EVMS (ODU)

Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA · Public · MD

Average MCAT: 513
Average GPA: 3.70
Class size: 151 (7,700 applicants)
Tuition: $61,012 (per year, nonresident)
Out-of-state applicants: Welcome

Deadlines

AMCAS deadline: Nov. 1, 2026
Early Decision Program: Aug. 1, 2026

Essays

Exposure to medicine (2,000 characters)

Briefly describe your exposure to medicine.

Like best (2,000 characters)

What do you think you will like best about being a physician?

Like least (2,000 characters)

What do you think you will like least about being a physician?

Ten years from now (2,000 characters)

Describe yourself and your medical career as you see it ten years from now.

Why EVMS (2,000 characters)

Please indicate your reasons for applying to VHS-EVMS at ODU.

Diverse communities (optional) (2,000 characters)

VHS-EVMS at ODU is dedicated to inclusivity and supporting patients and students from diverse backgrounds. Feel free to share your personal experience or ties to communities from diverse backgrounds. If you wish to respond, please explain in detail. Some examples include but are not limited to race/ethnicity, culture, LGBTQ+, differently-abled/disabled, etc.

Background and barriers (optional) (3,000 characters)

If you would like to discuss how your individual background, perspective, or experience, including any societal or other barriers, have affected your life, through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise, feel free to share your experiences, obstacles overcome, and how this impacted your education and road to applying to medical school.

Editor's notes

Your letters can stall everything. EVMS holds your application until every required letter is in, and the default set is specific: two science faculty and one non-science. If you're in or past a graduate program, you need a fourth letter from your adviser. Line these up before June.
The Virginia preference is real. About half of the Class of 2029 came from Virginia, and the school names Hampton Roads residents first. If you're from out of state, the why-EVMS essay has to explain Norfolk with something concrete, not the curriculum alone.
The five required essays are short and blunt: exposure, best part, worst part, ten years out, why EVMS. Read together, they're asking whether you understand the job. Make sure your "like least" and "ten years" answers fit the same realistic picture.
With rolling decisions starting Oct. 15 and a Nov. 1 AMCAS deadline, the calendar rewards early files. If EVMS is your clear first choice and your file is ready by Aug. 1, the Early Decision Program is available, but talk to admissions first, as the school urges.