Transfer Policy

The UCI School of Medicine does not accept transfer students. The only exception to this policy would be due to rare and extenuating circumstances where an LCME-accredited medical school must find placement for a student due to an extreme situation, such as a natural disaster.

Transfer Procedures

Requesting party: Requests will only be considered if they originate with the Dean of an LCME-accredited medical school. Direct requests from students shall not be entertained.

Responsible parties: Requests must be made to the Associate Dean for Admissions at UCI School of Medicine, who will gather student information for the Executive Admissions Committee’s review.

The Executive Admissions Committee shall review and approve or deny a transfer request. This review shall include consideration of the extenuating circumstance prompting the request for a transfer, comparability of the transfer student’s academic credentials with that of enrolled students, and sufficiency of educational resources to accommodate the transfer student. The decision of the Executive Admissions Committee shall be considered final.

Extenuating circumstances: Transfer students shall only be considered if an LCME accredited medical school is unable to train their students due to an extreme situation, such as a natural disaster, and wherein accommodation of the student as a visiting student is insufficient to meet the student’s training requirements towards graduation.

Comparability to enrolled students: In order to ensure comparability of a transfer student’s academic credentials with that of enrolled students at the School of Medicine, the Executive Admissions Committee shall ensure that a transfer student meets the following academic requirements:

  • Undergraduate GPA: cumulative and science GPA at or above the average of enrolled students in the same class
  • MCAT Total Percentile: at or above the average of enrolled students in the same class
  • MS1/2 Curriculum: completion of the MS1/2 curriculum at an LCME-accredited school and without failures, warnings, or probation. A medical school transcript and letter of evaluation from the requesting school’s Dean or Associate Dean for Student Affairs must contain this information.
  • USMLE Step 1: passing score at or above the average USMLE Step 1 of enrolled students

Educational Resources: The Executive Admissions Committee will obtain a written statement from the Associate Dean for Clinical Science Education confirming that there is sufficient clerkship capacity and resources to accommodate a transfer student. To further ensure that there is no significant impact on the educational resources for enrolled students, only MS3 students will be considered for a transfer, and the number of transfer students shall be limited to one at all times.

Final authority: All decisions of the Executive Committee shall be considered final.

Notifications: Should a transfer request be approved, the guidelines set forth by the AAMC GSA for notification of the student, requesting school, and AAMC will be followed (https://www.aamc.org/members/gsa/54696/gsa_transferguide.html).