<p>I am a senior this year and I applied to Tufts as undecided but recently have decided that I would like to go into Pre-Med.</p>
<p>I was wondering if pre-med was a program that I can just sign up for in the beginning of the year? Or did I have to apply to a specific school in Tufts? I put in my application that I was undecided but interested in journalism and health care. But recently I realized I'm more interested in pre-med. Will this be a problem?</p>
<p>I have a related question. I have been to admitted to Tufts ED2 and am pretty sure I’m going to major in International Relations; I put it as my projected major on my application. However, I think I may also want to complete a pre-med requirement before I graduate. I have no clue how the system works, so can anyone clarify whether this is possible/advisable/problematic? Would I have to double major to do this?</p>
<p>What you list as a potential major on your application is of no consequence.</p>
<p>A-Rod11 - You don’t “sign up” for pre-med; in fact, there is no such thing as a “pre-med” major. If you want to apply to med school you simply take the courses that are required (there will be plenty of academic and pre-med advisors who can tell you what they are, but they include, among other things, bio, inorganic and organic chem, some calc, etc.). You could major in anything from biology to English, as long as you take the necessary pre-med courses too.</p>
<p>crespj - I think the above should answer your question too. No, you don’t have to have a second major to do this (although there are plenty of double majors).</p>
<p>I don’t know how it works at Tufts, but most schools will have some sort of pre-med adviser who can help you figure out what courses you need to take. Lots of pre-meds major in biology or chemistry because many the courses they need for med school will be in those departments, but you certainly don’t have to. My roommate’s boyfriend majored in economics and I knew a whole bunch of music majors who went to med school.</p>
<p>Dean Baffi-Dugan, the pre-med advisor, holds a couple of info sessions about this during orientation week. She is really fantastic and will be very helpful to you. Here is a basic list of the things you need to do by the end of your junior year if you are interested in joining medical school right after leaving Tufts. There are a lot of qualifiers here, and please take this as only general advice:</p>
<p>Take English 1 and 2 (This is a Tufts requirement as well)
Take Chem 1 and 2 (or 11 and 12).
Take Biology 13 and 14
Take Physics 1 and 2 (or 11 and 12).
Take Chem 51/53 and 52/54 (organic chemistry)
Be making adequate progress on a major, which certainly doesn’t have to be a science major.</p>
<p>and it is highly recommended that you take the following classes:</p>
<p>Statistics, in any department (Math 161 and 162, Economics 13, Biology 132, Psychology 31, among others)
Biochemistry (Biology 152 or Bio/Chem 171 and 172)
Upper level biology classes including Biology 41 (Genetics)</p>
<p>crespj - That’s going to be very challenging, especially if you want to start with a new language. The IR Major requires the following:</p>
<p>Eight language courses (you can place out of any number of these)
Five introductory courses
Seven thematic courses in a single concentration. If you do the global health concentration, two of the courses (Bio 13 and Statistics), will overlap with your premed requirements.</p>
<p>That is on top of all of your other requirements to graduate. Still, it is quite certainly possible, especially with IR (which probably takes care of most of the distribution requirements).</p>
<p>My son went on a winter break trip with an IR major who is also premed. She’s planning on doing the global health concentration. It’s definitely is doable. The IR language requirement is the biggest hurdle so it helps if you come in with a useful language base, because from my understanding the real requirement is to achieve fluency. If languages are an issue you can always major in Pol. Sci with an IR emphasis.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot WCASParent, mathmom, and TuftsStudent for your responses. They were very helpful. For me this whole IR/pre-med concept is very preliminary (I’m not even in college yet, haha), and I’m definitely planning to keep my options open as an incoming liberal arts freshman. But at the same time, it’s never too early to start thinking about my future.</p>
<p>As for the language requirement, does anyone - perhaps TuftsStudent - have an idea of how the placing-out system works? Does Tufts look at AP scores, SAT II scores, etc. to determine which classes I can place out of? What happens if I don’t have any AP or SAT II credit for a language, but still have a decent level of fluency in it - is there another way to place out of a class in the language (maybe a placement test sort of thing)?</p>
<p>There is a placement exam during orientation. It’s not that bad at all. I didn’t taken Spanish after my junior year of high school and still managed to place out of three semesters of Spanish. The placement exam is a computer based exam, and I believe you can place out of up to four semesters and they will just let you go with that. My friend placed into Spanish 22 (6th semester Spanish) based on the computer exam and was given an oral exam to make sure that he actually knew Spanish to that level.</p>
<p>I’m fairly certainly you can take a placement exam for any language that is offered at Tufts, and maybe even other ones, though you would have to email departments for that. I am not certain they allow you to take more than one placement exam, but I imagine you could probably just ask.</p>
<p>AP, IB, and SAT II scores are all looked at as well, though if you think you can do better than what your exam score tells you, you are welcome to take the placement exams. [This</a> page](<a href=“Homepage | AS&E Students”>Homepage | AS&E Students) has the full list of what all are accepted.</p>