How to Get Into the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo: The Definitive Guide (2026-2027)

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo was founded in 1846, which makes it one of the oldest medical schools in the United States. It is the public MD school of the University at Buffalo (UB), part of the State University of New York, and it sits in a 628,000-square-foot building at 955 Main Street on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, a short walk from several of the hospitals where its students train. The school prides itself on its legacy of teaching, scientific discovery and patient care, and its mission is “to advance health and wellness across the life span for the people of New York and the world through the education of tomorrow’s leaders in health care and biomedical sciences, innovative research and outstanding clinical care.”

This guide covers the 2026-2027 application cycle for students who plan to start medical school in July 2027. The AMCAS deadline for regular MD applicants is November 15, 2026, the Jacobs School supplemental application and all required materials are due December 1, 2026, and the latest MCAT accepted is from the September 2026 test dates. Regular MD decisions begin in December 2026 and continue on a rolling basis. All facts in this guide were checked on October 23, 2026.

Inside, you will find the Class of 2030 profile, prerequisites and letters, the mission aligned review process, the Well Beyond curriculum, MD-PhD and dual degrees, 2026-27 tuition and cost of attendance, the interview process and all six 2026-2027 secondary questions with original examples and analysis.

Be an Informed Applicant

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo has school-specific guidelines and requirements for its admissions and application process. To put your best foot forward and leave a good impression on the admissions committee, it is crucial to understand these requirements before you apply. Many things stand out to every admissions committee: a strong GPA, a competitive MCAT score and meaningful clinical, service and research experience. But each school weighs them through its own mission. At the Jacobs School, that mission points toward the health of New York and especially Western New York, and the selection process is built around it.

Personalized Help

At International Medical Aid, we understand that students often feel overwhelmed by everything involved in the medical school application process. Universities have unique requirements, and you must meet the requirements for each school you apply to. To make this process easier, we recommend medical school admissions consulting.

Medical school admissions consultants help students through every step of the process, or just one or two areas where they need more guidance. Your consultant will offer helpful, constructive feedback on areas to improve and help you submit the most competitive application possible. Do you feel you could use some extra help and guidance? Consider IMA’s personalized medical school admissions consulting service.

Key Takeaways

• New York residents have preference, but out-of-state applicants are welcome. When qualifications are equivalent, the Jacobs School gives preference to New York residents, particularly those from Western New York. In the Class of 2030, 89% of students came from New York State and 40% from Western New York. The Jacobs School also welcomes and accepts many out-of-state applicants each year.
• Academic context. The Class of 2030, which entered in July 2026, has an average GPA of 3.8 and an average MCAT of 511. For the 2025 entering class, accepted applicants had a median MCAT of 511 and a median GPA of 3.85. These are averages and medians, not cutoffs. The school publishes no minimum GPA or MCAT.
• Who can apply. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, have completed two full years or 60 credit hours of college in the U.S. or Canada, have completed at least half of the prerequisite courses and earn a bachelor’s degree before you start. The school does not accept transfer students.
• Key dates. Submit AMCAS between June 1 and November 15, 2026, and the supplemental application and all materials by 5 p.m. Eastern on December 1, 2026. Early Decision applicants submit AMCAS by August 1 and the supplemental by August 31, with a decision by October 1. MD-PhD applicants submit the supplemental by October 1.
• Interviews are selective. About 600 applicants, roughly 8% of the pool, are invited to interview each cycle between August and March. For the 2025 entering class, 562 applicants were interviewed out of 6,264 verified applications. Each invited applicant has two interviews, in person or virtual, and the interviewers do not see academic metrics.
• Costs. For 2026-27, tuition is $46,470 for New York residents and $71,190 for non-residents. The school’s total estimate for a first-year student, including fees, books and living costs, is $83,330.86 for residents and $108,050.86 for non-residents.
• Distinctive training. The Well Beyond curriculum, launched in July 2024, puts students in front of patients within the second month, adds three two-week clinical immersions and CommunityConnect service learning in Phase 1, and uses integrated 12-week clerkship blocks across a distributed network of Buffalo hospitals.
• Next step. If you are applying now, return your supplemental application early and prepare for two blinded interviews. If you are planning for a future cycle, build sustained clinical and community experience, ideally connected to Western New York, and take the MCAT within the three-year window.

Key Statistics About the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo

The snapshot and table below gather the Jacobs School’s key numbers. Each figure carries its cohort or academic year, because the class profile, the accepted-applicant data, the tuition schedule and the match results each cover a different year. The newest class profile is for the Class of 2030, the students who entered in July 2026. The newest accepted-applicant medians and application counts are for the 2025 entering class.

What Are the Jacobs School of Medicine’s Average MCAT and GPA?

The Jacobs School Class of 2030, which entered in July 2026, has an average GPA of 3.8 and an average MCAT score of 511 (Jacobs School, Class of 2030 White Coat Ceremony, 2026). These are class averages, not minimums, and the school publishes no GPA or MCAT cutoff.

For the 2025 entering class, all accepted applicants had a median MCAT of 511 (mean 511) and a median total GPA of 3.85 (mean 3.78), with a median science GPA of 3.8. Their median section scores were 128 in Chemical and Physical Foundations, 126 in Critical Analysis and Reasoning, 128 in Biological and Biochemical Foundations and 129 in Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations. The committee considers your highest MCAT total and does not substitute a postbaccalaureate or graduate GPA for a lower undergraduate GPA.

An average means many admitted students scored below it as well as above it. The Jacobs School assesses your GPA and MCAT “in the context of many factors,” including your life experiences and background, integrity, intellectual curiosity, leadership roles and community engagement. If your numbers sit a few points under the class average, the rest of your file matters even more: sustained service, clinical experience and a believable reason for choosing Western New York. For a comparison with other schools, see our list of average GPA and MCAT scores by medical school.

Mission and Educational Priorities

Why the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo?

What is the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences known for? Three things stand out to most applicants: its deep roots in Buffalo, a distributed hospital network instead of a single university hospital, and a reputation for training physicians who stay to care for the region. Throughout its history, the university has not owned or operated a teaching hospital. Instead, students train in affiliated hospitals across the city, from Buffalo General Medical Center and Erie County Medical Center to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the VA. The school describes its learning environment as cohesive and collegial, where “instead of stepping over each other to get ahead, our students support each other every step of the way.”

The school also has a very large alumni community. Its Medical Alumni Association represents nearly 15,400 alumni of all degrees, about 4,000 of whom live in the eight counties of Western New York. Notable faculty members include Thomas Russo, MD, Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, FAHA, and Dheerendra Prasad, MD, whose work is described in the faculty section below.

The Jacobs School mission

The Jacobs School’s mission is:

“to advance health and wellness across the life span for the people of New York and the world through the education of tomorrow’s leaders in health care and biomedical sciences, innovative research and outstanding clinical care.”

The admissions office describes the kind of class it wants to build in plain terms: “We seek to admit a class of unique, highly qualified individuals of all backgrounds, with the highest integrity and ethical standards, who will become the next generation of caring, competent physicians, medical educators and clinical investigators.”

The school also states that it “embraces mutual respect for persons of all backgrounds, heritages, races, and ages as core values,” and that having students from many different backgrounds “contributes to better health for the citizens of Western New York and beyond.”

Mission aligned review

The mission shapes admissions directly. The Jacobs School calls its process Mission-Aligned Selection, which its faculty policy describes as “an evidence‑based, holistic process that evaluates each applicant’s academic preparation, professional competencies, life experiences, and unique attributes.” The goal is to find people who will thrive in the curriculum and contribute to “the health of Western New York and beyond.”

The school lists the attributes it looks for, including academic and personal achievement, intellectual curiosity, industriousness, obstacles overcome, commitment to service, compassion, personal integrity, communication skills and potential for leadership. Selection criteria are aligned with the program’s curriculum, its mission, community health needs and the needs of the physician workforce.

What the mission means for your application

Three practical points follow from the mission:

1. Western New York matters. The mission names “the people of New York,” the policy names Western New York, and the first secondary essay asks how Western New York and the Jacobs School align with your values. If you have a real connection to the region, make it visible. If you do not, explain honestly what draws you to a mid-sized city with a diverse patient population and a distributed hospital system.
2. Service should be sustained. “Commitment to service” and community engagement show up again and again. A single week of volunteering will not carry much weight. A year or more with one organization, especially one that serves people with limited access to care, says much more.
3. Character is assessed separately. Interviewers are blinded to your academic metrics, so your interview has to show the competencies in your own words. Prepare stories about teamwork, empathy, reliability and resilience, not just about grades and research.

Accreditation and Institutional Identity

The Jacobs School’s MD program is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accrediting authority for MD programs in the United States and Canada. The school received full accreditation in 2019, and its next LCME site visit is scheduled for 2026-2027. Graduating from an LCME-accredited school lets you take the USMLE and enter residencies accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (Jacobs School Office of Accreditation and Quality Improvement).

A few identity details are worth knowing because you will see several names for the same school:

• Official name. Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. The school took the Jacobs name in 2015 in recognition of the Jeremy M. Jacobs family’s philanthropy and service to UB; it was the first school naming in UB history.
• Older names. In 1987 the school became the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Many applicants still call it “UB medical school,” “SUNY Buffalo medical school” or “Buffalo Jacobs.”
• Location history. The school’s first permanent home was next to Buffalo General Hospital. It moved to High Street in 1893, to UB’s South Campus in 1953, and in 2017 to its current building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, close to where it stood from 1893 to 1953 (Jacobs School, Our History).
• Health sciences family. The Jacobs School is one of UB’s six health sciences schools, alongside dental medicine, nursing, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, and public health and health professions. That matters for interprofessional teams, such as the Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic, where medical students work alongside students in dietetics, social work, dentistry, pharmacy and public health.

SUNY Buffalo Medical School Rankings

U.S. News & World Report now places medical schools in tiers rather than giving each one a single number. In the 2025-26 Best Graduate Schools edition, the Jacobs School was ranked Tier 2 for both primary care and research. It was one of only 33 schools nationally, and the only public medical school in New York, to rank in the top two tiers in both areas (Jacobs School news, April 2025).

Rankings are only one input. For an applicant, the more useful questions are whether the school’s mission matches your goals, whether you can afford it, and whether its training sites will give you the patients and specialties you want to see.

Medical Programs and Affiliations

Medical Programs at SUNY Buffalo Medical School

Students should thoroughly research every medical program at the Jacobs School before applying. This research will help you focus your application and decide whether the school is the best fit for you. Some programs are part of the regular MD application, some need a separate application or an extra deadline, and some are pipeline programs for college students.

MD Program

The Jacobs School offers a four-year MD program. The school provides “a broad-based clinical education in both ambulatory and hospital settings with a strong core curriculum in primary care and exposure to all specialties.” Students entering in 2024 and later train under the Well Beyond curriculum, described in the curriculum section below. Students admitted before 2024 continue in the Classic Curriculum.

Early Decision Program

If the Jacobs School is your clear first choice, you can apply through its Early Decision Program. You must apply only to the Jacobs School on your AMCAS application and agree to attend if accepted. Early decision applicants are reviewed using the same criteria as everyone else. You must submit AMCAS by August 1 and the supplemental application by August 31, and the school will notify you by October 1. If you are not accepted through Early Decision, the school releases your commitment so you can apply to other schools (Jacobs School Early Decision Program).

Early Decision works best for applicants with strong, settled credentials and a real reason to choose Buffalo. Because you cannot apply elsewhere until October, a “no” costs you time in the regular cycle.

Other Programs

The Jacobs School offers more than the standard four-year MD program. Its joint and dual degree programs “give you the training and credentials needed to realize a highly specialized role within medicine.”

• MD-PhD Program (Medical Scientist Training Program). This program “combines intensive research experience with rigorous clinical training, preparing you for a career as a physician-scientist.” It integrates clinical and basic science to build a firm foundation for a future physician-scientist. MD-PhD students receive a fully funded education and graduate, on average, in seven years.
• MD/MBA Program. A highly competitive program that lets you earn both degrees in five years, in cooperation with the UB School of Management.
• MD/MPH Program. You can earn an MD and a master’s degree in public health in five to six years. You apply during your second year of medical school, so you do not need to decide when you apply.
• Global Health Scholars Track. A four-year track that trains medical students to be future global health leaders through curriculum, real-world experience, scholarly projects and mentorship. A new cohort of four first-year students is selected at the start of each academic year, and the track’s clinic locations are in Sierra Leone (three clinics), Nepal and Buffalo.

The Jacobs School is also home to graduate programs and continuing education. Continuing Medical Education (CME) helps practicing physicians and other health care professionals stay up to date on current teaching and evidence-based treatments; the school is accredited by the ACCME to provide CME. The Neuroscience program is a PhD program for research scientists, separate from the MD admissions process. Neither is a route into the MD program, but both show the depth of the school’s research and teaching community.

MD-PhD admissions

MD-PhD applicants apply through AMCAS and indicate their intent to apply to the MD-PhD program, or to both MD and MD-PhD. The supplemental application deadline is October 1. MD-PhD applicants must meet the same basic requirements as MD applicants and submit three letters of recommendation, one from a science professor, or a pre-health committee letter; the program recommends letters from faculty or evaluators who know your research well. Strong applicants usually have significant research experience, and many have published or presented their work.

If you are invited, both the Regular MD Admissions Committee and the MD-PhD Admissions Committee interview you. The MD-PhD committee admits students on a rolling basis from November to May. If you are admitted to MD-PhD, you are also admitted to the Regular MD program. If you are admitted to Regular MD but not MD-PhD, you can start as an MD student and apply to MD-PhD again in the fall of your first year. If the MD-PhD program rejects or waitlists you, you are not eligible for Regular MD admission in that cycle; if the Regular MD program rejects you, you are no longer eligible for MD-PhD. If you are accepted to MD-PhD, you must respond within two weeks and pay a $100 deposit, refundable until May 15 (Jacobs School MD-PhD How to Apply).

Pipeline and pathway programs

The Jacobs School runs several “pre‑med pathway programs aimed at recruiting and nurturing an inclusive community of future health care professionals.” These are not separate MD admissions tracks for most applicants, but they matter if you are still in college or have already applied once.

• Early Opportunity Program in Medicine (EOPIM). An early assurance program for sophomores at partner schools, including the University at Buffalo, Canisius University, D’Youville University, Niagara University, Tougaloo College and Rochester Institute of Technology. Students need a GPA of 3.5 or higher and apply through their pre-health advisor by October of sophomore year. Participants do research with a Jacobs School faculty member, are paired with a medical student mentor and get MCAT preparation advice. The program is designed to expand the pool of economically and educationally disadvantaged students in medical school.
• AMSNY/Jacobs School Post-Baccalaureate Program. One of New York State’s largest post-baccalaureate programs. The Jacobs School and eight other New York schools refer students who were denied admission but have the ability to succeed. Students receive a provisional acceptance from the referring school and matriculate there without reapplying once they complete the program. It enrolls 20 to 28 students a year, tuition-free, with a living stipend from AMSNY, and begins with a six-week summer diagnostic evaluation.
• Interview Assurance Program. A new pathway launching for UB’s incoming first-year class in fall 2026. Students who start at UB in a Jacobs School undergraduate major and meet every requirement, including a 3.75 cumulative and science GPA, no grade below B-, an MCAT of at least 510 and sustained clinical, community and research experience, earn a guaranteed interview with the Jacobs School MD program. It is a promise of an interview, not of admission. High school students weighing UB for college can also look at medical internships for high school students to start building clinical exposure early.

Clinical Affiliations

Because UB does not own a hospital, its clinical training happens across an affiliated hospital system. The school’s training sites are:

• Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, with a wide range of inpatient and outpatient programs.
• Erie County Medical Center, a 550-bed medical center and regional center for trauma, burns, rehabilitation and cardiac care.
• Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, the only freestanding children’s hospital in New York State and the region’s only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.
• Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, a Center of Excellence for stroke and cardiac care.
• Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, a 200-bed community hospital that supports training in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, general surgery, urology, obstetrics and gynecology and family practice.
• Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
• Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo’s first hospital and a Designated Stroke Center.
• Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System, whose Buffalo VA Medical Center is the main referral center for cardiac surgery, cardiology and comprehensive cancer care for Western New York and northern Pennsylvania (Jacobs School Training Sites).

The school also has more than 50 Clinical Immersion Sites around Western New York, including rural sites, which host first-year students during their early clinical immersions.

Curriculum Overview

The Jacobs School’s redesigned MD curriculum, called Well Beyond, started in July 2024. It is organized into three phases, with learning communities and faculty coaches running through all four years. It rests on five curricular pillars: foundational sciences, clinical sciences, health systems science, humanities and humanism (including anti-racism and cultural humility), and scientific literacy and inquiry. Threads such as anatomy, ethics, genetics, pharmacology and social determinants of health are woven through all four years.

One feature appeals to many applicants right away: you begin seeing patients within your second month of school.

Phase 1: Build foundational skills (about 14 months)

Phase 1 starts in mid-July with a course called Medicine and Society, where you begin forming your professional identity, learn about the Buffalo community and study major health problems in Buffalo and beyond. Then come Foundations of Medicine and a series of integrated organ-system blocks covering anatomy, embryology, histology, pathology, physiology and pathophysiology, along with health systems science and humanities.

The core teaching method in Phase 1 is case-based inquiry learning. Twice a week, you meet with a small, student-led group with a faculty facilitator. The group works through a clinical case, sets learning goals, researches the answers and comes back to teach one another, with narrative feedback from the facilitator.

Other Phase 1 elements include:

• Foundations of Patient-Centered Care, which builds interviewing, communication, physical diagnosis and documentation skills throughout Phase 1, using your learning community as its base.
• Three two-week clinical immersions, spread across the first 18 months, in inpatient, outpatient and procedure-based settings. The aim is not to learn one specialty but to apply what you are learning in real clinical settings.
• CommunityConnect service learning. In teams of three, students serve with a Buffalo community-based organization for three hours every other week for three semesters. Partners include Compeer Buffalo, Big Big Table Community Café, the Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network and GObike.
• An optional summer of about seven weeks starting in June, which you can use for patient care, community health work, research or your scholarly project.
• The health sciences scholarly project (HSSP), a mentored project you propose in Phase 1 and present at a research forum at the end of Phase 3. MD-PhD and MD/MPH students satisfy most of it through their degree research.
• USMLE Step 1 preparation, with a dedicated course and study period in January and February of your second year.

If you are planning the years before medical school, pre-med summer internships are one way to practice the patient interviewing and teamwork skills this phase expects from the first month.

Phase 2: Gain clinical experience

Phase 2 begins in mid-February of your second year with a clinical orientation and a Clinical Reasoning and Synthesis course. Core clerkships then run in four 12-week integrated blocks, with two disciplines combined in each:

• internal medicine and family medicine
• neurology and psychiatry
• obstetrics and gynecology and surgery
• pediatrics with a four-week elective

Each block starts with an onboarding week focused on specialty skills and related foundational science, and ends with an “I-CARE week” for integration, coaching, assessment, reflection and exploration. Observed Structured Clinical Encounters during I-CARE weeks let you show your clinical skills in standardized scenarios, and you keep meeting with your learning community and faculty coach.

Phase 3: Prepare for residency

Phase 3 starts near the end of March of your third year and runs to graduation at the end of April of your fourth year. It has 14 four-week modules: 11 required modules and three flexible modules you can use for study, interviews, vacation or more scholarly work. The required modules are an acting internship; advanced medicine, surgery or pediatrics; emergency medicine or critical care; an integrated science selective; dedicated USMLE Step 2 CK preparation; a preparation for residency course with a two-week capstone; and five electives. You present your scholarly project at a research forum at the end of Phase 3.

What the curriculum means for applicants

Well Beyond rewards students who learn well in small teams, can take feedback and want early, regular contact with patients and the community. The secondary questions this cycle point in the same direction: one asks about inclusion in a learning environment, and another asks about a clinical encounter that changed your thinking. Applicants who can show both teamwork and reflective clinical experience will find it easier to explain why this curriculum suits them.

Admissions Requirements and Application Process

Selection Factors: What SUNY Buffalo Medical School Looks for in an Applicant

When applying to medical schools, one of the most important things to research is each school’s selection criteria. You should know how your MCAT score, GPA and experiences compare with those of accepted students. Admissions committees generally take a holistic approach. The committee reviews your application to get a full picture of who you are as a person, not just how well you scored on the MCAT, which is why a well-rounded application is essential.

At the Jacobs School, the holistic approach has a specific name and structure: Mission-Aligned Selection. The school’s admissions policy explains how it works. The process has three steps, each conducted independently:

1. Screening. A 20-member Screening Subcommittee reviews academic metrics, competencies and experiences to decide who will be invited to interview. Members include admissions deans and directors, faculty, local physicians, medical students and community professionals.
2. Interviews. Each invited applicant has two blinded interviews, with a third at the Admissions Committee’s discretion. The Interview Subcommittee has 40 members, and interviewers are blinded to academic metrics. They submit narrative evaluations of your non-academic competencies and mission-aligned attributes.
3. Class selection. The Admissions Committee, made up of 12 basic science and clinical faculty and four students, reviews every interviewed applicant and makes the final decisions on acceptance, waitlist and rejection.

The committee looks for the professional competencies the AAMC defines for entering medical students. The school lists them as commitment to learning, empathy, ethical responsibility, interpersonal skills, oral communication, reliability, resilience, self-awareness, service orientation, teamwork and understanding others, plus thinking and reasoning competencies: critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, scientific inquiry and written communication. The majority of medical schools use the AAMC Core Competencies as a general guide for application review. The Jacobs School also values life experiences that contribute to cultural sensitivity.

Although most applicants major in science, the Jacobs School encourages students from a variety of academic fields to apply. Regardless of major, you must have completed at least half of the prerequisite courses before applying.

Application Requirements for SUNY Buffalo Medical School

The Jacobs School has specific application criteria and academic requirements that you must meet to be considered. To apply, you must:

• be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident;
• have completed two full years, or 60 credit hours, of higher education in the U.S. or Canada;
• have taken the MCAT within three years of applying;
• have completed at least half of the prerequisite courses when you submit, and complete the rest before matriculation;
• submit letters of recommendation through the AMCAS Letter Service;
• complete an undergraduate degree before matriculation;
• have an unencumbered criminal background check; and
• meet the school’s technical standards for admission, with or without reasonable accommodation.

The Jacobs School does not accept transfer applicants.

MCAT and GPA Requirements

The Jacobs School does not list a minimum GPA or MCAT score. However, you should aim for your MCAT and GPA to be in line with the averages of recent classes. The Class of 2030 has an average GPA of 3.8 and an average MCAT score of 511.

Your MCAT score must be no more than three years old. For this cycle, the school accepts MCAT scores from tests taken from June 2023 through September 2026, and the September 2026 test dates are the latest it will consider. If you are retaking the MCAT, plan your test date so the score arrives in time to support your file before the December 1 supplemental deadline.

Letters of Recommendation

The Jacobs School requires either:

• one pre-health committee letter, or
• three letters of recommendation, with at least one from a science professor, if you do not have access to a committee.

The school accepts letters only through the AMCAS Letter Service; do not send letters directly to the school. If you have graduate school education, you may leave out undergraduate letters but must include letters from three of your graduate school professors. The school’s admissions policy allows three to seven letters in total, including at least one from science faculty.

If you cannot get the required letters, contact the admissions office right away by email at [email protected]. Explain the problem and give the names and titles of the people who will write for you instead.

Required Coursework for Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo

The school lists required and recommended courses. You do not need a science major, but you must complete at least half of the prerequisites before applying and the rest before matriculation. The required courses must be taken in person:

• Biology: 2 semesters with lab
• General Chemistry: 2 semesters with lab
• Organic Chemistry: 2 semesters with lab
• Physics: 2 semesters (lab optional)
• English: 2 semesters

If your college does not offer a required course, or combines courses, ask your pre-health advisor to address it in your committee letter, or ask the department chair or science professor writing for you to do so. The school may ask for more information (Jacobs School Required and Recommended Courses).

The admissions policy adds that the committee prefers prerequisites to be completed in person, in a classroom or laboratory, with a numerical or letter grade. Some online coursework taken between spring 2020 and fall 2021 may be accepted at the committee’s discretion, but “virtual” laboratory courses are not acceptable. If your transcript does not show which courses were online, you must identify them.

Additional Recommended Courses

The school encourages you to add these courses to your prerequisites:

• Social sciences: four courses, which the school considers as important for future medical students as the physical and biological sciences.
• Humanities: two courses in addition to the required English.
• Statistics
• Biochemistry
• Genetics
• Molecular biology

The last four reflect the curriculum: the school “strongly” encourages statistics, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

Does Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo Require the CASPer exam?

The CASPer test is required by some medical schools but not all. It is an online situational judgment test of non-cognitive skills. The Jacobs School does not list Casper among its requirements for the 2026-2027 cycle.

The school does mention a different test. For the 2026-2027 cycle, it recommends, but does not require, the AAMC Professional Readiness Exam (AAMC PREview). The school will use PREview scores for research on whether and how to include the exam in a future cycle, and PREview scores will not be used to evaluate applications for the 2027 application year. Taking it will not help or hurt your application this cycle.

Clinical Experience

The Jacobs School does not publish a minimum number of clinical, shadowing or volunteer hours. But its selection criteria name life experiences, community engagement and commitment to service, and its curriculum puts students in front of patients in the second month. The Interview Assurance Program, which sets expectations for UB undergraduates, asks for at least two separate experiences in each of three areas: clinical, community and research. That is a useful signal of the depth the school values. Physician shadowing is highly recommended, and scribing also counts. Among students who entered in 2025, 92% reported research, 88% physician shadowing or clinical observation, 84% community service, 84% clinical volunteering and 81% paid clinical work.

Aim for sustained, patient-facing work: scribing, medical assisting, EMT work, nursing assistant jobs, hospice volunteering or clinic volunteering. Structured pre-med internships can add hands-on experience with supervised patient care, especially if you can connect what you learned to care for underserved communities closer to home.

Military applicants

The Jacobs School welcomes active-duty service members, reservists and veterans. It waives the supplemental application fee for members of the military (active, veteran, reserve or National Guard). If you are under contractual obligation to the military, including active duty, reserve or National Guard service, you must request permission to apply to medical school. You can apply while deployed, and the MCAT is offered in many countries. The school also points students to the Health Professions Scholarship Program, which covers civilian medical school tuition and fees and provides a monthly living stipend in exchange for military service.

AMCAS Primary Application and SUNY Buffalo Medical School Secondary Application

Most medical schools in the United States use the AMCAS application system. Your AMCAS is your primary application and is sent to every medical school you select. AMCAS charges $180 for an application that includes one medical school and $48 for each additional school. If you are experiencing financial hardship, the AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program may waive your AMCAS fee, and the Jacobs School will waive its supplemental fee too.

After AMCAS processes your application, you will get an email confirming that it has gone to your schools. When the Jacobs School receives your AMCAS application, it sends you an acknowledgement email with directions to its supplemental application and fee payment. There is no screening step before the supplemental application: every applicant whose AMCAS application reaches the school gets the link.

Secondary applications are unique to each medical school. They usually include essay prompts that help the admissions committee learn more about you, your values, ambitions and motivations. The Jacobs School supplemental application has a $100 nonrefundable fee, payable by credit card (Mastercard, Visa or Discover). Before you pay, check that you are eligible, because there are no refunds for administrative withdrawals. Your application will not be processed until the fee is received. As part of the supplemental application, you will also be asked to agree to the school’s technical standards for students with and without disabilities.

For further clarification about the differences between the AMCAS primary application and a school-specific application, read this article.

Interviews, decisions and enrollment

The Jacobs School invites about 600 applicants to interview between August and March. Regular MD decisions begin in December 2026 and continue on a rolling basis, and applicants are notified electronically. Acceptance notices for the 2027 entering class go out from December 17, 2026, through July 16, 2027. If you are accepted, you must respond within one week and pay a $100 deposit, refundable until May 1, 2027, and applied to tuition. Accepted students planning to enroll must select “Plan to Enroll” in the AMCAS Choose Your Medical School tool by April 30 and “Commit to Enroll” by mid-June. Under special circumstances, the Associate Dean of Admissions considers written requests for deferred admission.

2026-2027 timeline

The school also holds virtual information sessions from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern, including November 4 and December 2, 2026, and January 6, 2027. Group tours are available for college pre-medical clubs, and the school offers a virtual tour; individual, after-hours and weekend tours are not available.

Reapplying

If you were not admitted, you may reapply through AMCAS. Reapplicants receive the same consideration as first-time applicants. You can contact the admissions office at [email protected], or your premedical advisor, for help analyzing your original application and finding ways to strengthen it. Use the time between cycles to fix the specific weakness you identify, not just to add hours.

Tuition, Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid

SUNY Buffalo Medical School Tuition and Cost of Attendance

Students who plan to attend the Jacobs School need to budget for tuition and fees and also for living expenses and other costs. As a public school, it charges New York residents much less than non-residents. The school describes itself as offering an excellent education “at a reasonable price.”

Tuition for 2026-27

For the 2026-2027 academic year, MD tuition is the same for every class year:

*For students who establish New York residency after one year as a non-resident (one year non-resident, three years resident). Eligibility for New York State tuition is based on residency and on showing that New York is your permanent and principal home (Jacobs School MD Tuition and Fees).

Cost of attendance for 2026-27

The school’s estimated cost of attendance adds university fees, medical school charges, educational expenses and living costs to tuition:

A few details explain the differences between years:

• First year (Class of 2030) includes a one-time computer cost within the $6,743 estimate for books, supplies, equipment and course materials, plus medical school charges for the Foundations of Patient-Centered Care course ($535), a USMLE-Rx subscription ($250) and ExamSoft ($66).
• Third year (Class of 2028) includes Behling Simulation Center fees of $180 per clerkship for several clerkships, totaling $1,080.
• Fourth year (Class of 2027) includes residency applications ($1,500), optional away-elective applications ($1,000) and an estimated $5,000 for residency interviews.
• Equipment you will buy includes a sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, otoscope and ophthalmoscope, reflex hammer, tuning fork, measuring tape and handheld eye charts.

Health insurance is not part of these estimates, so plan for it separately. Tuition and fee rates can change, and enrolling in certain courses may add fees.

Applying for financial aid

More than 90% of Jacobs School medical students receive some form of financial assistance through loans, scholarships, loan repayment programs and tuition waivers. The FAFSA is required for scholarship consideration. Incoming first-year students should complete it by June 1, and current students should update it each year, preferably by October 1. Your estimated cost of attendance and other financial aid information are available in your HUB Student Center once you are a student. UB’s financial wellness coaches and the AAMC FIRST resources can also help you plan. Among 2024-2025 graduates who borrowed, average medical school debt was $236,321, so a borrowing plan matters from your first year.

Scholarships

In keeping with its pledge to keep medical school affordable, the Jacobs School awards partial scholarships to one-quarter of its incoming medical students. Scholarships are based on demonstrated need, academic merit and community engagement. Scholarship applications open around March 1 and are awarded on a rolling basis from mid-April through July. Students can review criteria and apply through the UB Scholarship Portal.

Students with exceptional need may also qualify for the Economically Disadvantaged First Professional Study Program (EDPS), which provides partial tuition waivers to full-time medical students and is funded by New York State and participating institutions. Military scholarships such as the Army, Navy and Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program are another option for students interested in military service.

Campus Facilities and Student Life

A downtown medical campus

Since 2017, the Jacobs School has been based in a 628,000-square-foot building at 955 Main Street, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo. Buffalo General Medical Center and the Gates Vascular Institute are on the same campus.

Key teaching spaces include:

• Gross Anatomy Lab, with 32 dissection tables, onsite specimen storage and large screens linked to a live feed.
• Behling Simulation Center, a 12,000-square-foot center with eight flexible clinical rooms and more than 50 simulation scenarios, from traumatic injury and pediatric septic shock to kidney disease and teen pregnancy. It is designed for collaborative, interprofessional health sciences education.
• Margaret Wendt Clinical Competency Center, with 18 exam rooms where students practice histories, physical exams and difficult conversations with standardized patients.
• Research labs working on cancer, neurodegenerative disease, addiction, pain, autoimmunity and infectious diseases.
• The Brain Museum, a stop on the school’s group tours.

Living in Buffalo

The school describes the region as having “a neighborly way of life, an unpretentious nature and spirited loyalty among residents.” Buffalo’s cost of living is part of the school’s affordability case: the 2026-27 living budget is $25,474 for most class years. If you have never visited, try to spend time in the neighborhoods around the medical campus before you decide.

Learning communities and support

Every student belongs to a learning community with a faculty coach. Learning communities are the base for the Foundations of Patient-Centered Care course and for reflection during I-CARE weeks. At the Class of 2030 White Coat Ceremony, each student’s Learning Community neighborhood was read aloud along with their name and hometown. The school’s collegial culture is one of its strongest selling points; one student described UB as “a very supportive community – not a competitive place at all.”

The Office of Medical Education oversees student and academic affairs, curriculum and admissions. UB Accessibility Resources works with medical students on reasonable accommodations; the school states a strong commitment to disability inclusion and encourages students with disabilities to apply.

Student organizations

Jacobs School students run a wide range of groups, including:

• Specialty interest groups such as the Emergency Medical Student Association, Family Medicine Interest Group, Neurosurgical Interest Group, OB/GYN Interest Group, Orthopedic Interest Group, PsychSIGN Buffalo, Radiology Interest Group and the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Interest Group.
• Service groups such as UB HEALS, a student-run street medicine program serving people experiencing homelessness in Buffalo; Prescription for Warmth, which provides hats, gloves and socks for frostbite victims and people in need; and Heart Smart, which teaches elementary students about the heart and healthy lifestyles.
• Special interest groups such as the Global Health Interest Group, Doctors for Soldiers, the Christian Medical and Dental Association, the Student Wellness Committee, the Outings Club, the Wilderness Medicine Club and Docappella, the medical school’s a cappella group.

The Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic

The Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic is managed entirely by medical students. The nonprofit, drop-in clinic provides free routine and preventive care to uninsured patients in Buffalo at the Community Health Center of Buffalo, 34 Benwood Avenue. Services include gynecological exams, screenings for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and counseling and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Students work with dietetics, social work, dental, pharmacy and public health students, residents and local physicians. Two first-year medical students started the idea in 1998, and the clinic opened in 2001 in the basement of Resurrection Lutheran Church at Genesee and Doat streets. Students from every class year are encouraged to volunteer (Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic).

For applicants, the Lighthouse Clinic and CommunityConnect are good examples of the kind of student work the school values. If your own experience includes free-clinic or community health work, they are natural points of connection in your secondary essays and interviews.

Clinical Rotations and Research Opportunities

Where students train

Clinical training happens across the affiliated hospitals listed above, so you will rotate through several health systems instead of one university hospital. The school’s own description is simple: “Rather than just one hospital, you’ll train in several.” Its distributed system connects students with patients from all walks of life and a wide range of conditions, and with faculty practicing throughout the region. Expect to move between sites such as Buffalo General, Erie County Medical Center, Golisano Children’s Hospital, Roswell Park and the VA during Phase 2, and to build comfort with different electronic records and team styles along the way.

Research for MD students

During your first year, the school explains the research options available and, if you want to pursue research, connects you with a faculty mentor whose work matches your interests. Many students do research in the summer between the first and second years. You can continue during the second year if it does not interfere with your studies, and you can choose research as an elective in your third and fourth years. Every Well Beyond student also completes the health sciences scholarly project.

Summer research options at the Jacobs School include:

• a pediatric primary care clinical research internship focused on asthma for a rising second-year student;
• an eight-week emergency medicine summer research program in which students enroll patients in studies at Erie County Medical Center;
• an eight-week family medicine research assistantship on primary care, health services and underserved populations;
• an orthopaedic summer research program;
• a summer psychiatry clinical experience for two students;
• paid summer fellowships in eye and vision research;
• a seven-week pediatric research program;
• Department of Surgery summer research positions for underrepresented minority students; and
• a Fellowship in Community Engagement, Administration and Leadership.

The school also helps students find summer research at other institutions and year-long research fellowships during academic leave, such as NIEHS Fellowships in Environmental Medicine (Jacobs School MD Research Opportunities).

Global health

The Global Health Scholars Track trains a cohort of four first-year students each year through lectures, peer-led workshops, global health grand rounds and mentorship from faculty, residents and peers. In the first two years, scholars design a service-learning project for a community of interest. In the third and fourth years, they may travel to that community to carry out the project, and they present their results to the Global Health Committee at the end of the fourth year. The track’s clinic locations are three clinics in Sierra Leone, one in Nepal and one in Buffalo. Its goals stress ethical engagement with low- and middle-income communities and sustainable, community-led approaches to health disparities.

If you are drawn to this track, show the committee that you understand ethical global health work: long-term partnerships, local leadership and follow-up, not short trips alone. Applicants who have done pre-med internships abroad can write about what they learned regarding supervision, continuity of care and the limits of a visitor’s role.

Residency match

At Match Day on March 20, 2026, 44 members of the Class of 2026, 24% of the class, chose to stay at the Jacobs School for residency. The specialties with the most UB matches were internal medicine (eight), psychiatry (six), family medicine (five), anesthesiology (five), obstetrics and gynecology (five) and surgery (four). Other graduates matched at programs including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University, Brown University, the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University and Yale University (Jacobs School Match Day 2026).

The Jacobs School also sponsors more than 70 residency programs in affiliated hospitals across Western New York, which is one reason so many graduates stay in the region. Jacobs School students “do as well as, or better than, the national average on licensing exams.”

Notable Alumni, Faculty, Leadership and Admissions Staff

The people below hold verified roles at the Jacobs School or its affiliated training sites. Knowing who leads the school, who runs admissions and who teaches can help you understand its priorities. Do not name-drop them in essays unless you have a real connection to their work.

Leadership

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean. Dr. Brashear became UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School in 2021, and she also serves as president and CEO of UBMD Physicians’ Group. She is a neurologist and a leading authority on ATP1A3-related diseases, a group of rare neurological disorders, and has received continuous NIH funding since 2008. She was the first to describe rapid-onset dystonia-Parkinsonism and led the pivotal New England Journal of Medicine trial showing that botulinum toxin works for wrist and finger spasticity after stroke. Before UB, she was dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine and chair of neurology at Wake Forest. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2025, sits on the AAMC board, was named chair-elect of the AAMC Council of Deans Administrative Board in 2024 and serves on the Council of Deans LCME Advisory Group.

David A. Milling, MD ’93, Executive Director of the Office of Medical Education and Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education. Dr. Milling is also a Jacobs School alumnus. He oversees the Offices of Student and Academic Affairs, Medical Curriculum and Medical Admissions. He earned both a pharmacy degree and his MD at UB and completed internal medicine residency at UB as chief resident. He has twice won the Louis A. and Ruth Siegel Award for Teaching Excellence and previously served as associate dean for multicultural affairs, director of the Post-Baccalaureate Program and director of the Science and Technology Entry Program. Post-baccalaureate program inquiries still go to his office. At the White Coat Ceremony he called the event “one of our most important” traditions.

Alan J. Lesse, MD, Associate Dean for Medical Curriculum. Dr. Lesse coordinates and implements everything related to the curriculum, including development, educational research, outcome evaluation and teaching quality. He is an associate professor of medicine, pharmacology and toxicology, and microbiology and immunology, and vice chair for education in the Department of Medicine.

Admissions and student affairs

Fred D. Archer III, MD, Associate Dean for Admissions. Dr. Archer leads and manages every part of the MD admissions process. A Western New York native, he has been in the Department of Pediatrics since 2004 and is a clinical assistant professor and interim chief of General Pediatrics. He has served on the admissions committee and as the department’s diversity and inclusion advocate, and he is president of the Buffalo chapter of the National Medical Association. He was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2017 and has served on the board of the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network since 2020. He graduated from Cornell University, earned a master’s degree from UB and received his MD from Howard University College of Medicine in 2001. At the White Coat Ceremony, he read each new student’s name, hometown, college and learning community.

Laura E. Yusick, JD, Director of Admissions. Ms. Yusick directs the Office of Medical Admissions at 955 Main Street and is the contact the school lists for questions about the application process and for reapplicants.

Samantha Bordonaro, MD, Assistant Dean for Student and Academic Affairs. Dr. Bordonaro, an assistant professor of emergency medicine, works in student affairs. She presented the 2026 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award at the Class of 2030 White Coat Ceremony.

Faculty

Alysia V. Kwiatkowski, DO, Assistant Dean for Medical Curriculum. Dr. Kwiatkowski is also director of educator development in the Medical Education and Educational Research Institute (MEERI) and a clinical associate professor of medicine. In her keynote to the Class of 2030, she said the best physicians “notice what they don’t know. They notice the people around them. They notice the person behind the illness.” Applicants preparing for the third secondary essay will find that message useful.

Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chief of Infectious Disease. Dr. Russo has been chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UB since 2009 and at the VA Western New York Healthcare System since 2024, and a UB professor of medicine since 1994. His research focuses on gram-negative bacteria, including the hypervirulent form of Klebsiella pneumoniae, with the goal of developing vaccines, antibodies and new antibiotic targets. He teaches first- and second-year students in lectures and small groups, teaches clinically at the Buffalo VA Medical Center and welcomes students interested in research in his lab (UB faculty profile).

Adnan H. Siddiqui, MD, PhD, FAHA, UB Distinguished Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurosurgery. Dr. Siddiqui joined UB Neurosurgery in 2006 and specializes in microsurgical, radiosurgical and endovascular treatment of cerebrovascular disease, including aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. He has more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, serves as CEO and chief medical officer of the Jacobs Institute, a medical technology innovation center, and leads UB’s Canon Stroke and Vascular Research Center. He received the 2021-2022 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

Dheerendra Prasad, MD, MCh, FACRO, Professor of Radiation Medicine, Neurosurgery and Oncology. At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the Jacobs School’s training sites, Dr. Prasad is chief of Gamma Knife Radiosurgery, director of central nervous system and pediatric radiation services and medical director of the Department of Radiation Medicine. He holds a Jacobs School faculty appointment as well. His work is a good example of the depth of cancer and neuroscience care students see at Roswell Park.

Alumni

Michael R. DiGiacomo, MD ’09, Associate Director of Medical Education. Dr. DiGiacomo, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry, received the 2026 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, chosen by the Class of 2026 graduates. In presenting it, Dr. Bordonaro said he creates “a therapeutic space for patients and learners.” He shows how many Jacobs School graduates stay to teach the next generation.

Witzard Joseph Seide, MD ’09, FAAP. Dr. Seide is one of the Jacobs School graduates who speak to military applicants. He says serving as an active-duty physician “equipped me with invaluable life experiences and training.” His path is a useful example for applicants considering the Health Professions Scholarship Program.

Other Jacobs School graduates who share their experience with applicants include Sergio Hernandez, MD ’06, who completed a psychiatry residency in 2010, and recent graduates who used the summer research program between first and second years to build careers in pediatrics and other fields.

Admissions Statistics and Class Profile

SUNY Buffalo Medical School Acceptance Rate and Admission Statistics

The Jacobs School does not publish an acceptance rate. What it does publish is clear about how selective the process is: about 600 applicants are invited to interview each cycle, which the school describes as about 8% of applicants. Interview invitations are not offers, so the share of applicants who receive an acceptance is lower than 8%.

For the 2025 entering class, the school received 6,264 verified applications (2,158 from New York residents, 4,063 from out-of-state applicants and 43 from international applicants), interviewed 562 applicants (457 in-state and 105 out-of-state) and enrolled 186 students (170 in-state and 16 out-of-state). That is 562 interviewed out of 6,264 verified applications, about 9.0%. No count of acceptance offers is published, so no true acceptance rate can be calculated.

Source: AAMC MSAR, 2026 edition, 2025 entering class (AAMC Data Warehouse, Applicant Matriculant File as of October 29, 2025; interview counts reported by the school).

Here are the most recent entering class figures, for the Class of 2030, which began in July 2026:

Source: Jacobs School, “White Coat Ceremony Welcomes the Class of 2030,” July 2026.

How to read these numbers

• Applicants versus seats. 6,894 applicants competed for a class of 188 (180 MD and 8 MD-PhD). The number of students who enroll divided by the number of applicants is not an acceptance rate, because some admitted applicants choose other schools.
• Averages, not cutoffs. A 511 average MCAT and 3.8 average GPA describe the middle of the class. Accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class had a median MCAT of 511 and a median GPA of 3.85. Some students scored higher and some lower, and the school publishes no minimum.
• Residency mix. With 89% of the class from New York, out-of-state applicants should be realistic. In the 2025 entering class, out-of-state applicants filed 4,063 of 6,264 verified applications and received 105 of 562 interviews. The school welcomes and accepts many out-of-state applicants each year, but the preference for New York residents, especially Western New Yorkers, is part of its policy.
• The interview is a separate hurdle. Interviewers do not see your metrics, so your interview performance is judged on your competencies alone, and the Admissions Committee then considers everything together.
• Where graduates head. In the 2025 Graduation Questionnaire, the most common specialty intentions were internal medicine (14.2%), psychiatry (10.0%), anesthesiology (8.3%) and emergency medicine, family medicine and pediatrics (7.5% each).

Tips and Strategies for Admission

The Jacobs School’s process is unusually transparent about what it values. Use that. These strategies translate the school’s stated priorities into concrete steps.

1. Make your Western New York connection, or your reason for Buffalo, specific

The first secondary essay asks how Western New York and the Jacobs School align with your values and why it is a place to “continue your career.” If you grew up in the region, name the neighborhoods, hospitals and people that shaped you. If you did not, do not invent a tie. Explain what you value, such as training across several hospital systems, caring for an urban and rural mix of patients or the school’s tradition of graduates staying in the region, and show evidence from your own life that you value it.

2. Build sustained service with one community

“Commitment to service” and community engagement appear throughout the school’s criteria. Two years with one free clinic, refugee resettlement program or youth organization will say more than ten short experiences. Look for work where you build relationships over time, similar to what CommunityConnect and the Lighthouse Clinic ask of medical students.

3. Get real patient contact

The Well Beyond curriculum puts you in front of patients within two months, and the third essay asks for a clinical encounter that challenged your assumptions. You need clinical experiences deep enough to produce that kind of story. Paid roles like scribing, medical assisting and EMT work are excellent, and well-supervised clinical internships for pre-med students can add hands-on experience. Whatever you choose, take notes on patients and moments that surprised you, so you have material when secondaries arrive.

4. Practice the competencies out loud

Because interviewers are blinded to your academic record, your interviews have to show the competencies on their own. Prepare short, specific stories for teamwork, reliability, resilience, empathy, ethical responsibility and service orientation. Practice telling each one in about two minutes, with what you did, why and what you learned.

5. Show how you work in small groups

Phase 1 is built on case-based inquiry, with student-led small groups meeting twice a week, and on learning communities. The second essay asks about inclusion in a learning environment. Think about times you helped a team work better: drawing out a quiet member, crediting someone’s idea, giving or receiving feedback well. Those moments are relevant for both essays and interviews.

6. Plan your letters and coursework early

Make sure your required courses are taken in person, that labs are not virtual and that at least half of your prerequisites are done before you apply. If your college has a pre-health committee, use it; otherwise, line up three letters, including one from a science professor, well before you submit AMCAS. For most applicants, internships for pre-med students and research jobs are also good places to find a supervisor who can write a detailed letter about your work with patients or in a lab.

7. Return the supplemental application quickly

Interviews start in August and run on a rolling basis. The supplemental application becomes available in July and is due December 1, but waiting until late fall puts you behind many applicants who will already have interviewed. Pre-write drafts of all three essays as soon as you submit AMCAS, and plan to return the supplemental within about two weeks of receiving it.

8. Think carefully about Early Decision

If the Jacobs School is your clear first choice and your credentials are strong, Early Decision gives you an answer by October 1. If you are on the fence, apply in the regular cycle so you can build a balanced list.

9. If you are reapplying, change something real

Reapplicants are considered the same way as first-time applicants, so your new application has to be stronger on its own. Ask the admissions office or your advisor what held your file back. Then spend the year on that weakness: a better MCAT, a full-time clinical role, new service or a reworked personal statement. Well-designed pre-med gap year programs can be one part of that plan if they give you supervised, patient-facing work and a story you can reflect on.

Secondary Application Questions, Example Responses and Analysis

SUNY Buffalo Medical School Secondary Application: Essay Prompts, Sample Answers, and Advice

Secondary applications are a critical part of applying to medical school. The essay prompts and questions in the secondary application give you the chance to show the admissions committee why you are the best fit for their school and what makes you stand out.

The Jacobs School secondary at a glance:

• Who receives it: every applicant, by email, once the school receives the AMCAS application. There is no screen before the secondary.
• Fee: $100, nonrefundable, waived for AAMC Fee Assistance Program recipients and for members of the military.
• Deadline: December 1, 2026, at 5 p.m. Eastern for the supplemental application and all required materials (August 31 for Early Decision; October 1 for MD-PhD). The school strongly encourages early submission.
• Questions for 2026-2027: three required essays of 300 words or less, plus three optional short-answer questions about your parents’ occupations, military service and Jacobs School programs you have attended.
• Also in the secondary: questions about your ties to New York State, such as where you live and went to school, and an acknowledgement of the school’s technical standards. Answer the residency questions exactly and consistently with your AMCAS.
• MD-PhD applicants: follow the MD-PhD instructions in your application. MD-PhD-specific questions for this cycle are not published.

Compared with last cycle, the 2026-2027 secondary keeps the Western New York fit essay. It replaces the question about responding to a classmate’s racist or homophobic remark with a broader question about a time you saw someone marginalized, and it replaces the feedback question with a clinical encounter that challenged your assumptions.

These are some helpful tips to keep in mind as you work through secondary applications:

• Read all parts of each essay prompt and question carefully.
• Give concrete evidence from your academic, professional or extracurricular experiences.
• Do not repeat information you have already given in your AMCAS application.
• Proofread your answers.
• Write clearly and concisely.
• For additional help, consider our medical school admissions consulting service.

Every example below is an Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay. Each was written from scratch to show structure and reflection, and the applicant details are invented for teaching. Do not copy them; your answers must describe your own experiences. If you are writing several secondaries at once, our medical school secondary essay prompts database collects prompts from other schools.

Essay #1: Western New York and the Jacobs School

“The Jacobs School of Medicine recognizes the many options you have in choosing medical schools in which to apply. Using personal experiences or connections, in 300 words or less, explain how Western New York and/or the Jacobs School align with your values, making it a place you feel would be a good fit for you to not only complete your medical education but continue your career.”

Limit: 300 words or less. Who answers: all applicants.

What it asks. Four things: a personal experience or connection, the values behind it, how Western New York and/or the Jacobs School match those values, and why you would want to stay for your career, not just for medical school. The “and/or” gives you room. If you have no tie to the region, you can focus on the school, but you still need to address the career half.

How to approach it. Start with a short scene that shows a value in action. Name the value plainly. Then connect it to two or three specific, verified features of the school or region: CommunityConnect partners, a training site, the Lighthouse Clinic, the Global Health Scholars Track, the MD/MPH. End with a believable picture of your future in the region. Avoid listing every program; choose the ones that match your story.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (280 words):

My grandfather spent his working life at a steel plant in Lackawanna, and he spent his last year on dialysis three mornings a week at a unit off Main Street. I drove him to many of those sessions during my sophomore year. In the waiting room I met a retired bus driver from the East Side who took two buses to get there, and a young mother from Riverside who brought her toddler along. Their treatment was the same as my grandfather’s. Their path to it was not.

Those mornings shaped what I value: care that reaches people where they live, and a long commitment to one community. Western New York is where I learned both. It is also where I want to build my career, because patients here travel far, wait long and still show up.

The Jacobs School fits those values in specific ways. Through CommunityConnect, I would spend three semesters with a Buffalo community organization. After two years with a parenting group in Black Rock, I hope to work with the Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network. Training across Erie County Medical Center, Buffalo General, the VA and Golisano Children’s Hospital would put me in front of the same mix of patients I met in that waiting room. I also want to join the Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic, which medical students run for uninsured patients.

I plan to practice internal medicine and nephrology here. I want to be the physician who notices that a patient took two buses to arrive, and who works with the team so the next visit is easier. I want to learn that at the Jacobs School and keep doing it in Western New York.

Why it works. It answers each part of the prompt: a personal connection (the grandfather’s dialysis and the waiting room), the values that came from it (access and long commitment to one community), why Western New York fits, why the Jacobs School fits, and a career plan that stays in the region. Every school detail is real: CommunityConnect and its partner the Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network, the affiliated hospitals and the student-run Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic. The specialty goal is stated without overcommitting.

Mistakes to avoid. Listing programs without a personal reason. Praising Buffalo in general terms (“a great city with friendly people”). Forgetting the “continue your career” half of the question. Claiming a regional tie you do not have.

Essay #2: Observing someone being marginalized

“In 300 words or less, please describe a time when you observed someone being marginalized whether through a subtle remark, a dismissive comment or their perspective being overlooked. How did you respond in the moment and what informed your decision-making? How has this experience influenced your commitment to an inclusive learning environment in medical school?”

Limit: 300 words or less. Who answers: all applicants.

What it asks. Three questions in a row: what you observed, how you responded in the moment and why, and how the experience shapes your commitment to an inclusive learning environment in medical school. Notice the examples in the prompt: “a subtle remark, a dismissive comment or their perspective being overlooked.” The school is asking about everyday moments, not only dramatic ones.

How to approach it. Pick a real moment where you were present and had a choice. Spend about a third of your words on the scene, a third on your response and reasoning, and a third on what it means for how you will act in medical school. If you did not respond well in the moment, you can say so honestly and explain what you learned and what you do now. That can be stronger than a heroic story.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (293 words):

In my second year in a microbiology lab, our weekly meeting turned to a stalled experiment. Mei, a visiting graduate student from Shanghai, suggested we were washing the plates too harshly. Her English was careful and slow, and the senior student talked over her before she finished. Ten minutes later a postdoc offered almost the same idea, and the group praised it as a breakthrough.

Mei looked down at her notebook. No one had been rude in an obvious way, but her idea had been erased.

I was the most junior person in the room, and I hesitated. What decided it for me was something my mother, who moved here from Lagos, once said: being ignored in a meeting taught her to stop speaking up. I did not want Mei to learn that lesson in our lab. So I said, “I think that builds on what Mei raised earlier about the wash step. Mei, did you have a protocol in mind?” She did. Afterward I asked her privately whether my comment had been helpful or awkward, because I did not want to speak for her. She said it helped, and asked me to keep doing it.

The moment taught me that exclusion often looks like ordinary conversation, and that the person with the least power can still change the direction of a room by naming whose idea it was.

In medical school I expect to spend many hours in small groups, especially in case-based inquiry sessions and in my learning community. I want to be the classmate who notices who has not spoken, credits ideas accurately and checks in afterward. An inclusive learning environment is built in small moments like that one, and I want to help build it at the Jacobs School.

Why it works. The essay answers all three questions in order: what happened (a subtle overlooking of a colleague’s idea), how the writer responded and what informed the decision (a family experience and the writer’s own low status in the room), and how it shapes a commitment to an inclusive learning environment. It shows judgment by checking in with Mei instead of assuming. It links to real parts of the Jacobs curriculum: case-based inquiry in small groups and learning communities.

Mistakes to avoid. Choosing a dramatic incident with no reflection. Casting yourself as a hero or the other person as a villain. Describing what you would do in theory instead of what you did. Skipping the third question about medical school.

Essay #3: A clinical encounter that challenged your assumptions

“In 300 words or less, please describe a clinical encounter that challenged your assumptions.”

Limit: 300 words or less. Who answers: all applicants.

What it asks. One clinical encounter, one assumption you held and how the encounter changed your thinking. The prompt is short, so the committee will judge you on your honesty about your own assumption and the quality of your reflection.

How to approach it. Name the assumption early and plainly. Describe what you saw or heard that challenged it, using details you were actually in a position to know. Then show how you think or act differently now. Choose an encounter from a role you really held, such as scribe, medical assistant, EMT, volunteer or intern, and do not claim clinical decisions you did not make. Protect patient privacy by changing names and identifying details.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (276 words):

During my year as an emergency department scribe, I heard one patient’s name more than any other. Darnell was 24 and came in with asthma attacks almost every month. The staff called him a regular. I did too, in my head, and I assumed he was not taking his inhalers.

One night in February he came in again, and the attending asked him to walk her through a normal day. I typed while he talked. He worked overnight at a warehouse loading trucks in an unheated bay. His controller inhaler cost more than he could pay each month, so he used it only when he felt bad. He kept his rescue inhaler in his car, because phones and bags were not allowed on the floor. By the time he could reach it, the attack had already started.

Nothing he said suggested he did not care. He cared enough to keep coming back.

The attending did not lecture him. She switched him to a lower-cost controller, wrote a letter so he could keep an inhaler at his station, and asked the social worker to see him before discharge. He did not come back the next month, or the one after that.

That encounter changed how I listen. I had heard “frequent visits” and filled in a story about the patient. The real story was about his job, his budget and a workplace rule. Now, when I catch myself reaching for a label, I try to ask the question the attending asked: what does a normal day look like for you? I want to bring that question into every patient interview I learn to do in medical school.

Why it works. It names the assumption plainly (the patient is not taking his medicine), shows the moment that challenged it, and explains how the writer’s practice changed. The clinical detail is concrete but appropriate for a scribe, and the writer does not claim to have treated the patient. The closing ties the lesson to the patient interviewing skills the Jacobs curriculum builds from the first months of school.

Mistakes to avoid. Choosing an encounter where your assumption was never really tested. Blaming the patient or the staff. Inventing a role you did not have. Ending with a vague line about empathy instead of a specific change in how you act.

Optional question: Parents’ occupations

“If your parents DO NOT work in a health care field, please list their occupation.”

Limit: 1,000 characters. Who answers: optional; applicants whose parents do not work in health care.

What it asks. Just the facts: each parent’s occupation. Keep it short and factual.

Worked response pattern. Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (217 characters):

Mother: School bus driver for a public school district in Erie County (18 years); currently a route supervisor. Father: Machinist at an auto parts plant in Tonawanda (22 years); member of the plant’s safety committee.

Why it works. One line per parent, with occupation, type of employer and years of work. It answers the question and nothing more.

Mistakes to avoid. Turning this into an essay, adding hardship detail that belongs in your AMCAS, or leaving it blank when it applies to you.

Optional question: Military service

“If you or your parents are active military, please describe below:”

Limit: 5,000 characters. Who answers: optional; applicants who are, or whose parents are, active military.

What it asks. A short description of your own or your parents’ active military service. You do not need to use the full 5,000 characters.

Worked response pattern. Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (563 characters):

My mother serves in the New York Army National Guard as a sergeant first class and is currently on active orders as a supply noncommissioned officer at a base in Western New York. She has served for 19 years, including one overseas deployment while I was in high school. During that deployment I took on care of my younger brother after school and helped my grandmother manage her medications.

I am not a service member myself. I am interested in the Army Health Professions Scholarship Program and have spoken with a recruiter, but I have not signed a contract.

Why it works. It states who serves, the branch and component, current status and length of service, adds one sentence on how service affected the applicant and ends with a clear statement of the applicant’s own status. If you are under a military contract yourself, say so here, and remember that the school requires anyone under contractual obligation to request permission to apply.

Mistakes to avoid. Overstating a family member’s rank or role, or implying you have accepted a scholarship you have not.

Optional question: Jacobs School programs

“If you have participated in any educational program sponsored by our medical school, please list programs and dates.”

Limit: 5,000 characters. Who answers: optional; applicants who took part in a program sponsored by the Jacobs School.

What it asks. A list of Jacobs School-sponsored programs and the dates you took part, such as EOPIM, the AMSNY/Jacobs School Post-Baccalaureate Program, the Interview Assurance Program or the High School Program.

Worked response pattern. Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (406 characters):

Early Opportunity Program in Medicine (EOPIM), through Canisius University: October 2023 to May 2025. Research with a Jacobs School faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology; paired with a medical student peer mentor; attended MCAT preparation sessions.

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences High School Program group tour, with my high school’s science club: April 2019.

Why it works. Each program is listed by its official name, with how the applicant took part and exact dates, most important first.

Mistakes to avoid. Listing general UB undergraduate activities that the medical school did not sponsor, guessing at dates or adding commentary the question does not ask for.

Writing tips for the whole secondary

• Draft early. The three required essays are new or largely new this cycle, so start them as soon as you submit AMCAS.
• Use different stories. Essays 2 and 3 can both draw on clinical or team settings. Make sure each one uses a different experience.
• Count your words. “300 words or less” is a hard limit. Write to about 260 to 290 words to leave room for edits.
• Be consistent. Your residency answers, experiences and dates should match your AMCAS exactly.

Interview Format and Preparation

The format

The Jacobs School invites about 600 applicants to interview between August and March each cycle. Its admissions policy describes a structured process:

• Two blinded interviews per applicant, with a third at the Admissions Committee’s discretion.
• Interviewers do not see your academic metrics. They assess “non‑academic professional competencies” and mission-aligned attributes.
• Interviewers come from a 40-member Interview Subcommittee of admissions deans and directors, full-time and volunteer faculty, local physicians, medical students and community professionals. All complete annual training in mission-aligned evaluation, structured interviewing and implicit bias mitigation.
• Narrative evaluations from your interviewers are presented to the Admissions Committee, which reviews every interviewed applicant.

The Jacobs School offers both in-person and virtual interviews and has no preference between them. In-person interviews run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays from August to March, and virtual interviews are scheduled at the convenience of interviewers and applicants. Invitations go out continuously from August 1 to March 31, and there are no regional interviews. If you are also applying to MD-PhD, you will interview with both the Regular MD and MD-PhD committees.

How to prepare

1. Know your application. Interviewers have not seen your scores but may know your experiences and essays. Be ready to talk about anything you wrote.
2. Prepare competency stories. Have two or three stories each for teamwork, empathy, reliability, resilience, ethical responsibility and service orientation. Keep each to about two minutes.
3. Practice “why Buffalo” and “why Western New York.” Expect a version of the first secondary essay in conversation. Be specific and honest.
4. Think about inclusion and assumptions. The new secondary prompts suggest the school values reflection on inclusion and on clinical assumptions. Be ready to discuss both with examples you did not use in your essays.
5. Learn the curriculum. Know what case-based inquiry, learning communities, clinical immersions and CommunityConnect involve, and be ready to say how you would contribute.
6. Prepare questions. Ask about learning communities, CommunityConnect placements, research mentoring, the distributed hospital system or the Global Health Scholars Track.
7. Practice with feedback. Record yourself or do mock interviews with someone who will give you honest feedback on clarity and length.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo a good medical school?

Yes. It is an LCME-accredited public MD school founded in 1846, with full accreditation since 2019. In the 2025-26 U.S. News edition it was Tier 2 for both research and primary care, and its graduates match at programs across the country while many stay in Western New York. Whether it is a good school for you depends on your goals, budget and interest in training across several Buffalo hospitals.

What GPA and MCAT do I need for the Jacobs School?

There is no minimum. The Class of 2030 averaged a 3.8 GPA and a 511 MCAT, and accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class had a median GPA of 3.85 and a median MCAT of 511. Treat those averages as a reference point, not a cutoff, and remember that interviewers do not see your metrics, so the rest of your application has to carry you through the interview stage.

What is the Jacobs School acceptance rate?

The school does not publish an acceptance rate. It does say it invites about 600 applicants, about 8% of the pool, to interview each year. The Class of 2030 had 6,894 applicants and 188 entering students, but that ratio is not an acceptance rate, because some admitted students enroll elsewhere. For the 2025 entering class, 562 applicants were interviewed out of 6,264 verified applications, about 9.0%.

Is the Jacobs School hard to get into for out-of-state applicants?

It is harder. When qualifications are equivalent, the school prefers New York residents, especially from Western New York, and 89% of the Class of 2030 came from New York. The school also says it welcomes and accepts many out-of-state applicants each year. If you are out of state, make your reasons for choosing Buffalo specific and credible.

Does the Jacobs School require Casper?

No. Casper is not among the school’s requirements. For 2026-2027, the school recommends but does not require the AAMC PREview exam, and it will not use PREview scores to evaluate applications in this cycle.

Can international students or DACA recipients apply?

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. There is no separate admissions route for international or DACA applicants, so if your status is different, email the admissions office before you apply.

How old can my MCAT score be?

No more than three years. For this cycle, the school accepts scores from June 2023 through September 2026, and the September 2026 test dates are the latest it considers.

What prerequisites does the Jacobs School require?

Two semesters each of biology with lab, general chemistry with lab, organic chemistry with lab, physics (lab optional) and English, all taken in person. You need at least half of them done when you apply. The school also recommends four social science courses, two humanities courses, statistics, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

Can I take prerequisites online?

The committee prefers in-person courses with letter or number grades. Some online coursework from spring 2020 to fall 2021 may be accepted, but virtual labs are not. If you took prerequisites online outside that window, contact admissions before applying.

How many letters of recommendation does the Jacobs School require?

Either a pre-health committee letter or three letters, including at least one from a science professor. Letters must come through the AMCAS Letter Service. The school’s policy allows up to seven letters in total. Graduate students may submit three letters from graduate professors instead of undergraduate letters.

Does the Jacobs School require shadowing or clinical hours?

No specific number of hours is published. The school values life experiences, community engagement and commitment to service, and its curriculum starts patient contact in the second month. Plan for sustained, patient-facing experience and service, not a checklist of hours.

What is the Jacobs School interview like?

Each invited applicant has two blinded interviews, and the committee may add a third. Interviewers do not see your grades or MCAT and focus on professional competencies and fit with the school’s mission. You can interview in person or virtually, and the school has no preference between the two.

Does the Jacobs School have Early Decision?

Yes. You apply only to the Jacobs School, submit AMCAS by August 1 and the supplemental by August 31, and hear by October 1. If you are not accepted, you are released to apply elsewhere.

Does the Jacobs School offer an MD-PhD program?

Yes. The Medical Scientist Training Program is fully funded, and students graduate in about seven years on average. The supplemental deadline is October 1, and applicants interview with both the MD and MD-PhD committees.

How much is tuition at the Jacobs School?

For 2026-27, tuition is $46,470 for New York residents and $71,190 for non-residents. The school’s full first-year estimate, including fees, books and living costs, is $83,330.86 for residents and $108,050.86 for non-residents. Health insurance is extra.

Does the Jacobs School offer scholarships?

Yes. It awards partial scholarships to one-quarter of incoming students based on need, merit and community engagement, and more than 90% of students receive some form of financial aid. The FAFSA is required and should be completed by June 1 for incoming students.

What is the Well Beyond curriculum?

Well Beyond is the Jacobs School’s MD curriculum, started in July 2024. It has three phases: about 14 months of foundational science with case-based small groups, clinical immersions and community service learning; integrated 12-week clerkship blocks; and an expanded residency preparation phase with 14 four-week modules.

Can I transfer into the Jacobs School?

No. The Jacobs School does not accept transfer applicants.

Does the Jacobs School help students who were not admitted?

Yes, in two ways. Reapplicants are considered the same as first-time applicants, and the admissions office or your advisor can help you review your application. The school also refers some applicants to the AMSNY/Jacobs School Post-Baccalaureate Program, which gives a provisional acceptance to students who complete it.

What kind of clinical experience helps for the Jacobs School?

Sustained, patient-facing work where you build relationships over time, such as scribing, medical assisting, EMT work, free-clinic volunteering or supervised clinical internships. The secondary asks about a clinical encounter that challenged your assumptions, so choose experiences that let you get to know patients, and keep notes so you can reflect on them later.

Related Medical School Guides

The Jacobs School is a strong school. But with 188 seats and a preference for New York residents, there is no guarantee, so apply to a balanced list. These guides are good places to start:

• Albany Medical College: a private upstate New York MD school, a natural comparison for applicants who want to train outside New York City.
• SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Medicine: another SUNY medical school, in Brooklyn, useful for New York residents comparing public tuition options.
• Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University: the SUNY medical school on Long Island, often on the same lists as the Jacobs School for New York applicants.
• CUNY School of Medicine: a public New York City option with a strong community health focus, a contrast to Buffalo’s regional mission.
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine: a research-intensive Bronx MD school for applicants weighing the Jacobs School’s MD-PhD and research options.
• Hofstra Zucker School of Medicine: a Long Island MD school with a distinctive curriculum, a good comparison for applicants who like the Jacobs School’s case-based small groups.
• Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons: a highly selective New York City school for applicants with strong academic records who are applying across the state.
• University of Rochester Medical School: the closest MD school to Buffalo, about an hour east, for applicants focused on Western and Central New York.

For a side-by-side look at every option in the state, see our guide on how to get into New York medical colleges. If you are deciding how many highly selective schools to include, read should you apply to the hardest medical schools to get into?

More medical school guides

Are you considering applying to other medical schools in New York, or do you want to know how the Jacobs School compares with other schools? Check out the other medical school guides on IMA’s website, especially if you have been asking yourself, “What are the best medical schools near me?”

New York

• Hofstra Zucker School of Medicine
• Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• University of Rochester Medical School
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
• Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• New York Medical College
• NYU Medical School

Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey

• Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED)
• University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
• University of Toledo College of Medicine
• Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
• Ohio State University College of Medicine
• Case Western Medical School
• University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
• Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (in Pennsylvania)
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
• Drexel University College of Medicine
• Perelman School of Medicine
• Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine
• Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (HMSOM)
• Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS)
• Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU)

Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South

• Yale School of Medicine
• Harvard Medical School
• Boston University College of Medicine
• Brown Medical School
• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• University of Maryland School of Medicine
• George Washington University School of Medicine
• Georgetown University School of Medicine
• VCU School of Medicine
• University of North Carolina Medical School
• Wake Forest University School of Medicine
• Emory University School of Medicine
• University of Florida Medical School
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Midwest

• Saint Louis University School of Medicine
• University of Missouri Medical School
• Kansas City University (KCU)
• UMKC School of Medicine
• A.T. Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Washington University School of Medicine
• University of Wisconsin Medical School
• Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago

Texas

• 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
• 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

California and the West

• UCLA Medical School
• USC Keck School of Medicine
• UC San Diego Medical School
• UC Davis School of Medicine
• UC Riverside School of Medicine
• California University of Science and Medicine
• California Northstate University College of Medicine
• Touro University of California
• CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Western University of Health Sciences (in California)

Caribbean

• St. George’s University School of Medicine

How International Medical Aid Can Help

Medical School Admissions Consulting

We try to provide the most thorough and accurate information possible for future physicians. Applying to and getting into medical school is a difficult process, and we understand how overwhelming it can be. One of the best ways to keep your application process on track and make your application as competitive as possible is to get professional help from IMA’s medical admissions consulting service. A consultant can help with your personal statement, your answers to the Jacobs School’s Western New York, inclusion and clinical encounter essays, and practice for two blinded interviews. Students who want to learn more about this service can schedule a consultation with International Medical Aid.

IMA is an independent organization. It is not affiliated with the University at Buffalo or the Jacobs School, and taking part in an IMA program does not affect admission decisions at the Jacobs School or any other school.

Voluntary Healthcare Internships

Our intensive, patient-facing pre-med shadowing study abroad programs help students gain hands-on clinical experience. IMA runs medical internships abroad for pre-health students in Kenya and other locations, including sites in East Africa, South America and the Caribbean. In our programs, interns work in hospitals and clinics under supervision: they take vitals, do patient intake and triage and help with direct patient care for communities with limited access to care. Our pre-health internships fit a summer or a gap year, our medical internships for undergraduates are designed for college students building their first clinical experience, and you can compare all of our healthcare internships abroad on one page.

The Jacobs School’s essays ask what you value, how you respond when someone is overlooked and how a patient changed your thinking. Clinical work in a setting very different from home can give you material for all three, especially if you reflect on what you learned about access to care, communication across languages and the limits of your role. The strongest applications pair that experience with sustained clinical and service work closer to home, ideally in Western New York.

Final Thoughts and Sources

Good Luck!

We wish you the best of luck in applying to medical school and in your future career in medicine. The keys to success are taking your time, developing an application strategy and asking for help when you need it.

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is a strong choice if you want a public MD program with deep roots in Buffalo, early patient contact, case-based small-group learning, a distributed hospital network and a clear commitment to Western New York. Your next step depends on where you are. If you are in the 2026-2027 cycle, submit AMCAS before November 15, return your supplemental application well before December 1 and prepare for two blinded interviews. If you are planning for a future cycle, take the MCAT within the three-year window, finish your prerequisites in person and build sustained clinical and community experience you can reflect on. If you feel you need more personalized help, contact IMA and get guidance from one of our medical admissions consultants. Thank you for reading, and good luck on your journey.

Sources

Facts in this guide were checked against these sources on October 23, 2026. Cohort and academic-year labels appear with each figure above.

• Jacobs School MD Admissions: How to Apply, Admissions Requirements (MCAT window, letters, PREview, 2026-2027 dates), Required and Recommended Courses, Interview and Selection Process, Admissions Policies (mission), Admissions Timeline, Supplemental Application, Reapplying, Military Applicants, Early Decision Program, Special Programs, Early Assurance Program (EOPIM) and the AMSNY/Jacobs School Post-Baccalaureate Program.
• Jacobs School Faculty Council, Admissions Policies of the Jacobs School (revision approved August 26, 2026): requirements, citizenship, residency preference, committees, interviews, transfers and technical standards.
• Jacobs School MD Program: Tuition and Fees, 2026-2027 Estimated Cost of Attendance, Financial Assistance, Scholarships, Joint and Dual Degree Programs and Why Choose Our MD Program.
• Jacobs School Curriculum: Curriculum overview, Well Beyond Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 pages, Training Sites, Clinical Immersion Sites, Research Opportunities and the Global Health Scholars Track.
• Jacobs School MD-PhD Program, How to Apply.
• Jacobs School, “White Coat Ceremony Welcomes the Class of 2030” (July 2026): Class of 2030 profile.
• Jacobs School, Match Day 2026 (March 20, 2026), and “U.S. News” news release (April 8, 2025, 2025-26 edition tiers).
• Jacobs School Office of Accreditation and Quality Improvement (LCME accreditation), Our History, Leadership and Administration, Medical Alumni Association, Tours, Medical Student Clubs, Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic and the Interview Assurance Program.
• Profiles: Allison Brashear, Fred D. Archer III, David A. Milling and Alan J. Lesse (Jacobs School Leadership); faculty profiles of Thomas A. Russo and Adnan H. Siddiqui (UB); Dheerendra Prasad (Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center).
• 2026-2027 secondary prompts: Med School Insiders, MedCoach and Shemmassian Academic Consulting current-cycle prompt lists, checked October 23, 2026 (prompt wording only).
• AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR), 2026 edition, Jacobs School profile, accessed October 23, 2026: accepted-applicant MCAT and GPA, applications, interviews and matriculants (2025 entering class), interview format, acceptance and deposit dates, estimated new entrants, premedical experience, specialty intentions (2025 Graduation Questionnaire) and average graduate debt (LCME Part I-B, 2024-2025).
• AAMC: AMCAS, MCAT, PREview and Premed Competencies for Entering Medical Students.