| Terms | Description |
|---|---|
| Academic Year | A one year period, from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. An academic year can be cited as the calendar year when the period starts or as the two calendar years that the period spans. For example, academic year 2022 and academic year 2022-2023 both refer to July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. |
| Acceptance Status | Whether an applicant has been accepted or not and, if they were accepted, whether they matriculated or not. |
| Accepted Applicant or Acceptee | A person who has applied to one of the U.S. MD-granting medical schools and who has been offered admission to (i.e., been accepted by) one or more of those schools. |
| Active Students | Current medical students who are not on any type of leave of absence (LOA) and can register and attend classes at the medical school. |
| AMCAS | The American Medical College Application Service, a centralized service through which a person can apply to most of the U.S. MD-granting medical schools. |
| Applicant | A person who has applied to at least one U.S. MD-granting medical school through AMCAS and TMDSAS. |
| ERAS | The Electronic Residency Application Service, a centralized service through which a person can apply to participating residencies and fellowships. |
| Enrollment | Includes any and all persons seeking the MD degree at any U.S. MD-granting medical school. Enrollment includes persons at all class levels, inactive or active, and those repeating years or on leave for any reason. (There are four class levels, but any student may remain in any class level for more than one year.) |
| First-Time Applicant | An applicant is considered by the AAMC to be applying for the first time if s/he has not applied in any previous application cycles. |
| First-Year Enrollment | Includes persons enrolled in class level 1 at a U.S. MD-granting medical school, including those students repeating the first year because they did not advance in class level. |
| Graduate | Any person who was awarded an MD degree at an MD-granting U.S. medical school. |
| Inactive Students | Students enrolled in medical school who are on a temporary leave of absence (LOA) from classes at the medical school for academic, health, financial, or other reasons. Inactive students also include enrolled students who are participating in research (e.g., research at Howard Hughes Medical Institute), participating in the non-MD component of a joint degree (e.g., MD-PhD, MD-MBA), or participating in special studies (not related to obtaining a joint degree). |
| Matriculant | A person who has applied to begin at an U.S.-MD granting medical school in a specific academic year and enroll in that academic year. |
| MCAT | The Medical College Admission Test, scores from which are required by most medical schools. |
| Race/Ethnicity |
Since academic year 2013-2014, AAMC applications such as AMCAS, MCAT, and ERAS have allowed individuals to self-identify by choosing one or more of the following race/ethnicity categories: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Hispanic or Latino; Middle Eastern or North African; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; White; and Some other race or ethnicity. In the FACTS tables, race/ethnicity data are reported only for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. There are three kinds of FACTS tables that display race/ethnicity data: Tables that show the data so that an individual appears in one and only one category. These tables are sometimes referred to as tables that show race/ethnicity “Alone” or show “Unduplicated” counts because an individual is only counted in a single category. When data are displayed in this way, individuals who selected more than one race/ethnicity are grouped into a heterogeneous Multiple Race/Ethnicity category. This category would include many different combinations of responses. For example, the category could include individuals who identified as both Asian and White. As another example, the category could include individuals who identified as both American Indian or Alaska Native and Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish Origin. For an example of this kind of table, see FACTS Table A-10 (PDF). Tables that show the data so that an individual may appear in multiple categories. Sometimes these tables are referred to as tables that show race/ethnicity “Alone or In Combination” or show “Duplicated” counts. In these tables, there is no Multiple Race/Ethnicity category. Instead, individuals who selected more than one race/ethnicity are counted in more than one category, and individuals who selected just one race/ethnicity are counted in just that one category. For example, an individual who identified as both White and Asian would be counted under the White category and under the Asian category. As result, summing the counts across the different categories in a table may result in a number that is larger than the number of unique individuals in the table. The tables display the unique number of individuals as the “Unduplicated” count. For an example of this kind of table, see FACTS Table B-5.2 (PDF). Tables that separately display individuals who appear in one and only one category and individuals who may appear in multiple categories. For example, these tables show counts of individuals who identified only as Black or African American (“Alone”) as well as counts of individuals who identified as Black or African American and at least one other race/ethnicity category (“In Combination”). Additionally, an individual who identified as both American Indian or Alaska Native and White would be counted in the American Indian or Alaska Native counts for “In Combination” and “All” as well as in the White counts for “In Combination” and “All.” The counts for “All” include every individual who identified with a given race/ethnicity, regardless of whether those individuals also identified with another race/ethnicity. For an example of this kind of table, see FACTS Table A-14.1 (PDF). |
| Sex | The self-reported sex of the applicant. |
| State of Legal Residence | The self-reported state in which the applicant reports on their application that they reside. |
| Student | Any person enrolled in any academic program and pursuing an MD degree (or MD-combined degree, such as MD-PhD) at a U.S. MD-granting medical school. |
| SRS | The AAMC’s Student Records System houses secure, centralized enrollment information on the population of medical students at U.S. MD-granting medical schools and tracks student progress from matriculation through graduation. |
| Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) |
The AAMC definition of Underrepresented in Medicine is: “Underrepresented in medicine means those racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population.” This AAMC definition allows for a variety of ways to conceptualize URiM, depending on whether (for example) one is looking at the national perspective, regional perspective, or local perspective. In the FACTS tables, there is currently just one table with some conceptualization of URiM (FACTS Table B-5.2). In this table, a URiM student is defined as any U.S. citizen or permanent resident who self-identified as one or more of the following race/ethnicity categories (alone or in combination with any other race/ethnicity category): American Indian or Alaska Native; Black or African American; Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish Origin; or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. |
| U.S. Medical School | Any school that grants degrees of MD and is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Does not include DO-granting medical schools. |
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