Please let me know which universities in California has a good pre med program that preps well for medical school. Please share your experiences/ knowledge.
You realize that there is no such thing as a Pre-Med Program. You take the required courses needed to apply to Medical school, aim for a high GPA, prep for the MCAT and aim for a high score along with finding some medically related EC’s. You can major in any subject as long as you meet the Medical school course requirements. I suggest you look to see if any schools of interest have Pre-Professional advising programs available to their students that would include Medical school/Dental School/Pharmacy School etc… to help plan your path to Medical school.
Coursework
The commonly accepted coursework requirements for medical school include a minimum of 1 year of:
General biology
Physics with lab
General chemistry (inorganic chemistry) with lab
Organic chemistry with lab
Calculus
English
New - Sociology
New - Psychology
If you are planning to do your premedical coursework after you get your undergraduate degree, you can take these courses at nearly any four-year college.
You’re’ right. I am looking for a pre med advising programs that would help guide and offer opportunities that would help with medical school. I just want to know what school will have a better advising program than another.
Just doing a google search for Pre-Health/Pre-Med advising programs, pretty much all the Cal States and UC’s show up along with several privates such as Chapman/Cal Baptist/USC/Univ of San Diego. The information is there at all the schools, it is up to you what you do with that information.
My son’s roommate is Bio Major (Pre-Med) at SDSU and has found their Pre-Professional advisors have been very helpful.
My older son’s good friend was originally set on a Med school path at UC Davis, but once she got involved in research, she has changed directions towards graduate and teaching so the career center has helped her make a realistic plan for her future not involving Medical school.
If you want a personalized advising program, I would look to the smaller private and LAC colleges although the larger colleges may have better resources for internships and research. No one can tell what is best, that is a personal decision, so do some research, ask questions and visit some schools especially the career centers.
There are pre-med programs. Gumbymom, do your research.
@NASA2104: What I meant to say in California, there are not any Pre-Med majors offered but there are Pre-Med programs based on the Medical school course requirements and you can select any college major to apply to Medical school.
I wanted to make sure that OP realized you do not major in Pre-Med like Mechanical Engineering.
Sorry for posting hastily and not explaining fully my intentions, but no reason to be rude.
I clearly realized that there aren’t any Pre Med majors at all. This is why I asked for the programs. I never talked about a pre med major. Please don’t assume.
No need to be rude…we know more about this stuff than you do.
There really aren’t “premed programs” as there are “programs” for other career paths…and yes, I’ve done my research. Sure, schools will call what they have a “premed program” but since a premed can major in anything they want, and just include about 9 classes, that’s not really a program in a sense as say a nursing program, accounting program, or eng’g program has.
Premed prereqs don’t prepare you for the MCAT nor to they prepare you for medical school.
If you’re asking about better premed advising, then some schools do that better than others. Generally most are just “so so” at this, even at the better schools because schools often only have 1-3 premed advisors. The better schools often have large number of premeds, so 1-3 advisors for 400-1000+ premeds means little/no individual attention.
You could read through here for an indication of colleges that may offer stronger than typical pre-med advising and support:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/
Tina…tell us more about your situation…
Home state
Stats
How much your family will pay for college
I know that there’s often a dreamy image in mind of a student sitting with an advisor and going over every aspect of being premed, the med school app list, etc, but that doesn’t really happen in real life.
Most/all colleges give VERY LITTLE attention for frosh/soph premeds except maybe to have large group advising sessions and having “premed clubs”. There just aren’t enough Human Resources and isnt’ enough money for a college to justify giving much attention to frosh/soph premeds because schools KNOW that 75% of these kids will never apply to med school and will get weeded out within 24 months.
Look for schools with active premed clubs/associations like AED (Alpha Epsilon Delta). Good groups host guest speakers, let you know about shadowing opps, etc.
Also look for schools that will let you join their ListSev for their active premed/prehealth dept. AND pay attention to those emails!