Beginning with the 2010 application cycle that started on May 1, 2009, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS), the centralized application service for the osteopathic medical schools, is going greener.   AACOMAS has taken two steps to reduce the environmental impact of its application.  First, AACOMAS has eliminated its paper application and is only accepting online applications. 

Second, and more significantly, AACOMAS is no longer mailing application packets to the colleges on a weekly basis.  These weekly mailings included eight- to ten-page (printed front and back) applications for each new and updated applicant at each college.  With nearly 95,000 individual college applications (and multiple updates on many of them), AACOMAS printed and shipped well over a half-million sheets of paper a year. One week in March, the total weight of applications sent to the colleges exceeded 150 pounds.

Beginning with the 2010 application cycle, colleges will have the opportunity to print select applications from data files that are downloaded from the AACOMAS system.  Each college will have the option of printing applications or using electronic media to review applications. Two colleges, Oklahoma State University COM and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine – Bradenton, voluntarily piloted the paperless process in the 2009 cycle.