You can study any major and be eligible for medical school, but you have do the pre-med courses.
Pre-med coursework needs to include
1 year general chem (with lab)
1 year organic chem (with lab)
1 year general biology (with lab)
1 year intro. physics (with lab)
1 year English
1 year calculus
A lot of medical schools also suggest you take psychology, statistics, biochemistry and humanities like medical ethics, but these courses are not required.
Medical schools want students who demonstrate talent in a lot of areas, so they want to see you involved in a lot of subjects and activities. Not only should you be taking science classes, you should take things like literature, art and philosophy. In my case, I studied both biology and cultural studies.
In addition to courses, you have to do some volunteer work (like in a hospital or clinic, research lab, charity or church). Clinical experience is valuable. But you need other kinds of extracurriculars, too, like sports, choir, political clubs, etc.
Grades matter a lot. Most schools have average GPAs above 3.4, and the average science GPAs tend to be higher than that.
Lastly, there's the MCAT which is the entrance exam. The test has 4 sections: verbal, physical science, biological science and essay. The essay is graded J (low) through T (high). The other sections are scored 1 through 15. You need to average about 10 in each section for a good score, but the higher the better, especially if you live in California because it is disproportionately hard for Californians to get in.
2007-10-29 11:14:20
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answer #1
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answered by Gumdrop Girl 7
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