I was wondering if anyone could provide a list of Pre-med courses I would have to take at UCLA?
Here are two relevant links I found from Googling: (https://www.eeb.ucla.edu/images/EEBpreprofMedical.pdf)
(http://www.amsabruins.org/AMSA%20Premed%20Guide.pdf)
Required classes for matriculation into medical school (pre-med courses) are determined by individual medical schools. Some schools do not have specific required courses (just “recommended” courses), while others have a strict set of courses (e.g. 2 years of chemistry, 1 year of biology with one advanced course, 1 year of calculus-based physics, 1 year of English, 1 year of mathematics to include statistics, and so forth). The requirements are set by the medical school, not the undergraduate institution.
.Prerequisites Required for Entry to Medical School
The AAMC requires the following of all applicants:
•One year of biology (two semesters)
•One year of physics (two semesters)
•One year of English (two semesters)
•One year of organic chemistry (two semesters)
•One year of inorganic chemistry (two semesters)
Recommended Courses
These courses are not required but they are highly recommended and will make you competitive for admission to medical school.
•Genetics (often required)
•Calculus (required by many)
•Molecular biology
AAMC does not require a set of coursework from applicants. Medical schools set their own requirements. Your best bet is to make a list of medical schools you like and look at each of their required courses, then find the corresponding UCLA classes (which may not be straightforward because each school has a different curriculum). Compound that with the discrepancies between required courses from schools (which are usually given in semester-hours) and the fact that UCLA goes by quarters.
Almost every single medical school in the US does indeed go by the courses listed by the AAMC… different schools may require a couple additional classes that may be specific to that school… but by and large, this is pretty standardized. An applicant will, at some point, need to check for each school to which they apply… but those are details that a prospective student who hasn’t even started college needs to worry about.
The AAMC may offer guidelines, but they do not set requirements. Schools do. Caution must be exercised if assuming there is an all-inclusive set of standardized coursework for medical schools. An applicant would be wasting time and money if they submit AMCAS to multiple schools and return secondary applications only to find they didnt take statistics, or an advanced course in biology, or a writing-intensive class, or calculus-based physics, when they assumed one year of any math, any biology, any English, or any physics fulfilled the requirements.
Which is why I said: “different schools may require a couple additional classes that may be specific to that school… but by and large, this is pretty standardized. An applicant will, at some point, need to check for each school to which they apply… but those are details that a prospective student who hasn’t even started college needs to worry about.”
The details are irrelevant to a high school student trying to decide where to go for undergrad.