Required Reading
So you want to go to medical school. It’s not an easy path, not by a long shot, but if you’ve got the determination and the work ethic to get there, then it can be one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have. Not to mention, it’ll help you for the rest of your life by paving the path for you to fill your days with richly rewarding work. But the first step is to actually get in to medical school, and to do that, you have to fulfill the medical school requirements for the schools you are applying to.
Medical school admission requirements are not absolutely universal; most of the time, the similarities in requirements are a result of medical school being at least a somewhat uniform experience. But you can prepare yourself through your undergraduate career for fulfilling this basic block of medical school requirements which most schools share. These requirements generally include one year’s worth of biology, physics in a lab setting, inorganic and organic chemistry in labs, calculus, and English. Beyond that, most medical school admission requirements will include a minimum GPA and MCAT score necessary to get in, although the actual numbers may vary; generally speaking, a GPA above 3.5 is likely to satisfy most medical school admission requirements.
It is very rare for someone without a Bachelor’s Degree to get into medical school, so that, too, might be considered one of the generalized medical school requirements, though there are exceptions. There are actually likely to be exceptions to every given requirement; for instance, if the rest of your application is absolutely stellar, then it’s possible that the admissions committee might ignore the fact that your 3.4 GPA doesn’t quite satisfy their 3.5 GPA medical school requirement. Nevertheless, it is much better to attempt to satisfy as many of their possible requirements as possible.
There are many other ways of boosting your chances of admission to medical school, though none of them are necessarily medical school admission requirements. If you do research during the summer, for instance, during undergraduate school, then you can grow a strong portfolio of work that will show off your intelligence and passion for science. This is likely to impress many admissions committees; if nothing else, it certainly cannot hurt your chances. Volunteer service can fulfill a similar function, though it can backfire a bit if it is done clearly as little more than a resume pad.
As an example, Harvard University’s medical school requirements include that the applicant have the above mentioned coursework, with expository writing in place of English. But applicants are also recommended to have “at least 16 hours in literature, languages, the arts, humanities, and the social sciences and become familiar with computers.” Harvard’s minimum GPA and MCAT scores are likely to be rather high, as well, though there are likely to be more allowances made with regard to those scores, than with regard to missing some of these courses.
Regardless of where you want to go, or even if you don’t know where you want to go, the best strategy for getting into medical school is to do the best possible work you can, all throughout your schooling career. Do what you enjoy most, and as long as that gives you the basis you need in the sciences, then you will most likely satisfy the basic medical school admission requirements for any school to which you apply.