Hi everyone, just joined OPM. I’m 2 years out of undergrad (nonscience major) and I’m looking to enter med school (either DO or MD, haven’t decided) in Fall 2012. I’m working on my pre-med courses and want to know just how old they can be before medical schools won’t accept them? The oldest ones would be English courses from my freshman year (so they’d be 7 or 8 years old by my first year at med school).
The answer is “it depends”. In your case, it appears that the only pre-req that might be pushing the limit of being “old” is English. How old your English courses are is almost never a concern. Med schools are far more concerned about how old your science pre-reqs are (particularly biology).
My English courses were well over 10 years old when I applied for medical school and it was never even mentioned. As long as your bio, chemistry and physics are recent, you should be fine.
Hm, ok. Thanks for the reply. In that case my oldest science pre-req would be a 6 year old 1st-semester bio class. Hopefully they don’t cut them off at 5? I’ll have to call around and ask
Don’t take what I say for granted, but I believe that if you score well enough on your MCAT, they won’t care. Although there are “minimum” requirements, admission committees often make exceptions on a case by case basis. I mean if you have a great GPA, a super MCAT score and a solid application, they won’t bother with how old your pre-reqs are . 5-6 y o for science is OK, but again I am no expert at all. Just a lot of reading and talking.
Most schools don’t have firm cut-offs. They may say something like we prefer that pre-reqs be no more than 5 (7,10) years old. If you have some schools you know you are interested in, it never hurts to call and ask, but as mentioned above, if you have a great GPA, most of your coursework is recent, and a good MCAT, you’ll probably be fine.
I graduated from undergrad in 1996 and Optometry schoold in 2000. Have talked to the director of admissions and she told me as long as my MCAT score was good these would not be an issue because I am in a health field. So again, depends on your situation.
i literally just talked to someone working at a postbacc program here in southern california and he told me that an 8-year lapse would be the normal maximum for science coursework. if science coursework were over 8 years old then it was suggested that taking all coursework over again will be beneficial.
The advice I got two years ago was to email the admissions offices of the schools and ask if they have a cut off. None of the CA schools said they did. That being said, I’m glad I went back and took Bio because so much has changed in that subject in the last 10 years. You may want to retake the Bio just so you’re up to date.
if you are talking about california schools i suggest reading about the prereqs online. i know UCSF makes specific references to recency requirements of science coursework on their respective websites.
- wackyzachary Said:
if you are talking about california schools i suggest reading about the prereqs online. i know UCSF makes specific references to recency requirements of science coursework on their respective websites.
To just add further to W-Z above, in addition to the web sites, you should get a copy of the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) which is the AAMC official guide Link to AAMC MSAR . The Osteopathic version is free pdf online Link AACOM > Publications & Resources > AACOM Bookstore > College Information Book 2010 Osteopathic Medical College Information Book
I have noticed that on the East Coast Schools, the more research/academically oriented the school is, the more likely they have specific limits on age of pre-reqs. For example, NYU had a stated 5 year limit on courses. The site also stated that if two similar courses at a school are offered, the student should take the more rigorous. And if I recall NYU may have had a specific statement that community college courses would not be accepted but that statement is no longer on the site, apparently due to pressure to both the new york state and new york city university systems.