Yes. Online lecture courses from an accredited US or Canadian school may be used to meet JABSOM’s prerequisite requirements.
JABSOM will continue to accept online lab courses from 2020 – until further notice. Online lab courses may be used towards fulfilling prerequisite requirements for General Biology, General Physics, General Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry as outlined in the Admissions Requirements section.
If you have a question about whether the course meets the requirements, you can email us a copy of your course syllabus for review.
Prospective and current applicants are encouraged to seek assistance from their health careers advisor on their campus before applying. This also pertains to applicants that have been out of school. The Admissions Office does not advise applicants as to the appropriate college courses that should be taken nor do they review transcripts prior to application. For premed advising, please visit the Pre-Health and Academic Advising (PAC) or Medical Student Mentorship Program (MSMP) websites for more information.
JABSOM Admissions will answer any questions regarding the admissions process for the MD program or clarification on science prerequisite courses. Please visit the Admissions Requirements page for more information.
JABSOM requires a composite recommendation from your school’s premedical committee or a packet containing a minimum of 2 individual letters from your school. If your school does not have a premedical committee, a minimum of two individual letters is required. If you are in graduate school, a letter from your thesis advisor is recommended as one of the two required letters.
Please submit all letters through AMCAS using one of their acceptable forms of receipt. Most applicants submit between 4 and 6 letters of recommendation, however, AMCAS will allow you to submit up to 10 letters of recommendation. For more information, please refer to the Secondary Application section in the Steps to Apply page.
Selected applicants will be invited for interviews. The interview process begins from August through mid-February.
Applicants will go through three interviews:
The Admissions Office does not provide tours/visits of the School of Medicine except for students selected to interview as part of the Admissions process. For general tours of the campus, please contact Melia Young, Director of JABSOM Event Management Services.
To take a Virtual Tour, please visit the Campus Tours page.
To qualify for resident tuition, you must have been a bona fide resident of Hawaiʻi for at least one calendar year (365 days) prior to the semester for which you want resident tuition status. This applies to adults 18 years of age or older. If you are a minor (under 18 years of age), your parents or court-ordered guardians must have been bona fide residents for the calendar year in question.
In addition, whether you are an adult or minor, you must not have been claimed as a dependent for tax purposes by your parents or court-ordered guardians for the calendar year in question if they are not legal residents of Hawaiʻi. For more information regarding Hawaiʻi residency requirements for tuition purposes, visit the UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Residency page.
International applicants who completed courses at an international school should follow the instructions provided on the AMCAS website for entering coursework and requesting transcripts.
If any of the courses were taken at a foreign institution, but credit was accepted through an accredited U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian post-secondary institution and the courses appear on that official transcript, then that U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian post-secondary institution’s official transcript would be required. AMCAS will verify and include those courses in the AMCAS GPA. For instance, a course may have been taken through a study-abroad program sponsored by an American school, but hosted in a foreign country.
JABSOM does not ordinarily consider requests for advanced standing (transfer) to the MD Program. Transfer to JABSOM is a rare occurrence and consideration is reserved for only those who demonstrate compelling circumstances. It requires that a student be in good standing at an LCME accredited medical school in the US or Canada and has completed at least two years of medical school training in a medical school with a curriculum comparable to our Problem-Based Learning curriculum. Consideration for advanced standing is contingent upon space availability in the clinical years.
At this time, we do not have any space available. Please see the Admissions Policy for Advanced Standing for more information.