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Required Pre-Requisite Courses For Medical School Ten-Year Summary of Previous Applicants Pre-Interview Application Form Veterinary Application Process
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Frequently
Asked Questions Must I become a science major in order to apply to medical or other health professional schools? What is the typical profile of a successful medical school candidate? How do I become a "premed" student? What courses should I take as a freshman? Are AP courses considered? Can I still become a "premed" if I decide after my freshman year? What should I take in the spring if I'm pre-med and did my first semester in London? Can I take some of my requirements in summer school? If I do not receive A’s and B’s in my science courses, can I still get into medical school? I am planning to transfer at the end of my sophomore year. Will this cause any problems? What factors will medical schools consider for admission? How can I get "experience which familiarizes me with medicine?" Are there MCAT and AMCAS-type services for other health professions? What is the difference between Osteopathic and Allopathic Medicine? If I don’t get into an American medical school, should I apply to a foreign medical school? How do medical schools define "minority" status? Where can I obtain additional information about medical schools? What is the Albany Medical College Minority Student Early Assurance Program? Can I complete the pre-med curriculum and also spend a semester studying abroad? What are the pros and cons of post-baccalaureate programs for the health professions? When should I apply to medical school and how do I go about it? Who are the Health Profession Advisors? Must
I become a science major in order to apply to medical or other health
professional schools? There is no official, required, or recommended pre-med major. This is clearly stated in the Medical School Admissions Requirements Guide published by the American Medical Colleges: "No medical school requires a specific major of its enrollees. Schools know that medical students can develop the essential skills of acquiring, synthesizing, applying and communicating information through a wide variety of academic disciplines. Nevertheless, many premedical students choose to major in science. Ideally, they do so because they are fascinated by science and perceive that such a major can be the foundation for a variety of career options. Choosing science based primarily on enhancing one's chances for admission to medical school is not in a student's long-term best interest. Medical school admission committees seek students whose intellectual curiosity leads them to a variety of disciplines and whose intellectual maturity assures that their efforts are persistent and disciplined." (American Association of Medical College's Medical School Admissions Requirements for 2003-2004, page 11). Skidmore's pre-med students choices of majors reflect the national averages. At Skidmore and nationally, about 80% of pre-meds are science majors. At Skidmore, the others represent majors in 14 different disciplines. A student's major makes very little difference in their chance of getting into medical school. Nationally the acceptance rate to medical school is higher for non-science majors than for science majors. GPA (3.5+) and MCAT are the main criteria, plus interviews, letters of recommendation, extra-co-curricular activities, and research experience. At Skidmore, over the past ten years, EVERY pre-med student with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and MCAT scores of 27 or higher, was admitted to medical school regardless of their major. The MCAT is largely content based, and includes only first and second year biology, chemistry and physics. Additional course work in the sciences is useful for the MCATs and medical school preparation, but not required. Most useful would probably be biochemistry and courses in cell and molecular biology, microbiology and genetics. The most common recommendations beyond the required courses listed by medical schools when they specify any at all, include biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, statistics, courses in the humanities and social sciences, any additional science courses, additional English, depending on the school. Many list none and many state that the area of concentration is not as important as demonstrating academic excellence in the area chosen. [top]
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What should I take in the spring if I'm pre-med and did my first semester in London? If you are pre-med/potential pre-med planning your spring semester of your first year after spending your first semester in our London program, please consult with a pre-med committee advisor before classes start in the spring to make sure you have a strategy for completing the pre-med requirement along with a major and the core curriculum. The pre-med requirements are a year of Biology (BI 105 and BI 106), two years of chemistry (CH 105-106 or CH 107-207 and CH 221-222), a year of Physics (PY 207-208), a year of Calculus (MA 111-113) and a year of English (EN 105 plus another English course or a writing intensive course). CH 105 isn't offered in the spring, neither is BI 105. Probably the best pre-med strategy is to take MA 111, EN 105 and any other core or major/major exploration courses you can, and then continue with BI 105 and CH 105 in the fall. Rather than feel like you're "behind," it's better to view this as an alternative strategy, trading off a semester in London against the first semester of pre-med courses, and then proceeding from there. Many pre-meds do the same thing in the junior year in order to go abroad, or in order to accommodate a double major or minor, or because they decide to be pre-med later in their college career, or even after they graduate from college. Be sure to meet with an HPAC advisor before spring classes start to map out a strategy and check on your spring schedule to make sure it's the best one for you. If you don't have a regular advisor on the pre-med committee make sure you meet with an HPAC advisor each registration period.
If you have taken AP courses in high school, they may count as generic credit toward the credits you need to graduate, but they can't replace Skidmore courses. Our experience is that high school AP courses, while excellent preparation, are not the equivalent of college courses in many important ways, even if you've covered many of the same topics. AP courses are also not recommended for fulfilling medical school requirements because some medical schools don't accept them. [top]
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Interviewers look for positive attributes such as self-motivation, compassion, social responsibility, intellectual honesty, optimism, maturity and verbal communication ability. Be well prepared for the interview where you are likely to be asked about your opinions, values and goals rather than questions with "right or wrong" answers. [top]
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The test consists of four sections: Verbal Reasoning, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample and Biological Sciences. There are also questions on DNA and genetics. All scores are automatically "released to AMCAS," so examinees should not take the MCAT until they are ready. See a health profession advisor for information about tests for other health professional schools. [top]
Most schools that subscribe to AMCAS will send secondary application forms if you appear to meet their admission criteria. A fully electronic, web-based version of the AMCAS application can be download from the AAMC web site. Information and forms regarding the MCAT application may also be found on the AAMC web site. [top]
[top] What is the difference between Osteopathic and Allopathic Medicine? Allopathic and osteopathic medicine represent two different, but overlapping philosophies for practicing medicine. The "traditional" medical schools in the U.S. are "Allopathic" which means that causes of disease are, for the most part, considered to be extrinsic (e.g. accident, pathogen, mutation etc.) and as a result, treatment relies heavily on pharmacology and surgery, as well as prevention. "Osteopathic" medicine assumes that causes of disease are, for the most part, intrinsic, and therefore there is much greater emphasis on prevention, diet, lifestyle, and non-pharmacological and non-surgical treatment. In practice, these two philosophies are becoming more similar in recent history. Allopathic physicians are more receptive to osteopathic approaches than they used to be, and osteopaths have always been fully licensed and trained to use pharmaceutical and surgical treatments. It's becoming more common for medical practices to include both types of physicians and for osteopaths and allopaths to work together. Admission to osteopathic schools is slightly less competitive, statistically, but their criteria for admission include a genuine commitment to osteopathic principles of medicine.
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How do medical schools define "minority" status? Medical schools are eager to recruit students who represent federally defined minority groups that are under-represented among practicing physicians. These groups include Native-American, African-American and Hispanic-American. The AMCAS form also has a check-off for Disadvantaged status. You might consider yourself, for example, to be economically disadvantaged. Applicants may identify themselves as minority or disadvanted on the AMCAS form, and then individual schools may request additional information that they take into consideration in the admissions process. [top]
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What are the pros and cons of post-baccalaureate programs for the health professions? It's becoming increasingly common for pre-med students to complete some, or all of their pre-requisite courses in post-baccalaureate programs. This means that the pre-med courses are completed after graduating from college, either on an ad-hoc basis by taking the courses on your own at any college or university, or in a formal program structured for this purpose. The former is typically more economical and flexible, but you are pretty much on your own (except for our advising, which is available to alumni); the later is geared toward completing the courses, and usually includes intense preparation for the MCATs and advising through the application process. Typically, the formal full-time programs have competitive admission and tend to be very expensive (many are comparable to Skidmore tuition levels) but these programs may have very high success rates. If you enter such a program, you may find it more useful to apply through that program's pre-med committee rather than Skidmore's, depending on how much of the pre-med preparation you've done at each institution. We can forward our file with letters of recommendation to a new program is you wish. There are usually two reasons for doing a post-baccalaureate program. One is that you decided to become pre-med late in your college career, or had other interests or objectives in college (e.g. double major, going abroad, non-science academic objectives) and simply didn't have time to complete all the pre-med courses in four years of college. This is not unusual (average age of first-year medical students is about 25). The second reason is that you want to go to medical school but after four years of college you have not yet earned grades or MCAT scores that are competitive for admission. You may, in this case, want to take further relevant courses to improve your GPA and your MCAT scores. Several things to consider here, in consultation with HPAC advisors, are whether or not you would be better off in another health profession or career; to develop a long-range strategy for defining and achieving your objectives before you start post-graduate courses; whether you might be better off in a degree program that will also prepare you for medical school but, in addition, provide you with another degree that may be more useful than additional courses with nothing else to show for it (e.g. a masters in one of the biomedical sciences; public health; bioethics; business and pre-med combinations); completing the remaining work on your own versus a formal post-baccalaureate program; spending one or more years preparing for, or re-applying to American medical schools versus considering one of the foreign medical schools. Union College in Schenectady, New York has a unique post-baccalaureate alternative for future physicians that can be completed in an accelerated 13-month curriculum. They offer an MS Clinical Leadership in Health Management degree. The curriculum focuses on helping future physicians acquire management skills that will differentiate them in the medical school application process and, ultimately, help them succeed in the "business" of medicine. They also receive a committee letter to supplement their applications to medical school, can enroll in an on-campus MCAT review course and may participate in a clinical practicum. When should I apply to medical school and how do I go about it? Most important, do not apply until you are certain that it is what you want and that you are ready to make the commitment to at least seven years of medical school and residency. More proximately, you should have the following things taken care of before you apply:
Once you are ready to apply, it is to your advantage to apply as early as possible. Eighty percent of applicants to medical school have submitted their AMCAS application by July 1st. The later you apply, the lower your chances of being admitted since many schools have rolling admissions and begin admitting students before the deadline for admissions is passed. Medical schools begin accepting AMCAS applications on or near June 1st. Ideally, you should complete the application process before the end of the summer, preferably by the end of July. Also, the earlier you apply, the sooner we can begin writing your letter of recommendation. We will not begin writing your letter until you have submitted your AMCAS (or other) application and also provided the HPAC office with a list of all the schools that require recommendations (that do NOT subscribe to AMCAS Letter Writer Service) and the exact mailing address for each of them. For the schools that do subscribe to the AMCAS Letter Writer Service, you should send us a copy of the Letter Writer Form which contains your AMCAS ID numbers. We will scan the Committee letter and all of the letters in your file into one PDF file and send it electronically to AMCAS. They will forward the PDF file to all of the schools on your list that subscribe to their service. After we send your file to AMCAS we can send additional recommendtion letters we receive on your behalf to be appended to your file. Once you request your letter of recommendation from HPAC, it takes several weeks for us to write, revise and send out the letters (our own committee letter, plus copies of the individual letters in your file). After you've submitted your AMCAS application and requested your HPAC letter, you can then look forward to completing secondary applications from the schools you've applied to, as well as invitations for interviews and offers of admission. Some schools may not want us to send letters of recommendation until you receive a secondary application. If that is the case, please let us know and we will hold those letters until we hear from you that you've received your secondary application requesting letters of recommendation. You may apply to medical school as early as the summer after your junior year of college, or as an alumnus at any time after graduation. [top]
See the complete listing on this site's home page. [top]
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