Every med school I've researched says that major doesn't matter as long as you complete the prereqs for each school. However, a lot of them have many recommended courses beyond the requirements. It seems like you couldn't complete these recommended courses if you weren't a science major. So I was just wondering, do those who have completed many upper-level science courses beyond the requirements have any advantage? Courses I've taken beyond the requirements include medical micro, cell biology, physiology, genetics, developmental biology, embryology, immunology, histology, biotechnology, and cancer biology.
Courses beyond the requirements
- Thread starter PostGoFo
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Unequivocally yes. It means you’re seeing less of the pre-clinical material for the first time during medical school. Which means you can learn it faster and more completely. Which means you’ll probably have a better quality of life, get better grades during pre-clinical years, and very likely get a better board score.
The most obvious example is anatomy. I had people in my dissection group who had taken a gross anatomy course with human cadavers very similar to what we took in medical school. There were also people like myself who had never taken an anatomy class before. Although the course was difficult for everyone, our ability to rapidly learn the huge volume of material was night and day.
Good to know! From an admissions standpoint, do applicants have advantages when applying with these upper-level courses?
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From what I've heard from a few friends in medical school, taking those classes may give you a slight advantage in terms of being familiar with the material being taught and not having to start from scratch. Chances are though, your undergrad courses in those subjects did not go into as much detail as the med school courses, and you likely don't remember much of those subjects (I know I don't lol). So they may give you a small foundation of the material to go off of, but you will still have to learn a lot on top of that foundation. That being said, the students who didn't take those courses will have to establish the foundation as well as learn the detailed material. My friends in med school who didn't take those courses didn't feel behind or anything like that, so I think it's not a big deal either way cause they're going to teach you what you need to know, you might just have to put in slightly more work if the material is completely new to you.
This is all based on friends' experiences so maybe someone who is in med school will chime in and give you a more personal account!
This is all based on friends' experiences so maybe someone who is in med school will chime in and give you a more personal account!
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I don’t think an adcom will take someone over another identical applicant based on if they took more upper level sciences.
However, I can imagine it ups the trust level that you’ll succeed in med school classes as you take more and more upper level classes (usually less supervision from prof, more higher level of thinking, etc) It is also a good way for a come back when adcoms ask why an applicant performed poorly in basic sciences. (Ie. Why did you get a C in gen bio? Bc I didn’t figure out my study techniques, but hey look I took microbiology and although this class is a lot harder I got a A Bc I figured out how to study and I plan to continue improving myself to study more effectively in med school)
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