MCAT Registration: Every Step and What It Costs

Registration for every January to September 2027 MCAT date is open now, and a seat costs $360, or $145 if you hold fee assistance approval. The process itself is short, and the two things that most often cost a candidate that money are not the booking: they are a name that does not match the ID, and a confirmation email that never arrives.

Most guides to this walk you through the form and stop. The form is the easy part. What follows is the sequence in order, the deadlines that are not negotiable, and what each mistake is actually priced at.

How to register for the MCAT, step by step

The whole thing runs through the MCAT Registration System, and it takes about twenty minutes once your account exists.

The MCAT registration sequence, 2027 testing year. Source: AAMC 2027 MCAT Registration Opening and the MCAT Essentials.

1. Use your existing AAMC ID. One account covers everything the AAMC runs, so if you have ever created an AAMC ID for any reason, that is the one to use. If you cannot remember the username or password, recover it. The MCAT Essentials is blunt about the alternative: you may not create a second AAMC ID, and doing it anyway delays your registration.

2. Fill in the pre-registration tabs before opening day. For the 2027 cycle the AAMC asked examinees to complete the first five tabs of the registration system between Oct. 5 and Oct. 19, ahead of the queue. The point is that none of that typing happens while seats are moving. If you are registering now, outside an opening window, you simply complete those tabs as you go.

3. Choose the date and the test center. The test center locator is public and needs no login, so you can scout locations before you are in the system. A center showing up there does not mean it has appointments, which is a distinction worth taking seriously. If your preferred combination is full, the appointment notification request emails you when a date and location open up.

4. Pay by card. The system takes American Express, VISA, Discover and MasterCard, including debit cards carrying a VISA or MasterCard logo, and nothing else. Payment is processed immediately and the process cannot be reversed once it starts. If you are testing somewhere that charges sales tax, VAT or GST, it is collected at the moment you schedule.

5. Wait for the confirmation email, and check that it arrived. This is the step people skip. If no confirmation email reaches you within 24 hours of scheduling, the appointment was not scheduled and you have to do it again. Cancellations work the same way: no email inside 24 hours means the cancellation did not go through.

Deciding which date to aim at is a separate question from booking it. The MCAT score release calendar maps each test date onto the day schools actually see the score, and for most applicants that mapping, not seat availability, is what should pick the date.

The waiting room closes at 11:50 a.m. ET, and your place in line is random

Registration for a new testing year does not open everywhere at once. The AAMC staggers it across three days by the location of the test center, not by where you live, and each group opens at noon ET. For the 2027 year the opening ran Oct. 20 to 22, 2026:

Groups A and B between them account for all 50 states and DC with no overlap, which is why every candidate has exactly one opening day rather than a choice of three.

Now the part that the advice elsewhere gets wrong. Nearly every guide tells you to log in early on opening day. Logging in early does nothing. The AAMC assigns places in line at random to everyone sitting in the waiting room at 11:50 a.m. ET, ten minutes before registration opens, and it says plainly that arriving sooner does not improve your position. What it does change is the downside: log in at 11:51 a.m. and you go to the back of the line.

For anyone reading this during the 2027 cycle, none of that applies today: all three groups are already open and the registration system stays open for scheduling after opening day, so there is no queue to join. The waiting room matters when the 2028 dates are released, and it matters now mainly as a reason not to panic about a queue that has already passed.

One scheduling detail does still bite. Testing in the United States and Canada is limited to select locations on Jan. 30, May 14, July 9 and Aug. 28, 2027, so those four dates are worth checking against the calendar before you set your heart on one.

Your registration name is the most expensive field on the form

Everything above is reversible for a fee. This is the part that is not.

What a name mismatch costs, standard registration. Source: AAMC MCAT Essentials and scheduling fees, TestPrepPal calculation.

You have to enter your first and last names exactly as they appear on the ID you will bring on test day. No nicknames, no initials, no partial names. The Essentials gives the example directly: if your name is Matthew and everyone calls you Matt, you register as Matthew, and you will not be admitted under the nickname. Middle names and initials are not required on the registration even when they appear on the ID, and you enter first name then surname even if your ID prints it the other way round.

If the names do not match at the test center, you are not allowed to test. The AAMC then treats you as a no show, which means all of the following at once:

• The $360 is gone. No refund is issued for a no show.
• Rebooking costs the full registration fee again, and you cannot schedule for up to 24 hours.
• The appointment still counts against your testing limits.

Those limits are tighter than most candidates realise. You may hold only one appointment at a time, attempt the exam three times in a testing year, four times across two consecutive testing years, and seven times in your lifetime counting from the April 2015 dates. A typo therefore costs $720 in cash and one seventh of every MCAT you will ever be allowed to sit.

Correcting it costs nothing. Name changes go through the registration system and have to be done at least 10 days before the exam, and the scheduling fee schedule prices only date and test center changes, so a name fix carries no fee at all. The one exception needs more notice: if your ID shows initials in place of a first or last name, or prints initials on the same line as a name, call AAMC Services on 202-828-0600 at least 30 days before your exam for instructions.

While you are checking the name, check the document. An accepted ID has to be government issued, unexpired, with the expiration date printed on it rather than extended by a sticker, carrying a photo good enough to identify you, and physically intact. If yours expires before your test date, renewing it is your problem to solve, and government processing time is a real input into which date you should book.

What registration costs, and what changing your mind costs

The headline numbers are short. The AAMC scheduling fee schedule lists $360 for standard registration and $145 with fee assistance, for all 2027 dates. Testing outside the US, Canada or US territories adds $130, and that $130 is never refunded.

It is worth stating those plainly because the pages ranking for this question often do not. Guides still in circulation quote $345, $330 or $320 as the standard fee, figures from earlier testing years. The current AAMC number, read on Nov. 6, 2026, is $360.

Changes are priced on three deadlines, counted from your exam date, and every one of them falls at 11:59 p.m. local test center time:

• 60 or more days out: moving the date or the center costs $55, and cancelling refunds $180.
• 30 to 59 days out: a move costs $110, and cancelling still refunds $180.
• 10 to 29 days out: a move costs $210, and cancelling refunds nothing.

Inside 10 days nothing can be changed at all, and 10 days before test day is also the last day anyone can schedule an MCAT. If you are weighing a move against scrapping the booking entirely, how much the MCAT costs works through the full ladder, the fee assistance prices and the arithmetic on which option is cheaper. The short version is that rescheduling wins in every window.

What none of this covers is preparation, which for most candidates is the larger number by far. The MCAT prep course roundup compares what the major providers charge, and the MCAT exam hub collects the rest of the logistics.

Fee assistance has to be approved before you book

The Fee Assistance Program is the only route to a price below $360, and its sequencing catches people out every year. Approval has to be final before you select your test date and location, because the benefits are not retroactive and nothing paid beforehand is refunded.

Two timing rules follow from that. If you are applying around an opening window, the AAMC asks for your materials at least five business days before registration opens. And if you have been approved but the reduced fees are not showing in the registration system, stop. Do not schedule or reschedule anything until you have contacted the AAMC, because booking at the standard price with an approval you cannot see is money you will not get back.

Approved candidates pay $145 to register, and their change fees run $25, $45 and $85 across the same three windows, against $55, $110 and $210 at standard price. Full eligibility rules and deadlines are on the Fee Assistance Program page.

Once the seat is booked, the work changes shape. The MCAT sections guide covers what you are actually sitting, and the MCAT score calculator converts practice raw scores into the scaled total that decides whether the date you just picked is the right one.

MCAT registration FAQs

How do you register for the MCAT?

Sign in to the MCAT Registration System with your existing AAMC ID, complete the registration tabs, choose a test date and center, and pay the $360 fee by credit or debit card. Enter your first and last names exactly as they appear on the ID you will bring on test day. The registration is only real once the confirmation email arrives, which should happen within 24 hours.

What day does MCAT registration open?

For the 2027 testing year, registration opened across Oct. 20 to 22, 2026, at noon ET each day, staggered by where your test center is located rather than where you live. All three groups are now open, so every January to September 2027 date can be booked today. On an opening day, the waiting room closes at 11:50 a.m. ET and places in line are assigned randomly from whoever is already in it.

How far in advance do I need to register for the MCAT?

The only hard deadline is that scheduling closes 10 days before test day. In practice the binding constraint is seat availability, not that cutoff, because popular dates and centers fill during the opening window. A test center appearing in the locator does not mean it has appointments free, so if your preferred date and location are taken, set an appointment notification request rather than refreshing the system.

Can I take the MCAT in the UK?

Yes. The United Kingdom is one of the 18 international and territory locations in Group C, alongside Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and others. Testing outside the US, Canada or US territories costs the standard $360 registration plus a $130 international fee, so $490 in total, and that $130 is not refunded if you later cancel.

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