A Few Medical School Course Prerequisite Findings

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hello CollegeConfidential,</p>

<p>I recently graduated from high school and will be a freshman in college this upcoming fall. I'm signing up for classes pretty soon, so I wanted to do some research over the courses Medical Schools require you to take during undergraduate school, and I found a couple of pieces of information that you may find to be helpful. (All of the information I found is from the medical college or school's official website and undergraduate degree requirements.) I live in Texas, so I looked at 7 Medical Schools in Texas and 17 other Medical schools from states in the Southern, Central and Western United States.</p>

<p>First of all, for those of you who do not know the exact specifics, all 24 Medical Schools that I looked at required the following courses (most of you already know this. Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with how many hours courses are worth, typically one course is 3 hours and one lab is 2 hours):
-General Biology (1 + 2) with Labs (8 hours total)
-Upper/Advanced Biology (6 hours total)
-Inorganic Chemistry (1 + 2) with Labs (8 hours total)
-Organic Chemistry (1 + 2) with Labs (8 hours total)
-General Physics (1 + 2) with Labs (8 hours total)
-English Literature/Composition (6 hours total)</p>

<p>This is specifically what people mean when they say 14 hours of Biology, 16 hours of Chemistry, 8 hours of Physics, and 6 hours of English.</p>

<p>And now for the Mathematics requirement. This is the course that differs the greatest among each Medical School.</p>

<p>Some schools require you take 6 hours of Mathematics, some require 3 hours, and others require 0 hours of Mathematics. The specific course(s) you should take also varies from school to school.</p>

<p>Before my research, I thought that Calculus 1 was required for entry into Medical School. Most of the schools I looked at, however, do not require Calculus and accept either Calculus or Statistics. In contrast to my previous beliefs, my research has lead me to conclude that medical schools are beginning to prefer Statistics over Calculus. My two favorite Medical Schools (Texas A&M and Texas Tech), for instance, will not even accept Calculus to meet the Mathematics requirement beginning in 2012, and will only accept Statistics.</p>

<p>Perhaps the safest option to cover most of your bases is taking Calculus 1 and Statistics 1, but there is a definite requirement/preference shift taking place from Calculus to Statistics in Medical School Admission Offices.</p>

<p>Lastly, some schools made a list of preferred courses that aren't required but they would like you to take. The most frequent mentions were: Biochemistry (with Labs), Genetics, Human Anatomy & Physiology, Cell Biology, and Humanities (Psychology, Foreign Language, Art, etc.).</p>

<p>In conclusion, I think courses that will make your Medical School Application look good and be granted for admission will look something like this:</p>

<p>-Biology 1, Biology 2, Cell Biology/Human Anatomy, Genetics
[14 hours of Biology (with Labs)]</p>

<p>-Inorganic Chemistry 1 + 2, Organic Chemistry 1 + 2
[16 hours of Chemistry (with Labs)]</p>

<p>-Physics 1 + 2
[8 Hours of Physics (with Labs)]</p>

<p>-English Composition 1 + 2
[6 Hours of English]</p>

<p>-Calculus 1 + Statistics
[6 Hours of Mathematics]</p>

<p>-Foreign Language 1 + 2, Government, Psychology, Art Course
[15 Hours of Humanities]</p>

<p>Like I mentioned previously, Medical School prerequisites are not the same across the board for each school, but for the most part, this is what they look like. </p>

<p>I'd be more than happy for you to post any comments, corrections, or questions that you'd like to ask or make.</p>

<p>Thanks. =)</p>

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<p>If I remember correctly, some schools are now requiring biochem, and there may be a school or two who require 2 semesters of calculus.</p>

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<p>A lot of pre-meds like to major in a science which anyway requires you to take Calc I and Calc II. So math is pretty much covered, unless that university requires stats, which is rare.</p>

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<p>Alex:</p>

<p>may I refer you to the stickied threads at the top of the premed thread. (There are hundreds of posts regarding coursework.)</p>

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<p>Alex</p>

<p>TAMU and TT are two of the lower ranked Texas Med schools; is there a specific reason that they are your two favorites?</p>

<p>Just curious…???</p>

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<p>^^^ Because The sports at both schools are AMAZING. Its too bad UT-Austin doesn’t have its own medical schools. Must be an amazing experience going to UT-Austin’s football games. </p>

<p>Seriously though, maybe the op wants to practice rural primary care medicine. Don’t TAMU and Tech have good programs for rural primary care medicine?</p>

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<p>^^^^The first steps to a UT Austin Med school have already been taken in the state legislation and UTSW now has some spots of its residencies based in Austin hospitals.</p>

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<p>You are absolutely right. After my research, I am definetely going to take Biochemistry with its corresponding Lab. At my undergraduate university, Biochemistry is technically classified as a ‘Chemistry’ course, so I would have to make sure that I still take 14 hours of Biology.</p>

<p>In some (but only a few scenarios) that I came across, Biochemistry can actually substitute for one sesmester of Organic Chemistry. Washington University School of Medcine is an example of this. ([Requirements](<a href=“http://medadmissions.wustl.edu/HowtoApply/ApplicationProcess/Pages/Requirements.aspx]Requirements[/url]”>http://medadmissions.wustl.edu/HowtoApply/ApplicationProcess/Pages/Requirements.aspx)</a>)</p>

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<p>That is a true point. There are very, very few Medical Schools that require Calculus 2. I wish that I had access to a more recent MSAR, but the 2007-2008 version (<a href=“http://web.jhu.edu/bin/w/o/add_math_reqs.pdf[/url]”>http://web.jhu.edu/bin/w/o/add_math_reqs.pdf&lt;/a&gt;) says that only Harvard, Wash U, and Johns Hopkins require 2 semesters of Calculus. And after checking all three of those University’s specific course requirements on their websites, Johns Hopkins only requires one year of Calculus, so the only two universities that I can confirm requiring Calculus 2 are Harvard and Wash U.</p>

<p>Because there are so few Medical Schools that require Calculus 2, my best advice (and what I’m going to do) is only take Calculus 2 if I did really well in Calc 1 and you know that you can get an A in the course. If you’re someone who struggles a little bit with Mathematics (like me), I think the best idea is to take one semester of Calculus 1 and Statistics.</p>

<p>And the absolute best idea is to find about 10 or 12 Medical Schools that you see yourself applying to and check all of their specific course requirements on their websites so you know exactly what you have to take and what you should take for admission.</p>

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<p>I live in Texas, and I’d prefer to stay in this state and pay resident tuition for all four years. I’m also going to apply to UT medical schools in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio as well as Medical Schools in other states, but I would love to go to either TAMU or TTU because they are both so close to my families. To be honest, I haven’t put much thought at all into Medical School Rankings (maybe I should…), because I guess I’m concerned about doing well at my undergraduate school first.</p>

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<p>Also, keep in mind that requirements at changing. sometime after you apply. This has happened to my D. One of her Med. Schools added Anatomy and Biochem. D. had to change her senior year schedule, dropping one of her minors. She was accepted there but ironically choose to go to another Med. School, while school that added requirements had to revoke them since most UG in state could not accomodate influx of additional students in Anatomy and Biochem. So, be very flexible and try to have ligher schedule in Junior (MCAT prep.) and senior year for potential need of accomodating additional required classes. Also, if in doubt in regard to requirments, check with individual Med. Schools adcoms, they have been very helpful.</p>