Premedical course requirements: (note that changes are coming for students enrolling in fall of 2012; more on these later)
Unlike some of the other health professional schools, medical schools are very consistent (and less demanding) in their course requirements. To apply to nearly all medical schools you need to take
- Two courses of majors level introductory biology with laboratory (8 credits)
- Two courses of majors level introductory chemistry with laboratory (8 credits)
- Two courses of organic chemistry with laboratory (8 credits)
- Two courses of majors level physics with laboratory (8 credits)
- Two courses in English (6 credits)
- courses in Mathematics or Statistics (0-8 credits)--this is the only requirement that is variable between different medical schools; a very few schools require calculus I and II, most schools require one or two courses in math/statistics, a few schools have no requirement at all in this area.
At Geneseo this translates to:
- BIOL 116, 117, 119
- CHEM 116, 118, 119
- CHEM 211, 213, 216
- PHYS 113, 114, 115, 116 or PHYS 123, 124, 125, 126 or PHYS 123, 114, 125, 116
- INTD 105 and some other course with an ENGL prefix (NOT ENGL 170)
- Two courses with a MATH prefix or one MATH course and a course that deals with statistics (e.g. BIOL 250 or PSYC 250)
Those above are the only curricular requirements. Premed students do NOT need to major in biology and do NOT need to take Human Anatomy, or Cell Biology or Animal Physiology. Premed students do NOT need to major in the sciences. There is no ‘premed major’; none of the over thirty majors available for Geneseo students is designed for premed students. Should you choose to major Biology, Biochemistry or Chemistry, most of the requirements listed above are required as part of that major but this doesn’t mean that this is the best major for you; you may not want to take all of the additional requirements of these majors. You will be getting lots of biology and chemistry in medical school so you might want to pursue something else as an undergraduate major. To get into medical school you need to excel as a student so you should choose a major that you think you can excel in.