We wanted to clarify something about course requirements for med schools. For the majority of medical schools, their premedical requirements are matriculation requirements meaning that the applicant must complete these prior to enrolling at the med school.
In general, we recommend completing all basic science requirements (e.g. bio, chem, physics) prior to admission in order to be a competitive applicant. However, there are additional courses--including those in math, biochemistry, and biology beyond two semester--that are not necessarily required in order to be considered for admission.
Sometimes students think that if they don't have every single requirement completed, a med school will simply not consider them. This is generally not the case.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Admission vs. Matriculation Requirements
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2 comments:
Hi, thank you for the clarification. Would you say it gives the application an edge, though, if the matriculation requirements are met at the time of application, so that it seems like the applicant has gone "beyond the basics"? I'm thinking about taking biochem or molecular biology this semester, but I'm a bit on the fence since I'll have a busy schedule. Thanks!
Good question, Nancy. Doing well in additional science courses can only help though many applicants are successful without going "beyond the basics." You'll want to make sure you're not so overloaded that you can't do well this semester.
The nice thing about taking additional science prior to the application, as opposed to matriculation, is that they will show up on your AMCAS/primary application and then get calculated into your overall/science GPA.
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