I’m currently a second-year college student and I was wondering if I could get some insight on how I should plan out my last two (hopefully) years of college. I would like to attend a US medical school right after college, which means I would start in Fall 2022. With that in mind, I know I would have to apply and submit my application in ~June 2021, which is a year away.
My question is, do I have to complete all of my required and most of my recommended med school prerequisite courses before I apply? These include biochemistry, statistics, genetics, etc.
Also, can I get away with not taking genetics? I have seen that it is mostly a recommended course and as a Medical Anthropology major with a Chemistry minor, it isn’t one of the courses I have to take for my major or minor. Plus, if I do have to take it, I might have to go over the two years.
Some medical schools screen out any applications that have not completed all admission requirements; some don’t.
However, you would be very foolish NOT to take biochemistry before you take your MCAT. The biology portion of the MCAT is 40-45% biochemistry questions. It’s unlikely you would be able to score well on the MCAT without having taken a biochem class.
You’d also be foolish to have NOT taken stats since stats questions are included on all 4 sections of the MCAT.
So the question is: what do you want more:
1 ) to apply to directly to med school from undergrad as part of some arbitrary timeline?
OR
to have the best chance of scoring well on the MCAT so that you have the best chance of gaining a med school admission?
Again it depends on the individual school policies. (Remember in med school speak recommended = required, if you want to be considered a strong candidate for admission.)
When you turn in your application, you are listing all the classes that have already met the schools’ requirements as well as what you are taking in your final year to fulfill the outstanding ones.
Most of the required classes also will be needed for doing well on MCAT. As wowmom states, biochemistry and Statistics are almost a must to do well unless you are doing well on the practice tests despite missing some required classes because you studied for some of the material on your own.
Which med schools are recommending genetics? I have seen people complain about it in TCU forums but not aware of other schools.
@WayOutWestMom Thank you for your response! You’re completely right on needing to take biochemistry and statistics before taking the MCAT. I was already planning on taking biochemistry this semester coming up, but now I will see if I can move things around to squeeze in statistics or biostats as I do plan to take the MCAT in January 2021.
In regards to my timeline, it’s hard to say. I would love to stick to my timeline of going right after college, but I understand if I need to step back and work to become a better applicant. I will definitely need to think about that.
@texaspg Yeah I have seen it recommended for many of the Texas medical schools, but many of the schools I have looked at, like UC Davis, also recommended it.
@texaspg Thank you for your response! I think I will have to take Biochemistry and Statistics during this semester coming up so I can be familiar with the subject
In addition, what do you mean by the “outstanding ones”? Are there courses I need to take that are important than the rest?
Are you a Texas resident or applying in Texas? They have 2 year Biology requirement (12 +2). TMDSAS also provides a deficiency report after reviewing your application showing what requirements are not being met by your transcript. If you are in your final year and apply early enough, you can plan some additional classes for the final year to fulfill those requirements (i.e., outstanding ones).
Unfortunately, AAMC does not do that since every school can impose their own requirements.
@texaspg Hi there! No, I’m a California resident, but I will probably be applying to medical schools in Texas. I actually had no idea about the 2 year biology requirement though. I’ve already taken 1 year of General Biology, so what else would I take for biology? I was already planning to take human physiology in Fall 2020 or Spring 2021. That would count right?
@fashionista99 - my daughter did biomedical engineering and some of the classes for the major from her college were approved as biology for Texas. Essentially, you can go to the second link and try out your college to see what they consider valid for Biology that you can take at your school. You can also submit a request to TMDSAS asking for some classes you took at your school to be classified as biology based on content. If you interview and do get in, you can get the schools also to accept an equivalent class or request waiver if TMDSAS does not accept the request.
The first link tells you the requirements for texas medical schools and also special requireements that may be needed at specific schools. several of the schools in texas require CASPer.
@Sybylla Yes. After reading that, I see why that sentence might be confusing, but yes I am a US citizen. I just said that because there’s also the Caribbean and other international medical schools.