Most professional schools require that you take specific courses during your college (preprofessional) career. These courses may vary greatly depending on the professional program or specific school to which you apply. Historically, there has been one set of courses that were required by most allopathic (MD) medical schools, and that set of courses will be used here as an illustration of how important it is to plan your schedule early and to take courses beginning your first year that will allow you to finish these courses (and hopefully learn the material!) before you take the MCAT. Similar courses are required by other health sciences (including dentistry, osteopathy, veterinary medicine, optometry, and podiatry), but there may be additional courses as well.<\/p>\n
Courses currently required by most medical schools include: Introductory Chemistry (2 semesters), Introductory Biology (2 semesters), Introductory Physics (2 semesters), Organic Chemistry (2 semesters), and English (2 semesters). Some schools may also require Biochemistry (1 semester) or Statistics (1 semester). All natural science courses must have a laboratory component. Most schools also require a semester of a behavioral science such as psychology and 1-2 semesters of college mathematics\/statistics. Although calculus is not required by many medical schools, it is useful in understanding important topics in chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and biophysics. Calculus is required by only a very few schools, so taking at least one semester helps to keep your options open. A number of schools will also accept other math courses, especially ones related to statistics, and many schools now have no specific math requirements.<\/p>\n
With an eye to the future, it is reasonable to approach selection of courses from a broader perspective. In doing so, it is important to balance the currently required courses with a more flexible list, combined with ancillary resources. You should develop your plan of study with Dr. Larochelle and keep up with the current requirements of medical schools as described in the Medical School Admission Requirements<\/a> (MSAR), available on the AAMC website.\u00a0 To get a better understanding of the competencies required to succeed in medical school and in the field of medicine, see “The Premed Competencies for Entering Medical Students<\/a>.”\u00a0 AAMC also publishes a list of medical school “Required Premedical Coursework and Competencies<\/a>.”<\/p>\n To encourage premedical students whose intellectual passions lie outside the natural sciences, one can approach the task of demonstrating required competencies as follows:<\/p>\n Choosing Your Courses Most professional schools require that you take specific courses during your college (preprofessional) career. These courses may vary greatly depending on the professional program or specific school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-72","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n