Illinois · Direct Admit Program (MD track)

At a glance

DegreeMD (Rosalind Franklin University / Chicago Medical School)

Structure8 years

ApplyAs a high school senior

Open toNot published on official page reviewed

Annual cohortNot published on official page reviewed

GPA floor3.8

Test floorSAT 1350 / ACT 29

MCAT (to keep the seat)Highly recommended for the MD track (not listed as a hard requirement)

InterviewNot published on official page reviewed

Application deadlineNot published on official page reviewed

InternationalNot eligible

A BS/MD seat is conditional, not a diploma. See what it takes to keep the seat, and how the continuation terms compare across every program.

Cost and aid

Undergraduate cost and medical-school cost are separate, and a combined seat is not automatically cheaper. These are the published figures. Confirm the current year with the program before you rely on a number.

Undergraduate years

Tuition (in-state)DePaul is a private university and does not publish a separate in-state rate. Full-time undergraduate tuition is $16,060 per term ($48,180 annually before fees) for 2026-27, per the official Undergraduate Tuition and Fees page. This is the general university rate, not a Direct Admit Program-specific rate.

Tuition (out-of-state)Not applicable. DePaul is a private institution and charges the same tuition rate to all students regardless of residency (2026-27: $16,060/term, $48,180/year before fees), per the official Undergraduate Tuition and Fees page.

Merit aidNot published as specific to the Direct Admit Program. DePaul's general merit scholarships (checked on the official Scholarships page) include the State Scholar Plus Scholarship (up to $100,000 over four years, requires 3.75+ GPA and top 10% class rank, apply by 11/15) and Academic Scholarships ($14,000 to $33,000 annually across Presidential, Deans', DePaul Scholars', and St. Vincent DePaul tiers). These are general university merit awards; the page does not mention the Direct Admit Program or a pre-health pathway scholarship.

Medical school years

TuitionChicago Medical School (MD program) 2026-2027 academic year, per Rosalind Franklin University's official Tuition & Fees page: Year 1 $76,367, Year 2 $76,805, Year 3 $76,705, Year 4 $76,355 (base tuition $74,290/year plus student services, health/wellness, simulation, and other program fees that vary by year). Figures are board-approved and updated annually in April.

Sources and verification

Verified June 7, 2026 against 6 official sources. Where a program does not publish something, we say so plainly rather than guess. How we verify.

• csh.depaul.edu /default
• depaul.edu /2025 direct admission
• rosalindfranklin.edu /rfu and depaul partner on direct a
• depaul.edu /undergraduate tuition and fees
• depaul.edu /scholarships
• rosalindfranklin.edu /chicago medical school

Knowing the program is the easy part.

Whether it fits the student is the hard part. Tell a former Assistant Dean where things stand and get the one honest next step. Free, no odds, no pitch.

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See something wrong?

If you are an administrator, a current student, or a family that knows this program from the inside, email rorymerritt@bridge2md.com. We check every correction against the program's official source before we update.

This is a true high-school-entry pathway: you apply to DePaul and to Rosalind Franklin University at the same time, and if you meet the academic bar you earn early-assurance admission to medicine before you start college. It is also brand new. The first cohort begins fall 2026, which means several of the conditions you would want to know before committing have not been published yet. This page lays out what the program requires, what it does not, and what is still unstated, so that whether you are the student deciding whether to apply or the parent helping, you are working from facts rather than from a press release or a forum thread.

How the eight years work

The structure is the standard combined shape: four years of undergraduate study at DePaul in Chicago, then four years of medical school at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, whose medical college is the Chicago Medical School, in North Chicago. You apply once, as a high-school senior, through the Common Application to DePaul, and you are considered for both institutions at the same time. If you meet the academic requirements, you earn direct admission to medicine before you ever take a college class. The decision about a medical seat is, in effect, made now.

Because this is a new program with its first cohort starting in fall 2026, the published detail is thinner than you will find for programs that have run for decades. That is not a knock on it. It is a reason to ask the program direct questions rather than to assume the gaps will fill themselves in the way you hope.

What gets an application read

The bar to apply is concrete and public: a 3.8 unweighted high-school GPA, and either a 1350 SAT or a 29 ACT. Note that this program is not test-optional. A score is required, which is its own signal about how the program reads applicants out of high school. For the MD track the MCAT is highly recommended but not required to be admitted, so there is no single later score standing between you and the seat.

Meeting those minimums gets an application considered. It does not, on its own, win a seat, because the program describes direct admission as something you earn when you meet its academic requirements, and a guaranteed medical place is a serious bet for any institution to place on a seventeen-year-old. What separates applications in a review like this is not who looks the most impressive. It is who is the most credible. A claim that does not hold up does more damage than a modest, true one. The work is to make the true version of your story clear and easy for a reviewer to believe.

Keeping the seat

This is where the honest answer is: it is not fully published yet. The official materials state that students earn direct admission when they meet the academic requirements, and they describe access to research opportunities and to Rosalind Franklin’s network of Chicago-area clinical partnerships. What they do not state is the fine print that matters most once you are in. There is no published undergraduate GPA floor to retain the seat, no published statement on whether the MCAT is required to matriculate, no published interview requirement, and no published service or research quota.

That does not mean none of these exist. It means they are not stated openly on official sources as of this writing, which for a program admitting its very first class is unsurprising. The right move is to treat every one of those unknowns as a direct question for the program, in writing, before you commit. A guarantee is only as good as the conditions attached to it, and right now those conditions are partly unwritten.

The character of the program

Both partners describe the program in terms of more than speed. The materials pair what they call academic excellence with compassionate care, and Rosalind Franklin, a university built around interprofessional education, frames the partnership around early clinical exposure and learning to work across the health professions rather than in isolation. The stated aim is to graduate practice-ready clinicians who think about the whole patient, not only students who banked a seat early.

That matters for how you apply. A program that talks this way is looking for a person who would genuinely use the path, with a tested reason for choosing medicine and real interest in how care gets delivered. A reviewer can tell the difference between authentic interest and a resume arranged to look the part.

Where this leaves you

This program suits a student who already knows, for real and tested reasons, that medicine is the path, who clears a genuine academic bar, and who is comfortable being one of the first to walk a new route. The trade is a real high-school-entry guarantee in exchange for accepting that, because the program is brand new, some of the conditions that govern the seat are not yet on paper.

It is not the right fit for someone who needs every rule settled before committing, or whose certainty about medicine is mostly someone else’s. The honest question, whether you are the student or the parent reading this, is not only whether you can clear the 3.8 and the test score. It is whether you are willing to ask the unpublished questions out loud, get them answered in writing, and make this decision with open eyes. If you are, this is a clean and genuinely guaranteed pathway. If you are not, it costs nothing to ask first.