Pre-med "requirements"

[somewhere2010]

i've heard of some schools being flexible with what they list as their pre-med requirements, e.g. some people going to harvard without an entire year of calculus, some places not making you take english after all. anyone else heard of this happening? do they just totally ignore the absence of some pre-reqs, or do students make a deal with the school? just curious...

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[justskipee]

i've heard of some schools being flexible with what they list as their pre-med requirements, e.g. some people going to harvard without an entire year of calculus, some places not making you take english after all. anyone else heard of this happening? do they just totally ignore the absence of some pre-reqs, or do students make a deal with the school? just curious...

These exceptions do not occur frequently. Perhaps they might waive something for a non-traditional applicant since that would mean re-enrolling at a college just for an extra english class.

 

[cryogen9]

somewhere, thanks very much for your reply to my thread (not to plug, but the subject matter is very similar...)

As useful as SDN can be, I don't like dealing in blanket statements and inuendoes. No one's banging anyone's knee with a hammer, so there's no need for uninformed knee-jerk replies. You've asked a very important question here, and I'd like to see a response from someone with concrete knowledge of a situation in which this occurred, or an admissions policy that says, in effect, "no ifs, ands, or buts."

Not exactly a response to your question, but Penn Med, for instance, does not have any "requirements," per se. If the committee feels you've had an adequate pre-med education, they'll take you. Now, bear in mind that this is Penn, and that an "adequate pre-med education" will probably contain all those courses we know and love... Nonetheless, I could certainly imagine them letting one "required" course slide, and I'm quite sure they have-- that's the whole point of their policy.

Likewise, Cornell states that labs are "preferred but not required." Again, we have to bear in mind that this is an Adcom Weaseltalk definition of "preferred," but at least on paper, this is a fairly permissive policy.

Incidentally, I'm shooting to be somewhere for the class of 2010-- best of luck to you.

 

[Dr Trek 1]

Not exactly a response to your question, but Penn Med, for instance, does not have any "requirements," per se. If the committee feels you've had an adequate pre-med education, they'll take you. Now, bear in mind that this is Penn, and that an "adequate pre-med education" will probably contain all those courses we know and love... Nonetheless, I could certainly imagine them letting one "required" course slide, and I'm quite sure they have-- that's the whole point of their policy.

Likewise, Cornell states that labs are "preferred but not required." Again, we have to bear in mind that this is an Adcom Weaseltalk definition of "preferred," but at least on paper, this is a fairly permissive policy.

Incidentally, I'm shooting to be somewhere for the class of 2010-- best of luck to you.

It has been my experience that the very high end private schools such as Penn, Harvard, etc. are more willing to make exceptions. However, keep in mind that if one of these schools accepts you- your stats are probably so spectacular that not taking physics II doesn't really matter.

Probably most schools require the prereqs but the schools that I know for a fact will not budge are the SUNY state schools. At least from my experience, they are not flexible.

As a general opinion, I think that undergrad science classes vary (in content and quality) soo much that they may not be as useful or indicative as med schools wish they were. Maybe all med schools will one day be more like law schools, where they don't have any prereqs per se, but just generally see if they feel you are fit for med school based on what you have done.

 

[tigress]

I've been accepted to a few schools but I haven't taken physics II yet. If I end up starting med school in the fall I'll either have to take physics sometime between now and then or ask the school for an exception. I think it's unlikely, though, that I'd be able to manage that, since physics is one of the major pre-req classes. In any case I may be deferring for a year, so if I do that it won't be a problem

But certainly don't count on pre-reqs being ignored. I know that my acceptance letters have stated that the acceptance is contigent on completion of all school requirements. While you're in the process of applying you can always say you'll take something within the next year, which worked for me with physics. But if you don't have a pre-req for a school, it's probably best to address this directly rather than try to ignore it. Aside from schools like Penn, of course, which don't have any specific requirements -- no need to mention any "deficiencies" in your application to them!

 

[thinknofu3]

At Pritzker I had to send a letter requesting a requirements waiver because I had received credit for the first 2 quarters of Physics via AP - they say you have to take extra science classes with labs to compensate, but at my school none of the upper level sciences have labs. I sent the letter, my waiver was granted. My best advice is, if you have questions about specific schools, to contact their office of admissions. That's the only way you can get the real story for sure.

 

[Law2Doc]

But certainly don't count on pre-reqs being ignored. I know that my acceptance letters have stated that the acceptance is contigent on completion of all school requirements.

This is the general rule. Expect to have to have completed all the prereqs or have explicit plans for doing so before matriculation. While schools generally have the power to waive whatever they want, they only do so in rare circumstances. I've had places indicate that they would not accept certain literature classes as English as they were not actually given by the English department.