How to get into Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School

Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School (DO) expects a competitive the MCAT score and GPA (cumulative and science) for its 4-year Medicine (MD/DO) program and uses Virtual interview with IllinoisCOM faculty, administration and staff for interviews in the 2027 Entry cycle.

Applications go through AMCAS / AACOMAS (and TMDSAS for Texas) and are read on a holistic, rolling basis against a limited number of seats, so submitting a complete primary early in the cycle materially improves your odds.

This guide is written for 2027 Entry applicants and updated annually before each AMCAS / AACOMAS cycle. Sources include Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School's official admissions page, the AAMC (MCAT and AMCAS), AACOMAS, and direct conversations with current students. Read time: ~12 minutes.

Checked against Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School's own website on 15 August 2026: our record for the school was reconciled with what it publishes there. For most US schools that is class size and interview format only, so MCAT, GPA and acceptance-rate figures remain unconfirmed.

Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School (DO) is a US DO program that evaluates applicants holistically via AMCAS/AACOMAS. The core academic filters are MCAT and GPA (cumulative + science).

The MCAT is a 7.5-hour standardized test covering Biological & Biochemical Foundations (BB), Chemical & Physical Foundations (CP), Psychological, Social & Biological Foundations (PS), and Critical Analysis & Reasoning Skills (CARS). Total score: 472–528; national median ~511. Competitive applicants to top MD programs typically score 515+. MCAT scores are valid for 3 years (AAMC policy). Register through AAMC at aamc.org/mcat.

Your AMCAS (and AACOMAS for DO) primary carries one personal statement of about 5,300 characters that goes to every school you apply to - so it must answer "why medicine?" without naming a specific school. Lead with a concrete scene, build a reflective arc through your clinical, research and service experience, and close with a forward-looking sense of the physician/dentist you want to become. After the primary, each school sends secondary (supplemental) essays - this is where school-specific "why us?" and mission-fit content belongs. Treat the personal statement and the secondaries as two distinct writing jobs.

The primary personal statement runs to about 5,300 characters including spaces (AMCAS ~5,300; AACOMAS ~5,300). On top of that you will write many secondary essays - often 3-8 prompts per school, frequently with their own word or character caps. First drafts are always too long, so plan to edit the personal statement down and to reuse a pre-written secondary bank.

Notice: a specific scene rather than a cliché, a precise detail (the nine-minute conversation), and a closing sentence that bridges to the next paragraph. We have a step-by-step AACOMAS personal statement service if you want a tutor to help shape yours.

Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School (DO) uses Virtual interview with IllinoisCOM faculty, administration and staff. For 2027 entry, interviews typically take place in September 2026–February 2027. Final decisions are released Rolling admissions.

At Illinois College of Osteopathic Medicine at The Chicago School (DO), expect the following from the selection process. Assessment / situational-judgment format - some US schools require an online CASPer or AAMC PREview test as a structured judgment screen, and some hold multi-station assessment days that combine interviews with group or written exercises. Allow 60-90 minutes for an online assessment, or 4-6 hours for a full in-person assessment day.

ILCOM's application steps call for a virtual interview with IllinoisCOM faculty, administration and staff; the school does not describe the format or length. As a newer school in a major urban center, ILCOM probes whether you can connect osteopathic philosophy to urban health equity. Chicago's health gaps between North and South Side communities come up often.

Expect questions on community health, navigating health systems in a large city, and why you want osteopathic medicine specifically in an urban setting.

Our panel-interview prep covers ethics frameworks (SPIES, the four pillars), structured behavioral answers (STAR), and live mock interviews with admissions specialists.

The cycle runs roughly January 2025 (start of prep), AMCAS / AACOMAS opens in May 2026 with primaries submitted from June 2026, secondary applications over summer 2026, interviews from August 2026 through March 2027, and rolling decisions to course start in August 2027. Here are the milestones you cannot miss.

Applications go via AACOMAS. IllinoisCOM is a college of The Chicago School, and it is one of very few DO programs in a major US metropolis, since most DO schools sit in suburban or rural settings. It is also Chicago's first new medical school in nearly a century. It holds COCA Pre-Accreditation, and its first class begins in Fall 2026. The Chicago location is meant to open up clinical rotations at major teaching hospitals, FQHCs, and among diverse patient populations, in one of the country's most health-disparate urban environments.

Approximately 100–130 students per year.