Howard University College of Medicine MD Admissions Guide (2027)

Quick facts

• Entry cycle: Fall 2027; Howard expressly says the 497 MCAT interview-eligibility threshold begins with the 2026–27 application cycle. HUCM admission
• Location: Washington, District of Columbia; HUCM publishes no state-residency requirement. HUCM admission
• Academic screen: Science GPA 3.0 or above and total MCAT 497 or above are the published interview-eligibility thresholds; meeting them does not guarantee an interview or admission. Requirements
• PREview: Recommended, not required. Requirements
• International applicants: Accepted on a limited basis; accepted international students must submit financial information by June 30. HUCM admission Requirements
• Interview season: September through late April; the school says an interview is required for acceptance. Requirements

Admission requirements

Applicants must earn 71 semester hours or the equivalent at an accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university. Required coursework is biology with lab, inorganic chemistry with lab, organic chemistry with lab and physics with lab at eight semester hours each; math or statistics at six hours; biochemistry at three hours; English at six hours; and humanities at six hours. Anatomy and physiology, cell biology, developmental biology and embryology, genetics, neuroscience and microbiology are recommended. Requirements

The MCAT is required. For Fall 2027, Howard publishes a minimum total score of 497 and science GPA of 3.0 for interview eligibility. The requirements page says only MCAT scores from the three years before matriculation are considered and that the exam may be taken no later than January of the admission year, but it does not translate that policy into an exact Fall 2027 test-date window. HUCM admission Requirements

AAMC PREview is recommended rather than required. Applicants use AMCAS and submit recommendations through AMCAS. Howard accepts a health-professions committee letter; a college letter packet containing at least two letters from science faculty who taught and graded the applicant; or individual letters, at least two of which must be from such science faculty. Howard publishes no upper letter limit. Requirements

Howard has no state-residency requirement and accepts international applicants on a limited basis. The current pages do not publish a citizenship restriction. HUCM admission

Important dates

For the current process, secondary invitations are sent to verified applicants from August through January, with the first invitations around August 15. Interviews run from September through late April. The first acceptance notifications are sent October 15. The AMCAS deadline is December 15, and the secondary deadline is January 15. Dates and deadlines Requirements

The dates page also lists February 19 for Plan to Enroll, April 15 to narrow offers, April 30 when Commit to Enroll becomes available and May 1 through June 12 as Howard's Commit to Enroll enforcement period. Dates and deadlines

Material cycle caution: the same page's good-faith deposit, enrollment-fee and orientation section expressly refers to July 2026 matriculation and 2026 payment dates. Those accepted-student dates belong to the prior entering class and must not be presented as Fall 2027 dates. The exact Fall 2027 deposit, enrollment-fee, orientation and matriculation dates remain unpublished.

How selection works

Howard describes a holistic review that considers academic achievement and potential, intellectual, personal and social traits, interest in addressing health disparities, and experience working or volunteering with underserved communities. Requirements

For Fall 2027, applicants need at least a 3.0 science GPA and a 497 total MCAT to be considered interview-eligible. Howard expressly says that meeting minimum requirements does not guarantee an interview or admission. HUCM admission Requirements

Howard reports interviewing about 400 applicants per year and begins acceptance notifications October 15. Dates and deadlines

The school does not publish numerical selection weights, a pre-interview formula beyond the stated eligibility thresholds, an interview score or weight, a committee-vote rule, or a final score-combination method.

Interview details

Confirmed

An interview is required for acceptance. Interviews take place from September through late April, and selected applicants receive an emailed invitation approximately three weeks before proposed interview dates. The applicant chooses from the dates offered. Requirements

Not published

A separate Howard page says an interview could be in person or virtual, but that page also contains fellowship and residency-recruitment language and does not cleanly establish the current MD format. The MD admissions pages do not publish a definitive Fall 2027 modality, location, number of interviews, one-to-one, panel or MMI structure, duration, interviewer roles, file access, question categories, preparation time, scoring rubric, weights, assessor calibration or final score-combination method. Applicants should rely on their invitation for current logistics and format.

Who this program may suit

Howard's admissions pages emphasize academic preparation together with interest in solving health-disparity problems and experience serving underserved communities. Its published class basics also state a tradition of training physicians of many races, ethnic groups, religions and nationalities. HUCM admission Requirements

Applicants should be ready to connect their own sustained service, community learning and patient-care goals to concrete health needs without treating mission language as a substitute for evidence. The special Howard BS/MD pathway has different published thresholds and is not the same record as traditional MD admission.

Practice and next step

Record one response to the featured prompt. Explain the community or patient need, what you learned from the people affected, the evidence you used, the action you took and how you would measure whether it helped. Keep the answer specific to your own work.

Review whether the response demonstrates service, judgment and respect rather than simply repeating Howard's mission. Record it again with one improvement, then compare both attempts. Because Howard has not cleanly published the Fall 2027 interview structure, keep practice adaptable and switch to the invitation's exact format when it arrives.

Frequently asked questions

What GPA and MCAT does Howard require for Fall 2027?

Howard publishes a science GPA of at least 3.0 and a total MCAT of at least 497 for interview eligibility beginning with the 2026–27 application cycle. These thresholds do not guarantee an interview or admission. HUCM admission

What are the application deadlines?

AMCAS is due December 15 and the Howard secondary January 15. The current dates page includes some accepted-student dates from the prior Fall 2026 entering class, so those later fee and orientation dates should not be reused. Dates and deadlines

Is AAMC PREview required?

No. Howard lists PREview as recommended, not required. Requirements

What is the interview format?

An interview is required and the season runs from September through late April, but the current MD pages do not cleanly publish the modality, structure, duration or scoring for Fall 2027. Requirements

Sources

Verified August 11, 2026. Current official sources used:

• HUCM Admission and Aid — canonical identity, Fall 2027 MCAT threshold, residency, international eligibility and holistic-review summary.
• Requirements and Procedures — coursework, MCAT, PREview, letters, secondary process and interview season.
• Dates and Deadlines — application and interview timeline; its Fall 2026 accepted-student dates were quarantined.
• Interview Selection — consulted but not used to establish a definitive MD modality because the page also contains fellowship and residency-program language.