Plan to Enroll vs Commit to Enroll: What Each Does

Plan to Enroll vs Commit to Enroll: What Each Does

Plan to Enroll marks the one school you expect to attend, keeps your waitlists open and can be changed. Commit to Enroll, available from April 30, 2027, is a final choice, and it means you have already withdrawn from every other acceptance and waitlist yourself.

That last clause is the whole page. Commit to Enroll certifies a withdrawal; it does not perform one. The tool does not email anyone for you. Several schools refuse or drop any applicant who has committed elsewhere, and OHSU keeps you on its list until you write to it. Select it after the withdrawal emails are sent, and not a day before your school's deadline if a waitlist still matters. For the full 2027 calendar and each school's deadline, see the AMCAS traffic rules 2027 dates.

Every school and university page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. AAMC's own Choose Your Medical School tool page refused automated retrieval that day, so this page quotes the school and university pages that reproduce it, and says where AAMC's own wording would settle a point.

The two choices side by side

Duke's prehealth office reproduces the two definitions. On Plan to Enroll: "If you indicate Plan to Enroll for a school, and you are subsequently accepted at another school you would prefer, you can change your selection." On Commit to Enroll:

"Your "Commit to Enroll" school is a final decision, it is your commitment to matriculate to only that school, and it indicates that you have withdrawn your application from any other school where you were accepted or were on an alternate/wait list."

Note the tense: "you have withdrawn". The selection reports a withdrawal you have already made.

How to use the two options, step by step

The steps below come from the instructions schools give their own admitted students. We could not open AAMC's tool page, so this page does not describe screens.

1. By April 15, 2027: email every school you are releasing until you hold three acceptances or fewer. USC Greenville says you "may stay on as many Alternate Lists for other schools as you like".
2. By April 30, 2027: email the remaining schools until you hold one. Then, in USC Greenville's words, "Ensure your CYMS* shows that you "Plan to Enroll" at the school you have chosen". Some schools make using the tool a condition: Arizona Phoenix "requires accepted students utilize this tool".
3. If a waitlist offer arrives: decide between the two schools, email the one you are not choosing, and move Plan to Enroll if your choice changed. Cincinnati asks you to email it that an offer came in, "not from whom, just that an offer was received", and to give your decision "Within 7 days".
4. Before your school's Commit to Enroll deadline: email every school where you are still on a waitlist to withdraw, decline any other offer, then select Commit to Enroll. USC Greenville lists the order: "Withdraw from all Alternate Lists (i.e. email those schools directly)", "Decline all other offers of acceptance (i.e. email those schools directly)", then make sure the tool shows Commit to Enroll.

Constructed example: the withdrawal email you send before Commit to Enroll

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant's email. Context (invented): Amaia Albrecht holds Plan to Enroll at one school and is on the waitlist at another. She has decided to commit.

Subject: Withdrawal from waitlist – Amaia Albrecht, AAMC ID 00000000

Dear Admissions Committee,

I am writing to withdraw my application from your waitlist for the class entering in 2027. I have accepted an offer at another medical school and will select Commit to Enroll there.

Thank you for your consideration and for the interview day. Please release my place to another applicant.

Sincerely, Amaia Albrecht

Why it works: it names the class year and her ID so the office can find the file, says plainly that she is withdrawing, and gives no reason the school has to answer. Send it before step 4's selection, not after. The waitlist withdrawal guide and the declining an acceptance guide cover the other versions.

What Commit to Enroll does to your waitlists

Under the protocol you must have left them already. Most schools that address it stop making you offers; OHSU says the click itself does not take you off its list.

• USF Health Morsani: "Please be aware that if you have decided to "commit to enroll" to another institution by indicating your choice on the 'Choose Your Medical School' tool, this will result in an automatic withdrawal from the USF Health MCOM. This applies to both "Accepted" and "Waitlisted" students." (waitlist page)
• USC Greenville, and Cincinnati in the same words: "We will NOT make offers to individuals who have Committed to Enroll or Matriculated elsewhere."
• UTHSC College of Medicine: "If an alternate has indicated "Commit to Enroll" at another medical school, an offer of admission cannot be made." (alternate-list FAQ)
• Mayo Clinic Alix sets the limit from the waiting side: "Applicants may remain on alternate lists at other schools until selecting Commit to Enroll." (how to apply)
• OHSU states the other side: "Please note that selecting "commit to enroll" for another institution through AMCAS does not automatically withdraw your application from OHSU." It skips over only "applicants who have withdrawn their application by contacting us directly." (OHSU admissions)

Our view: if any waitlist offer would change your choice, stay on Plan to Enroll until the Commit to Enroll deadline of the school you hold, and commit on that day or just before it. The basis is the quotes above: a commitment elsewhere means you have left every list, most of these schools stop offers on it, and the school you hold allows you to wait until its deadline. The countercase: if no waitlist school would change your mind, commit early. Weill Cornell's 2026 page said applicants "may also choose to select "Commit to Enroll" prior to the July 1st, 2026 deadline", and committing early releases your waitlist places to other applicants sooner.

If you already committed and a waitlist school calls anyway, the off the waitlist after Commit to Enroll guide covers what schools say about that.

Can schools see your choice?

For Plan to Enroll, Duke reproduces the visibility rule from the February 19 step: "Medical schools will be able to see the number of applicants selecting their school and other schools, but will not see your personal information."

For Commit to Enroll, the sources we could retrieve do not settle what schools see. Duke says "the "Commit to Enroll" does not notify schools". USF says a commitment elsewhere "will result in an automatic withdrawal" from USF, and does not say how it learns of it. OHSU says the same selection does not withdraw you from OHSU. AAMC's own tool page would settle the point, and we could not retrieve it. The practical answer is the same either way: email every school yourself, because no source says the tool does it for you.

Can schools see where else you were accepted? No page we retrieved says an MD school sees the names of your other schools through the tool. Cincinnati's instruction points the same way: when you get another offer, tell it an offer arrived, "not from whom". DO schools are different: AACOMAS reports names to colleges after May 1, as the AACOMAS traffic guidelines and DO deposits page quotes.

Common traps

1. Treating April 30 as the finish line. Plan to Enroll on April 30 is the first deadline, not the last. USC Greenville's Commit to Enroll deadline is May 14, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET, and Cincinnati's MD/PhD deadline is May 11, 2027.
2. Assuming the tool sent anything. It reports what you did. Duke: "you need to contact every school personally to withdraw an acceptance or alternate/waitlist offer prior to selecting "Commit to Enroll" in the Choose Your Medical School Tool."
3. Selecting Commit to Enroll to show interest. Commitment is not a message to the school you love; it is a withdrawal from the school you love if that school is the one with the waitlist. Interest goes in a letter of intent or letter of interest, and a letter of intent goes to one school only.
4. Missing a short answer window. After its own deadline, USC Greenville gives a waitlist admit "48 hours of acceptance" to select Commit to Enroll there; Cincinnati gives "5 days after offer" to answer an alternate-list offer. Have your withdrawal emails drafted before May.

Questions about Plan to Enroll and Commit to Enroll

What does PTE mean in medical school admissions?

PTE is Plan to Enroll: the AMCAS option that marks the one school you expect to attend while you stay on waitlists.

Can you change Plan to Enroll?

Yes. Duke: "If you indicate Plan to Enroll for a school, and you are subsequently accepted at another school you would prefer, you can change your selection." Withdraw from the school you leave by email.

Can you stay on a waitlist after committing to enroll?

No. Commit to Enroll means you have withdrawn from every waitlist, and USF, USC Greenville, Cincinnati and UTHSC each say they will not admit or keep an applicant who committed elsewhere. OHSU says the click does not remove you from its list, so the withdrawal email is what takes you off.

Do you have to select Plan to Enroll?

At some schools, yes. Arizona Phoenix requires accepted students to use the tool, and USC Greenville tells admitted students to make sure the tool shows Plan to Enroll by April 30, 2027.

Review the writing you send next

Before Commit to Enroll you write withdrawal emails, and while you wait on Plan to Enroll you may write one letter of intent to the waitlist school you would choose. Get a free Quick Review of your letter of intent: it checks that the letter ties a named feature of the school to your reason for attending and states your commitment at the strength you mean. For news since your interview, use the update letter rubric. More guides are on the medical school essays hub and the medical school review page. For the other cycle shorthand, from II to LOCI, see our premed acronyms guide.

Asked in an interview whether a school is your first choice? See how to answer is this your top choice in an interview without a promise.

The cost method for choosing between medical school acceptances is the step before Commit to Enroll.

If you are also in the Texas match, the TMDSAS match and AMCAS acceptance guide covers the two-week holding clause.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.

• Duke University Prehealth Advising, Managing Acceptance to Medical Schools & Traffic Rules (no year stated): Plan to Enroll and Commit to Enroll definitions; what schools see; the tool does not notify schools.
• University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, Application Process (AY2026-2027): February 19 and April 30, 2027; tool required.
• University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Choose Your Medical School (2026-2027 cycle): steps, May 14, 2027 deadline, 48-hour rule, no offers after a commitment elsewhere.
• University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, CYMS (2026-2027 cycle): offer notification, 7-day and 5-day windows, May 11, 2027 MD/PhD deadline.
• USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, Waitlist Process for MD Program (no year stated): automatic withdrawal after a commitment elsewhere.
• UTHSC College of Medicine, Alternate List FAQs (undated).
• Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, MD admissions (2027 cycle FAQ linked): Commit to Enroll elsewhere does not automatically withdraw an OHSU application.
• Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, How to apply (2027 dates): alternate lists until Commit to Enroll.
• Weill Cornell Medicine, Admissions timeline (2026 cycle, last cycle): early Commit to Enroll allowed.
• Not retrieved: AAMC, AMCAS Choose Your Medical School tool page (automated retrieval refused, November 7, 2026). Not quoted.