Application Service (TMDSAS)
Section Overview of the Application
TMDSAS strongly recommends that you print out the following overview so that you can refer back to it while filling out the application.
The TMDSAS online application consists of thirteen sections, each section must be saved individually. It is imperative that you save each page BEFORE moving to the next page. Information will be lost if you do not save each page. Following is an overview of each section.
* Important - Be sure to proofread your application thoroughly BEFORE submitting. Applications will be forwarded to the schools exactly as they are submitted. You can print a copy of your application by going to the [Status of Application & Documents Received] page and clicking on [Formatted/Printable Application].
In Section 1 you will begin by selecting the schools to which you wish to apply. You will also indicate if you are applying through any Special/Assured Admission Program, if applicable.
General information is requested in this section such as: preferred name, other last names which may appear on your academic records, place of birth, current occupation, active duty military service, parental, family and hometown information.
* Instructions for Parent Information (questions 8-11):
- If name of parent is not known, put "Unknown" in First and Last Name field.
- If place of birth is not known, put "Unknown" in City field - you MUST select a state for the State field.
- If parent is retired or deceased, please list his/her former occupation in the Occupation field.
- If parent is living, you MUST enter information in the following fields: Occupation, Address, City, Zip Code, Phone Number and How Long Lived at this Address. Enter "Unknown" if occupation, address and city are not know. You MUST select a state. Enter "N/A" if zip code is unknown. Put zeros if the phone number is not known.
- If parent is deceased, the Address, City, State, Zip Code, Phone Number and How Long Lived at this Address fields can be left blank.
Section 2 - Residency Core Questions
Section 2 contains questions regarding your citizenship, state of legal residence, etc. These questions will determine whether you are classified as a Texas resident or a non-resident.
Applicants who are not US citizens MUST provide TMDSAS with a copy of both sides of their Permanent Resident card or Visa stamp in their passport. The copy should be single-sided on a full sheet of paper and have a white background. An application will NOT be processed until we receive these copies. It is best if the copies are mailed in with the signed Certification Page, application fee and photos.
A non-US citizen must indicate his/her country of citizenship and complete the required information regarding his/her Visa. If you do not have a visa or if you do not know your Visa or resident alien number, enter zeroes and we will correct the information once we receive a copy of your Permanent Resident card or Visa. If your Permanent Resident card has no expiration date, please enter 01-01-2010 in the expiration date boxes. If you do not have a visa, enter today's date as the issue date and 01-01-2010 as the expiration date.
Section 3 - Academic Background
In this section you will enter your high school information. If you received your GED in place of graduating from high school, please answer question 1 in the following way:
Question 1 - High School Information:
Name: GED
School Code: enter 7 zeroes in place of a school code
City/State/Texas County/Zip: enter name of city, state, county and zip code in which you
obtained your GED
Year Graduated: enter the year you received your GED
Class Size: enter “N/A”
Class Rank: enter “N/A”
In this section you will also list every college/university at which you have attempted coursework, regardless of whether credit was earned. Include the school you are currently attending or any additional school you may plan to attend before entering medical/dental/vet school. List each school in chronological order of attendance and only once for each type of degree, even if there was a break in attendance. If there was a break in attendance, indicate the term and year of the first time attended and the term and year of the last time attended in the dates of attendance (from/to) section of the question. If you attended the same school for undergraduate and graduate or professional programs, list attendance for each program separately.
You will be able to search for each school's FICE code by clicking the [Perform School Search] button after entering the name of your college. If you are unable to find a match in the search, manually enter the name and location of your college and enter 6 zeroes as the FICE code. If listing a foreign college or university, enter the country in the [City/Foreign Country] field and leave the [State] field blank. You will also need to enter 6 zeroes as the FICE code (unless found in school search).
We require an official transcript from every college ever attended regardless of whether the courses you took counted towards your degree or not.
The "Degree Received or Planned" question applies to each specific institution you list. Answer “No” unless you actually received a degree or plan to receive a degree that is currently in progress from that institution.* Instructions for entering foreign schools attended :
Enter the name and location of each foreign college/university you attended. If you participated in a formal Study Abroad Program sponsored by a U.S. college or university, you DO NOT need to list the foreign school separately since the coursework completed in the formal Study Abroad Program will be reported on the transcript of the sponsoring U.S. college/university.
If the courses are listed as TRANSFER hours on a U.S. transcript you MUST list the foreign school. For further information refer to the Foreign Coursework section on the [Essentials For Applying] page. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please e-mail us at: TMDSAS@utsystem.edu
Section 4 - Principle College, Evaluation Letters & Planned Coursework
In this section, you will indicate if you were ever in an Honor's program, your principle undergraduate college, principle graduate college, whether or not you have future coursework planned (Summer 2008 to Summer 2009), and if you were admitted under the Academic Fresh Start provision.
* Important : If the information you enter in this section changes at any time, you MUST notify TMDSAS of the change so that we can update the schools. For example, if you enter that you plan on taking coursework in Spring 2009 but then decide not to – you MUST notify TMDSAS of that change (via email).
In Section 4, you will also list who will be sending your evaluation letters to TMDSAS. Detailed information on evaluation letter requirements can be found in the [Application Instructions] section of the website.
Section 5 - Medical, Dental and Veterinary School Information
This is where you will list the dates that you took or plan to take the MCAT/DAT/GRE. You will also list any non-TMDSAS schools that you are currently applying to or have previously applied to. Applicants will also be asked to indicate if they have previously been accepted to or attended medical/dental school. Please provide requested information even if your previous application was for medical school and your current application is for dental school, or vice versa.
Complete information concerning MCAT/DAT/GRE requirements for application can be found in the [Application Instructions] section of the website.
* Important: Any change in planned test dates MUST be immediately reported to TMDSAS in writing by regular mail, e-mail or fax. Failure to do so will cause your application to be incomplete which could effect the evaluation of your application at one or more of the participating schools.
Section 6 - Personal Biography
In section 6, you will answer a series of questions pertaining to academic honors, research activities, health care related jobs/volunteer work, extracurricular activities, office/leadership positions, jobs held in college, etc.
Proof your answers thoroughly AFTER the section has been saved. Your answers will be sent to the schools exactly as they appear. TMDSAS will not contact you about incomplete answers or margin cut-offs. Corrections to grammatical or typographical errors will not be made after your application is submitted to TMDSAS. Therefore, it is imperative that applicants proof their applications thoroughly BEFORE they submit it to TMDSAS.
Applicants should enter all text responses in the application just as they would like the school to see them, avoiding use of ALL CAPS or all lower case. Most schools prefer answers that follow normal writing practices regarding case.
Section 7 - Chronology of Activities
Your chronology should be a general accountability of your time since graduating from high school. List all significant activities such as attending college, working, serving in the military, serving on a mission, traveling, etc. These activities must be listed in chronological order beginning with high school graduation. Indicate the exact dates (month and year) and a brief description of the activity. Always include end dates. Indicate the name and location of all colleges you attended. When listing work, specify the dates of employment, type of work, city/state, and approximate hours worked per week.
USE DATE FORMAT SHOWN BELOW. Any chronologies submitted that do not use the format below or have gaps in time may cause your application to be considered incomplete with the medical, dental or veterinary schools.
Example:
1. What have you done since graduating from high school - when and where did you do it?
5/2004 - 5/2004: Graduated from William B. Travis High School, Austin, TX
6/2004 - 8/2004: Attended summer school at Austin Community College, Austin, TX
8/2004 - 5/2008: Attended Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
6/2005 - 8/2005: Ace Construction, Dallas, Texas, Carpenter, 50 hrs/wk, summer job
9/2005 - 5/2006: Tutoring job with Texas A&M University Reads & Counts; 6 hrs/wk; Tutored math and reading to elementary students; College Station, TX
12/2005 - 1/2006: Shadowed Dr. Smith, family practice, 5 hrs/wk; Austin, TX
6/2006 - 8/2006: Worked at CVS as a pharmacy technician; 25 hrs/wk; Austin, TX
8/2006 - 8/2006: Took MCAT
5/2008 - 5/2008: Graduated from Texas A&M University with BS in Biology2. What do you plan to do between the present and planned entry date (August 2009) into Medical, Dental or Veterinary School?
5/2008 - 8/2009: Work as Research Assistant I, UT Health Science Center San Antonio; 40 hrs/wk; San Antonio, TX
9/2008 - 8/2009: Volunteer at Prenatal Clinic; 10 hrs/wk; San Antonio, TX
Your personal essay should explain your motivation for seeking a career in medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine. Consider and write your personal essay carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on this section.
If you are applying to both medical and dental school you will need to prepare two different essays (one for each discipline). Essays should be no more than 62 lines of text and 80 characters per line. Spaces and symbols count towards your character limit. The application will only save 62 lines of text - 80 characters per line.
DO NOT cut and paste your essay into the text box. To avoid formatting issues, you must type your essay directly in the TMDSAS application rather than cutting and pasting your essay from other software. Cutting and pasting your essay may cause one of the following to happen when you click on the 'SAVE' button: the answer will be saved, but any data exceeding the limit will be automatically deleted; data on the right hand margin or end of your essay will be cut off once the work is saved.
It is important that you proof your essay thoroughly AFTER it has been saved. Your essay will be sent to the schools exactly as it appears. TMDSAS will NOT contact you about incomplete essays or margin cut-offs. You will not be given the opportunity to correct any grammatical or typographical errors in your essay once it has been submitted to TMDSAS.
Section 9 - Personal Essay for MD/PhD, DO/PhD, DDS/PhD or JD/MD Applicants
Only those applicants that marked in Section 1 that they are applying to a dual degree program will be required to complete this section. Two essays are required for MD/PhD, DO/PhD and DDS/PhD applicants. One essay is required for JD/MD applicants.
The first essay should explain your motivation to seek a dual degree (MD/PhD, DO/PhD or DDS/PhD). Discuss your research interests and career goals as appropriate for an applicant to a dual degree program. Essays are limited to 62 lines of text and 80 characters per line. Spaces and symbols count towards your character limit. The application will only save 62 lines of text - 80 characters per line. JD/MD applicants will be asked to explain their motivation to seek a dual degree and discuss their interests and career goals.
The second required essay should describe your significant research experiences. Include the name and title of your research mentor and your contributions to the project. Also list any publications, awards or presentations, which have resulted from your research. Again you are limited to 62 lines of text and 80 characters per line. Spaces and symbols count towards your character limit. The application will only save 62 lines of text - 80 characters per line.
DO NOT cut and paste your essays into the text box. To avoid formatting issues, you must type your essays directly in the TMDSAS application rather than cutting and pasting your essays from other software. Cutting and pasting your essays may cause one of the following to happen when you click on the 'SAVE' button: the answer will be saved, but any data exceeding the limit will be automatically deleted; data on the right hand margin or end of your essay will be cut off once the work is saved.
It is important that you proof your essays thoroughly AFTER they have been saved. Your essays will be sent to the schools exactly as they appear. TMDSAS will NOT contact you about incomplete essays or margin cut-offs. You will not be given the opportunity to correct any grammatical or typographical errors in your essays once they have been submitted to TMDSAS.
Section 10 - Special Experiences
The first optional question allows you to briefly state any unique circumstances or life experiences that are relevant to your application. This area is provided so that you may address any issues, which have not previously been addressed. (This is not an area for you to continue your essay or to reiterate what you've previously stated.)
The second optional question asks you to describe any personal characteristics and/or important or challenging experiences you have had that will contribute to the diversity of or provide educational benefits to the student body.
DO NOT cut and paste your essays into the text box. To avoid formatting issues, you must type your essays directly in the TMDSAS application rather than cutting and pasting your essays from other software. Cutting and pasting your essays may cause one of the following to happen when you click on the 'SAVE' button: the answer will be saved, but any data exceeding the limit will be automatically deleted; data on the right hand margin or end of your essay will be cut off once the work is saved.
It is important that you proof your essays thoroughly AFTER it has been saved. Your essays will be sent to the schools exactly as they appear. TMDSAS will NOT contact you about incomplete essays or margin cut-offs. You will not be given the opportunity to correct any grammatical or typographical errors in your essays once they have been submitted to TMDSAS.
Section 11 - Record of College Work
Section 11 is where you will list all of your college level courses for each school that you previously listed in Section 3, question 2. You should have your transcript in front of you when filling out this section.
If you find that you forgot to add a school, SAVE your current work, go back to Section 3, add the school in question, SAVE this information, then proceed to Section 11 to fill in the courses taken.
* Important: If the information you enter in this section changes at any time, you MUST notify TMDSAS of the change immediately so that we can update the schools. If you enter that you plan on taking coursework in Spring 2009 but then decide not to – you need to notify us of that change via email.
General Instructions and Guidelines:
You need to have ALL of your transcripts at this point. Record your college work in chronological sequence per individual transcript. DO NOT group by subject. List the course work as it appears on the transcript.
Only coursework from accredited US colleges and universities of higher education can be used for computation of grade point averages. State law requires that academic work taken at foreign colleges, universities or preparatory schools shall be excluded from the calculation of the grade point average for students seeking admission to graduate or post-baccalaureate professional school. TMDSAS does include courses from foreign schools that appear as transfer credit on the transcript of an accredited US college/university only if specific courses and individual credit per course is granted by the US school.
Courses to be listed in the Record of College Work should include, but are not limited to:
1. Advanced Placement AP/CLEP Courses: Credit hours received MUST be reported on a transcript of an accredited US college/university for each individual AP or CLEP credit. If your college or university lists the AP or CLEP credit as a lump sum of hours then you will be required to have your college/university provide additional official documentation specifying EACH individual course and the number of hours awarded credit or a letter grade. Otherwise, these courses cannot be listed or counted in your hours or towards the required courses.
2. Repeated Courses: You must list each time a course has been taken indicating the grade earned even if your college purges the prior grade and substitutes the best or last grade earned.
3. Failed Courses: Indicate the number of semester/quarter hours that would have been granted had you successfully completed the course. Do not list as "0" hours.
4. Courses From Which You Withdrew/Dropped: Select "Q" if you withdrew/dropped the course while passing. Select "Fl" if withdrew/dropped while failing.
5. Courses For Which You Received A Grade Of Incomplete: Select "NY" to indicate grades NOT YET received/reported, permanent grades of INCOMPLETE courses or IN PROGRESS courses. (Note: Select "Y" = Yes for LAST TAKEN)
6. Credit Transferred From Foreign Schools: Transfer credit should be included only if the accredited US college or university granting the credit lists the specific course(s) and a specific number of hour units granted per course on an official transcript. Lump sum credit with no specific course and hours identified is not allowed. The grade for these courses needs to be "CR" for credit.Consideration of coursework from schools outside the US or Canada require an evaluation by a certified educational credentials evaluation service. For more information, go to the Foreign Coursework section of the Essentials For Applying page.
Specific Instructions for Completion of Section 11:
1. Course ID: this is an 8 character field only. Include the course number with some abbreviated departmental or course type identifier.
2. Description: this is the exact title of the course as it appears on the transcript. Due to limited space, use abbreviations when necessary.
3. Area: indicate the appropriate subject area for each course. Science courses not considered to be biology, chemistry, physics or calculus/statistics should be identified as "Other Science". Examples are: engineering, computer science, physical anthropology, math, geology, astronomy, pharmacy, etc. The following are examples of "Non-Science" courses: psychology, political science, history, philosophy, sociology, government, humanities, economics, health science, business, kinesiology, etc. TMDSAS reserves the right to change the area designation for incorrectly coded courses.
4. Credit Hours: enter credit hours assigned to the course whether passed or failed. Courses that carry one-half hour values should be rounded to the next whole hour. Courses that are worth more than 9 credit hours must be reported on two lines with the total credit hours of the two lines equal to the total credit hours of the course.
5. Sem/Qtr Hours: indicate whether the credit hours reported were on a semester (S) or quarter (Q) system.
6. Grade: refer to the table below.
7. Classification: refer to the table below.
8. Last Time Taken: indicate Yes (Y) if this was the last (or only) time this particular course was taken. Any course not yet (NY) completed or taken should be designated as Y for last time taken. A repeated course should be designated no (N) when first taken, and for all other times taken except for the final time, which should be designated Y.
- Summer Session courses should be listed under the upcoming classification (e.g., summer courses taken between freshman and sophomore years should be designated as SO for sophomore.)
- Graduate level courses applied to an undergraduate degree should be listed under the appropriate classification, not as GR (graduate).
- Undergraduate level courses attempted while enrolled in a graduate program, that do not apply to the graduate degree, should be classified PB (post-baccalaureate).
- Professional Degree course work should be classified GR, even if an undergraduate degree has not been earned.
- Associate Degree work should usually be listed as FR or SO if taken prior to entering a Baccalaureate degree program.
- List every course you ever attempted (including courses withdrawn from that are listed on your transcript) at a U.S. college or university. Remedial/developmental courses and/or courses that were audited should not be listed on the Record of College Work.
- You must also list every course in which you are currently enrolled or plan to take before entering medical, dental or veterinary school (if known). Planned course work can be added to your application at any time through the [Coursework Updates] link.
Section 12 - Supplemental Data Request
Information on the applicant's race or ethnic group is requested in order to facilitate reporting of this information to the Association of American Medical Colleges, American Dental Education Association, American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and various governmental agencies that require the information. The table below provides guideline for self-identification:
Race or Ethnic Group
Description
American Indian/Alaskan Native
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America and who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition. Applicants may be expected to provide official documentation/certification of active affiliation with a recognized tribe or reservation community. Black/African American
A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa (except those of Hispanic origin).
Asian/Pacific Islander
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent or Pacific Islands (this includes, for example, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, India, Pakistan, American Samoa and Vietnam).
Mexican American
A person of Mexican culture or origin.
Puerto Rican
A person of Puerto Rican culture or origin.
Other Hispanic
A person of Cuba, Central or South America or other Spanish culture or origin.
White/Caucasian
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa or the Middle East (except those of Hispanic origin).
International
A person who is not a citizen of the United States and who is in this country on a temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely. A person who is PR pending (applied for permanent resident status but has not yet received permanent resident status) should be classified as international status until permanent residency has been granted.
Note : A Non-Citizen who has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence is to be reported in the appropriate racial/ethnic categories along with United States citizens.
Other You may select "other" if you do not fit into any of the race or ethnicities above. If you select "other", you will be asked to specify your ethnicity. Questions 6 through 13 relate to the household in which you were raised or spent the majority of your life from birth to age 18.
Section 13 - Certification Page for Electronic Application
You MUST print out this page, then click on the PRINTED button so that it will close this section.
Once you have completed all of the required sections, the [SUBMIT] button will appear on the [Application Status] screen.
* Important - Be sure to proofread your application thoroughly BEFORE submitting. You can print a copy of your application by going to the [Status of Application & Documents Recieved] page and clicking on [Formatted/Printable Application]. Applications will be forwarded to the schools exactly as they are submitted.
Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service
702 Colorado Street, Suite 6.400 | Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: 512-499-4785 | Fax: 512-499-4786 | Email: tmdsas@utsystem.edu
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