Apply for Membership

Online Application

The online application requires the following:

• Personal statement
• Answering questions that address each criterion for membership, including established record, current contributions, leadership, scholarship, recognition and awards, and mentorship (or personal educational development for the Associate Member category)
• Listing of three professional references
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• One-page biosketch

In the FAQ, you can find a sample of each application (under the question “Can I preview the application?”).

After the application is submitted, Academy staff will reach out to the three references and ask for a one-page letter to support the membership of the applicant. While Academy staff will request and oversee the submission of letters of reference, it is the responsibility of the applicant to make sure the letters of reference are submitted by the deadline. Once all letters of reference are submitted, Academy staff will alert each applicant to let them know the application is complete.

To complete an application:

1. Click on Apply for Membership and log in using your ACS Member ID credentials. (A special note to Non-ACS Members who apply to the Affiliate Category: you will need to create an account, which will only take a few minutes.)
2. Please note that once you begin an application in any category, you will not be able to change categories on your own. If you decide to change categories, you will need to contact the Academy at acsacademy@facs.org, or call 312-202-5771, to make this change. Academy staff will be glad to assist you with this.
3. Select the category of membership to which you will be applying for: Member, Associate Member, or Affiliate Member. For information on the criteria for each category, see Membership Requirements.
   • For the 2024 Application Cycle, we are not accepting applications for the Affiliate Member category. 
4. Fellows of the ACS may apply for either the Member or Associate Member categories. The Affiliate Category is NOT intended for ACS Fellows. The Affiliate Category is intended for non-surgeons who are experts in various disciplines that would positively impact surgical education. (A special note to Non-FACS surgeons: We hope you will consider applying for Fellowship in the ACS, as a precursor to applying to the Academy. Learn more about becoming a Fellow.)
5. If you previously applied to the Academy, you will have access to your previous application. You can download your previous application in order to copy and paste any of your responses. You will also be able to download your previously submitted Curriculum Vitae (CV) and biosketch and make any edits that you deem appropriate.
6. Complete the online application. The following information is required: a personal statement, three professional references, CV, and one-page biosketch. You are encouraged to respond to each criterion relevant to your contributions to the field of surgical education. Please be sure that, if you leave any criteria question blank, this is your intention.
7. Upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Biosketch – in .pdf format
   • You may upload your entire CV.
   • For the biosketch, please upload a summary no longer than one page. The summary may include highlights of your accomplishments in the field of surgical education, your positions, honors, and seminal contributions to the field.
8. Provide the name, title, institution, and contact information of three professional references. These individuals will be contacted by the ACS Division of Education and asked to provide a letter of reference. They will be provided with a copy of your completed application, CV, and biosketch. The letters will be held in the strictest confidence, only to be shared with the Academy Steering Committee. The ACS Division of Education will not provide any information about the content of the letters to the applicant.
   • Please note that the policy of the Academy Steering Committee states that Committee Members may NOT serve as either a nominator or a reference for an individual applying for membership in the Academy. Here is a listing of the Academy Steering Committee Members.
   • If you previously applied to the Academy, you may use the same references; however, your references will be contacted again by the ACS Division of Education and asked to provide an updated letter.
   • If you were nominated by an individual to be in the Academy, you may list the nominator as one of your three references. While serving as both a nominator and reference is permissible, it does require a separate letter of reference, apart from the nominating statement.
   • While the ACS Division of Education staff will request the letter of references, please note it is your responsibility to make sure that all letters are submitted by the deadline. An application is considered INCOMPLETE without the submission of the three letters of reference and will not be reviewed by the Academy Selection Committee.

Please note: Your application WILL autosave. However, it is recommended that you "save" your work after each section, either in the navigation box to the left or at the bottom of the application. Consider creating your responses to the application questions in a Word document and then copying and pasting them into the appropriate box.

Selected Members must be present at the Induction Ceremony in order to be in the Academy. If there is a scheduling conflict, induction would be delayed until the following year. Selected Members, Associate Members, and Affiliate Members must be inducted within three years of their selection date or, if not, they will need to re-apply to the Academy during the annual application cycle.

If you have any questions about the application, please contact acsacademy@facs.org, or call 312-202-5771.