I am starting the pre-reqs next Spring and was told by one of the pre-med advisors at my local state U, that as of 2015, science pre-reqs will no longer be necessary for admission. The MCAT score, exposure to medical settings/shadowing, research, LORs, etc…will make up the bulk of the application process…The intent is to obtain more varied applicants. Anyone else heard such news? If so, could you elaborate or provide any relevant details. Thx
Chief
Yes i heard the same.
Sucks for us, huh? I’m starting pre req’s this fall or next spring too 
- meditateonthis Said:
Yes i heard the same.
Sucks for us, huh? I'm starting pre req's this fall or next spring too
Sucks for us, huh? I'm starting pre req's this fall or next spring too
Science preqs = ability to score well on the MCAT and I'd also say provide they good prep for med school classes.
In other words, folks who don't have them yet manage to get accepted are going to be in for a rude awakening in med school!
This sounds more like a scheme to get more applicants/money than diversify the accepted class.
I was at a Post Bacc info session at PSU-Brandywine earlier this year and they said med schools were going to be adding another class requirement in a couple years. I think it was biochem.
- Chief52 Said:
I am starting the pre-reqs next Spring and was told by one of the pre-med advisors at my local state U, that as of 2015, science pre-reqs will no longer be necessary for admission. The MCAT score, exposure to medical settings/shadowing, research, LORs, etc...will make up the bulk of the application process...The intent is to obtain more varied applicants. Anyone else heard such news? If so, could you elaborate or provide any relevant details. Thx
Chief
Chief
Despite the above perception, the reality is likely quite the opposite. Not only will premedical students need to take the regime of chemistry, biology, physics to take the "new" MCAT, but will also be expected to have a minimum number of social science courses, most likely psychology and sociology.
Link Emory University News on MCAT including Kaplan Info
Link to AAMC Releases Preliminary Recommendations for New MCAT® Exam
My guess is (note this is speculation on my part) that 12 credits of social science, effectively including intro to psych and intro to sociology will be recommended
Remember you have 3 different sets of overlapping issues:
1) requirements for MCAT: there are no specific course requirements for MCAT but strong recommendations by AAMC for what classes a student should have, effectively becoming prereqs. As stated above, the "classic" prereqs of chemistry, biology, etc will still be needed; newly added social science classes; and the "The AAMC recommendations include adding topics such as cellular/molecular biology, biochemistry, research methods and statistics to the exam."
2) The medical profession and the medical schools/admissions committees "culturally" are a conservative group. Thus they will likely still expect to students to the "classic" premed reqs and now newly added social science prereqs and the now typically expected additional advance bio course above the preqs such as biochem, genetics, etc.
3)As pathbr2b has posted, without a strong science foundation, the first two years of medical school will be, at the very least, exceedingly difficult to manage and be successful.
In my opinion every premed student should have the philosophy that: to be successful on the MCAT; be competitive in winning acceptance from an admissions committee;and be a successful medical student, that he/she will need to take the current science prereqs, the additional advance bio recommended courses, and at least a full term of newly required social science courses.
With the information I have at hand, I would recommend that students now mapping out their prereq classes should plan to include these additional courses:
intro to psych
intro to sociology
research methods (social, behavioral or population)
Statistics (social, behavioral, or other)
6 additional credits in pysch and sociology
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Link addtional official info from AAMC
"Will pre-medical students have to take more classes to prepare for the new test?
If the preliminary recommendations become final and are approved, examinees would have to master some new content to perform well on the exam. Examinees who would not otherwise take biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, introductory psychology, and introductory sociology would need to study the concepts tested. We do not anticipate the need for additional coursework in research methods and statistics."
I definitely have not heard this and I’ve been as adamant as possible in attending MCAT, AMSA, and University forums on the subject. I would personally prefer to be treated by a doc that had serious scientific knowledge as opposed to one that was not required to have these basic classes.
- Chief52 Said:
I am starting the pre-reqs next Spring and was told by one of the pre-med advisors at my local state U, that as of 2015, science pre-reqs will no longer be necessary for admission. The MCAT score, exposure to medical settings/shadowing, research, LORs, etc...will make up the bulk of the application process...The intent is to obtain more varied applicants. Anyone else heard such news? If so, could you elaborate or provide any relevant details. Thx
Chief
Chief
I had a good laugh over this one. Not because it is not possible, it may actually be true. However, the Univ. of MN did something similar a couple of years ago but according to one of my professors, it was very 'disingenuous' of the AdCom.
What UMN did was to remove some of the basic Chemistry requirements from its published requirements. However, instead, they instated a requirement for an upper level Biochem class. Well if you tried to enroll in an upper level Biochem class the pre-reqs for it were the very classes that had been removed from the published Med School pre-reqs!
So in reality the schools are making sure that the students coming in have more pre-med requirements under their belt rather than less.
Case in point - the OSU College of Med is going to start requiring its applicants for next year to have taken undergrad Anatomy before matriculation.
I would take any such news with several moles of NaCl <- bad pun!
- Dazed Said:
I would take any such news with several moles of NaCl <- bad pun!
Actually it should be taken with precisely 64.79891 milligrams of NaCl followed by approximately 44 ml of 80% aqueous solution of a double distillate of fermented Agave tequilana which maybe followed by a small amount of acidic aqueous solution containing approximately 1 mg L-ascorbate from Citrus aurantifolia.
**********************
index of measures
1 grain = 64.79891 mg
1 shot = 1.5 oz = 44ml
Richard,
After wading through that, just give me the tequila straight please. 44ml of 160 proof would be quite enough though.
Seriously though, it doesn’t matter if they did remove the formal requirement for those classes. 99% of us will still need them for the MCAT and to survive after entry. Some schools now include biochem as a mandatory pre-req and every single one I’ve looked into recommends taking more than the 4 minimum classes.
I would not take anything from an undergrad advisor at face value if I had the slightest question about it.
- lign Said:
Richard,
After wading through that, just give me the tequila straight please. 44ml of 160 proof would be quite enough though.
After wading through that, just give me the tequila straight please. 44ml of 160 proof would be quite enough though.
take it with a grain of salt followed by a shot of tequila
- lign Said:
Seriously though, it doesn't matter if they did remove the formal requirement for those classes. 99% of us will still need them for the MCAT and to survive after entry. Some schools now include biochem as a mandatory pre-req and every single one I've looked into recommends taking more than the 4 minimum classes.
I'll start working on an "OldPreMeds Suggested Prereqs list"
- lign Said:
would not take anything from an undergrad advisor at face value if I had the slightest question about it.
I would take anything they say with 2 grains of salt and 3 shots of tequila. That would be 129.58782 mg of NaCl followed by... never mind, just give me the freakin' bottle
- In reply to:
I would take anything they say with 2 grains of salt and 3 shots of tequila. That would be 129.58782 mg of NaCl followed by... never mind, just give me the freakin' bottle
Hilarious.
