Courses
One of your goals as a pre-medical student will be to acquire the necessary academic background to assure success in medical, dental, or veterinary school. Besides the general academic skills in which you will be expected to show high proficiency, you will also have to demonstrate good results in a basic core of math and science courses.
Required Courses
One year each of the following courses are required by most medical and dental schools:
• General Chemistry with lab
• Organic Chemistry with lab
• Principles of Physics with lab
• Mathematics (at least one semester each of calculus and statistics is recommended)
• Biology with lab: Students typically enroll in Introductory Biology I and a second biology course with a lab. Students can choose from Introductory Biology II, Genetics, Biological Chemistry, or Microbiology. Students in the School of Nursing and Health Studies meet this requirement with Human Biology I & II.
These are the typical minimum requirements, but they are adequate if grades are uniformly strong. Individual schools may require additional courses. For example, some medical schools require biochemistry and some dental and veterinarian schools require courses in physiology or microbiology. Students should consult individual school websites or check available reference books to review specific requirements. In all cases, coursework above the minimum requirements are recommended.
Medical, dental, and veterinary schools are interested in how well you are able to handle a full and demanding curriculum. They will want to see evidence that you can carry a normal full-time program with science labs, and with a reasonable amount of outside activities to show you have some reserve energy and broad interests.
Note that the five math and science courses listed above should be taken before the MCAT or DAT. Consequently, if you intend to matriculate into medical school immediately following graduation, you should schedule them in your first three years so that the MCAT can be taken in the spring of Junior year or in the summer before Senior year. Students planning on waiting a year or more after graduation to apply should consider taking the MCAT at a later date. These are very individual plans and the Pre-Med advisors can help with your scheduling.
Advanced Undergraduate Courses
There is a strong tendency for medical schools (especially the more competitive ones) to prefer additional coursework above the minimum requirements, so you may also wish to take advanced science courses, such as:
Genetics
Biological Chemistry
Mammalian Physiology
Functional Human Anatomy
Microbiology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Immunology
Neurobiology
