Pre-Med Requirements: Courses You Need for Medical School
What’s Covered:
- What Are the Pre-Med Course Requirements?
- Popular Majors for Pre-Med Students
- What Are the Other Med School Requirements?
- Best Schools for Pre-Meds
Dreaming of becoming a physician? It’s a very popular career choice, as well as a highly competitive one. In addition to contending with rigorous course requirements as an undergraduate, to become a physician you must attend medical school and complete a residency—all told, from the start of undergrad to the end of residency will generally take at least 11 years in total.
While the process to become a physician is definitely arduous, it leads to a career that is highly fulfilling, rewarding, and lucrative. If you’re just starting on the road to medicine, you might not know exactly where to begin. Read on to find out how you can prepare for the challenges that accompany medical school.
What Does Pre-Med Mean and How Long Is It?
There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the concept of pre-med, with many people thinking that they can declare it as a major. Pre-med is not a major, but is rather a track. You can major in anything you wish, so long as your medical school requirements and your major requirements are completed by graduation.
The pre-med track typically lasts four years, as you’ll need a bachelor’s degree to apply to medical school. That being said, some students choose to enroll in accelerated BS/MD combined degree programs that allow them to finish their pre-med courses in three years.
CollegeVine has a whole blog section devoted to BS/MD programs for any interested students. We also have detailed information on navigating the pre-med track available to prospective students.
What Are the Pre-Med Course Requirements?
Undergraduate course requirements vary from one medical school to the next, but generally include certain courses. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), you should take the following courses as a pre-med:
- Biology – 2 semesters with lab
- General chemistry – 2 semesters with lab
- Organic chemistry – 2 semesters with lab
- Biochemistry – 1 semester with lab
- Physics – 2 semesters with lab
- Calculus – 1 semester
- English or Writing – 2 semesters
Many schools also require coursework in subjects such as statistics, psychology, behavioral sciences, and social sciences.
Your undergraduate university will likely have advisors who will help make sure that you complete your pre-med requirements on time. You may also want to review the requirements at various medical schools so that you know what you’re up against. For example, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine M.D. Program requires the following:
- College biology with laboratory, one year (8 semester hours) — A separate course devoted to the principles of genetics (4 sem. hours) is recommended.
- General college chemistry with laboratory, one year (8 semester hours)
- Organic chemistry with laboratory, one semester (4 semester hours)
- Biochemistry, minimum of 3 semester hours Lab is not required.
- A minimum 24 semester hours in areas of humanities (English, History, Classics, Foreign Language, Philosophy, Arts, etc.), social science (Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Anthropology, etc.), and behavioral science (Psychology, etc.). Must include two writing-intensive courses.
- Calculus and/or statistics, minimum of 6 semester hours
- General college physics with laboratory, one year (8 semester hours)
Recommended Pre-Med Courses
Many courses are not requirements for applying to medical school, but are still valuable for pre-med students to take. Students who take these recommended pre-med courses will be more appealing candidates to medical schools, and will likely have an easier time in medical school (these courses also make for more well-rounded physicians in the long term).
For example, in addition to the requirements above, Johns Hopkins recommends taking four semester hours in the principles of genetics and at least one semester of statistics or epidemiology. Generally, recommended courses for pre-med students include:
- Genetics
- Statistics
- Calculus
- Ethics
- Public Health
- Human Anatomy and Physiology
- Psychology
- Sociology
Popular Majors for Pre-Med Students
Like we said earlier, pre-med is not a major. So then, you might be wondering, what majors do pre-med students typically declare? We’ll give a rundown of popular majors for pre-meds below, but be sure to check out our post dedicated entirely to majors for pre-meds!
Biological Sciences and Human Biology
According to recent AAMC data, “roughly 60% [of MCAT examinees] had an undergraduate major that could be classified as focusing on biological sciences.” Majoring in biology means that your major requirements and pre-med requirements will overlap significantly.
That being said, studying science exclusively can be intense and exhausting. If you major in biology while on the pre-med track, you may want to carefully select a unique minor or interesting elective courses to avoid burnout.
Physics, Chemistry, and Other Physical Sciences
Just like the natural sciences, the physical science major courses typically overlap heavily with the pre-med requirements. Though the coursework will differ slightly, the risks and benefits of physics and chemistry are similar to those of biology.
Psychology, Economics, and Social Sciences
Social science applicants make up about 9% of medical school admissions. The requirements for these majors have some overlap with the pre-med requirements, but students will need to spend most of their elective units completing pre-med courses.
Philosophy and the Humanities
Humanities majors are less popular for pre-med students because they leave all pre-med requirements to be completed as electives. This is not impossible, but will take extensive planning on your part and will require clear communication with your advisors.
That being said, humanities graduates who pursue medicine may be more personable and well-rounded than students who exclusively focus on the sciences. Philosophy is a popular major for pre-med students in the humanities.
Also, it may come as a surprise to many people that humanities majors have just as good a chance (if not better) of medical school acceptance than traditional STEM majors. Humanities majors are generally accepted to medical school at a higher rate than non-humanities majors year to year: 52.9% vs. 44.3% for the 2024-2025 cycle.
Math, Statistics, and Related Majors
While math majors are not actually a popular major for pre-med students, they tend to have the highest mean overall MCAT score and mean GPA of all applicants and thus, typically have favorable positioning in medical school admissions. But, as with other majors that aren’t in the natural sciences, you’ll have to do some meticulous planning to complete both you major requirements and the pre-med requirements.
What Are the Other Med School Requirements?
When you’re applying to medical school, you’ll complete a primary application, usually administered by the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). After submitting the primary application, the school will send you a secondary application (or reject you, in some cases). For one or both of these applications, in addition to your transcript, you’ll need to submit:
Your MCAT Score
Some schools have a minimum MCAT score and GPA requirements, and will filter out applicants who don’t meet them.
Personal Statements
Usually, you’ll need to respond to prompts on both the primary and secondary applications. The topics vary, but you’ll typically be asked to explore the reasons you want to pursue medicine, the events that have shaped you, and your passions, experiences, achievements, and interests.
Letters of Recommendation
Most medical schools require three letters of recommendation, usually two letters from science faculty members and one from a non-science discipline—although this breakdown varies from school to school. If your undergraduate college has a formal pre-med committee, a committee letter is usually required to present an overview and evaluation of your undergraduate performance and candidacy.
Extracurriculars
Most medical schools will want to see relevant extracurricular activities, including research, clinical experience, and volunteering or community service. You can gain exposure to the profession by shadowing physicians, working as a medical scribe, or contributing to the medical community by assisting practicing professionals with research.
Medical schools also want to know what kind of person you are, so your application will also ask for non-medical extracurriculars. It’s kind of like the Common App all over again, though the activities section for medical school is more extensive, and you’ll generally be asked to write approximately 500 words about each of your three most important extracurriculars.
Keep in mind that individual medical schools may have additional requirements or recommendations. Most schools also conduct interviews, extending invitations to a small percentage of candidates after reviewing their applications.
What Is the Best Pre-Med School for You?
Choosing the right college can change your pre-med path for better or worse. It’s important to not only look for schools with strong pre-med advising, but also to ensure that your college is a good fit in other ways—including size, location, extracurriculars, and other factors.
Using our free school search tool, you can search for colleges based on preferences like majors, finances, your personal chances of acceptance, presence of a pre-med program, and more.
It’s important to remember that outstanding pre-med programs come in all shapes and sizes. There are great pre-med programs at technical schools and “party” schools, large schools and small schools, research universities and liberal arts schools, and everything in between. Consider all of the relevant factors when picking the right pre-med program for you.
Best Schools for Pre-Meds
Here are CollegeVine’s picks for overall best schools for pre-meds:
|
School |
Location |
Acceptance Rate |
|
Cambridge, MA |
4% |
|
|
Durham, NC |
6% |
|
|
Philadelphia, PA |
6% |
|
|
St. Louis, MO |
13% |
|
|
Houston, TX |
9% |
|
|
Stanford, CA |
4% |
|
|
Evanston, IL |
7% |
|
|
Providence, RI |
6% |
|
|
Amherst, MA |
9% |
|
|
Cleveland, OH |
30% |
See our full list of best pre-med schools for more rankings.
While each of these colleges has a different average acceptance rate, they are all extremely competitive and are “reach” schools for just about everyone. You may also want to look into CollegeVine’s lists of the 10 Best Non-Ivy League Schools for Pre-Med and The 10 Most Underrated Pre-Med Colleges.
It’s great to be interested in selective schools, but it’s important to also remember to create a balanced college list. If possible, we recommend that a student apply to 8-10 schools total, with about 25% being safety schools, 40% being target schools, and 35% being reach schools. These categories—safety, target, and reach—are determined by your chances of acceptance at the schools you are applying to.
Because your personal chances of acceptance at these schools may differ from the average acceptance rate, we’ve made it easy to figure out which schools fall into which categories for you. Our free chancing engine takes into account your grades, test scores, and extracurriculars to estimate your odds of acceptance at hundreds of different schools, and to give you tips on improving your profile!
Sign up for a CollegeVine account today to get a boost on your journey to a college as a pre-med. Also check out Sage, our AI tutor and advisor, who can improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school by helping you show what you have to offer beyond the numbers!
