requirement expiration???

[ernieraisin]

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do schools consider your pre-med requirements if you took them "x" amount of years ago??? i just did not even consider that.

i graduated from my undergrad in 1996 and since then receieved ph.d. in pharmacology & biological chemistry in 2003. i took my orgo and physics way back 1993-1994. and my gen chem in 1992-1993. do you think it was a mistake for me to apply???

 

[humuhumu]

do schools consider your pre-med requirements if you took them "x" amount of years ago??? i just did not even consider that.

i graduated from my undergrad in 1996 and since then receieved ph.d. in pharmacology & biological chemistry in 2003. i took my orgo and physics way back 1993-1994. and my gen chem in 1992-1993. do you think it was a mistake for me to apply???

Some adcoms care (e.g. no prereq coursework older than 10 yrs.), some don't. You'll have to call to find out which ones have a "statute of limitations".

 

[Doctor Bagel]

some of my prereqs are almost 10 years old, but i haven't come across any schools that i'm applying to that have an expiration date for prereqs. i know duke does and maybe other schools do, too, but i don't think it's the norm. that being said, it's good to have some more recent coursework, too. i made a's in my old prereqs at a better school than my postbacc school, so i absolutely refuse to retake them.

 

[njbmd]

do schools consider your pre-med requirements if you took them "x" amount of years ago??? i just did not even consider that.

i graduated from my undergrad in 1996 and since then receieved ph.d. in pharmacology & biological chemistry in 2003. i took my orgo and physics way back 1993-1994. and my gen chem in 1992-1993. do you think it was a mistake for me to apply???

Hi there,
You have some recent coursework of a science nature so I would not worry too much about the age of your pre-reqs. Most schools will not have a problem with recent coursework.

My originial pre-med courses were much older than yours when I applied but my recent Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was the only coursework that I was even asked about. They looked at my undergraduate GPA and commented on why I didn't apply for medical school right after undergraduate (I wasn't interested in medicine back then) and moved onto a discussion about my dissertation subject matter.

Don't worry, you are probably going to be fine.
njbmd 🙂

 

[ernieraisin]

thank you everyone!!!

 

[roboyce]

For anyone interested here's what I found out from Duke about their requirement expiration.

On the webpage it states:

All science requirements must be completed not more than seven years before you enter medical school.

I took quite a few of the classes in my freshman and sophmore years (1997-98), which means those classes would be expired by the time I entered medical school. However, after calling the admissions office, I found out that they count the years from when you graduated, not from the year you took the classes. So as long as you graduated after 1999 for this upcoming cycle, your classes are still good.

That saved me (graduated in 2001). Hopefully it helps some of you as well. Good luck.

PS - This is not the first time that I've found schools to be flexible with their "requirements" for admission. Vandy also helped me out with some AP credit issues.

 

[KLD]

I took my pre meds sporadically over the past 10 years, but it hasn't kept me from getting interviews so far.

An acceptance at some point would be nice, however. 😀

 

[QofQuimica]

You can also request that the schools waive their academic requirements provided that you can give a good reason for requesting this, like that you have your PhD. I had to ask my schools to waive their minimum GPA requirements, for example, since I don't have any undergraduate grades. They all sent me secondaries, so schools do make exceptions sometimes. I would suggest that you write a letter to the schools like Duke that put a time limit on the pre-reqs, and ask them to waive it in your case, since you have recent graduate level science work. Good luck with your apps.