a complete list of courses you took in undergrad including those other than core requirements ?
also when ?
It will depend upon your major and the medical schools where you will be applying. These are the courses required by most Medical schools for admission.
- two years of chemistry (general and organic) with lab
- one year of physics with lab
- at least one year of general biology with lab
Some medical and other health professional schools also require some or all of the following courses:
- calculus or other college-level mathematics such as stats
- English
- advanced biological science and/or biochemistry
If you are currently attending college, do you have a Pre-Med or Pre-Professional advising office you can go and ask questions?
You’d start first semester with either bio or chem, typically with lab, English, calc or stats, plus some gen eds. This way you’re not overwhelmed and you don’t sink your GPA beyond any hope recovery. Second semester, add either bio or chem, plus English or Psych, calc or stats, second level of bio or chem. You try to rank in the top 10-20% for each class and keep your GPA above 3.75 - meaning, when your fellow freshmen are out on Thursdays partying, you’re hunkered down and making sure you are 100%, you go to office hours every week or every other week, you sit in the first two rows to be known from the professor and the TA+ help focus, etc.
One thing to note is that you can’t use your AP credits for pre-med requirements (except for Math).
If you aren’t taking a gap year, you need to take everything by the end of your junior year so you can take the MCAT, apply and interview before and during your senior year. This will cover most Med school requirements:
2 sems Bio
4 sems Chem
2 sems Physics
2 sems English/Writing
1 sem Psych
1 sem Soc
1 sem Math > or = to Calc 1 (or a 5 on AP Calc BC)
1 Statistics class (can be through any department that works with statistics)
also at some schools:
1 sem Biochem
1 sem Neuroscience
So, over 6 semesters, you’d do sequences like this
Bio1-Bio 2-Bio3/00 -00- 00- Neuro
00-Chem1-Chem 2- Orgo1-Orgo2-Biochem
OR
00- Bio1-Bio 2-00 - 00- Neuro
Chem1-Chem 2- Orgo1-Orgo2-Biochem-00
+
English- Fr Writing or Psych or Soc - Psych or Soc -00/ psych/soc - Professional Writing-00
Calc1-00-Stats-00-00-00
00-00-00-00-Physics1- Physics 2
This way you balance everything and you can easily pursue a major and complete gen eds (most premed pr-reqs match gen eds too).
@redpoodles A bit off-topic but how do top medical schools view gap years? Obviously with the gap year they will be expecting you to do something worthy of a year, but is it harder to get into top medical schools without a gap year? Was already kind of planning on taking the gap year down the road, just curious how medical schools treat students taking a gap year vs not taking a gap year. Also how much harder is it to get into an out of state medical school?
They say it’s better to have a gap year. Most take a year or two or even three between college and med school, actually. I think 26 is the average age of a med student. (look that up)
It depends on the state. Yes, it’s harder and sometimes close to impossible to get into an out of state med school for some states. Other states are more open. You might enjoy reading student doctor network. It’s a forum like this but for those interested in medical school or already doing it.
@IN4655 @redpoodles A student should apply to medical school when then have a strong application ready. If this is after junior year or sometime after graduation will depend on each students situation. Adcoms want strong applications.
The median age at matriculation is exactly what you would expect it to be, 23.
I’m very confused as to how the first chart shows the total median for each gender at 24 while the second chart shows the total median for each gender at 23. The charts are presumably the same data…
EDIT: nvm, first chart is mean, 2nd chart is median.