Association of American Medical Colleges

The endowment draws from multiple revenue streams tied to the AAMC's gatekeeping role in medical education. Member dues from 158 accredited U.S. medical schools and over 400 teaching hospitals form the base. The AAMC also collects fees from the MCAT examination, the AMCAS centralized application service, the ERAS residency application system, and other student-facing services. Investment returns on the roughly $400 million endowment supplement these operational revenues.

The AAMC co-sponsors the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) alongside the American Medical Association. The LCME is the sole accrediting body for all MD-granting medical education programs in the United States. This gives the AAMC effective gatekeeping power over which institutions can train physicians — a regulatory function embedded inside a trade association.

The April 2022 merger with the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) gave the AAMC a permanent international footprint. The AAHC's subsidiary, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI), now operates under AAMC, reaching more than 60 academic health centers outside the United States. This expanded the AAMC's influence beyond U.S. medical education into global academic medicine leadership.

Most AAMC spending supports advocacy, research, and the technology infrastructure behind the AMCAS, ERAS, and MCAT systems. The organization also runs leadership development programs for medical school deans and teaching hospital executives, produces the AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) database, and lobbies Congress on physician workforce funding, specifically Medicare support for graduate medical education residency slots.