English requirement at med schools?

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tigerss

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Hi, I know many medical schools have a year long English requirement. Is this writing/composition or literature or either? And do the courses have to be related (i.e, will one semester of lit and one of comp satisfy it, or do they both need to be comp). Also, I may use AP credit to help me out here- problem is I got a 3 on one which, at my university, will exempt me from their core curriculum but not from any courses. Will that be okay? Just generally please, I know the requirements differ across schools
Any help is appreciated!

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Precaution: Take my words with precaution, I'm also a pre-med and I've given wrong info before.

The English requirement varies greatly by schools.
Some schools do not specify that you have to take any composition. Some will specify that.
Few schools (not all) place English under Humanities. I believe it's any English courses then.
Some don't accept AP.

You have to do your research later on; I've bought MSAR and it's all confusing. Every school has their own unique requirements. Pick schools that you know you are going to apply, then try to fit their standards along with the basic one year of BCP(Bio,Chem/Ochem,Physics).
I've taken Psychology, I'm taking Philosophy now and I will be taking Sociology... all because there are schools out there that wants Psychology/Sociology ... also Philosophy or Ethics (aarrrrrggghh).

I'd say take at least one composition course. I've done that, I've taken one composition course along with two other English courses outside of composition. (One Lit and one Critical)

Also see UC Berkeley's advice for Pre-Med:

Requirements can vary. To ensure eligibility, we recommend taking 1 year of English or other writing intensive courses.

Most students fulfill this medical school requirement by taking Reading and Composition (R&C) courses at Berkeley.

Taking two R&C courses is your safest bet- even if you have placed out of them with AP credit. These are our writing intensive courses at Berkeley and will satisfy the one-year requirement that most medical schools have. If you did not (or choose not to) take any R&C courses, we recommend looking into classes from the following departments: English, Rhetoric, Comparative Literature, and the College Writing Program.
source: https://career.berkeley.edu/Medical/PrepPrereq


Also see here:
https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/sites/dsa/files/handbooks/Medical School Requirements FINAL.pdf
Some of them have changed, so check out the individual links.
 
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