When is my coursework outdated?

[petomed]

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Is this a thing? If all my pre-req's were, say, 20 years old, would medical schools require that I retake them after some threshold?

For me:
2012: finished undergrad, having taken Chem I-II, Phys I-II, Psych as a biproducts of a non-medicine B.S.
2013: tacked on a non-medicine M.S.
2016: discovered medicine and began taking the missing pre-req's, (Bio I)
2017: Bio II, Orgo I-II
2018: Biochem

I like to believe that a competitive MCAT would quell concerns that the applicant is 'too far gone' from the academic world to do well in medical school. But what is the reality here?

 

[gramnegative]

It depends on the school; you'll have to look at each school's website to see if there was a time limit. Some of my pre-reqs were from 2010 and it didn't hold me back, but I finished my DIY PB in 2019, scored well on the MCAT, and have a unique background and experiences.

 

[Nugester]

I graduated in 2007 and matriculated in 2020. I did not retake any prereqs. I took a boatload of new classes, though. Definitely check each school, but you should be fine.

 

[GreenDuck12]

A competitive MCAT score will show that you have a grasp of the foundational concepts and the ability to do well on a standardized test, which is not unimportant. Medical school committees may still be concerned about your ability to handle rigorous coursework that is covered at an insane pace. The answer is that it depends: some schools state a preference for all prerequisite coursework being completed within 5-10 years, others want recent coursework, others have no stated preference. Your best bet is to look at the requirements of the programs you are interested in applying. If you’re applying in 2022, that will be 4 years since your last class, it may be worth taking one or two classes for a semester or two if you are concerned about this being a concern and want to nip it in the bud.

 

[DigNewton]

Agree with all of the others so far. It won't necessarily hold you back, but you'll likely need to take at least a course or two to show adcoms that you can still do well in science courses. For context, my newest pre-req was from 2012, and my oldest was from 2002. I was fortunate to have a very high MCAT score and hoped that would make up for old coursework, but schools' responses when I asked about this varied from "pre-reqs never expire" to "you have to retake every pre-req that's older than 5 years, no exceptions." The most common response, though, was that I should just take a couple upper-level science courses. That's what I did, and it worked out. But I'd suggest checking with every school you plan to apply to, to be sure you're doing what you need to.