The AMCAS program has special designations for some courses. If applicable, assign one or more special course types by checking the corresponding box.
Advanced Placement (AP)
For you to claim AP credit, the credit hours must be listed on your transcript. AP courses should be entered under the term the college credit was initially granted for. If no term is designated, include the credits with freshman coursework (FR). Include AP credit courses only once (by selecting Advanced Placement as the Special Course Type), even though AP credit for the same subject may have been awarded by more than one institution. AP courses may be assigned under the institution awarding the most credit. If AP credits appear in one block on the transcript, distribute the credit appropriately among the AP exams taken.
If you choose to omit your AP courses, AMCAS staff will add the credits to your application as a lump credit (even though the courses may be listed individually on the transcripts on file). For example, the University of Southern California awarded nine credits for three AP exams. On the official transcript, the credit appears as nine credits for AP exams, with no indication of the subject of the individual exams. On your AMCAS application, enter each exam as an individual course and distribute the credits appropriately, but do not exceed the total amount of credits earned.
If the transcript from the college awarding AP credit does not list course names, enter the subject area for which credit was earned (e.g., AP Credit: English) as the Course Name.
If the following course types appear on your official transcript, they should be indicated as AP on the AMCAS application, even if they are not technically Advanced Placement.
ACE/ACT
Bypass Credit
CEEB
Credit by Exam
Departmental Exam
Equivalency Exam
Experimental Learning
French Baccalaureate
Lebanese Baccalaureate
Life Experience
Placement Exam
Prior Learning
Proficiency Exam
Retroactive Credit
Special Credit
Test Out
Validation Credit
Audit (AU)
Audit refers to any course you attended without attempting to earn credit, either formally or informally. If you officially registered for the course, it’s usually listed on the transcript with a special symbol or notation. No credit hours or AMCAS grade will be assigned.
CLEP (CL)
You can earn CLEP credit by passing an examination offered by the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) or through USAFI/DANTES (U.S. Air Force Institute and Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support). To claim credit in the CLEP category, the credit hours must be listed on your transcript.
You may list your CLEP credit only once, even though more than one institution may have awarded credit. The transferred credit may be credited to the institution granting the most CLEP credit.
Current/Future (CC)
Use the Current/Future designation for any courses you are currently taking or expect to take before entering medical school. Listing these courses is especially important if you have not yet completed medical school prerequisites. No AMCAS grade will be assigned.
Current/Future entries are not binding or required but are intended to give medical schools an indication of what courses you expect to complete before matriculation. Current/Future courses do not have to appear on a transcript to be entered in Coursework. The AMCAS program will not add, remove, or modify Current/Future courses after your application is submitted. If the information changes, please contact the designated medical school(s) directly.
If Current/Future grades are entered on your application but not listed on your official transcript at the time of verification, they will not be included in your AMCAS GPAs. Conversely, if you do not enter grades but grades are listed on your official transcript at the time of verification, they will be included in your AMCAS GPAs.
Deferred Grade (DG)
Deferred Grade should be selected for any single course that officially takes more than one term to complete before the final grade and credit hours are awarded (e.g., research, thesis, dissertation credits). DG coursework is not the same as Repeat, Incomplete, or sequential levels of a subject (e.g., Spanish I, Spanish II) with final grades awarded at each level.
If a final grade has not been awarded, make a separate entry for each academic term:
- Use Deferred Grade for each entry for which there is no final grade. No AMCAS grade will be assigned.
- Do not use Deferred Grade for the entry that includes the final grade.
Exempt (EX)
Use Exempt to indicate courses that were completed but not awarded credit hours. No credit hours or AMCAS grade will be assigned. Exempt courses may include any course you were not required to complete because you had any of the following:
- Previously completed courses.
- Employment experience.
- Passed a departmental exam.
Honors (H)
An Honors course refers to any course attempted through an honors program or section.
Incomplete (I)
A course is considered Incomplete if the work required for it was not completed within the appropriate time limit. If the Incomplete is unresolved, no AMCAS grade will be assigned; however, if the Incomplete is resolved, an AMCAS grade will be assigned. Select Incomplete even if:
- A grade has been ultimately assigned.
- There is no notation indicating Incomplete on the official transcript.
Many schools assign an IF or F grade if the coursework is not completed within a given time limit. If attempted credit hours are listed on the official transcript or can be determined by the AMCAS program, the F will be included in your AMCAS GPAs.
International Baccalaureate (IB)
To claim IB credit, the credit hours must be listed on your transcript. Include IB credit courses only once (indicating IB under Special Course Types), even though IB credit for the same subject may have been awarded by more than one institution. IB courses should be entered under the institution awarding the most credit. IB credit should be entered under the first term in which the college credit was initially granted. If no term is designated, include the credit with FR coursework.
If the transcript from the college awarding IB credit does not list course names, enter the subject area for which credit has been earned as the Course Name (e.g., IB Credit: English).
Military Credit (MC)
The Military Credit type should appear only for courses in which a non-alpha grade was received (that is, pass/fail grades or credit awarded) at a U.S., U.S. territorial, or Canadian military institution. ROTC courses are not considered military credit.
When listing military credits, you will find JST listed as a school under Florida in the Schools Attended section of the application.
No Record (NR)
Assign No Record to any course for which no final grade is available because of an administrative problem or delay at the school. No AMCAS grade will be assigned.
Pass/Fail (PF)
Pass/fail courses are those attempted under a pass/fail system that allows no more than two passing grades and one failing grade (e.g., credit/no credit, pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, high pass/pass/fail).
Pass/fail courses attempted under a pass/fail system that allows three or more passing grades (e.g., high pass/pass/low pass/fail) will be treated as a regular pass/fail course unless your school provides an alpha letter grade conversion (e.g., A, B, C).
Repeat (R)
This selection applies to each completed attempt for any course attempted more than once, unless the final grade initially received was Withdrawal or Incomplete.
A course entry must be made for each completed attempt of a repeated course, even if any mention of enrollment in the course has been removed from the transcript. To comply with the needs of medical schools, the AMCAS program requires that the grades from all attempts of repeated courses be included in GPA calculations (along with the original grades given for those courses, even if they are not included in schools’ GPA calculations).
If you take a college-level course for which you already have been granted AP credit by the same institution, the AMCAS program considers the course a Repeat. For example, if you received AP credit for your AP Psychology course and took an Introduction to Psychology course at the same undergraduate institution, you should list Introduction to Psychology as a Repeat.
Do not select Repeat for courses designed to be repeated (e.g., independent study, thesis, chorus).
If your school has an academic forgiveness policy and subsequently replaces the original grade received with a special transcript symbol, the original grade and attempted credits must be entered on your AMCAS application, regardless of whether they appear on your official transcript. If you do not list all your attempts in a given course (along with the original grade), the AMCAS program will return your application to you to enter the original grade, which may cause you to miss application deadlines and forfeit fees.
Withdrawal (W)
A Withdrawal includes any course you officially withdrew from, regardless of whether you were passing or failing at the time. Such courses usually appear on the transcript as a “W” or equivalent symbol. No credit hours or AMCAS grade will be assigned for Withdrawals, except in cases where the school includes the Withdrawal failing grade in the GPA as an “F.”
A course entry should not be made if the course was dropped within the normal drop/add period and does not appear on your transcript. The courses from which you made unofficial or administrative withdrawals will be included in your AMCAS GPAs if your school included them in its GPA.
If you withdrew entirely from a school before completing courses for a specific term, you must still list each course for which you were registered that term, with Withdrawal as the Special Course Type. If the school does not issue transcripts for students who withdraw entirely, you must ask the registrar’s office to send an official letter (with an AMCAS Transcript Request Form attached) indicating that no transcript is available because of institutional policies.