Beginning 2015, aspiring pre med students should be more prepared than ever as new changes on the MCAT exam have recently been approved by the Association of American Medical Colleges or AAMC. The first since the year 1991, the changes made to the MCAT 2015 exam are intended to help and train medical students for the ever evolving and changing health care system to better address the needs of the continuously growing and changing population.
Read MoreStarting in 2015, pre med students that aspire to become physicians have to be more than prepared as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has changed the Medical College Admission Test or MCAT. The updated test is known as the MCAT2015. The changes were made in response to the ever-changing health care system in order to better address the needs of the population. With that said, pre med students now face even greater pressure since their exam will differ greatly from those that took it before.
Read MoreSo, you have been working hard in college on your classes and taking lots of practice tests for the MCAT. You might ask, what else do I need to do…
Read MoreCongrats! You are half-way through your undergraduate studies (unless you’re studying in Canada in which case it’s only the end of freshman year) and it is now time to choose a major. At this point, you may have also decided that you want to go to medical school and you are trying to decide what to major in. The first question you may be asking is “Does it matter what my major is if I want to go to medical school?”
The answer in large part is no. Medical schools want applicants who are smart, hard-working and well-rounded. In addition, medical school requirements state that there are a set of courses which must be completed prior to applying to medical school; these include general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and typically at least 1-2 semesters in English. Aside from those courses which are required for med school, you can major in anything you want. The majority (75%) of medical school matriculants major in the biological, physical and social sciences. This leaves 25% of students accepted to medical school that have majors in other disciplines.
Freshman/Sophomore years
- Ensure all pre-med requirements will be met in your schedule. Remember, each medical school will have slightly different requirements. If there are certain med schools you are thinking about attending, please review their requirements. Here are the basic pre-med requirements that most medical schools require:
- Physics (1 year)
- General Chemistry (1 year)
- Organic Chemistry (1 year)
- Biology (1 year)
- English (D.O. schools require. Most M.D. schools recommend)
- Psychology (1 semester) – In Preparation of the 2015 MCAT
- Sociology (1 semester) – In Preparation of the 2015 MCAT
