TMDSAS No Match: What to Do After Match Day
No Match on February 12, 2027 starts Texas rolling admissions. The May 15 rule, 5-day reply windows, seven schools' alternate lists, and the letter.
TMDSAS No Match: What to Do After Match Day
No Match on February 12, 2027 moves you into Texas rolling admissions, which "will continue through the beginning of orientation at each medical school." The clock that matters is 5:00 p.m. CST on May 15, 2027: after it, no Texas school may offer a seat to a Texas resident who already holds one, and every offer must be answered within 5 business days (48 hours within 30 days of orientation).
So the plan is not to email every school. It is to stay reachable, answer fast, and send one letter of interest to each school that says it reads letters. This page covers what happens after Match Day. For how the match itself works, see our TMDSAS match explainer.
Every TMDSAS and school page quoted below was re-checked on November 7, 2026, for the 2026-2027 cycle (entry year 2027).
Match Day: when and where you see the result
TMDSAS, on its after-submitting page: "Individual match results will be posted on the TMDSAS website on February 12, 2027 at 8 am CT." Log in, then open [School Rank Preference] under [Pending Actions]. "If you matched to a school, the school name will be listed."
There are two results, and neither ends your cycle.
- You matched, but not to your first choice. You are withdrawn from the schools ranked below your match. TMDSAS: "The applicant will remain open to be selected by schools ranked higher than the school matched to." A school above your match can still call you.
- No Match. TMDSAS: "If you did not match to a school, keep in mind that the standard rolling admissions will begin after the match process and continue through the beginning of orientation at each medical school. You will be contacted directly by a medical school if you are moved to their alternate list or made an offer after the match process."
No Match is not a rejection letter. It means no school that ranked you in range had a seat for you on February 12.
How Texas alternate lists move, school by school
| School | What its own page says (checked November 7, 2026) |
|---|---|
| UTMB John Sealy | Applicants not accepted via the match "are placed in the alternate pool. The alternate pool is not ranked." The number taken "varies yearly, ranging from 10-15." Alternate pool notifications come in February (timeline) |
| McGovern, UT Health Houston | Will "select applicants from our waitlist after the TMDSAS Match in February each year." |
| Dell Medical School | "February–May: Applicants accepted from the waitlist are contacted." |
| Long SOM, UT Health San Antonio | "All interviewed applicants are in a waitlist pool until an offer of admission is extended." |
| UT Tyler | "May 15: Last day an applicant can be called from a waitlist of a higher-ranked Texas medical school." June 2027: "Applicants may be selected from the waitlist up until the beginning of Welcome Week" |
| Sam Houston State COM | "Following the match, the standard rolling admissions process will continue until the first day of orientation." |
| Texas Tech HSC, Lubbock | "Results are announced in February if you have matched into the program or not, or if you are on the waitlist." |
UTMB is the only school here that publishes a number, and its 10 to 15 is a count of people taken from the pool, not a rate. No school we checked publishes its waitlist size or your place on it. Baylor's admissions pages did not load for us on November 7, 2026 (connection failed), so Baylor is not in the table.
The May 15 line and the response windows
Section I of the TMDSAS Guidelines for Conduct of the Match:
"After 5:00 p.m. CST on May 15, no medical school in Texas may offer a position to a Texas resident applicant already accepted by another medical school in Texas."
The guidelines allow one exception: "Only extraordinary circumstances warrant an exception to this policy." The school wanting to make the offer needs approval from the admissions dean of the school where you hold a seat "BEFORE the offer is extended."
Then the windows:
"After 5:00 p.m. CST on May 15, any offer of acceptance made to an applicant must be responded to within 5 business days. If an offer is made within 30 days of an institution's date of orientation, the decision must be communicated within 48 hours."
What this means for you, by situation:
| Your situation | Before 5 p.m. CST, May 15, 2027 | After it |
|---|---|---|
| No Texas seat | Any Texas school can call you | Any Texas school can still call you; answer in 5 business days, or 48 hours near orientation |
| A Texas seat at School X, waiting on School Y | School Y can still offer | School Y cannot offer without School X's dean approving first |
| Matched lower than your first choice | Schools ranked above your match can still call | Same May 15 limit applies; you hold a Texas seat |
May 15, 2027 falls on a Saturday. The rule names the time, not a business day, so Friday, May 14 is the last business day before it.
If you also hold an offer outside Texas, the April 30, 2027 choose-one rule and the two-week holding limit apply; both are quoted in matched TMDSAS but have an AMCAS acceptance?.
The week after No Match: a checklist
- Make yourself reachable. Schools contact you directly. Check the email in your TMDSAS application, its spam folder, and your voicemail. An offer after May 15 gives you 5 business days at most.
- Decide your answer before the call comes. Rank, privately, which Texas schools you would accept from an alternate list, and which outside seats you would give up. You may have 48 hours.
- List which schools take letters. Only UTMB and Long SOM publish a letter route, and Texas Tech in Lubbock and Sam Houston State take none; the route for each of the 14 schools is in Texas medical school update letter policies.
- Send one letter of interest per school that reads them, with something new in it. One per school. Not weekly.
- Put new grades in TMDSAS. Schools see portal updates without an email from you.
- Start the reapplication in parallel, not instead. Texas Tech in Lubbock says "reapplying to the next cycle will have no interference on your waitlist standing." If you get no seat, see what to do after a Texas rejection.
Our view: one letter per school, in February, then silence unless something new happens. The alternate lists that publish how they work (UTMB re-reviews the whole pool when a seat opens) are re-reading files, not counting emails.
The countercase: a school that invites contact. If an admissions office asks alternates to confirm interest by a date, do exactly what it asks, even if you already wrote.
Constructed letter of continued interest for a Texas alternate list
Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant's letter. The applicant and every detail are invented. It is 138 words, subject line included, sent in late February to a school whose FAQ accepts letters.
Subject: Continued interest: Bianca Pacheco, TMDSAS ID [number]
Dear Admissions Committee,
I am writing to confirm that I want a place in the entering class at the Hill Country School of Medicine and to share one update since my interview in December.
In January I began working full time as a medical assistant at a family medicine clinic in Kerrville. I room fourteen to eighteen patients a day and run the clinic's diabetic foot-check reminder list, which I rebuilt in my first month.
That work is why your four-week rural family medicine block, which Dr. Fofanah described at my interview, matters to me. It is the practice I am already working in.
I can be reached at this email and at [phone] every day through orientation, and I can answer an offer the same day.
Sincerely, Bianca Pacheco
What each part does:
- First sentence: the interest, stated once, at the strength the letter can support.
- The update: new since the interview, with numbers a reader can picture.
- The reason: a feature of the school the applicant heard about, tied to work already underway.
- Availability: the one line every alternate-list letter in Texas needs, because the response windows are short.
The first draft also said:
As you know, you were my first choice on my TMDSAS rank list, and I will accept immediately.
Cut it. The school does not know where you ranked it, because schools "do not have access to the applicants' school preference rankings", and the rank list stopped mattering on February 12. "I will accept immediately" promises an answer you may not give if another school calls first. The availability line already says you will answer fast.
Questions after a TMDSAS No Match
Does No Match mean I was rejected from every Texas school?
No. Rolling admissions continues to orientation at each school, and schools contact applicants they move to an alternate list or make an offer to.
What time are TMDSAS match results released?
8 a.m. CT on Friday, February 12, 2027, under [School Rank Preference] in the portal.
How many people get off Texas waitlists?
Only UTMB publishes a figure on the pages we checked: between 10 and 15 taken from its alternate pool, varying by year. No school publishes a rate.
Can I still be called by a higher-ranked school if I matched?
Yes. TMDSAS says you "remain open to be selected by schools ranked higher than the school matched to." After 5 p.m. CST on May 15, a Texas school cannot offer you a seat while you hold another Texas seat, unless the holding school's dean approves first.
Should I email every school where I interviewed?
No. Write once to each school that says it reads letters. Texas Tech in Lubbock and Sam Houston State say they will not take outside letters.
Can I reapply while I am on a waitlist?
Yes, at Texas Tech in Lubbock, which says reapplying does not affect your waitlist standing. Other schools do not say on the pages we checked.
Get a free review of your letter of interest
Get a free Quick Review of your letter of interest before you send it to an alternate list. GradPilot's letter of intent and interest rubric checks that the letter connects something the school offers to your reason for wanting it, and that the interest you state is consistent with the rest of the letter. If the letter is mostly new work or grades, use the medical school update letter rubric. Starting the next cycle in parallel? The TMDSAS personal statement rubric reads the TMDSAS personal statement you will rewrite.
More on the general waitlist letter is in the medical school waitlist update letter guide, and on the Texas sequence in how to rank Texas medical schools and the medical school essays hub.
Sources
Retrieved November 7, 2026.
- TMDSAS, After Submitting: match results, rolling admissions and Guidelines for Conduct of the Match, Sections I and III (2026-2027 cycle): Match Day time, how to view results, rolling admissions, May 15 rule and exception, response windows, April 30 rule, schools' lack of access to rankings.
- TMDSAS, Deadlines and Important Dates, Entry Year 2027: February 12; May 15.
- UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, Admission Policies and FAQs and Application Timeline (no year stated): unranked alternate pool, 10–15 taken, February notifications, letter routes.
- McGovern Medical School, Admissions FAQ (no year stated): waitlist selection after the match.
- Dell Medical School, How to Apply FAQs (no year stated): February–May waitlist contacts.
- UT Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine, Interview Process: waitlist pool; update route.
- UT Tyler School of Medicine, Admissions (2026-2027 timeline): May 15 and Welcome Week.
- Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Prospective Students FAQ (no year stated): rolling admissions to orientation; TMDSAS-only documents.
- Texas Tech University HSC School of Medicine, Admissions FAQ (no year stated): February results, no letters, reapplying while waitlisted.
- Not retrieved: Baylor College of Medicine admissions pages (connection failed on November 7, 2026); not quoted.
Review your medical-school letter
Check your school-specific reason and whether your wording matches your actual interest or commitment.