Is it possible to go to medical school if I am pursuing my bachelor’s in applied mathematics? I am in my second year already. Which kinds of classes would I have to take before I graduate? i.e. physics, bio, chem. I haven’t taken any classes in those fields yet. Am I too late?
Why is this in the chances forum?
Yes, you can take pre-med courses as an applied math major.
You may want to check the pre-med advising at your school on which courses at your school are recommended to fulfill pre-med requirements. You can also check the pre-med forum section.
Yes, you can be a math premed student.
You’ll need to take:
Bio I
Bio 2 (the ones for majors, not the ones for nursing students or non-majors)
Gen Chem I
Gen Chem II…again, the ones for majors
Physics or Physics with Calc I and II…the ones for majors
BioChem
College math…often Calc or Stats, you obviously will have those.
Absolutely possible. I have 2 daughters both of whom had an applied math major in college and later went to med school. (One was a physics & applied math double major; the other was a neuroscience & applied math double major.)
2 semesters bio w/labs
2 semester gen chem w/labs
2 semesters ochem w/labs
2 semesters physics w/labs
1 semester biochem*
2 semesters English composition or other “writing intensive” classes as designated by your college
1 semester stats* or biostats
1 semester intro sociology*
1 semester intro psych*
*Not universally required, but tested on the MCAT
I’d also suggest you check the admission pages of all your in-state public med school s to see if they have any additional requirements. Some med school have additional coursework requirements like anatomy, genetics or additional social sciences.
Not too late. But you will need to apply to med school after you’ve graduated from college. You may possibly need to either extend your time in college or take some coursework after you’ve graduated to finish your med school pre-reqs.
(Taking coursework after graduation is no big deal. D1 decided on medicine as a college senior and took most of her pre-reqs as a part-time student after she graduated.)
There are also special career-changer post-bacc programs for people who haven’t taken their med school pre-reqs. These are intense 1.5-2 year long programs for people who are missing most or all of their pre-reqs.
There is a searchable database of post-bac programs here: https://apps.aamc.org/postbac/#/index
Besides starting your pre-med coursework, you need to start working on pre-med ECs. Those include: clinical volunteering, community service, physician shadowing, clinical or basic research (optional, but strongly recommended), teaching/tutoring/coaching (strongly recommended), leadership roles (strongly recommended).