, the application service run by the Association of American Medical Colleges. AMCAS opens in early May, and KPSOM’s primary deadline is October 1, 2026.

Once KPSOM receives your primary application, all eligible applicants are invited to complete the secondary application by email. Eligible means you have completed AMCAS and submitted an MCAT score. There is no screen before secondaries. In 2026, invitations began going out at the end of June. The secondary is due November 1, 2026, and the school states plainly that you may not submit after the deadline.

Secondary fee. The secondary application fee is $75 for the 2026-2027 cycle, and fee waivers are available. If you qualify for the AAMC Fee Assistance Program, check the portal for how your waiver applies before you pay.

Status portal. After you are invited, you get access to an online portal where you can track the status of your application.

Updates. KPSOM accepts application updates only from candidates who have been invited to interview.

The four essays and the scholarship question take real time to write well, so prepare your secondary materials in advance and submit them promptly. The next sections cover the secondary essay questions, with sample responses, and then the interview.

Admissions Decisions, Deposit and Commitment

• Rolling offers. Offers are made on a rolling basis from October 2026 until the class is filled. Offers depend on final transcripts and a satisfactory criminal background check.
• Deposit. A $100 deposit holds your seat. It is refundable if you tell the school you will not attend before May 1, 2027, and it is applied to tuition if you enroll.
• Holding seats. Admitted students may hold a seat at KPSOM and one other school until May 30, 2027.
• Commit to Enroll. The AAMC Commit to Enroll option opens April 30, 2027. By May 30, 2027, you must drop all waitlist offers, select Commit to Enroll and send a brief letter of intent to the Office of Admissions. Offers may be rescinded if you do not.
• Late offers. For offers made after May 1, 2027, you have up to five business days to respond, or two business days for offers made within 30 days of the July 20, 2027 start.
• Deferral. KPSOM expects students to matriculate with the class they are admitted to, but it will consider extenuating circumstances.
• Appeals. Admissions decisions are final, and there is no appeals process.

Application Timeline at a Glance (2026-2027 Cycle)

Here are the key dates to keep in mind:

The full schedule, with a downloadable checklist, is on the KPSOM application timeline.

Tuition, Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid

Now that we’ve covered the programs and requirements, let’s look at the cost picture. This is the area that has changed most for KPSOM applicants.

The Tuition Waiver Has Ended for New Students

KPSOM originally waived tuition for its first five entering classes. That commitment was later extended to the first seven classes, the students who enrolled from fall 2020 through 2026, with support from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. Those students have tuition waived for all four years. The 2019 announcement of free tuition made national news, including a report in The New York Times.

On July 9, 2026, KPSOM announced a new financial model (see the school’s tuition strategy announcement). The class entering in 2027, which is the class you are applying to this cycle, is the first class that will pay tuition. In place of the universal waiver, the school is offering the KPSOM Impact Scholarship plus need-based institutional aid.

The waiver shows in graduate debt. For the 2024-2025 academic year, average medical school debt for KPSOM graduates was $7,547, and 100% of students received financial aid. Expect a different picture for the class entering in 2027, which pays tuition.

If you see KPSOM listed as tuition-free on older websites or in a list of tuition-free medical schools, remember that the waiver applies only to students who enrolled through 2026.

Cost of Attendance, 2027/2028

These are KPSOM’s estimated costs for Phase 1 (Year 1) in the 2027/2028 academic year. Because KPSOM is a private school, there is no in-state or out-of-state difference.

A few points help put these numbers in context:

• Tuition and cost of attendance are different numbers. Tuition is $69,212. The total of $113,232 adds living, transportation and personal costs. Even a full-tuition award would leave about $44,000 in estimated Year 1 living and other costs, unless an award covers the full cost of attendance.
• Health coverage is included at no cost. The school provides health and disability insurance at no cost to students, valued at $6,534.
• Later years are not yet published. Only the Phase 1, 2027/2028 budget is posted. Tuition and cost of attendance are updated every year, so expect later years to be set closer to the time. Do not multiply Year 1 by four and treat it as exact.
• Housing is your responsibility. Students find their own housing in Pasadena or nearby areas. The school helps students identify options and connect with classmates. Clinical sites are spread across greater Los Angeles, and the transportation budget reflects that.

For comparison with other schools’ costs, the AAMC publishes national tuition and student fees reports each year.

The KPSOM Impact Scholarship

The KPSOM Impact Scholarship is the first part of the school’s new student financial support strategy. Here is what is known:

• What it covers. Full cost-of-attendance support for all four years of medical school.
• Who gets it. Selected students in each entering class, beginning with the entering class of 2027.
• What it rewards. Academic excellence, resilience, leadership and a sustained commitment to improving health outcomes and strengthening communities.
• How to apply. You self-nominate on the secondary application by answering yes and describing which parts of your application best show your alignment with KPSOM’s mission. The full prompt, an example and analysis are in the secondary section below.
• What is not published. The number of scholarships per class and the selection timeline have not been announced.

The school describes the Impact Scholarship as part of a broader framework that will include need- and merit-based grants and support, so that students can focus on becoming physicians “without the burden of overwhelming educational debt.” For questions, the school names Vanessa Riggins, Director of Admissions, as the contact for scholarship opportunities and Nicole Lee, Senior Financial Aid Officer, for financial aid.

A Critical Note About Financial Aid at KPSOM

This is important and often misunderstood. KPSOM’s application to the U.S. Department of Education for federal student aid (Title IV) is still pending. As a result, the school does not have a federal school code and does not currently use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You cannot access federal student loans through KPSOM the way you would at most other medical schools. The school is an eligible institution, though, which means students can defer existing federal student loan balances through an in-school deferment process.

When federal aid becomes available, medical students will be eligible only for Direct Unsubsidized Loans, with an annual limit of $50,000.

Here is how aid works now:

• Need-based, debt-free institutional aid. KPSOM offers grants to students with demonstrated financial need. Eligibility is set through the CSS Profile, which you complete once, with the first assessment valid for all four years. The CSS Profile deadline is June 1. Parent information is required for institutional aid, but a calculated parent contribution is not a bill. Students whose parents cannot or will not help, or for whom contact would cause hardship or safety concerns, can request a special circumstance review.
• External scholarships. The school points students to the AMA Foundation, the AAMC, National Medical Fellowships and other scholarship sources.
• Service obligation scholarships. Programs such as the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program cover tuition in exchange for a required period of service after training.
• Private loans. Students may choose any private lender. KPSOM does not keep a preferred lender list.
• DACA students. DACA recipients are not eligible for federal loans but may qualify for need-based institutional aid after a CSS Profile review.
• Veterans. KPSOM has not yet been approved to accept Veterans benefits.

If you are comparing KPSOM to other medical schools and factoring in financial aid, this is a significant distinction. Students paying tuition from 2027 onward should not assume federal loans will be in place. You should look into privately funded grants and scholarships for medical school, which can help with tuition and living expenses. The full aid details are on the KPSOM tuition and financial aid page.

Campus Facilities and Student Life

The Medical Education Building

All four years are anchored in KPSOM’s Medical Education Building in downtown Pasadena. It was designed for team-based learning, with open study areas, collaboration boards, web conferencing and augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D tools. It also has a yoga studio, meditation spaces, a fitness center, a teaching kitchen and a cafeteria. The Anatomy Resource Center and the Simulation Center are in the same building.

Living in Pasadena

Pasadena is a city of more than 140,000 people, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles and 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean. It is home to Caltech, ArtCenter College of Design and Pasadena City College, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Huntington Library nearby. Old Pasadena’s shopping and dining district, the Rose Bowl, foothill trails and a walkable, bike-friendly downtown make it a pleasant place to study. Housing in Pasadena and the surrounding area is expensive, and students arrange their own housing, so build your budget early.

Student Support

KPSOM puts a high priority on well-being and resilience. Key supports include:

• A learning specialist assigned during the Early Immersive Experience who works with you through all four years, including board exam preparation
• A REACH physician coach who helps you set goals, reflect on experiences and form your professional identity
• Student Psychological Services for mental health support
• Tutoring, disability support and career advising
• Fitness and well-being spaces in the building, with fitness centers at clinical sites for third- and fourth-year students

Student Organizations and Learning Communities

Every student is assigned to a Learning Community when they enter. These communities run social and academic events, a peer mentoring program and friendly competitions. All students are members of the Student Council, which has four committees: Admissions Ambassadors, Class Board, Honor Council and Student Curricular Board.

Student organizations fall into three groups, and all are open to all students:

• Community-based: Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, First Gen Medical Student Association, Latino Medical Student Association, Medical Student Pride Alliance, Student National Medical Association and Women in Medicine
• Interest-based: groups including Global Health, Healthcare Innovation and Improvement, Incarceration and Health Justice, Integrative Medicine, KP in the Kitchen, Medical Humanities, Point of Care Ultrasound and the Student-Run Clinic
• Specialty-based: groups for fields from anesthesiology and emergency medicine to psychiatry and surgery

The school also runs a culinary medicine elective, launched in 2024, that combines nutrition science with hands-on cooking instruction.

Service in the Community

Serving the community is a foundational value at KPSOM. In the required Service-Learning course, taught through the Department of Health Systems Science, students are assigned to a federally qualified health center for their first two years and meet monthly. Partner centers include AltaMed (Santa Ana), JWCH Center for Community Health (Los Angeles and Downey), ParkTree Community Health Center (Ontario), South Bay Family Health Care and Venice Family Clinic, UMMA Health (Los Angeles) and Valley Community Healthcare (North Hollywood). The curriculum is co-designed with community partners, and students complete longitudinal practicum projects. Past projects ranged from improving preventive screening rates to art-based healing in Los Angeles’s Skid Row neighborhood. Students present their work at an annual symposium. Read more on the KPSOM Service-Learning page.

Clinical Rotations and Research Opportunities

Where Students Train

KPSOM students start seeing patients in the first weeks of medical school. During the first two years, each student completes the LIC at one of seven Kaiser Permanente medical centers in greater Los Angeles:

• Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center (Downey)
• Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (Los Angeles)
• Kaiser Permanente Orange County Medical Center (Anaheim)
• Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center (Panorama City)
• Kaiser Permanente San Bernardino County Medical Center (Fontana)
• Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center (Harbor City)
• Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center (Los Angeles)

In Years 3 and 4, students can train at additional Southern California sites and in Kaiser Permanente regions across the country. Most selectives and electives take place at Kaiser Permanente residency and fellowship teaching sites, and affiliated electives are available at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, USC Keck School of Medicine and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Because sites are spread from the San Fernando Valley to Orange County and the Inland Empire, plan for commuting by car. See the full list on the KPSOM clinical training sites page.

Community Medicine Outside Kaiser Permanente

Every student completes a required community medicine rotation outside the Kaiser Permanente system. Sites include federally qualified health centers, free clinics such as the Free Clinic of Simi Valley and Lestonnac Free Clinic, street medicine providers such as Healthcare in Action, and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. These rotations expose students to different patient populations and care models than the LIC sites.

Shadowing and Career Advising

More than 250 Kaiser Permanente physicians take part in the KPSOM Student Shadowing Program, which lets students spend a day with physicians in different specialties at the LIC sites. Students also have access to Specialty Career Interest Groups, individual advising and the AAMC Careers in Medicine program.

Research

Research at KPSOM is built into the curriculum through the required scholarly project, supervised by faculty. Students who want more can work with the Kaiser Permanente research enterprise and with researchers in the Clinical Science and Health Systems Science departments. The school’s research is led by Jonathan A. Finkelstein, MD, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship. MD-PhD students do their doctoral research at Caltech.

Match Results

These early match results are a strong signal for prospective applicants. They show that KPSOM graduates are competitive for residency positions at well-regarded programs across the country. If you are concerned about whether a newer school can prepare you for the Match, these outcomes offer concrete evidence.

Class of 2026. KPSOM held its third commencement on May 11, 2026, when 36 graduates received the MD. On the school’s 2026 Match Results page:

• 100% of students graduating in 2026 matched
• 54% matched in California
• 14% matched with Kaiser Permanente
• The top specialties were Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine

Specialties matched included anesthesiology, diagnostic radiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, pediatrics, plastic surgery and psychiatry. Programs ranged from Harbor-UCLA, Stanford Health Care, UCSF and UC San Diego in California to Mass General Brigham, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern, NYU Grossman and Vanderbilt.

Class of 2025. The Class of 2025 had 48 graduates and a 100% residency match rate. Half of the class (50%) stayed in California, and 8% matched to a Kaiser Permanente residency program for all or part of their training. The institutions with the most KPSOM matches were the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, UC Davis Medical Center and UC San Diego Medical Center. Internal Medicine (21%), Family Medicine (8%), Obstetrics and Gynecology (8%) and Pediatrics (8%) were the top specialties, and 38% of the class matched into primary care specialties. Internal medicine was also the most common specialty intention reported by the Class of 2025 at graduation, named by 23.8% of responding graduates.

Notable Alumni, Faculty, Leadership and Admissions Staff

KPSOM is new, and its first graduates finished medical school in 2024, so its alumni are still residents. The people below are drawn from official KPSOM biographies and news. Titles were checked on October 17, 2026.

School Leadership

John L. Dalrymple, MD, Dean and CEO. Dr. Dalrymple became dean and CEO in mid-2024. He came from Harvard Medical School, where he was Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education, overseeing the Office of Medical Education, and held the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professorship of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology and Medical Education. He trained in obstetrics and gynecology and in gynecologic oncology, earned his MD at Harvard Medical School, and has held teaching and leadership roles at UC Davis, McGovern Medical School and Dell Medical School. He helped shape Harvard’s Pathways curriculum, especially student assessment and clinical skills education, and he is serving as president of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. For applicants, his record signals a focus on assessment and clinical skills, the same emphasis you see in KPSOM’s coaching and Progress OSCE.

Carla Lupi, MD, FACOG, Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education. Dr. Lupi leads KPSOM’s medical education program. An obstetrician-gynecologist, she has practiced in private practice, public health and academic settings and was Assistant Dean for Learning and Teaching at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. Her scholarship covers instruction and assessment in diagnostic reasoning, communication, ethical reasoning and evidence-based medicine. She took part in the AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities pilot. Her work explains why assessment sits at the center of the KPSOM curriculum.

Anne M. Eacker, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Dr. Eacker oversees student support. Before KPSOM, she was Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 2013 to 2018, where she oversaw student support for the five-state WWAMI program and co-chaired the Learning Environment Committee. She is a general internist and has served on several National Board of Medical Examiners committees. Her office runs the support system described in the student life section.

Jonathan A. Finkelstein, MD, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship. Dr. Finkelstein is a pediatric health services researcher whose work, funded by the NIH, CDC and AHRQ, links clinical care quality with population health. He was previously Senior Vice President for Safety and Quality and Chief Patient Safety and Quality Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. He oversees research and the scholarly project, so his office is the place to look if you want to see what KPSOM students study.

Mark A. Schuster, MD, PhD, Founding Dean and CEO. Dr. Schuster was hired as KPSOM’s founding dean in 2017. He assembled the school’s first senior leadership team, guided it through accreditation and opened it to its first class of 50 students in 2020. The curriculum, mission and early culture that applicants see today were built under his leadership.

Admissions Leadership and Staff

Lindia J. Willies-Jacobo, MD, FAAP, Senior Associate Dean for Admissions and Senior Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence. Dr. Willies-Jacobo leads KPSOM’s admissions process “from initial outreach to matriculation” and welcomes applicants on interview day. She came from UC San Diego School of Medicine, where she was Professor of Pediatrics and, for about ten years, director of the Program in Medical Education-Health Equity (PRIME-HEq) and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Community Partnerships. She is a subject matter expert for the AAMC situational judgment test content and scoring review process, which is relevant because KPSOM requires the PREview situational judgment exam. Her background in health equity and community partnerships matches the themes in the secondary essays.

Vanessa Riggins, MSOD, Director of Admissions. Ms. Riggins leads admissions operations and is the school’s named contact for Impact Scholarship information. She was previously Executive Director of Enrollment Management at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and spent more than six years in admissions and recruitment at Western University of Health Sciences. She holds a Master of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine and a bachelor’s degree from UC Riverside. The admissions team also includes an interview coordinator and recruitment and operations specialists, listed on the Office of Admissions page.

Faculty

Paul J. Chung, MD, MS, Chair of Health Systems Science. As founding chair of Health Systems Science, Dr. Chung leads the four-year curriculum in patient safety, quality, and community and population health, and the school’s health services research. A pediatrician, he is an adjunct professor at UCLA and a past president of the Academic Pediatric Association. His research covers primary care for medically and socially complex children and childhood factors that shape adult health. Applicants writing about systems or social drivers of health are writing directly to his field.

Brian Roehmholdt, MD, MD-PhD Program Director. Dr. Roehmholdt directs the MD-PhD program with Caltech and is the contact for regular MD students who want to be considered for a transfer into the MD-PhD track.

Linda W. Shiue, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Clinical Science. Dr. Shiue helped develop and teaches KPSOM’s culinary medicine elective, launched in 2024. In October 2026 the American Medical Association named her one of “10 women physicians making their mark on medicine.” She is a professionally trained chef, directs culinary and lifestyle medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, and leads Thrive Kitchen for Kaiser Permanente members. Her work shows how the Health Promotion thread turns into real courses.

Quyen Ngo-Metzger, MD, MPH, Professor of Health Systems Science. Dr. Ngo-Metzger was named to the AcademyHealth 2027 Board of Directors, with a three-year term beginning in December 2026. AcademyHealth is a national organization for health services research and health policy. Her appointment reflects the school’s growing role in health systems science research.

Alumni

KPSOM’s earliest graduates are now in residency. The school has highlighted several of them:

Tanya Watarastaporn, MD (Class of 2026). Dr. Watarastaporn was the student commencement speaker for the Class of 2026. She described herself as a first-generation college student and first-generation physician and thanked the school for making medical education accessible.

Jesus Fuentes, MD (Class of 2025). Dr. Fuentes matched into neurology at UC Davis. A first-generation college graduate and the son of Mexican immigrants, he credited his KPSOM family medicine preceptor, his Service-Learning lead and his REACH coach as mentors.

Jacob Abrahams, MD (Class of 2025). Dr. Abrahams matched at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He described completing a large research project at KPSOM that led to his first first-author publication, with mentorship from the school’s faculty director of research.

As the school’s graduates finish residency, more alumni profiles will become available. For now, the match results are the clearest public evidence of where KPSOM graduates go.

Admissions Statistics and Class Profile

KPSOM is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Each entering cohort has 48 to 50 students. Here is what the school publishes about the Class of 2030, the class that entered in 2026 (see the KPSOM Our Students page).

The school’s class profile does not include interview counts, accepted-applicant scores or a breakdown by residency at each stage. Those figures are available for the 2025 entering class (the Class of 2029):

What the Numbers Mean

There is no published acceptance rate. The number of offers is not published. For the 2025 entering class, 729 of 6,596 verified applicants were interviewed, about 11%, and 49 enrolled. With 50 seats and 6,756 primary applications in the 2025-2026 cycle, the class is very small compared with the pool, but the number of offers is higher than the number of seats because some admitted students choose other schools. A matriculant count divided by applications is not an acceptance rate.

Out-of-state applicants do get interviews. In the 2025 entering class, out-of-state applicants made up about 40% of verified applications and received 283 of 729 interviews, a similar share. In-state applicants were more likely to enroll: 35 of the 49 matriculants were California residents. Enrollment also depends on where admitted students choose to go, so the matriculant split is not an offer split.

The academic bar is high. For the most recent entering class, the median total GPA was 3.86 and the median MCAT was 515. Among all accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class, the medians were 3.87 and 517, and the CARS median of 128 was the lowest section median. No minimum GPA or MCAT score is required at KPSOM. But with this level of competition, the admissions committee is likely to see many applicants whose academic profiles fall within or above these figures. If your MCAT score or GPA is well below them, that does not automatically disqualify you, but the rest of your application will need to be exceptionally strong.

The class is not only Californian. 64% of the Class of 2030 were California residents. The other 18 students came from 14 states: Texas (3), Washington (2), Pennsylvania (2), and Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina (1 each). The school states that it gives no preference to California residents.

Many students took time before medical school. The average age at admission was 24. Some students completed graduate or postbaccalaureate coursework, and nearly a quarter had community college coursework. Reapplicants made up 12% of the class, so a previous application is not a barrier.

Where students studied. The top ten undergraduate schools for the class were UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, USC, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University. Common majors were biology, human biology, psychology, public health and sociology. Social science and public health majors are well represented, which fits a curriculum built around health systems and population health.

Experience is substantial. Average shadowing was 136 hours, and every student had research experience. In the 2025 entering class, 88% reported clinical volunteering and 71% reported paid clinical work, so direct patient contact is the norm, not the exception. If you are building hours now, clinical internships for pre-med students and local clinical jobs give you patient contact that shadowing alone cannot.

How Your GPA Fits the Picture

With a median GPA of 3.86 for enrolled students, KPSOM is clearly drawing high-performing applicants. If your GPA falls below this range, that does not mean you should avoid applying, but you should think carefully about how the rest of your application compensates. Strong MCAT scores, meaningful clinical exposure, compelling essays and thoughtful letters of recommendation all matter. If you have a lower GPA and want to understand your options, our guide on turning a lower GPA into a medical school acceptance covers practical strategies.

It is also worth noting that KPSOM values mission alignment. The school’s emphasis on health systems science, equity, population health and leadership means that applicants who can show real engagement with these areas may stand out even if their numbers are slightly below the median. That said, the volume of applications compared with available seats means academic metrics still carry significant weight.

Tips and Strategies for Admission

Getting into KPSOM takes strong academics, but the deciding factors are usually the experiences behind the numbers and how clearly you connect them to the school’s mission. These strategies come from what KPSOM publishes about its curriculum, admissions philosophy and secondary questions.

1. Decide whether KPSOM belongs on your list

Before you spend time on four essays and a scholarship response, confirm that KPSOM fits. It is a good match if you want early, longitudinal patient care, a small class, a strong health systems focus and training inside a large integrated system in Southern California. It may be a weaker match if you want a large research university campus, a traditional block-rotation structure or a guaranteed tuition-free education. With a class of 50, KPSOM should be one school on a balanced list, not your only plan. Our guide on whether you should apply to the hardest medical schools to get into can help you think through how many reach schools to include.

2. Build clinical experience you can describe in detail

KPSOM students care for real patients within weeks of starting school. Your application is stronger when it shows you already understand what patient care involves. Paid clinical roles, free clinic work and supervised pre-med internships that let you take vitals, do intake and help care teams give you concrete stories for the secondary and interview. Depth matters more than a long list. One role held for a year, where you can describe specific patients and what changed in you, is worth more than many short ones.

3. Show systems thinking with evidence

Health Systems Science is one of three pillars of the curriculum, and Essay 2 asks about leading change through inquiry and innovation. The strongest evidence is a time you noticed a problem in how care or a service was delivered, collected information, and worked with others to change it. Numbers help, even small ones. Be honest about limits. A modest project you can explain well is more convincing than a big claim.

4. Write about community from inside it

Essay 4 asks you to draw on lived experience with the social drivers of health. That does not require hardship. It requires that you have noticed how factors such as housing, work, transportation, food, language, environment and insurance affected people you know or served, and that you have done something with that knowledge. Sustained work with community organizations, federally qualified health centers or advocacy groups gives you material KPSOM’s Service-Learning course builds on.

5. Treat PREview as a real requirement

Many schools do not require PREview, so it is easy to leave it late. At KPSOM, your application is not complete without a PREview score by November 1, 2026. Take a practice exam, learn the format and test early in the cycle.

6. Plan your letters around KPSOM’s list

KPSOM tells letter writers what it wants to hear about, including teamwork, resilience, responsiveness to feedback and self-awareness. Give each writer the list and a short summary of your work with them. A clinical supervisor who can speak to how you handle feedback is especially useful, because Essay 3 also asks about openness to feedback.

7. Prepare your scholarship self-nomination as carefully as an essay

The Impact Scholarship covers the full cost of attendance for selected students. Self-nomination is optional, but if you need financial support and your record fits the mission, it is worth answering. Point to specific parts of your application, not general qualities.

8. Use a gap year with purpose

The average age at admission is 24, and 12% of the Class of 2030 were reapplicants. Time between college and medical school is normal at KPSOM. If you need more clinical depth, structured pre-med gap year programs, full-time clinical jobs and research positions all help, as long as you can explain what you learned.

9. Submit early and completely

AMCAS opens in early May, secondaries go out from late June, and offers are made on a rolling basis from October. Interviews start in September. Submitting AMCAS early and returning a polished secondary within a few weeks of the invitation keeps your file moving while interview slots are open. Do not wait for the November 1 deadline.

Secondary Application Questions, Example Responses and Analysis

For the 2026-2027 cycle, KPSOM’s secondary application has four required essays, one optional reapplicant essay and a new optional self-nomination question for the KPSOM Impact Scholarship. MD-PhD applicants answer two more questions. Every essay is limited to 250 words. KPSOM does not post its questions publicly; they appear in the secondary portal after your invitation. The wording below is the 2026-2027 wording. Follow the wording and limits shown in your own portal. For a wider collection of schools’ questions, see our medical school secondary essay prompts database.

Conducting physical examinations and diagnosing and treating patients comes with challenges you will face every day. KPSOM’s questions are short, but each one tests a different part of the physician its mission describes: someone who learns from failure, leads through inquiry, keeps learning and works with communities.

The examples below are original teaching examples written for this guide. Each is labeled Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay. Do not copy them. Use them to see how a response can answer every part of a question within the limit, then write your own from your own experiences.

Question 1: A Situation With an Unfavorable Outcome (required, 250 words)

“During your career as a physician, you will likely encounter obstacles, and be required to overcome challenges. Please describe your experience with a situation that had an unfavorable outcome, including your reaction, how you might have responded differently, and what you learned about yourself. Write your response to the prompt above in 250 words or less.”

Limit: 250 words. Who answers: all MD and MD-PhD applicants.

What it asks. This is a classic adversity prompt with four required parts: the situation and its unfavorable outcome, your reaction, what you might have done differently and what you learned about yourself. It’s okay to acknowledge where you went wrong, because that is what the question is asking. Just pick a story that is honest without being one you cannot discuss calmly in an interview.

Approach. Choose a situation where the outcome really was unfavorable and where your own choices played a part. Spend about a third of your words on the situation, then give equal space to your reaction, the alternative and the lesson. Make the lesson about yourself, not about other people or a general rule. If you can, show that you applied the lesson later.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (245 words)

In my second year of college, I coordinated a free blood pressure screening at a church health fair. One man, a bus driver in his fifties, had a reading of 182 over 110. Our protocol said to hand him a referral sheet listing two nearby clinics, and that is what I did. He folded it into his jacket, said he felt fine and left before our volunteer nurse finished with another person.

I called the number he gave us three times over the next week. It was disconnected. I never learned what happened to him.

My first reaction was to blame the form. I rewrote the referral sheet and added a map. Looking back, that was the easy fix. The harder truth is that I saw a dangerous number, followed the script and let a person walk away because interrupting the nurse felt awkward. I should have asked him to sit for five minutes, walked him to her myself and helped him call a clinic before he left.

At the next fair, we changed the process: any reading above 180 over 110 meant a warm handoff to the nurse before the person could leave, and a volunteer stayed with them. That year, two people went straight to urgent care.

I learned that I am good at fixing systems after something goes wrong, and less comfortable speaking up in the moment. I now treat that discomfort as a signal to act, not a reason to wait.

Analysis. The response answers all four parts in order. The situation is specific and clinical without claiming more than a student volunteer does: a dangerous blood pressure reading, a scripted referral and a patient who left. The unfavorable outcome is real and unresolved, which makes the essay honest rather than tidy. The reaction paragraph admits a first, defensive response (blaming the form) before the deeper one, which shows reflection. The alternative is concrete: ask the man to stay, walk him to the nurse and help him call a clinic. The lesson is about the writer (“less comfortable speaking up in the moment”), and the change at the next fair shows the lesson turned into action. This links naturally to KPSOM’s interest in resilience and responsiveness to feedback without naming the school.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Choosing a “failure” that is really a success, such as a B+ grade.
• Blaming teammates, professors or the system for the outcome.
• Skipping the “how you might have responded differently” part.
• Ending with a general lesson (“communication is important”) instead of something about yourself.
• Picking a story so painful or private that it dominates your interview.

Question 2: Mission and Values Alignment (required, 250 words)

“Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine is dedicated to graduating courageous leaders who lead change through inquiry and innovation in medical education, the profession, and the healthcare system. How do your values align with this mission? Write your response to the prompt above in 250 words or less.”

Limit: 250 words. Who answers: all MD and MD-PhD applicants.

What it asks. This question replaced an earlier diversity-focused prompt. It asks you to connect your personal values to KPSOM’s goal of graduating physician leaders who drive change through inquiry and innovation. It is not a question about listing your accomplishments. It is a question about what drives you and how that connects to what KPSOM is trying to build.

Approach. Name one or two values clearly in the first lines. Then tell one story that shows you acting on them, ideally where you asked a question, gathered evidence and helped change something. “Courageous” matters: show a moment where acting took some risk. End with a specific link to KPSOM, such as Health Systems Science or the scholarly project, and explain why it fits your way of working.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (236 words)

The value that has shaped my path most is curiosity paired with the courage to say what I see.

For two years I worked as a medical scribe at a community health center where about half our patients preferred Spanish or Vietnamese. I noticed that visits needing a phone interpreter often ran 20 minutes behind, and the doctors I worked with quietly shortened those conversations to catch up. Nobody had measured it, so I asked my supervisor if I could. Over six weeks I timed 140 visits. Interpreter connection alone averaged seven minutes.

Bringing those numbers to a staff meeting was uncomfortable. But the data helped the team try a simple change: front desk staff now request the interpreter at check-in instead of after the doctor enters. Waits fell to about two minutes. More important to me, patients who spoke Vietnamese stopped getting the shortest visits of the day.

That experience taught me that inquiry is how leadership starts for someone without a title. You ask a question, collect honest evidence and bring it to the people who can act, even when it is awkward.

KPSOM’s mission to graduate courageous leaders who change the healthcare system through inquiry and innovation describes the physician I want to become. Health Systems Science taught across all four years, and a scholarly project guided by a faculty member, would give me the tools to ask larger questions with more rigor.

Analysis. The first sentence states the value and connects it to “courageous” and “inquiry” without repeating the prompt. The story shows inquiry in action: a pattern noticed, permission asked, data collected and a result measured. The courage is believable and specific: a scribe, with no authority, bringing uncomfortable numbers to a staff meeting. The outcome includes an equity point (patients who spoke Vietnamese were getting the shortest visits), which links to KPSOM’s Equity value without saying the word. The final paragraph quotes the mission’s key idea and names two verified parts of KPSOM training, Health Systems Science across four years and the faculty-guided scholarly project, as tools for the writer’s existing habits.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Repeating the mission statement back without evidence.
• Listing five values with no story.
• Describing leadership only as holding a title.
• Claiming results you cannot explain in an interview.
• Flattering the school instead of showing fit.

Question 3: Lifelong Learning and Intellectual Exploration (required, 250 words)

“Lifelong learning is an essential process for continued professional development. This includes reflection and being open and responsive to constructive feedback. Please tell us about an area of intellectual exploration you’re passionate about, and your approach to exploring this area. Write your response to the prompt above in 250 words or less.”

Limit: 250 words. Who answers: all MD and MD-PhD applicants.

What it asks. The question has two required parts: the area you are passionate about and your approach to exploring it. The setup sentences also tell you what KPSOM values in learners: reflection and openness to constructive feedback. A strong answer shows all three.

Approach. The topic does not have to be medical, but it should be something you have pursued over time and in more than one way. Describe your approach as a method (classes, practice, mentors, reading, projects), and include one moment where feedback changed how you learn. A brief link to the kind of physician you want to become is fine, but keep the focus on the learning.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (241 words)

My area of exploration is American Sign Language and the Deaf community that uses it.

It started with a patient. While volunteering at a hospital information desk, I watched a Deaf woman wait forty minutes for a video interpreter that kept freezing. She ended up writing notes to her nurse on the back of a discharge form. I realized I had never thought about how much of medicine depends on hearing.

I began with an introductory ASL course at my community college, then took two more levels. My real teacher has been Marisol, a Deaf tutor I meet weekly through a community center. Early on she stopped me mid-sentence and told me my signing was “correct but hearing.” I was translating English word by word instead of using space, facial expression and ASL grammar. It stung. I asked her to correct me every time.

I also read about Deaf history, including how Deaf patients describe being excluded from their own care. That reading changed my question from “How do I learn signs?” to “What does access really mean?”

My approach now has three parts: practice with fluent signers, invite correction and keep reading the perspectives of the people whose language I am borrowing. I am not fluent, and I know an interpreter remains the standard in clinical care. But I hope to be a physician who can greet a Deaf patient directly and who notices when the system leaves them out.

Analysis. The area is clear in the first line, and the origin story is short. The approach is described as a method with several parts: courses, a weekly tutor and reading about Deaf history. The essay’s strongest moment is the feedback (“correct but hearing”): the writer admits it stung, asks for more correction and changes how they learn, which answers the prompt’s emphasis on being “open and responsive to constructive feedback.” Reflection shows in the shift from “How do I learn signs?” to “What does access really mean?” The essay also stays accurate about the limits of a learner (an interpreter remains the standard in clinical care). American Sign Language is one of the languages KPSOM lists among its recommended courses, so the topic fits without forcing a link.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Picking a topic you have only read one book about.
• Describing the topic in detail but never explaining your approach.
• Leaving out feedback, even though the prompt mentions it.
• Turning the essay into a list of courses.
• Overstating your skill, such as claiming fluency you do not have.

Question 4: Social Drivers of Health and Community Health Advocacy (required, 250 words)

“Drawing from your lived experiences, how do you think knowledge of the social drivers of health can be leveraged to engage in community health advocacy? Write your response to the prompt above in 250 words or less.”

Limit: 250 words. Who answers: all MD and MD-PhD applicants. This question was reworded for 2026-2027. The prior cycle’s version asked about “social determinants of health” and “social justice issues within healthcare.” The current version focuses on community health advocacy.

What it asks. You need three things: lived experience with social drivers of health, your view of how that knowledge can be used, and the link to community health advocacy. “Lived experience” can be your own life, your family’s or sustained work in a community. The question asks how you think, so include a clear point of view.

Approach. Start with a specific experience where conditions outside the clinic shaped someone’s health. Name the drivers involved. Then show advocacy, ideally something you did with a community rather than for it. End with how you will use this knowledge as a physician, both with individual patients and at the community level, and connect it to KPSOM’s community-based training if it fits naturally.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (244 words)

I grew up in Fontana, a few blocks from a freeway lined with warehouses. Diesel trucks ran all night, and my younger brother’s asthma got worse every year. His inhaler was always running low because my mother, who cleaned offices on the night shift, could rarely reach the pharmacy before it closed. His doctor was kind, but each visit focused on the medicine, not on the air he breathed or our family’s schedule.

Those years taught me that social drivers of health are not abstract. Air quality, work hours, transportation and the cost of a refill all shaped my brother’s breathing as much as any prescription did.

This knowledge becomes advocacy when it moves from the exam room to the community. In college, I joined a neighborhood group that placed low-cost air sensors near two elementary schools. I translated our results into Spanish and helped present them at a city council meeting where residents asked for truck routes away from the schools. One route was changed. That small win showed me that data collected with a community, not about it, carries weight.

As a physician, I want to use the same approach. Asking about work schedules, housing and pharmacy access can change a care plan. Partnering with community groups can change the conditions that keep sending patients back. KPSOM’s Service-Learning course, which places students with federally qualified health centers and their community partners, would teach me to do this work with the community leading.

Analysis. The essay opens with lived experience and names several social drivers precisely: air quality, work hours, pharmacy access and cost. The writer’s thesis is clear: knowledge becomes advocacy when it moves from the exam room to the community. The evidence is advocacy done with a community (sensors, translation, a council meeting) with a modest, honest result. The final paragraph answers “how can it be leveraged” at two levels, the individual care plan and community partnerships. The KPSOM link is accurate: the required Service-Learning course places students at federally qualified health centers and is co-designed with community partners. The example uses Fontana, where one of KPSOM’s LIC sites is located, but the essay works because of the experience, not the location.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Defining social determinants of health like a textbook.
• Writing about a community you have no real connection to.
• Presenting yourself as the hero who fixed a community’s problems.
• Using the old prompt’s wording about social justice issues without answering the advocacy question.
• Leaving out what you think, which is the core of the question.

Question 5: Reapplicants (optional, 250 words)

“Optional: Have you previously applied to medical school? If yes, please describe your accomplishments since you last applied that would promote your acceptance? Write your response to the prompt above in 250 words or less.”

Limit: 250 words. Who answers: applicants who have applied to medical school before. If this is your first application, skip it. Reapplicants made up 12% of the Class of 2030.

What it asks. What have you accomplished since your last application that makes you a stronger candidate? KPSOM is not asking you to explain why you were rejected. It is asking for evidence of growth.

Approach. Briefly name the weakness in your last application, then spend most of your words on specific accomplishments that address it, with numbers where you have them. Show what you learned, not only what you did. A short connection to KPSOM training is useful but optional. Reapplicants who need more clinical depth often spend the year in full-time patient care, structured pre-health internships or research.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (248 words)

Yes. I applied in the 2025-2026 cycle and did not receive an interview. I asked two advisors to review my application, and both pointed to the same gap: my clinical experience was short and mostly shadowing.

Since then, I have worked full time as a medical assistant in a family medicine clinic in Riverside. I room about twenty patients a day, take vital signs, update medication lists and give patient education handouts that I helped translate into Spanish. Over 14 months I have logged more than 2,000 hours of direct patient contact. I also co-lead our clinic’s diabetes outreach calls, which reach patients who missed follow-up visits.

I also addressed my academics. I completed biochemistry and statistics through a postbaccalaureate program and earned A’s in both. I took the PREview exam early so that it would not compete with my secondary applications.

Last cycle, my personal statement described why I wanted to become a doctor. This cycle, I can describe what I do every day. I have learned how to calm a patient who is frightened by a high blood sugar reading, how to ask about cost before a medication change is made, and how much a clinic depends on its medical assistants. I am a stronger applicant because I now understand how primary care actually works.

KPSOM’s Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, which starts students in primary care with a preceptor in the first year, would let me build on the work I already know, with far more responsibility.

Analysis. The response answers “yes” and states the weakness in two sentences without complaint. Most of the essay is evidence: a full-time medical assistant role with specific tasks, more than 2,000 hours and a leadership role in outreach calls, followed by academic improvement in two recommended courses. The writer also shows planning by taking the PREview early. The paragraph contrasting “why” with “what I do every day” shows reflection, and the specific skills named (calming a frightened patient, asking about cost) show growth in judgment, not only hours. The final sentence connects to KPSOM’s primary care LIC in Year 1, which is accurate and fits the applicant’s experience.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Spending half the essay on why you were not admitted.
• Listing hours with no reflection.
• Blaming your previous application on bad luck.
• Repeating the same activities from last year with no change.
• Answering this question if you have not applied before.

Question 6: KPSOM Impact Scholarship Self-Nomination (optional, no word limit set)

“The Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM) Impact Scholarship is a mission-driven, full cost of attendance scholarship created to recognize and support exceptional applicants whose values and experiences reflect the school’s commitment to excellence, community engagement, innovation, advocacy, and leadership. The scholarship honors students who demonstrate excellence, resilience, and a deep dedication to improving healthcare systems and community well-being. The Impact Scholarship represents an investment in the next generation of physician leaders, empowering students to thrive while preparing them to lead meaningful changes in medicine. Please Select Yes of No if you would like to self-nominate for the KPSOM Scholarship? Which components of your application best demonstrate your alignment with KPSOM’s mission?”

(The prompt is reproduced as it appears, including “Yes of No.”)

Limit: No word limit is set. A short list of components or a brief essay both work. Who answers: any applicant who wants to be considered for the Impact Scholarship. Answer “No” if you do not want to be considered.

What it asks. If you select yes, you must point to the specific components of your application that best show alignment with KPSOM’s mission. The introduction tells you what the committee values: excellence, community engagement, innovation, advocacy, leadership, resilience and dedication to improving healthcare systems and community well-being.

Approach. Even without a limit, keep it focused. About 200 to 300 words is enough for two to four components. Name each component exactly (an activity title, an essay, a letter) so a reader can find it, and say in one or two sentences what it shows. Tie the components together with a short statement of the physician you want to become. Do not introduce brand-new material that is not elsewhere in your application.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (219 words)

Yes. Three parts of my application best show my alignment with KPSOM’s mission.

First, my most meaningful activity: two years as a medical scribe at a community health center, where I measured interpreter delays and helped the team change its check-in process. It shows how I approach the health system: notice a problem, collect honest evidence and work with others to improve it. This is the inquiry-driven leadership KPSOM’s mission describes.

Second, my essay on social drivers of health. My brother’s asthma and the freeway near our home in Fontana taught me how environment, work schedules and access shape health. My work with a neighborhood air-quality group shows community engagement and advocacy led by residents, not by me alone.

Third, my letter from the health center’s medical director, who supervised my project and can speak to my reliability, resilience and willingness to raise concerns as the least senior person in the room.

These experiences point to the physician I want to become: one who cares well for each patient and works with communities to change the conditions that bring them back. KPSOM’s integration of Health Systems Science across all four years and its service-learning partnerships are the training I need to do that work at a larger scale. I would be honored to be considered for the Impact Scholarship.

Analysis. The response answers yes in the first word, then names three components a reviewer can find: a specific activity, a specific essay and a specific letter. Each component is matched to values from the scholarship description: inquiry-driven leadership and innovation, community engagement and advocacy, and resilience and reliability. The writer avoids repeating the full stories, since those are elsewhere in the file. The closing paragraph states a career goal that matches the mission (individual care plus community change) and names two verified parts of KPSOM training. At about 220 words, it respects the reader’s time even though there is no limit.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Writing a vague essay about wanting to help people without naming components.
• Listing every activity in your AMCAS application.
• Introducing new experiences the committee cannot verify elsewhere.
• Focusing only on financial need. The scholarship description emphasizes mission alignment.
• Writing 1,000 words because there is no limit.

Questions 7 and 8: MD-PhD Program Questions (MD-PhD applicants only)

MD-PhD applicants answer two additional questions. These are factual lists, not essays, so this guide explains them and gives a format rather than a sample answer.

Question 7: Publications.

“Please list publications and papers submitted. Include one or two sentences describing your role on each publication.”

No limit is set. List each publication or submitted paper with full author list, title, venue and status (published, in press, under review or submitted), then one or two sentences on exactly what you did. Use this format:

Format for each entry (one line per item, newest first):
[Authors, with your name in bold], [Title], [Journal or venue], [Status: published, in press, under review or submitted, with month and year]. Role: [one or two sentences naming exactly what you did, such as designing the survey, running the assays, analyzing the data or drafting the methods section].
If you have no publications or submitted papers, write "None at this time" rather than listing posters or abstracts here, unless the portal instructions allow them.

Be precise about your role. “Ran the assays and contributed to the figures” is better than “helped with the project.” Do not inflate status: a paper in preparation is not “submitted.”

Question 8: Caltech faculty.

“Please provide the names of faculty at Caltech with whom you’d like to meet. Briefly state why you’d like to meet with this person: (Up to ten people)”

You may list up to ten people. For each, give a short reason that connects their current research to your own experience or questions. Use this format:

Format for each entry (up to ten):
[Faculty member's full name], [Caltech division or option]. Reason: [one or two sentences linking a specific, current line of their research to your own research experience or question, and what you would like to discuss].
Choose faculty whose current work you have read about on Caltech's own pages, and only list people whose research you can explain in your own words.

Read each faculty member’s current lab page before listing them. Quality matters more than reaching ten; five well-chosen names are better than ten generic ones. Choose a range of people within your area so that interviewers can see a coherent research direction.

Interview Format and Preparation

Receiving an interview invitation from KPSOM is a significant accomplishment. With 50 seats and more than 6,700 applications, reaching this stage puts you in a small group. For the 2025 entering class, 729 of 6,596 verified applicants were interviewed, about 11%.

Format

KPSOM uses a hybrid interview format. You’ll take part in both MMI stations and a traditional one-on-one interview with a faculty member, as part of the school’s process to evaluate applicants on several dimensions. The school uses the MMI to assess personal and behavioral characteristics, including ethical decision-making, interpersonal communication, cultural humility and problem-solving. The traditional interview is a longer conversation about your path and experiences.

Timing and Logistics

• Mode. For the 2026-2027 cycle, all interviews are conducted in a virtual format.
• Dates. Interviews run from September 2026 through February 2027. Invitations are sent by email on a rolling basis, and applicants reported invitations beginning in late August 2026.
• Interview day. The day includes a welcome and overview from the Senior Associate Dean for Admissions, the interviews and an admissions presentation.
• MD-PhD applicants. The KPSOM interview comes first, in October or November 2026. Selected applicants then interview separately with Caltech between November 2026 and January 2027.
• After the interview. Updates are accepted only from applicants who have been invited to interview. Offers are made on a rolling basis.

Admitted students can visit in person at Second-Look Weekend, April 2 and 3, 2027. The Office of Admissions provides a one-night hotel stay and travel reimbursement for admitted students who showed financial need on AMCAS.

How to Prepare

The school does not publish its MMI scenarios or interview questions. The guidance below is general practice advice based on the format and the school’s stated priorities.

• Know your own application cold. The faculty interview will draw on your experiences and essays. Be ready to expand on each secondary story, including what you would do differently today.
• Practice MMI scenarios that test the named traits. Work through ethical dilemmas, communication challenges and scenarios involving patients from different backgrounds. Practice stating the issue, considering the people involved, choosing a course of action and explaining your reasoning in a few minutes.
• Understand integrated care. Be ready to explain why learning inside an integrated health system interests you, and what you know about the LIC model, Health Systems Science and service-learning.
• Be ready to talk about systems and communities. Questions about access, cost, health equity and teamwork fit naturally with KPSOM’s mission. Have specific examples, not opinions alone.
• Prepare questions for them. Ask about LIC site assignments, coaching, the scholarly project or how the Impact Scholarship and institutional aid work for your class.
• Review common questions. Our list of the most common medical school interview questions is a good place to practice.

Virtual interviews require their own kind of preparation. Test your technology in advance, choose a quiet and well-lit setting, and practice keeping natural eye contact with the camera rather than the screen. Close other applications and keep a glass of water and your notes on the school nearby, but do not read from them.

We’ve covered both MMI and traditional interview types in detail. If you have questions or need help preparing for your interviews, consider medical school admissions consulting with International Medical Aid. We offer mock interview preparation to help you get ready for interview day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine still tuition-free?

No, not for students applying now. Tuition was waived for all four years for the first seven entering classes, the students who enrolled from 2020 through 2026. The class entering in 2027 is the first to pay tuition, which is $69,212 for the 2027/2028 academic year, including books and supplies. The total estimated cost of attendance for that year is $113,232. Students who already enrolled under the waiver keep it for all four years. If you need financial support, look at the Impact Scholarship and need-based institutional aid described below.

What is the KPSOM Impact Scholarship?

It is a new scholarship that covers the full cost of attendance for all four years for selected students in each entering class, beginning with the class entering in 2027. It is meant to recognize applicants who show academic excellence, resilience, leadership and a sustained commitment to improving health outcomes and strengthening communities. You apply by selecting “yes” on the self-nomination question in the secondary and explaining which parts of your application best show your alignment with the mission. The school has not published how many scholarships it awards per class.

Can I get federal student loans at KPSOM?

Not yet. KPSOM’s application to the U.S. Department of Education for federal student aid is pending, so the school has no federal school code and does not use the FAFSA. Students can defer existing federal loans while enrolled. Current options are need-based institutional grants (through the CSS Profile), the Impact Scholarship, external and service obligation scholarships, and private loans. Check the school’s financial aid page each year for changes in the federal aid status.

What is the acceptance rate at KPSOM?

KPSOM does not publish an acceptance rate or offer counts. For the Class of 2030, it received 6,756 primary applications and enrolled 50 students. For the 2025 entering class, 729 of 6,596 verified applicants were interviewed (about 11%), and 49 enrolled. Because some admitted students choose other schools, the number of offers is higher than the number who enroll, so dividing enrollees by applicants does not give an acceptance rate. What is clear is that KPSOM is among the most competitive medical schools in the country.

What GPA and MCAT do I need for KPSOM?

There is no minimum GPA or MCAT. For the Class of 2030, the median total GPA was 3.86 (mean 3.85) and the median MCAT was 515 (mean 515). For all accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class, the median MCAT was 517 and the median total GPA was 3.87, with a median science GPA of 3.82. Your scores are weighed in the context of your experiences and personal attributes. If your numbers are below these medians, strengthen the rest of your application and make sure KPSOM is part of a broad list.

Does KPSOM prefer California residents?

No. The school states that it does not give preference to California residents and admits students from across the country. In the Class of 2030, 64% were California residents and the rest came from 14 other states. In the 2025 entering class, 35 of 49 matriculants were in-state, and out-of-state applicants received 283 of the 729 interviews. As a private school, KPSOM charges the same tuition to every student.

Is the AAMC PREview exam required?

Yes. PREview is required for regular MD and MD-PhD applicants, and your application is not complete without it. Scores are due November 1, 2026. There is no minimum score, and scores do not expire, so a score from an earlier cycle can be used. Register early, because test dates can fill up.

Does KPSOM screen applicants before sending secondaries?

No. Every applicant who completes the AMCAS primary application and submits an MCAT score is invited to complete the secondary. That is why nearly all of the 6,756 primary applicants in the last cycle also submitted a secondary. Plan to write the full secondary for KPSOM if it is on your list.

How many secondary essays does KPSOM have, and how long are they?

Four required essays, each limited to 250 words: an unfavorable outcome, mission and values alignment, lifelong learning and intellectual exploration, and the social drivers of health. There is also an optional reapplicant essay (250 words) and an optional Impact Scholarship self-nomination with no word limit. MD-PhD applicants also list publications and up to ten Caltech faculty they would like to meet.

What is the secondary application fee?

The fee is $75 for the 2026-2027 cycle, and fee waivers are available. If you have AAMC Fee Assistance, check the portal for how your waiver applies before paying. The secondary is due November 1, 2026.

Can international students apply to KPSOM?

No. KPSOM can only accept applications from U.S. citizens, permanent residents and DACA recipients. Applicants also need a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in the U.S. or Canada. DACA recipients are not eligible for federal loans but may qualify for need-based institutional aid.

Does KPSOM accept transfer students or offer early assurance?

No. KPSOM does not accept transfer students from U.S. or international medical schools, because its integrated curriculum runs across all four years. Students who previously attended medical school are not eligible. KPSOM has no Early Decision Program, and it does not list early assurance or linkage programs for the MD.

Do I have to do my residency at Kaiser Permanente?

No. KPSOM encourages students to follow their own career path, and there is no service or residency obligation. In the 2026 Match, 14% of graduates matched with Kaiser Permanente programs, and graduates matched at programs across the country, including Mass General Brigham, Mayo Clinic, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

How much clinical experience do I need for KPSOM?

KPSOM does not publish minimum hours. The Class of 2030 averaged 136 hours of shadowing, and all had research experience. Because students see patients in the first weeks of medical school, sustained direct patient care is valuable. Paid clinical jobs, free clinic volunteering and supervised clinical internships where you take vitals and help with intake and triage all build experience you can describe in detail.

When do interviews happen, and are they in person?

All interviews for the 2026-2027 cycle are virtual and run from September 2026 through February 2027. Each applicant completes MMI stations and a one-on-one interview with a faculty member. Admitted students can visit Pasadena in person at Second-Look Weekend, April 2 and 3, 2027.

Can I defer my admission or appeal a decision?

KPSOM expects students to matriculate with the class they are admitted to, but it will consider extenuating circumstances for a deferral, case by case. No one in the 2025 entering class deferred. Admissions decisions are final, and there is no appeals process. If you are not admitted, you may reapply in a later cycle.

Does KPSOM provide student housing?

No. Students find their own housing in Pasadena or the surrounding areas, and the school helps students identify options and connect with classmates. The 2027/2028 budget estimates $35,550 for living expenses and $4,410 for transportation for the first year. A driver’s license and a vehicle are recommended, though not required.

How many students attend KPSOM?

KPSOM enrolls 209 MD students across its four years. Each entering class has 48 to 50 students. For the class entering in 2027, the school expects 50 new students: 48 in the MD program and 2 in the MD-PhD program.

How much debt do KPSOM graduates have?

For the 2024-2025 academic year, average medical school debt for graduates was $7,547, and 100% of students received financial aid. Those graduates studied under the tuition waiver, so this figure does not predict debt for the class entering in 2027, which pays tuition. For that class, the Impact Scholarship and need-based institutional aid are the main ways to limit borrowing.

Related Medical School Guides

KPSOM is a strong medical school, but you’ll want to apply to several schools to give yourself the best chance of earning at least one acceptance. With acceptance rates this low at competitive programs, a broad and well-researched application list is essential. These guides cover other California MD schools that applicants often consider alongside KPSOM. They are listed for comparison, not as claims of equal selectivity.

• UC San Diego School of Medicine: a public Southern California MD school; KPSOM’s admissions dean previously directed its health equity program.
• California University of Science and Medicine: another newer private MD school in the Inland Empire with a community-focused mission.
• UCSF School of Medicine: a top public research school in Northern California, useful if you want a large research university alongside KPSOM’s small-class model.
• Loma Linda University School of Medicine: a private Southern California MD school with a distinct faith-based mission and its own service emphasis.
• Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine: a Los Angeles MD school focused on underserved communities, a good fit for applicants drawn to KPSOM’s community health work.
• UC Davis School of Medicine: a public MD school in Sacramento known for primary care and rural health, and one of the top 2025 match destinations for KPSOM graduates.

For a full comparison of every MD and DO program in the state, see our guide to medical schools in California.

More Medical School Guides

While you’re here, check out the other medical schools we’ve covered on our blog:

• Touro University of California
• CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Harvard Medical School
• UC Riverside School of Medicine
• USC Keck School of Medicine
• UT Southwestern Medical School
• Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio
• University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine
• UT Austin’s Dell Medical School
• UTMB School of Medicine
• McGovern Medical School at UT Health
• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
• UNT Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
• University of Houston College of Medicine
• Texas A&M 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
• Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

KPSOM is one of several schools that have changed how they pay for medical education. For another example of a school whose tuition model changed through a major gift, see our article on Ruth Gottesman’s $1 billion legacy at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

How International Medical Aid Can Help

Providing definitive guides to medical school is just one of the many things we do here at International Medical Aid (IMA). We also offer medical school admissions consulting and pre-medicine clinical experiences to help you prepare for medical school.

Clinical internships. IMA’s pre-med internships abroad take pre-health students to clinics and hospitals serving underserved populations in Kenya and at other IMA sites in East Africa, South America and the Caribbean. These are structured, supervised experiences. Interns take vital signs, do patient intake and triage, and help with direct patient care under the supervision of local clinicians. The experience gives you hands-on clinical skills, mentorship and specific stories about patients, teamwork and health systems with limited resources, the kind of material KPSOM’s questions about setbacks, social drivers of health and lifelong learning ask for. You can learn more about our medical internships abroad or compare all of IMA’s international healthcare internships by field and location.

Admissions consulting. Our admissions consulting services mirror the work of traditional admissions committees. We help with school lists, personal statements, secondary essays such as KPSOM’s four questions and scholarship self-nomination, and interview practice, including MMI and one-on-one mock interviews.

If you are not sure which step comes first, start with your timeline. Applicants who still need meaningful patient contact usually benefit most from clinical experience before applying. Applicants who are already applying this cycle usually benefit most from help with secondaries and interviews.

IMA is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, and no internship or consulting service can guarantee admission to any medical school. What we can do is help you gain real clinical experience and tell your story well. We are here to help you in any way we can as you work toward medical school. It’s a long, demanding road, but the commitment to medicine makes it worth the effort. When you are ready to start, contact a member of our team.

Final Thoughts and Sources

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine offers early, longitudinal patient care, a strong health systems curriculum and training inside one of the country’s largest integrated health systems. For the 2026-2027 cycle, it is also a school that charges tuition, with a full cost-of-attendance Impact Scholarship for selected students and need-based aid for others. Confirm you are eligible, take the PREview early, submit AMCAS well before October 1, 2026, and return a careful secondary, including the scholarship self-nomination if you need support, well before November 1. Then prepare for a virtual MMI and faculty interview where you can show how you learn, lead and serve.

By the time you finish this guide, you should have a clear picture of whether applying to KPSOM is the right move for you. Good luck from IMA. We believe in you.

Source notes

All facts were checked on October 17 and 18, 2026. Cohort and year labels are given with each figure in the article.

• AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR), Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine profile, 2026 edition (accessed October 18, 2026): 2025 entering class verified applications, interviews and matriculants by residency, accepted applicant MCAT and GPA, gender, premedical experiences and background; 2026-2027 secondary fee, fee waivers, deposit, Early Decision, deferral and estimated new entrants; total enrollment; average graduate indebtedness (LCME, 2024-2025); specialty intentions (AAMC Graduation Questionnaire, 2025).

• Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Applying to Medical School at KPSOM: MCAT, PREview, letters, primary and secondary deadlines, interviews and decisions for 2026-2027.

• KPSOM, Admission Requirements and Application Timeline (2026-2027 Admissions Cycle): eligibility, prerequisites, recommended courses, MCAT window, deposit, Commit to Enroll and start date.
• KPSOM, Tuition and Financial Aid: 2027/2028 Phase 1 cost of attendance, institutional aid, CSS Profile, federal aid status; Service Obligation Scholarships.
• KPSOM press release, “KPSOM Updates Tuition Strategy, Announces New Scholarship,” July 9, 2026; and “KPSOM Extends Full Tuition Support for Students Entering in 2026.”
• KPSOM, Our Students (Class of 2030 Profile) and the 2026 Matriculated Class Profile graphic: applications, class size, MCAT, GPA, residency, coursework, shadowing and research.
• KPSOM, FAQs; MD-PhD Program With Caltech (2026-2027 timeline and FAQs); Second-Look Weekend.
• KPSOM, Mission, Vision, and Values; Accreditation; “KPSOM Secures Initial Accreditation from WSCUC” (March 13, 2025); Kaiser Permanente History.
• KPSOM, Curriculum; Clinical Training Sites; Residency Preparedness; Simulation Center; Anatomy Beyond Cadavers; Community Medicine Rotations; Service-Learning; Student Life, Student Well-Being, Academic Support, Career Advising and Student Engagement; Our Location.
• KPSOM, 2026 Match Results; “Class of 2026 Celebrates a Perfect Match Day”; “Commencement Celebration Honors Class of 2026” (May 12, 2026); “Class of 2025 Celebrates Residency Placements on Match Day” (March 21, 2025); “Commencement Celebration Honors Class of 2025”; “Looking Back and Looking Forward on the Eve of Commencement” (May 7, 2025).
• KPSOM, Leadership directory and biographies (John L. Dalrymple, Lindia J. Willies-Jacobo, Carla Lupi, Anne M. Eacker, Paul J. Chung, Jonathan A. Finkelstein), Office of Admissions and Vanessa Riggins biography; news on Linda W. Shiue (October 8, 2026), Quyen Ngo-Metzger (October 15, 2026) and the dean and a student on Capitol Hill (October 14, 2026).
• Founding dean history: KPSOM Kaiser Permanente History page. LCME preliminary (February 2019) and full (June 2024) accreditation dates: Pasadena Star-News reporting.
• Secondary question wording for 2026-2027: Student Doctor Network, 2026-2027 Kaiser Permanente Tyson School of Medicine thread (applicant posts beginning June 30, 2026), and Shemmassian Consulting’s 2026-2027 secondary prompts list. KPSOM does not publish its secondary questions publicly.
• The New York Times, “Kaiser Permanente’s New Medical School Will Waive Tuition for Its First 5 Classes,” February 19, 2019. UCLA Fielding School of Public Health MPH programs. AAMC Tuition and Student Fees reports.