How to Apply

1. Residency History: List each permanent residence, starting with your place of birth and the number of years at each residence. Please list the City, State, County and the amount of time you lived there.
   • Which of these would you consider your hometown?
   • What is your state of current permanent residence? This would be where your driver’s license is from and/or what state you pay taxes in.
   • List the high school, city, state, county and zip code you graduated from.
   • Do you or have you lived in a Minnesota Red River Valley County? If yes, please list the county. 
   • Are you a current resident of a WICHE-sending state of Wyoming or Montana?
2. Excluding online degrees, are you, or will you be at the time of matriculation, a graduate of a North Dakota college or university?
3. Are you currently serving in the military, and if so, do your orders place you in North Dakota?
4. Excluding online degrees, do you have a first-degree family member (mother, father, sibling, child or spouse) who is attending or is a graduate of a North Dakota college or university? List family member(s) and the college or university they attended.
5. Do you have family members who have permanent residence in North Dakota? List the family members, their relation to you, and what city in North Dakota they currently live in.
6. INMED Program only: The following question is used to identify applicants for the Indians into Medicine (INMED) Program only. For information regarding this program, contact Don Stopa (donald.stopa@UND.edu). If not applicable, proceed to the next Question Set. If applicable, answer the following questions below:
   • Are you an enrolled member of a U.S. federally recognized tribe?
   • Do you agree to have your application shared with the INMED office? If you answer no to this question, you will not be reviewed for the INMED program.
7. The primary purpose of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences is to educate physicians and other health professionals for subsequent service in North Dakota and to enhance the quality of life of its people. Please explain how your past medical/clinical and community service experiences and your career goals are consistent with this purpose. (1,200 characters)
8. Describe an ethical dilemma that presented itself to you. Identify your choices, potential consequences and your resolution of the dilemma. In hindsight, what did you learn about yourself? (1,200 characters)
9. Describe and reflect on a specific experience you have had with people of a different socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, cultural or religious/spiritual background than yourself. What preconceived notions did you have prior to the experience? How did the experience challenge your preconceived notions? (1,200 characters)
10. The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences invests in the discovery of knowledge that benefits the people of this state and enhances the quality of their lives. Reflect on your personal experience with the process of scientific discovery. What aspect was most frustrating? Most rewarding? How might these lessons be transferable to the practice of medicine? (1,200 characters)
11. Reflect on an experience in which you demonstrated creativity and innovation, where you generated an idea and implemented it to achieve an outcome. Examples may include a musical or theatrical performance, work of art, publication, invention, start-up, public service or any other major production or installation. How did this performance or work enrich the lives of others? (1,200 characters)
12. The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences is a community-based medical school, and because of the unique circumstances of our regional location, we place special emphasis on the unique skills needed to provide care for patients and populations in rural and Native American communities across all competencies. Reflect on a specific health care disparity affecting rural and/or Native American populations that you may have engaged with or studied and how you, as a future physician, might help to alleviate that disparity. (1,200 characters)
13. Reflect on your role in a particularly impactful leadership or team experience in which your efforts resulted in a meaningful outcome. (1200 characters)
14. What are your career plans if you do not ever get admitted to medical school? (600 characters)
15. If needed, update the information in your AMCAS application (i.e., grades in recent courses, alterations in your proposed coursework or graduation, additions to extracurricular activities, unreported legal and institutional infractions, etc.). (600 characters)
16. Are you currently enrolled in a grant-funded and/or degree-granting postbaccalaureate program and/or advanced degree? If so, what is your timeline for completion? (600 characters)
17. Have you participated in any of these UND pathway programs (indicate all that apply):
    • Scrubs Camp
    • Scrubs Academy
    • HOSA Future Health Professionals
    • HIPAA training for grades 7-12 to shadow
    • Med Prep
    • Summer Institute
    • Pre-Med Day
    • TRIO/Student Support Services
18. UND SMHS Reapplicants Only: When was your previous application, and, subsequently, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? Note any relevant academic, employment, clinical, and personal experience and/or development. If you requested feedback from the Office of Student Affairs & Admissions regarding a previous application, please list how you addressed that feedback. (1,200 characters)
19. Have you read the UND SMHS Standards of Capacity policy, and are you prepared to meet these standards with or without reasonable accommodations?

On the Secondary Application, you have the opportunity to address any changes or additions you would like to have considered in your application. However, once you have submitted the Secondary Application, you will not be able to make any changes to it. It is final. No changes can be made to any part of the Primary or Secondary Application. If you have the opportunity to interview, you may correct the information at the interview.

It is important to have a variety of letter writers (college instructors, faculty, supervisors, etc.) who know you well and can address the personal characteristics noted in the section on Selection Criteria. Non-traditional applicants who have been out of school for several years may choose to include more letters from supervisors than faculty.

Types of letters as defined by AMCAS:

• A Committee Letter is a letter authored by a pre-health committee or pre-health advisor and intended to represent your institution’s evaluation of you. A Committee Letter may or may not include additional letters written in support of your application.
• A Letter Packet is a packet or set of letters assembled and distributed by your institution, often by the institution’s career center. A Letter Packet may include a cover sheet from your pre-health committee or advisor; however, in contrast to a Committee Letter, a Letter Packet does not include an evaluative letter from your pre-health committee or advisor.
• An Individual Letter refers to a letter authored by, and representing, a single letter writer.

UND SMHS requires three letters of recommendation. 

Choose one of the following options to satisfy the letters of recommendation requirement:

• Option 1: Submit three Individual Letters of recommendation. If you submit more than three letters, only the first three will be forwarded to the Medical School Admissions Committee.
• Option 2: A Committee Letter (which we count as equivalent to two letters of evaluation) AND one Individual Letter of recommendation, which is not part of your Committee Letter.
  • A Committee Letter, regardless of how many additional letters it contains, counts as only two letters of recommendation. To meet the requirement of three letters of recommendation, you must submit one more individual letter. For many applicants, this final letter is from a supervisor.
• Option 3:  A Letter Packet, which will account for all three letters of recommendation required. This cannot include an evaluative letter from your pre-health committee or advisor per AMCAS Letter Packet definition.

Any applications that do not have the required minimum of three letters submitted through the AMCAS letter service by the November 1, 2025 deadline will be considered incomplete and withdrawn from consideration.

Any application that includes only a Committee Letter at the deadline—regardless of its contents—will be considered incomplete and withdrawn from consideration for having only two letters. It is your responsibility as the applicant to ensure the correct number and types of letters are submitted.

The Admissions committee will only review the first three letters submitted. Committee Letters always count as two letters, no matter the number of letters attached. An additional letter submission would be required to meet the three-letter requirement. Letter packets count as all three required letters of recommendation. It is the applicant's responsibility to verify the correct letter type is selected for the letters of recommendation submitted.

The absence of any required material will lead the Committee to consider the application as incomplete and will prevent consideration of the application. An application is complete after the following credentials have been submitted:

• Verified AMCAS application and transcripts
• MCAT Scores that are no older than three years as of January 1 of the current application year
• Secondary Application and Fee
• Letters of Recommendation

When we have received all the required application materials, you will receive an email notifying you that your application is complete. If you do not receive this email, it means that your application is incomplete. The Office is unable to assume responsibility for notifying applicants of missing credentials. If you have any concerns about the completeness of your application, contact the Office before the deadline. If you contact us after the deadline to inquire about an incomplete application, it will be too late to change the status of your application.

To ensure a fair and equitable process for all applicants, we are unable to accept additional materials once your application has been submitted. If you have updates or corrections, you may include them in your Secondary Application or discuss them during your interview, if offered.

The first step in the process is to review an applicant's primary and secondary applications to determine if our residency requirement is met.

Applicant Residency Eligibility

Next, starting at the beginning of September 2025, the Admissions Committee members will thoroughly review all completed applications that meet the residency preferences.

• Interviews are held virtually to help keep costs down for applicants and ensure an equitable process for all.
• The Medical Student Admissions Committee reviews applications on a rolling basis and sends interview invitations as applications are evaluated. Interviews take place on select Fridays and Saturdays from October 2025 through January 2026, and spots are limited.
• You'll receive interview invitations by email with scheduling instructions. To ensure timely scheduling, we ask that you respond within two to three business days. Check your junk and spam folders regularly. It’s your responsibility to reply on time.
• You’ll receive an additional email at least one week before your interview with full details about the interview day.

• All interviews are scheduled in Central Time. Please be sure to account for time zone differences when selecting your interview time.
• Check in at least 10 minutes early for your virtual interview. Admissions staff will greet you, verify your photo ID and take your picture.
• The interview will last approximately 45 to 60 minutes and will be conducted by a three-member team from the Medical Student Admissions Committee: a basic scientist, a clinician and a medical student. One person will serve as the lead interviewer, but all members will ask questions.

You’ll be invited to attend a Q&A session with current medical students:

• Fridays: 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
• Saturdays: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

You’ll receive the link for your Q&A session with your interview details. If you’re unable to attend the session on your interview day, email saa@UND.edu to request access to a different session.