Combined and Early Assurance Programs That Skip Standardized Test Requirements

Why these pathways exist

Medical, law, dental, and other professional schools built combined and early assurance tracks to recruit strong students early and give them a clearer path through a long, expensive application process. Instead of applying separately to a professional school in your junior or senior year of college, competing against thousands of applicants on the strength of your MCAT, LSAT, or DAT score, you apply once, often in high school or early in college, and the professional school seat is conditional on meeting the program's academic benchmarks.

These pathways are not shortcuts around a professional education. They compress the timeline and reduce a single high-stakes test to a smaller role, or remove it, as long as you keep pace with the program's requirements.

BS/MD and BA/MD combined programs

Combined baccalaureate-MD programs admit high school seniors into a linked bachelor's degree and medical school track at partner institutions. Long-running examples include the University of Missouri-Kansas City's 6-year BA/MD program, Brown University's Program in Liberal Medical Education, and Case Western Reserve's Pre-Professional Scholars Program. Northwestern's Honors Program in Medical Education and the Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine Medical Scholars Program have since closed to new applicants, so treat them as historical examples rather than options to pursue. Confirm directly on a school's own site that any named program is still accepting applications before building a plan around it.

Students in these programs typically do not need to submit a separate MCAT score to secure their medical school seat, as long as they maintain the GPA and coursework benchmarks the program sets. Some programs still require the MCAT as a checkpoint rather than an admissions gate. Program structure, length, and requirements vary by school, so check the current terms directly on each program's admissions page before applying, since these details change between cycles. General background on medical school pathways is available through the AAMC .

3+3 accelerated law programs

A 3+3 program lets you apply to an affiliated law school after your third year of undergraduate study instead of your fourth. Your first year of law school counts toward both your bachelor's degree and your JD, so you finish both degrees in 6 years total instead of the usual 7. A number of law schools run these partnerships with undergraduate institutions, admitting qualifying students without the full traditional application cycle competing against a general law school applicant pool, though most still expect a qualifying LSAT or GRE score as part of the conditional admission.

This path suits students certain about law early, since it removes your senior year, along with the extra electives, study abroad options, or exploration a full 4-year degree allows.

Early assurance dental, PA, and pharmacy programs

Early assurance programs (EAPs) guarantee a seat, or a guaranteed interview, at an affiliated dental, physician assistant, or pharmacy school for undergraduates who meet the program's GPA, coursework, and activity benchmarks by a set point in their degree. Many of these tracks let you skip the DAT for dental school or a separate graduate application cycle for PA or pharmacy programs, provided you stay on track. Details and participating dental schools are coordinated through ADEA , the umbrella organization for dental education, though each university sets its own program rules.

The tradeoffs

Every one of these tracks asks you to commit to a specific career and often a specific undergraduate major years before most students make that call. You lose the flexibility to explore other fields without jeopardizing your guaranteed seat, and most programs set a minimum GPA you must hold every semester, with no room for a rough term.

If you fall below the benchmark or change your mind about the career, you typically lose the guaranteed seat and reapply through the traditional process, meaning you now need the MCAT, LSAT, or DAT score the program let you skip, on a shorter timeline than students who planned for it from the start. Combined programs also tend to have small cohorts and highly selective admission, so the guarantee comes with its own competitive bar to clear in high school or early college.

Is a combined program right for you

These tracks work best for students with a firm, tested commitment to medicine, law, dentistry, or another licensed profession, built on real exposure to the field through shadowing, internships, or coursework, rather than an interest in skipping a test. If you have any doubt about the specific career, a traditional path that keeps the standardized test and the full application cycle preserves more room to change direction without losing years of progress.

How to find and apply to these programs

Combined BS/MD and BA/MD programs are almost always high school senior applications, submitted alongside or instead of your regular undergraduate application, so start researching by the fall of your senior year at the latest. Ask your high school counselor which partner universities near you run a combined program, since not every university offers one and the list changes over time as schools add or close tracks.

3+3 law partnerships and early assurance dental, PA, or pharmacy programs are typically undergraduate-entry, meaning you apply once you are already enrolled at the partner college, often during your first or second year. Your undergraduate pre-health or pre-law advising office keeps the current list of active partnerships and each one's internal application deadline, which usually falls earlier than the general professional school application cycle.