How does everyone complete Pre-Med reqs in undergrad?

[rahinton]

As a freshman in pre-med at a university that functions on the quarter system, I am already trying to figure out how I am going to complete all of my pre reqs in 3 years in order to take the MCAT and hopefully matriculate the year after graduating undergrad? So what's everyone doing? Do you guys believe in cramming pre-reqs into 3 years or 4 years to apply after graduating college?

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[aldol16]

You should be taking the MCAT when you're most prepared for it and are in the best position to do well. The new MCAT isn't something you easily take twice. In order to apply for matriculation right after graduating from undergrad, you will have to take the MCAT before May of your junior year (ideally, to get your scores in time for your application). So basically you'll need to take the pre-reqs in 2.5 years to give you adequate time to prep for the MCAT as well (although you can be taking a pre-req during your spring semester of your junior year - you would just study for that material as you're taking the class).

Now, taking one or more years off has become very prevalent. In older days, it used to be "non-traditional" to take year(s) off but now at many top schools, there is an even split between students who go straight through, who take one year off, and who take multiple years off. You want to apply when you're the best candidate and that depends on many factors. Maybe you have great MCAT scores and GPA but are weak on your clinical experience. Or perhaps you would like more research experience to decide between MD and MD/PhD or just to get a publication to make you a stronger candidate for research-heavy schools (not required but does distinguish you).

 

[rahinton]

Was

You should be taking the MCAT when you're most prepared for it and are in the best position to do well. The new MCAT isn't something you easily take twice. In order to apply for matriculation right after graduating from undergrad, you will have to take the MCAT before May of your junior year (ideally, to get your scores in time for your application). So basically you'll need to take the pre-reqs in 2.5 years to give you adequate time to prep for the MCAT as well (although you can be taking a pre-req during your spring semester of your junior year - you would just study for that material as you're taking the class).

Now, taking one or more years off has become very prevalent. In older days, it used to be "non-traditional" to take year(s) off but now at many top schools, there is an even split between students who go straight through, who take one year off, and who take multiple years off. You want to apply when you're the best candidate and that depends on many factors. Maybe you have great MCAT scores and GPA but are weak on your clinical experience. Or perhaps you would like more research experience to decide between MD and MD/PhD or just to get a publication to make you a stronger candidate for research-heavy schools (not required but does distinguish you).

If what youre saying is true, and you have only 2.5 years to finish pre-reqs, then how do some people even go straight through?? It seems impossible
I mean they ask for 4 years worth of science!

 

[Cotterpin]

Was

If what youre saying is true, and you have only 2.5 years to finish pre-reqs, then how do some people even go straight through?? It seems impossible
I mean they ask for 4 years worth of science!

You do two pre-reqs at a time. Like maybe in year one you do general chemistry and biology. Then year two you do physics and orgo. Then in the third year you would take biochem and maybe also psychology and sociology to really get set for the MCAT. You might as well get used to studying multiple sciences at a time now because it's only going to get more intense in medical school.

 

[Saifa]

I will have completed my prereqs in a year. Being a biology major, all of them are required to graduate so scheduling wasn't really an issue. YMMV.

 

[LizzyM]

First year: Chem sequence, biology sequence
Second year: organic chemistry sequence, calculus & statistics
Third year: physics sequence, biochemistry
Fit in the social science courses where you can.

You could flip calc/stats and biology sequence.
I have seen applicants who added physics sequence to the first year and biochem to the second year and took the MCAT before starting junior year.
That said, don't take the MCAT unless you are as prepared as you can possibly be. Better to do it once and do it right than to retake and/or reapply.
What's so complicated about this??

 

[JB50]

LizzyM + summer classes. Any advisor worth their weight can easily tell you this in 5 minutes.

 

[rahinton]

First year: Chem sequence, biology sequence
Second year: organic chemistry sequence, calculus & statistics
Third year: physics sequence, biochemistry
Fit in the social science courses where you can.

You could flip calc/stats and biology sequence.
I have seen applicants who added physics sequence to the first year and biochem to the second year and took the MCAT before starting junior year.
That said, don't take the MCAT unless you are as prepared as you can possibly be. Better to do it once and do it right than to retake and/or reapply.
What's so complicated about this??

Sorry if I seem inexperienced and unknowledgeable. I'm just a freshman with only 1 month of time spent in college. I just wanted some clarification

 

[theBriefing]

Now, taking one or more years off has become very prevalent. In older days, it used to be "non-traditional" to take year(s) off but now at many top schools, there is an even split between students who go straight through, who take one year off, and who take multiple years off.

Are there any statistics that confirm this? Because that would be news to me.

 

[theBriefing]

LizzyM,

You liked his aldol16's post. Do you agree with his statement:

"Now, taking one or more years off has become very prevalent. In older days, it used to be "non-traditional" to take year(s) off but now at many top schools, there is an even split between students who go straight through, who take one year off, and who take multiple years off."

Would make me feel a lot better about taking a year or two off! And just how prevalent is "prevalent"?

 

[TheRealJohnDorian]

Make an appointment ASAP with your advisor to develop a plan to get everything done in the time frame you want. You're going to have to over lap some pre-requisites, but there is no reason you shouldn't be able to finish them in four years. Take the MCAT only when you feel ready.

 

[LizzyM]

LizzyM,

You liked his aldol16's post. Do you agree with his statement:

"Now, taking one or more years off has become very prevalent. In older days, it used to be "non-traditional" to take year(s) off but now at many top schools, there is an even split between students who go straight through, who take one year off, and who take multiple years off."

Would make me feel a lot better about taking a year or two off! And just how prevalent is "prevalent"?

I liked his post based on this statement:

You should be taking the MCAT when you're most prepared for it and are in the best position to do well. The new MCAT isn't something you easily take twice.

That said, I just took a look at a sample of 36 applicants who interviewed at a top 20 school last year (just based on some info sheets about applicants that I had stuffed in a drawer). Of those:
13 were current seniors
13 were in a gap year having graduated the previous Spring
10 had graduated undergrad more than 1 year earlier.

This is just a subset of those who were interviewed but I don't know of any systematic biases that would have been present in the sample.

 

[Fluffy123]

I spoke to an admissions counselor at a med school near me and we both agreed that this new mcat is not something people should rush into and would probably need 4 years of classes to tackle fully.

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

+1 to pretty much everything that has already been said.
In addition though, for those majors whose curriculum does not cover the pre-reqs, like many non-science majors and some other science majors like engineering or physics, it will most likely take more than the 4 years to graduate. For me, physics only covered the physics, math and gen chem pre-reqs, so I had too add a whole year of extra classes for Ochem, Biochem, Bio, Physio, Micro, and genetics. With an average of 12-16 units every quarter, plus 3 summer quarters, its taking me 5 years total + a gap year since my pre-reqs wont be done till the end of this year (4th year) and I still need to take the MCAT.
My freshman year I put together an excel spreadsheet of all the classes I needed to graduate + the pre-reqs, and organized them into each quarter to get an estimate as to when I will graduate. If you have the time, I recommend doing this or speaking with an advisor to set something like this up just to steer you in the right direction.

 

[RememberMyName]

+1 to pretty much everything that has already been said.
In addition though, for those majors whose curriculum does not cover the pre-reqs, like many non-science majors and some other science majors like engineering or physics, it will most likely take more than the 4 years to graduate. For me, physics only covered the physics, math and gen chem pre-reqs, so I had too add a whole year of extra classes for Ochem, Biochem, Bio, Physio, Micro, and genetics. With an average of 12-16 units every quarter, plus 3 summer quarters, its taking me 5 years total + a gap year since my pre-reqs wont be done till the end of this year (4th year) and I still need to take the MCAT.
My freshman year I put together an excel spreadsheet of all the classes I needed to graduate + the pre-reqs, and organized them into each quarter to get an estimate as to when I will graduate. If you have the time, I recommend doing this or speaking with an advisor to set something like this up just to steer you in the right direction.

Being a current freshman, I made something like this to plan out my courses, and, for me at least, having all my premed pre reqs done by the first half of Junior year is very doable. Especially since I am a CS major and don't

 

[james11]

I did everything in 2 years and took the new MCAT the summer after. Then year 3 for a few higher level electives, and applied year 4. It's honestly totally doable and not that hard. I don't understand why everyone waits so long to take the MCAT.

 

[MoDiddy]

Freshman: Biology 1&2 Gen Chem 1&2 Sociology/Psychology
Sophomore Orgo 1&2 physics 1&2
Junior: 1 semester of Biochem spring: MCAT
This is my schedule

 

[787593]

As a freshman in pre-med at a university that functions on the quarter system, I am already trying to figure out how I am going to complete all of my pre reqs in 3 years in order to take the MCAT and hopefully matriculate the year after graduating undergrad? So what's everyone doing? Do you guys believe in cramming pre-reqs into 3 years or 4 years to apply after graduating college?

Here's what I think is a solid schedule (aka, what I did. My major is biomedical sciences)

Fall Freshman: Gen Chem 1 & Biology 1 (both with labs)
Spring Freshman: Gen Chem 2 & Biology 2 (both with labs)

Fall Sophomore: Organic Chem 1 & Genetics (both with labs)
Spring Sophomore: Organic Chem 2 & Cell Biology (both with labs)

Fall Junior: Physics 1 & Biochemistry 1 (both with labs)
Spring Junior: Physics 2 (w/ lab) & Human Physiology

For psych/soc, I'd recommend taking them closer to MCAT season.
You don't need to take statistics/calc before the MCAT (my opinion), so you can push those back to senior year I suppose.

 

[Fluffy123]

Here's what I think is a solid schedule (aka, what I did. My major is biomedical sciences)

Fall Freshman: Gen Chem 1 & Biology 1 (both with labs)
Spring Freshman: Gen Chem 2 & Biology 2 (both with labs)

Fall Sophomore: Organic Chem 1 & Genetics (both with labs)
Spring Sophomore: Organic Chem 2 & Cell Biology (both with labs)

Fall Junior: Physics 1 & Biochemistry 1 (both with labs)
Spring Junior: Physics 2 (w/ lab) & Human Physiology

For psych/soc, I'd recommend taking them closer to MCAT season.
You don't need to take statistics/calc before the MCAT (my opinion), so you can push those back to senior year I suppose.

I found that psych stats helped because I read and interpreted a lot of charts which is pretty much a lot of the psych soc section

 

[aalamruad]

I spoke to an admissions counselor at a med school near me and we both agreed that this new mcat is not something people should rush into and would probably need 4 years of classes to tackle fully.

4 years is definitely overkill


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[rahinton]

I did everything in 2 years and took the new MCAT the summer after. Then year 3 for a few higher level electives, and applied year 4. It's honestly totally doable and not that hard. I don't understand why everyone waits so long to take the MCAT.

I don't think it's the MCAT necessarily that everyone is afraid or whatever. I think it's more (at lease in my case) reluctance to take double and triple science in order to fulfill all of the pre-reqs and also graduate on time, y'know?

 

[Fluffy123]

4 years is definitely overkill


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Idk. I felt like the 4 years was perfect time for me to do well. I took all of the pre-reqs as well as Micro, genetics, several psych classes that had material that was on the MCAT (like exact content), etc. I was able to barely study during the semester, went HAM for 3 weeks, and got a 510 which I attribute to my coursework. If I took the MCAT the previous summer, there is no way I would have scored well even if I studied for 2 months. But that is just me! obviously everyone is different so my recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt just as everyone elses should.

 

[rahinton]

+1 to pretty much everything that has already been said.
In addition though, for those majors whose curriculum does not cover the pre-reqs, like many non-science majors and some other science majors like engineering or physics, it will most likely take more than the 4 years to graduate. For me, physics only covered the physics, math and gen chem pre-reqs, so I had too add a whole year of extra classes for Ochem, Biochem, Bio, Physio, Micro, and genetics. With an average of 12-16 units every quarter, plus 3 summer quarters, its taking me 5 years total + a gap year since my pre-reqs wont be done till the end of this year (4th year) and I still need to take the MCAT.
My freshman year I put together an excel spreadsheet of all the classes I needed to graduate + the pre-reqs, and organized them into each quarter to get an estimate as to when I will graduate. If you have the time, I recommend doing this or speaking with an advisor to set something like this up just to steer you in the right direction.

Oh yeah I actually spoke to an advisor on Tuesday and she was really helpful in getting at least the beginnings of a 4 year schedule together. My major (Managerial Economics) is pretty lenient and has a lot of slots for electives which then become my pre-reqs. Looking at it, if I want to grad. in 4 years I cannot have any minor but it might be worth it IDK

 

[787593]

I found that psych stats helped because I read and interpreted a lot of charts which is pretty much a lot of the psych soc section

I'm sure it helped! I found that I was able to get the statistics knowledge required from my prep books.

 

[Cotterpin]

I don't think it's the MCAT necessarily that everyone is afraid or whatever. I think it's more (at lease in my case) reluctance to take double and triple science in order to fulfill all of the pre-reqs and also graduate on time, y'know?

If you're planning on going to medical school, you should be able to take more than one science course at a time. It's not going to get any easier.

 

[ChrisMack390]

As a bio major, I was required to take all of the prerequisites except biochemistry in my first 2 years...

 

[aldol16]

Are there any statistics that confirm this? Because that would be news to me.

When you're on the interview trail, ask the students/deans at the schools you're interviewing at. You'll find that they'll give you this response.

 

[ChrisMack390]

Are there any statistics that confirm this? Because that would be news to me.

MSAR contains an age breakdown of age of acceptances. Schools vary, and the 21-24 or so bracket is most common, but 25+ is certainly representated just about everywhere.

 

[james11]

I don't think it's the MCAT necessarily that everyone is afraid or whatever. I think it's more (at lease in my case) reluctance to take double and triple science in order to fulfill all of the pre-reqs and also graduate on time, y'know?

Yeah that's fair, to be honest though, if you can't handle taking 2-3 premed science classes at once you might have a harder time with med school...

Are there any statistics that confirm this? Because that would be news to me.

At some of the schools I've been interviewing, the majority of the interviewees will have already graduated.