<p>Young man from my neighborhood is a jr at a top-40 (USNWR) LAC and is doing very well there--3.75 GPA. He's taking physics, his last science prereq, this year and plans to take the MCAT in May or June. He has not taken an English class because it's not required at his school---they require courses with a writing component, but these are not English classes per se. His advisor is recommending that he take English just to be on the 'safe side' as apparently some schools aren't keen on their 'writing component' substituting for English. </p>
<p>Anybody had experience with this? Are some med schools stricter regarding its English prereq? Is this requirement one course or one year (2 courses) of English?</p>
<p>He's also nervous that he hasn't had any volunteer experience in a medical setting. He plays a varsity sport and T.A.s in biology lab courses. Not a lot of 'spare' time left for volunteering....Thoughts??</p>
<p>Some schools are stricter, and I can imagine that some schools wouldn’t accept some courses even if an undergrad set requires it. (For example, my Animal Physiology course fulfilled my university’s writing, but would not have satisfied a medical school’s requirements.) The advisor is likely to have seen this – as a general rule, advisors know what they’re talking about. (There are exceptions, such as Harvard and Stanford’s advising teams, but LACs generally have excellent advising.)</p>
<p>Lack of volunteer experience – especially lack of medical experience – is I think rightly a concern, although the varsity sports will help. If he has time to remedy this, I would.</p>
<p>For the medical experience, volunteering in a nursing home and university hospital should satisfy this correct?</p>
<p>Thanks, BDM. So is the requirement a year of English or just a semester??</p>
<p>If he takes an English course this spring and another during the upcoming fall semester, will it jeopardize the med school application? Won’t he apply in the fall while he is still taking the second English class? Should he consider summer school at a different institution? Would transferring an English class be frowned upon?</p>
<p>Do not consider summer school and definitely don’t go to a different institution. Applying while a prereq is in progress is fine.</p>
<p>Haverford’s pre-health program does a good job of breaking this down. Check out the PDF under FAQs…</p>
<p>[Haverford</a> College: Pre-Health Advising](<a href=“http://www.haverford.edu/deans/prehealth/faq_students.php#course4]Haverford”>http://www.haverford.edu/deans/prehealth/faq_students.php#course4)</p>
<p>Dartmouth, UVA, Temple, Mayo, Wake Forest, Penn State, Cinncinati, Harvard, Tufts, Yale, UConn, Chicago, Hopkins–and many others–have no English requirement. The question is: Do you want to limit yourself to just those schools?</p>