I’m a medical laboratory scientist. I’ve been in this field for about 4 years now. I am planning to apply to med schools in 2 years. I’m worried about the age of my pre-reqs. my freshman bio is 10 years old now. and the rest will be 10 years old by 2012. Will that be a problem when I apply? I am currently studying for my MCAT which i will take next year. Does anyone know if I am required to retake courses? Thanks!!!
I am not sure about this, but I would contact and adviser at the school you are hoping to get into and check their requirements. GL
Based on my own experiences, it will be a problem at some schools, but not at all schools. The problem isn’t always the age of your coursework per se, but rather the general perception that being away from full-time academics for X number of years tends to dull your study habits. This is a complete falacy in my opinion, but I don’t make the rules. Contact the admissions offices at schools you’re interested in and ask them what their policy is. This is what I did before I applied to medical school and I highly recommend this especially if it’s been >5 years since you were last a student. Every school is different and you don’t want to waste time and money applying to schools that won’t consider your application based solely on the age of your coursework.
Irregardless of what the schools say, you should probably take some biology courses (as the field has changed considerably in that amount of time) and strongly consider taking some upper level science coursework to show adcoms that you can hack it. The general vibe I tend to get is that if you have strong MCAT scores, older pre-reqs tend not to be an issue.
At a recent presentation for Osteopathic admissions and recruiters, this question arose. As has been said above the definitive answer is an absolute maybe. Some schools yes, some no. In addition to taking some advanced bio courses (especially genetics which has changed drastically in 10 years) as advised above, the admissions officers and recruiters suggested that you contact the 4 to 6 schools that you would most like to attend and discuss with them.
My guess, and I purposely use the word guess, is an active medical laboratory scientist it is likely less an issue than for other students. If you do well on MCAT, it will show you know your stuff.
One neurotic thought I do have that is your are a medical laboratory scientist who had taken allied health level chem, bio, etc, these course may NOT cover the pre-reqs. If the courses you took could have been taken and used for a biology major, then they are likely fine
I’m facing a similar situation as the original post. My freshman gen chem, bio, and physics were taken 1999-2000. I have taken the MCAT this year and scored respectably 30Q (ps9,vr11,bs10) and have a 3.34 GPA overall, although my major is not in the sciences. I would really, really , really love to not take the general chem, bio, and physics over again as I have to work to support myself. I am currently enrolled in an upper-division o chem class and am hopping to take bio-chem as well as an upper division biology class before the end of this year. I would like to apply this application cycle. Which brings me to my question: Is my MCAT and GPA (combined with the fact that I am completing upper division science course work) good enough so I don’t have to re do most of my previous college work?
Thanks!
DT12,
As several medical schools pointed out to me, “retaking remedial, ‘easy to get As’ premedical coursework won’t prove your academic abilities for medical school. Having succeeded in recent, unfamiliar, unencountered advanced-level premedical coursework will. You should only retake premedical coursework if (1) you don’t remember a thing from those classes and need the class structure to refresh yourself and/or (2) you need utilize the AACOMAS grade replacement policy to improve your GPA.” The following links expound on this thinking:
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
Some schools have no time limit, some do… I agree, check with each school and see what they want…