<p>Hello, first time poster here. So I am a 4th year (out of 5 years) at Northeastern University. I am majoring in chemical engineering, with a concentration in biochemical engineering. I decided about 2 years ago that I wanted to go to medical school, and I am applying for matriculation in 2015. I have done a year of full-time research at two pharmaceutical companies, and while I enjoy research, I know I would much rather go into practicing medicine. I volunteer at a local emergency department and absolutely love it.</p>
<p>Anyway, I know that most medical schools require 2 semesters of general chemistry with corresponding labs. Due to my rigorous course schedule with my major and concentration, I do not really have time to alter any courses before I graduate to meet my requirements. I have taken physical chemistry 2 and its lab (which I was informed should count as an upper-level chemistry substitute for most schools). My problem is that as a chemical engineer, I was only allowed to take one semester of general chemistry, which did not contain a lab. I have taken numerous upper-level science and engineering classes with labs, such as Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Organic Chemistry 1 and 2, Thermodynamics 1 and 2, Transport Phenomena 1 and 2, Kinetics, and Physical Chemistry 2; however, I am worried that missing that general chemistry lab will cause my application to be rejected by medical schools. This would be very weird, because I have much research and lab experience, however, I was not offered the lab for general chemistry.</p>
<p>I talked to my pre-health adviser, and she told me to email individual medical schools. Almost every medical school has told me that they can't really answer the question without reviewing my application and transcript. At that point, it will be too late to do anything about this. I really want to avoid applying to 20 medical schools and automatically getting rejected at 15 of them due to such a minor detail.</p>
<p>If anyone has any insight on this, I would very much appreciate the help. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Almost all medical schools require 3 quarters general chemistry (labs included), 3 quarters organic chemistry (labs included), 3 quarters intro biology (labs included), 3 quarter general physics (labs included). Additional classes that other schools may require are 2 quarters calculus, 1 quarter statistics, 3 quarters of English (with ENGL course abbreviation), 2 quarter biochemistry, and course in humanities. Each school does have different requirements, for example, the University of Washington School of Medicine only requires the classes I listed before “additional classes”. Johns Hopkins requires almost all of the additional courses. Will you want to apply to many schools or just a few? This will mediate which classes you need to fulfill. Google “MSAR” and you can pay for a subscription to look up the course requirements for individual schools. Good luck.</p>
<p>My first response was talk to your advisor but then I see she is advising you to ask each school which in opinion is a bad response since she ought to know already.</p>
<p>Are there any other premed advisors? They should know how your college labels your classes on a transcript and whether you meet the requirements based on the classes you took.</p>
<p>Do you have chemistry AP credit on your transcript?</p>
<p>My problem is that as a chemical engineer, I was only allowed to take one semester of general chemistry, which did not contain a lab.</p>
<p>That is weird. What were the pre-reqs for OChem? My son was a ChemE major and a year of Gen Chem was req’d, as well as a year of OChem. And, Gen Chem was a prereq for Ochem. </p>
<p>Did you take AP Chem? If so, what did you get on the exam?</p>
<p>Is there a CLEP test for Gen Chem? If so, take that. Your other chem classes may sub as “higher up” chem classes.</p>
<p>One semester of general chemistry: CHEM 1151 (note that the lab CHEM 1152 is not listed)
Two semesters of organic chemistry with lab: CHEM 2311/2312, 2313/2314
One semester of physical chemistry with lab: CHEM 3403/3404
One semester of biology with lab: BIOL 1115/1116
Two semesters of physics with lab: PHYS 1151/1152, 1155/1156
One semester of English writing: ENGW 1111
Four semesters of math: Math 1341, 1342, 2321, 2341 (but none is statistics)</p>
<p>Possible missing courses from a pre-med standpoint, but may vary by medical school:</p>
<p>Chemistry lab: can you take CHEM 1152?
One semester of biology
One semester of English writing
Statistics
Psychology and/or sociology</p>
<p>*^Med schools will not accept CLEP credits.
*</p>
<p>That’s not what I meant. Won’t med schools “accept” CLEP credits the way that they accept AP credits? meaning that as long as you’ve taken the “next higher” classes everything is ok?</p>
<p>I talked to a fellow chemical engineer from NEU who is now in medical school. When he went through the program, chemistry did require a lab (which it does not even offer anymore); however, the physics lab was not required for him. So he did not take a lab with physics 1. He had no issues in applying, and he said that it was never brought up. He was also short a writing course (which I have taken two), and he also said it was not a problem.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the replies; I really appreciate the time spent on this question. If anyone has any other insight past admissions office speculation, I would love to hear it. Otherwise, I think I am just going to complete my curriculum and not worry about it.</p>
<p>Depends of the specific policy of each medical school. For specifically required classes (like gen chem, Ochem, A&P, biochem, genetics), probably not; for the more general requirements like 1 year bio or 1 year math, CLEP credit with higher level coursework is usually OK.</p>
<p>But as always one should check the specific policies at each school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that Gen Chem is really req’d as long as higher up courses are taken.</p>
<p>My son never took Gen Chem in college since he used his AP chem credits. But, he took a year of Ochem and a year of BioChem (chemistry version) and that was ok at the schools he applied to.</p>
<p>Yes, but your son had credit for gen chem on his transcript --that’s what med schools cared about, not necessarily the fact he took higher level chem classes. </p>
<p>AP credits and CLEP credits are not looked at in the same way by adcomms. Some admissions webpages specifically say they will not accept CLEP credits for pre-reqs.</p>