Requirements

Applicants for admission to Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine are required to complete both the American Medical College Application Service application and a SOM Secondary Application. The AMCAS Deadline is December 1, 2024, and the Deadline for the SOM Secondary Application is December 8, 2024.

Casper and Duet Exam Results

WHAT IS CASPER™?

(Computer-based Assessment or Sampling Personal Characteristics) Casper™ is a computer-based situational judgment test designed to evaluate core personal characteristics considered essential for students to succeed in medical school and as practicing physicians. These include professionalism, ethical grounding, empathy, compassion, and cultural sensitivity. Casper™ can be taken anywhere you can access a computer with audio capabilities and a reliable internet connection in a quiet location.

Casper™ consists of a series of hypothetical everyday situations in video or text format. Each case relates to one or more personal characteristics. Examinees are asked to provide short written responses to a series of questions about each situation. No studying is required to take Casper™, but taking the practice exams is highly recommended.

Casper™ results are considered a reliable and predictive tool for an admissions committee to assess an applicant’s personal attributes broadly.

WHAT IS DUET?

Duet is a value-alignment assessment that compares what you value in a program with what the program offers. Acuity developed this short assessment because each program is different and has something unique to offer, whether it’s teaching style, research opportunities, and interactions with faculty. With Duet, your individual preferences are compared with programs’ unique profiles to help assess your mutual alignment in a standardized way.

WHY HAS HMSOM INCORPORATED CASPER™ & DUET INTO OUR SECONDARY APPLICATION?

HMSOM places a high value on personal characteristics essential to becoming a capable and compassionate physician. Casper™ and Duet are objective tools for evaluating an applicant’s attributes. We believe using Casper™ and Duet makes the application review process fairer for the applicant.

Incorporating Casper™ and Duet into our holistic review process represents the commitment of HMSOM to evaluate each applicant as an individual – weighing personal attributes in equal measure with academic metrics and foundational experiences.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO TAKE CASPER™ AND DUET?

Advanced registration is required. An external testing company administers Casper™ and Duet. A total fee of $85 is associated with Casper™, including the distribution of results to 7 programs, which is not part of the HMSOM application fee. It consists of an $85 test fee plus a $16 distribution fee for each additional program, which is paid directly to the testing company upon registration. A fee is if you reschedule your test within 30 days or anytime after your confirmed test date and time.

Please complete the Casper assessments no later than March 27, 2025, and the Duet assessment no later than April 10, 2025.

Learn more about registering for Casper and Duet

Degree and Course Requirements

Applicants for admission to SOM must have earned a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university by the time of matriculation. Applicants who have obtained a degree from a foreign institution will require submission of WES evaluation for all prerequisites courses completed. See the prerequisite course requirements below. The SOM will accept Advanced Placement (AP) credits only if credits appear on the applicants’ transcript as earned credit(s).

Regardless of focus of the degree, the following courses are required as prerequisites for admission to the SOM:

Three semesters of humanities, social, and behavior sciences (must be from at least two different disciplines) such as, but not limited to:

Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
Anthropology
Law
Religion
Performing Arts, Visual Arts
History
Education
Criminal Justice
Linguistics
Classics

Two semesters of both:

Two semesters of General Biology course and two semesters of Biology Lab (lab may be substituted for biology courses completed with lab components)
Two semesters of General Inorganic Chemistry course and two semesters of Chemistry Lab (may be substituted for chemistry courses completed with lab components)
Two semesters of courses with laboratory (select from the following options):
- Organic Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Physics
- Anatomy/Physiology
- Zoology
- Botany

One semester of each of the following:

English Composition
Literature
Mathematics/Science-related such as, but not limited to:
- Statistics
- Biostatistics
- Epidemiology
- Genetics
- Calculus

The following are recommended, but not required, as prerequisites for admission.

Ethics
Spanish (2 semesters)
Cell Biology
Ecology
Leadership
Economics
Political Science
Engineering
Computer Sciences

All accepted students are required to submit official transcripts with the degree conferred date listed in order to matriculate.

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)

The MCAT must be taken no later than September 30th of the year before you expect to begin medical school. For students entering in July 2025, the oldest acceptable MCAT is 2020. If you take the MCAT multiple times: The highest eligible score will be considered.

Three Letters of Recommendation

At least one from a health care professional (does not need to be a physician – can be a nurse, social worker, physician assistant, occupational therapist, psychologist, etc.).
At least one from an academic professor who is familiar with the applicant’s scholarly work.
At least one from these or another appropriate source: a physician, a second academic professor, a supervisor who can speak to the applicant’s attributes, a related health care professional who held a supervisory position to the applicant, or service recommendation letter from a mentor.
- A letter packet from a pre-medical committee can be accepted if it contains the required letters listed above.

The following are not appropriate sources: a teaching assistant, a non-physician-trained government or political official, a friend or family friend, a family member, a co-worker or other similar peer.

Letters of recommendation must be dated within the last 2 years of your application date. All Letters must be completed on institutional letterhead, dated, and signed by the recommender.

Citizenship

In order to be considered for admission, an applicant must be a citizen of the United States or a Permanent Resident Alien (PRA) with a Green Card.

Criminal Background Check (for accepted applicants only)

As a condition for admission and matriculation, all accepted students will be required to authorize the SOM to obtain a criminal background check and no offer of admission will be considered final until a criminal background check with results deemed acceptable to the SOM has been performed.

Technical Standards for Admission

All students are required to read, acknowledge and meet the technical standards with or without reasonable accommodations. The technical standards for the HMSOM are based on the essential cognitive, emotional, and physical demands required to succeed in the curriculum, and the ability to perform as a successful physician.