old pre-reqs...retake?

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Does anyone have experience applying to med school with very old prereqs?


I was a biology major and graduated >10 years ago, and I completed all my pre-reqs for med school during my undergrad. Now I’m considering applying to med school. Some of the schools I’ve spoken to want me to redo the prereqs; others don’t care how long ago I took them. Since graduation I’ve worked in a science career, so a lot of my knowledge base is still current. So I’m wondering - should I just retake the prereqs I really need to brush up on, and forego applying to places that have a requirement for current prereqs? Or should I go full in and do all the prereqs over again?


Many thanks for any advice!

2
  • calpremed Said:
Does anyone have experience applying to med school with very old prereqs?



Yes - me. Over 8 years elapsed between the time I graduated from college and the time I applied to medical school.

  • calpremed Said:
I was a biology major and graduated >10 years ago, and I completed all my pre-reqs for med school during my undergrad.



This was almost my exact situation when I applied to medical school.

  • calpremed Said:
Now I'm considering applying to med school. Some of the schools I've spoken to want me to redo the prereqs; others don't care how long ago I took them.



This was my experience as well. A lot of schools were a no-go for me due to the amount of time that passed between college graduation and my medical school application (University of California schools and the schools in the Philadelphia area in particular). I found the midwestern schools in general to be more forgiving than the coastal schools when it came to age of pre-reqs.

  • calpremed Said:
Since graduation I've worked in a science career, so a lot of my knowledge base is still current.



I too worked in a science career between college and medical school and I feel the knowledge served me well for the MCAT & medical school.

  • calpremed Said:
So I'm wondering - should I just retake the prereqs I really need to brush up on, and forego applying to places that have a requirement for current prereqs? Or should I go full in and do all the prereqs over again?

Many thanks for any advice!



I would not consider redoing the pre-reqs until you've taken the MCAT first. If you have a decent recent MCAT, and good grades from undergrad, I would call some adcoms in April/May when they are least busy and find out which schools would be accepting of older pre-reqs and which would be less accepting of older pre-reqs and target your application to those schools that are accepting of older pre-reqs.