Hi Everyone,

Seeing a lot of posts/confusion about April 15/30, so figured I’d try to help.

As the anxious, type-A attorney wife of an applicant this cycle (who just wants to know where she has to move lol!), I’ve spent way too many hours trying to figure out how all of this works. Since my husband is on a few waitlists, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole on the April 15/30 rules and wanted to share what I found. Sources below!

April 15 - Recommendation, 3 A’s

By April 15, applicants holding 3+ should begin to narrow down their acceptances to just 3. Notice I said, should.

April 15 is strongly recommended by AMCAS and many schools. If you want to hold on to more than 3, technically you are allowed to do so. 

But something to keep in mind is that you may have withdraw a larger amount of acceptances to adhere to the April 30 requirement. I’m sure this is not an issue for some people, but for others, I could see this causing anxiety as you’ll need to withdraw in bulk so close to April 30.

(Note: some schools may require April 15, but I find that unlikely as I'm not sure how they would even see this without CYMS reporting being not yet available. either way, check with your school and play it safe!)

April 30 - Required, PTE

By and after April 30 , applicants must only hold one acceptance and PTE - Plan to Enroll at their top choice school. (Note, this is not CTE - Commit to Enroll.) 

That means if you're holding multiple acceptances before April 30 you must withdraw from all of them by April 30. You can still hold your positions on waitlists after you PTE and after April 30.

From my understanding, if you have multiple acceptances starting/after April 30, you could risk losing acceptances to the school you do not PTE for (if anyone has heard differently, let me know).

(Note: The traffic rules, like April 30, are followed by many schools, but the Reddit rundown seems to insinuate that some schools might not require April 30, though it seems a large majority do. See “Are the AMCAS Traffic Rules Mandatory?” Section of https://www.reddit.com/r/premed/wiki/cyms/)

April 30 Timing

I’ve seen some debate on whether this means before/on April 30. I agree with many of the comments that state it’s better to be safe than sorry but also want to mention that the AMCAS CYMS Tool website mentions "Beginning April 30*" multiple times and also sates “Starting April 30, the AMCAS tool will identify the applicants making either selection." Thus, I interpret this to mean the deadline is April 29 by 11:59pm (technically). Again, this is probably the safest path anyways.

Withdrawing from Schools

You can do so through a school’s portal (if any) and/or through an actual email to admissions stating you with be withdrawing. Honestly, it’s recommended to do both to be safe.

Acceptance Offers Off of Waitlists Before/After April 30

Prior to April 15th, applicants should have until April 30th to decide as they will need to narrow down to one at that point anyways (unless a school says otherwise, which doesn't seem to be the norm pre-April 30).

However, after the April 30th deadline the deadline to accept an offer from the waitlist is school dependent. Some schools give you 48 hours, other several days, some a week, etc., the school should tell you when you receive news of your acceptance. For example, one of the schools my husband is waitlisted at states you have 3 days to accept an offer off the waitlist. 

If you want to go with your waitlist offer after April 30 and already had an acceptance. You’ll need to accept the WL offer school, PTE that school, and withdraw from your prior acceptance you held.

CTE

This opens on April 30 but every school has a different CTE deadline. Some schools have theirs set for April 30, others are mid-May, early June. Many schools will have this information on their website, portal, etc. (and I’m sure you could email admissions to confirm).

Once you CTE, you must withdraw all other applications (including your waitlist positions)!

Sources: https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school-amcas/amcas-choose-your-medical-school-toolhttps://www.reddit.com/r/premed/wiki/cyms/ 

Would highly recommend reviewing these sources as well! I’ve also attached two helpful charts from the AMCAS website.

Good luck to everyone! Feel free to let me know if I missed/misstated anything in the comments. Happy to edit if needed.

EDIT: bolded note on April 15.