Hello everyone, A friend of mine recommended this site to me as I am looking into starting my journey to becoming a physician.
I will be 35 this year, I spent 15 years working in Veterinary medicine (ICU including ventilator medicine and Veterinary ER) I switched in 2012 to human medicine and became a Psychiatric Technician and work for a Crisis stabilization unit for our County Mental Health System. I have spent a lot of time in school but have lacked focus in a specific area.
My question is: The only sciences I have completed thus far are Physio/Anatomy/Microbiolo gy and Intro to Chemistry (pre-reqs for psych tech and nursing programs) of which I have a “C” average. Is there a list of science courses required for MD or DO schools? Are the requirements different? I would like to complete as many classes as possible at a community college before transferring for my BS degree. I know I could have done better in those science courses and wish I would have taken my education more seriously at the time but does anyone think there is a chance to recover from those 4 C’s? Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Karen
Welcome!
The course requirements vary by school, but generally they include:
2 semesters of chemistry with labs
2 semesters of organic chemistry with labs
2 semesters of physics with labs
2 semesters of biology with labs
Lab requirements may differ. Some schools have additional English, math, social science, and/or biochem requirements. Some schools don’t have any. At most, you’ll need a bachelors degree from an accredited US school.
4 Cs aren’t good but recoverable if you can somehow a) show through more advanced classes that you can handle the material or b) retake them and utilize the grade replacement that AACOMAS (DO application) allows.
As far as CC credits goes, again varies by school. Some don’t accept them, some take them on a case by case basis, some take them but view them “lesser” than 4yr schools, and some take them and treat them the same as any other school. Tough call but an understandable path for cost.
Come 2016, many schools (MD) are changing their requirements due to decreasing emphasis on o-chem 2, physics 2 and more emphasis on biochem, psychology, and sociology.
Pick a few schools that interest you and see what they are requiring for 2016 admission… they may be vastly different than those required for 2015.
Really? The only change I’ve seen is the addition of biochem, psych, & sociology to the standard prereqs. The assumption was what you posted but I haven’t seen any change from any of the schools I’m looking at.