Contacting Current TUSM Students
If you have been admitted to TUSM and would like to contact a current TUSM student to discuss your enrollment decision, please contact Associate Director Emily Condon for assistance. If you are particularly interested in contacting a student in a combined degree program, please mention that interest in your email.
What is a "991- number"?
If you are holding a position in our entering class, you may see a number that begins with 991- on documents from the Financial Aid Office or the Bursar's Office. This is your Student Information System ID Number. The Student Information System (SIS) is the university-wide student records system that supports the registration, financial aid and bursar operations of all the schools within Tufts University. When an applicant is admitted to the medical school, the admissions office creates a record in SIS for that applicant.
Concern for students' personal security has prompted the university to move away from using social security numbers and toward random numbers as unique identification numbers. A random number starting with the digits 991 is now automatically generated when the admissions office creates a record in SIS for an applicant in the entering class.
Immunization Requirements
Any applicant accepted into Tufts University School of Medicine must provide documentation for the State and University immunization requirements listed below by July 2nd for the MD program and by June 1st for the MD/MBA program (or immediately following acceptance if the offer is made after this date). Please keep in mind that it may take several weeks to retrieve childhood immunization records. Therefore, we recommend that you begin gathering the required documentation as soon as possible. If you are currently enrolled in college, you should retrieve immunization documentation from your health services clinic prior to graduation. If it is impossible to obtain documentation of past immunizations, you must be vaccinated again, or provide a positive antibody titer as proof of immunity.
The list of required immunizations and Medical School Immunization Form is available on the Student Advisory & Health Administration Office (SAHA) website. If you have any questions about the requirements please call the Student Advisory & Health Administration at (617) 636-2712 or email Lucia Fenney, Immunization Administrator.
Deferred Matriculation
Candidates who have accepted an offer of admission and are currently holding a position in the entering class may request to defer their matriculation for one year. Requests are considered on a case by case basis. TUSM does not grant deferrals for more than one year, except to accommodate an applicant's two-year commitment to service in the Peace Corps or the Teach for America program.
Offers of admission do not imply an option to defer matriculation and applicants should not assume that a request for deferred matriculation will be granted. However, TUSM is committed to granting deferred matriculation to applicants who are engaged in active service in the Peace Corps or the Teach for American program, and those applicants can assume their request will be granted.
Applicants holding a position in the entering class may request a deferral by writing to the Director of Admissions. Requests should be received at least eight weeks prior to the original matriculation date.
If a request for a deferred matriculation is granted, the applicant must then decide whether to accept the deferred matriculation; doing so requires the applicant to surrender his or her position in the current entering class. If an applicant's request for deferred matriculation is granted, the applicant is prohibited from applying to other medical schools during the interim year. The applicant is not required to withdraw active applications to other schools in the current year. For example, if an applicant were holding a position in our 2008 entering class and then was granted (and accepted) a deferred matriculation to our 2009 entering class, the applicant would not be required to withdraw active applications at other schools for 2008 but would be prohibited from applying to other schools for 2009.
May 15 Multiple Acceptance Deadline
"By May 15 of the matriculation year (April 15 for schools whose first day of class is on or before July 30), each applicant who has received an offer of acceptance from more than one school choose the specific school at which the applicant prefers to enroll and withdraw his or her application, by written correspondence delivered by regular or electronic methods, from all other schools from which acceptance offers have been received." - From the AAMC Recommendations for Medical School Applicants.
This rule means that after May 15, accepted applicants should be holding only one accepted position in one school at any one time. However, in addition to that one accepted position, applicants are free to hold an unlimited number of wait list positions, and they are free at any time prior to actual enrollment to accept a new offer from a preferred school, so long as they then immediately decline the previously held acceptance.
Medical schools report their acceptances and withdrawals to AMCAS. That data then becomes available to all admissions officers via the AMCAS database, so that during the summer any admissions officer can view any applicant's current accepted positions. If you are holding a position in our entering class after May 15, and the AMCAS database indicates that you are also holding a position at another school(s), we will request that you decline all but one of your accepted positions. If you do not do so promptly, we will rescind your position in our class. This is common practice, and you can expect most medical schools to enforce this policy.
You are considered to be holding an accepted position with a school (and will appear in the AMCAS database as such) from the time the school makes you an offer until the time you decline the offer. You do not need to accept the offer to be perceived as holding the position.