what are premed course requirements?

[batista_123]

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hello
I thought the courses you have to take are the same for all med schools, but when i go to each med schools website, they have all these different requirements
for example, here
http://www.meded.umn.edu/admissions/prerequisites.php

it says you need to take 2 upper division biology classes.
i have noticed other med schools also have their own weird requirements, i am confused, isnt the prerequisites universal for all med schools?
(one year physics, one year bio, gchem, ochem, blah blah)

Also when a med school says organic chemistry with lab, how will they know if my organic chemistry class had labs or not?

 

[randombetch]

Prereqs vary a lot from school to school, but it's generally the following:
2 semesters of gen bio with lab
2 semester of inorganic chem with lab
2 semester of orgo with lab
2 semesters of math
2 semesters of English/writing
1 semester of biochem recommended

AP credit acceptance varies from school to school.

They'll know if your orgo class had labs or not... They'll know.

 

[bellakk]

some schools have additional requirements besides the 2 semesters of the 4 sciences. the amcas application has you check off whether your science class did or did not include a lab then you enter them into the application. I dont remember if AACOMAS did or not, but on my applications I put "with lab" in the titles of courses that did include the lab.

 

[azrael87]

Actually it looks like the example you gave seems to require LESS than the standard since it only requires one bio and one chem semester. The 4 life science semesters can be Bio 2, Gen Chem 2, Orgo 1/2, or Physics 1/2, which are all normal pre reqs. The only non-standard one is the humanities requirement, which is relatively common. Many undergraduate colleges require you to take english courses anyway, so that should be easily filled.

As for the upper level courses, they are recommended, not required. There's a big difference. Required means if you don't have it, you aren't getting in. Recommended means, the more you have from this list, the better your chances are.

Some school may list their requirements in odd ways such as that, but most have the same general prerequisites. It may be easier to just buy the MSAR since it lays them out for you on a chart for each school. The MSAR isn't very expensive.

 

[Moosecakes]

Inorganic chemistry.... how important is it?
It appears that my school doesn't offer it... 0_o

 

[c5212]

Prereqs vary a lot from school to school, but it's generally the following:
2 semesters of gen bio with lab
2 semester of inorganic chem with lab
2 semester of orgo with lab
2 semesters of math
2 semesters of English/writing
1 semester of biochem recommended

AP credit acceptance varies from school to school.

They'll know if your orgo class had labs or not... They'll know.

+1👍 This is pretty much it. A few select med schools require calculus (Mayo and a couple others) but besides that, randombetch covered it!

 

[wanderer]

Inorganic chemistry.... how important is it?
It appears that my school doesn't offer it... 0_o

When schools say they require "inorganic chemistry" they really mean general chemistry.