Applicant Information 

Residency Requirements

To be eligible for the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program, you, your parent, or your legal guardian must be a legal resident of Wyoming for five continuous years preceding matriculation into medical school. You must make application to the University of Wyoming for residency certification prior to completing your AMCAS application. The UWSOM can only consider your application if you have been officially certified as a Wyoming resident. Simply indicating Wyoming as your state of residence on the AMCAS application is not sufficient.

WWAMI Application Process

If you are considering attending the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program and you meet the residency requirement, you must follow these procedures:

1. One year prior to the time you plan to begin medical school, you should apply for residency certification through the University of Wyoming Preprofessional Advising Office.  Residency applications are due by October 15.

2. Submit an application through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). List the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) as one of the medical schools to which you are applying. UWSOM requires application through this service.

Applications for residency certification will be available no later than June 1st from:

The Preprofessional Advising Office
College of Health Sciences
University of Wyoming
Health Sciences Center, Room 110
Dept 3432, 1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071-3432
Telephone: 307-766-6704
e-mail: certoff@uwyo.edu

The application may also be downloaded here: WWAMI Application for Certification. October 15, 2014 is the deadline for submitting the Wyoming Residency Certification application for matriculation in the fall semester of 2015. Those received after the deadline will not be accepted.

Acceptance Process

Once you have been certified as a Wyoming resident, the Preprofessional Advising Office will forward your name to the UWSOM Admissions Office. UWSOM will review your AMCAS application based on their admissions requirements. You may receive a request from UWSOM for supplemental information. If so, you must respond according to their deadline. After your application is complete, the Admissions Office may invite you for an interview. All interviews take place in Laramie, WY.  Tours of the Seattle campus are available shortly after the interview. Offers of acceptance are issued by UWSOM.

Accepting an offer from the UWSOM for one of the twenty Wyoming-WWAMI seats carries with it a contractual obligation. Prior to entering medical school you must sign a contract to reimburse the University of Wyoming for the educational costs (plus interest) expended on your behalf, or return to the state after completion of a residency program and practice medicine for a period of three years, at which time your contractual obligation will be completed.

Preparing for Admission to the University of Washington School of Medicine

The premedical course requirements must be completed before matriculating and preferably before applying. Undergraduate or post/baccalaureate required courses must be completed in the United States at a college or university accredited by the appropriate regional accrediting body.  For more information regarding UWSOM prerequisite requirements please click here.

Pre-medical courses must include a minimum of: 

• Social Sciences or Humanities - four semesters or six quarters. The types of courses that generally meet these requirements are: anthropology, classics, cultural studies/cross cultural studies, English literature, ethics, foreign language literature, history, music appreciation, philosophy, religion/theory, sociology, or study abroad.
• Chemistry and Biology - six semesters or nine quarters. The subject matter in these courses must include general chemistry, general biology, biochemistry, genetics, molecular genetics and cell biology/cell physiology, although applicants are not required to take courses with these specific titles.   Although these represent the minimum requirements, applicants are encouraged to take additional chemistry and biology courses as they provide excellent preparation for the MCAT exam and the courses encountered in medical school.

• Physics - two semesters or three quarters; OR one semester or two quarters of physics, plus one semester or two quarters of calculus or linear algebra.

The following courses are recommended, but not required: 

• Ethics 
• Anatomy or comparative anatomy 
• Human or mammalian physiology 

• Embryology

Courses such as evolution, ecology, biodiversity, nutrition, environmental sciences, astronomy and atmospheric sciences will not satisfy the prerequisites. The biochemistry course for first-year medical students focuses on molecular mechanisms central to human health and disease. It is taught with the assumption that participants have already mastered the fundamentals of biochemistry, including molecular genetics, structure and activity of proteins, and metabolism.

Under exceptional circumstances, some course requirements may be waived for individuals with unusual achievements and academic promise. All candidates should demonstrate substantial academic ability in their major field as well as in the required science courses. Candidates should be proficient in the use of the English language, basic mathematics, personal computing and information technologies.

All entrants in recent years have fulfilled requirements for a bachelor's degree. No specific major is advised.

If you are unable to determine which of your courses meet the requirements please email AskUWSOM@u.washington.edu. Replies generally take one to two weeks.  

Taking the MCAT Exam

Applicants are required to take the MCAT as a part of the WWAMI application process.  It is strongly recommended that applicants take the MCAT no later than the summer prior to application. Please contact Craig Vaske (cvaske@uwyo.edu) for more information.

For more information regarding applying for the University of Washington School of Medicine please click here.