Health Professions Advisory Office

General Information

U.S. MEDICAL SCHOOL COURSE REQUIREMENTS
125 Medical Schools
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Subjects Required by 10 or more US Medical Schools, 2006-2007 Entering Class
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Course Required # of Schools Vanderbilt Equivalent
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Physics 118 Physics 117ab-116ab, or 121ab-122ab
General (Inorganic) Chemistry 116 Chemistry 102ab or 103ab
Organic Chemistry 117 Chemistry 220ab
English 80 Content Not Specified
Biology 82 BSCI 110ab
Biology/Zoology 38 BSCI 110ab
Calculus (unspecified) 16 Math 171ab, 172ab, or 173ab
Mathematics (unspecified)  33 Content Not Specified
Behavioral Sciences 10 Content Not Specified
Humanities 14 Content Not Specified
BioChemistry 12 Content Not Specified

 

Additional Courses:
Many schools that require English courses for admissions have stated that they would accept "W" courses of the CPLE. Check with HPAO for information on particular schools.

Many of the courses listed in this section will be required in some of the majors listed above. Certain of these courses should be taken by all premedical students unless special circumstances prevent their being scheduled. In this category are Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology.

Students should not attempt to take courses that comprise most of the first year of medical school during the senior year in college. Experience has shown, however, that if a student has a strong background in some of these courses, the first year of medical school will be less stressful and the student will get off to a much better start. The desire to obtain a better background for medical school must be tempered by the realization that the senior year of college will probably represent the last opportunity you will ever have to pursue academic interests in areas other than medicine. Many well-qualified students take a few courses completely unrelated to medicine or degree requirements during their senior year in order to indulge in some area which they have always wanted to pursue in more depth.