<p>I've been searching the websites of several Med schools to see what their requirements are for expository writing. They all want students to have good writing skills, but their actual requirements seem to run the gamut from: nothing (UDub, WUSTL, Stanford) to 1 year of courses with substantial essay writing (Cornell, UPitt, Harvard) to 1 yr of English courses (UCLA, Columbia, UMichigan). </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with schools that require actual English courses, is there any flexibility? Will they accept writing-intensive courses not in the English department as well? I'm asking from the POV of a student who will be majoring in the humanities but is wondering if they really need to take an additional semester of English to make sure that they cover the requirements for whatever school they apply to several years from now.</p>
<p>I was invited to interview with at least one school from each set that you mentioned -- got some waitlists and turned down a couple interviews, so no telling whether I would have gotten in at those places, but I think I at least passed the bar for their prereqs. I had one semester expository writing and one semester English (Creative Writing).</p>
<p>Yes they'll take writing intensive courses as long as there is something official on your transcript that notes them as "writing intensive". E.G. - such courses at UCLA are titled "Philosophy 21W".</p>
<p>Schools will accept you even if you haven't necessarily completed all the prereqs, but will then make you take them prior to matriculating. A friend of mine was accepted to a school that required biochem, which he hadn't taken - he had to take it the summer before starting med school :(</p>
<p>Thanks bdm and Icarus, that answers my question. Interesting that you had a semester of CW that they counted. I'll see if her school has a designation for writing intensive courses. As long as it doesn't hold up her application, taking a course before matriculation wouldn't be a problem.</p>