Alternatives to English Requirement?

[Saturday’s Child]

---

Members do not see this ad.

The problem: I had AP credit that exempted me from taking official English courses, and I never had space in my schedule for “writing intensive” courses. Certain schools on my list require additional writing courses if I had AP credit for basic English.

My question: Is anyone aware of alternative courses for the 6-hour English requirement? I’ve heard certain courses like linguistics and non-thesis research courses w/ a paper requirement could count. I have taken these courses. They aren’t designated as “writing intensive” on my transcript, but friends from my undergrad who are currently in med school said that they used these courses to satisfy some schools’ writing requirement.

If it is possible for these courses to be accepted as writing intensive, what would be the best way to notify schools that I am hoping for those courses to meet their requirement? Is it something I should indicate on my secondaries? Do I just call them about it? Thanks in advance for your guidance!

@LizzyM @gonnif

 

[suckitupbuttercup]

I'm in a similar situation. (stupid mistake - I carefully checked all the science prereqs but who tf cares about English, right?) Only a few of my schools have English requirements, so I reached out to them individually as they sent me secondaries that I couldn't complete. Their responses ranged from "yup, you're good" to "you must take two formally designated writing intensive courses". One school was willing to look at course descriptions and try to find something from my transcript that worked. Bottom line - you'll have to reach out to each of your schools and see if they're willing to work with you.

 

[suckitupbuttercup]

@GoBlue2019 I requested official transcripts for myself and they're pretty bare-bones as you describe. It's on you to do the legwork and track down course descriptions to send to the school for their review.

 

[Saturday’s Child]

I only took one English course and one writing-intensive foreign language course. I compiled a list of 29 schools I wanted to apply to, and the only school I had to boot because they had a strict two English course policy (no AP credit) was the University of Colorado.

So by no means do you absolutely need two English courses to apply to medical school. I would definitely advise taking at least one, though, to supplement your other writing-intensive course.

Edit: I think there were also a couple of schools with a strict two English course policy, but accepted AP credit, that I used AP English credit + my college English course for.

I just looked at Colorado’s requirements page and they said that AP will satisfy as long as it safisfies the undergrad’s requirements and is listed on our transcript... maybe it’s changed since you looked?

 

[MyOdyssey]

I'm in a similar situation. (stupid mistake - I carefully checked all the science prereqs but who tf cares about English, right?) Only a few of my schools have English requirements, so I reached out to them individually as they sent me secondaries that I couldn't complete. Their responses ranged from "yup, you're good" to "you must take two formally designated writing intensive courses". One school was willing to look at course descriptions and try to find something from my transcript that worked. Bottom line - you'll have to reach out to each of your schools and see if they're willing to work with you.

Which schools required that you take “2 formally designated writing intensive courses”?

My own research shows Columbia to be the strictest.

 

[Saturday’s Child]

Which schools required that you take “2 formally designated writing intensive courses”?

My own research shows Columbia to be the strictest.

I think Cornell has a similar requirement. Maybe Harvard as well

 

[suckitupbuttercup]

Which schools required that you take “2 formally designated writing intensive courses”?

My own research shows Columbia to be the strictest.

It was SUNY Downstate. Must be something about New York...