After how many years do Prereqs expire?

[EMTB2MD]

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Hello everyone,

I'm a non-traditional applicant that will be applying to med school about two years from now. I graduated with a biology degree in 1998. From your experience looking at medschool applications how current do the prereqs (Chem,bio,Physics,math) have to be? I called Jefferson today and they told me all classes have to be taken within 3 years. I told them I understand the MCAT has to be current within the past 3 years but they were very clear all course work had to be current as well. They said I would have to take ALL coursework over again. I'm really hoping this isn't true. It makes absolutely no sense for me to take basic biology over again and learn about plants. I'm strong in biology and have no desire to retake any of those classes. I wouldn't mind though taking immunology, histology, or some upper level physiology courses though if I had to.

I called Temple University and got a different tune from admissions. They told me to take Organic I & II (never took them in the first place) and maybe one or two more classes to prove that I can still do well in college classes since it has been some time.

I'm really crossing my fingers and praying that the lady I talked to at Jefferson didn't know what she was talking about. What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Ken

 

[efex101]

It really depends on the schools...some want the pre-reqs to be less than 7 years at the time of matriculation into medical school, others do not care as long as you have some "recent" coursework that proves academic prowess, others like the pre-reqs to be less than five years old...so you are doing the right thing. Call or e-mail the schools you are interested in and get the feel for what the majority would like and go from there.

 

[Filibuster]

It really depends on the schools...some want the pre-reqs to be less than 7 years at the time of matriculation into medical school, others do not care as long as you have some "recent" coursework that proves academic prowess, others like the pre-reqs to be less than five years old...so you are doing the right thing. Call or e-mail the schools you are interested in and get the feel for what the majority would like and go from there.

I'd like to add that some don't even care, that is if you have a strong MCAT. Which shows academic ability along with a solid (albeit old) gpa. I'm now getting interviews and my last coursework was in '97. It may also depend on how you express yourself in your essays. I 'attempted' at least to leverage my career in IT pointing out how intellecually demanding it was. Not going to use the word academic here cause of it's true mean... of no 'practical' value.

 

[efex101]

Yes, that is true some do not care *but* with so many folks applying that have both recent academic coursework *and* a solid MCAT it behooves you to take some classes. Sure, you still might get in w/o recent courses but it may limit your options.

 

[Filibuster]

Yes, that is true some do not care *but* with so many folks applying that have both recent academic coursework *and* a solid MCAT it behooves you to take some classes. Sure, you still might get in w/o recent courses but it may limit your options.

This is definitly true. Although trying to take upper division science classes while working 9 to 5, ok reality check 7 to 6 is a bit difficult. Just one more hurdle for the non-trad.

 

[efex101]

Yes this is tough with those with FT jobs and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Things have the tendency of somehow working out if they were meant to happen.

 

[EMTB2MD]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It is very hard to work full time (70-80 hrs per week), take classes, volunteer 20+ hours a week and still have time for family. I completely canceled cable tv since I'm never home to watch it and really havn't missed it. There are 168 hours in a week and I'm still looking for a way to increase it to 200. With my schedule taking more than one class per semester will be next to impossible.


Ken

 

[Doctor Bagel]

It's very, very rare for prereqs to expire, but it does happen at some schools. My advice would be to focus on the schools that will take your older prereqs (fortunately, the vast majority of them) instead of undertaking the costly and time consuming endeavor of retaking all that stuff. As for Temple, they offered me an interview last year (I didn't go) and didn't say anything about the age of my prereqs, the oldest of which were taken in the 1995-96 school year.

The other posters are right in that schools do like recent coursework, so I'd advise taking something, but again, you don't have to go back and redo all of gen chem, orgo, physics, etc, especially if you did well in them the first go round. Also, as filibuster pointed out, it's probably not the end of the world to not have any recent coursework if everything else in your application is very solid. As I have pointed out a few times recently on SDN, you can get into medical school without having an absolutely perfect application -- in fact, the vast majority of people who get accepted don't have the perfect application.

 

[Law2Doc]

It's very, very rare for prereqs to expire, but it does happen at some schools.

Someone on SDN did a survey of this a year or so ago and came up with about 7 allo schools that had explicit prereq timing policies, so the general rule is that they don't really "expire", but as exlawgrrl said there are some sticklers out there. That being said, most schools will want to see "recent success in science courses". And most postbac advisers and the like will suggest just retaking all very old prereqs (esp those over a decade old) as a matter of course.

 

[Wackie]

I know UT Southwestern is five years. I've already taken English I and II, but I'll need to retake English I since it was more than five years ago.

 

[jumboolia]

well i asked someone in admissinos at UF and she said that after a couple years the pre reqs get "stale"

 

[mommy2three]

ditt to what the above posters have said.....my gchem, gbio etc is older than yours and called the schools in the area and none of them had a problem with it becuas ei had taken advanced coursework since then.