Starting your pre-med journey can be intimidating especially if you are trying to balance school or another job on top of that but not impossible.
We want to offer a guide on how to kickstart your journey to medical school. Whether you are a traditional or a nontraditional student this will apply to all!
Traditional Student
- Beginning of Undergrad (Years 1-2)
When first entering undergrad if you know that you want to go into medicine you can take advantage of this and start building your foundation faster.
As a pre-med student, you do not have to major in traditional science majors such as biology or chemistry. You can do whatever major brings you joy as long as you take the required courses to get into medical school.
The required classes include:
- Beginning of Undergrad
- One year of Biology with lab
- One year of General Chemistry with lab
- One year of Organic Chemistry with lab
- One year of Biochemistry
- One year of Physics with lab
- One year of English
- One year of Math/Stats
- One year of Psychology or sociology
Some schools accept advanced placement (AP) courses and some do not so it is important to research those individually. A general rule of thumb is that if your undergraduate university accepts it they will accept it but once again please do your research for specific schools.The classes above are required but other courses will also help you build a stronger foundation as a premedical student. Those courses include:
- Human Physiology (helped so much- take before the MCAT)
- Anatomy and Physiology
- Cell Biology
- Genetics
- Microbiology
After understanding which classes to take, begin mapping out the years that you want to take them so that you have finished them all or are currently in them before taking the MCAT. As you are taking the classes do your personal best!
Also if you want to go above and beyond you can begin looking at the topics on the MCAT early and begin lining them up with your coursework so you have something to reference while you are studying. This step is not necessary, it is something I found out about later and thought it was a good idea to share.
Lastly, in the early years of college begin looking into different extracurricular activities you may want to be involved in. Make sure these activities align with who you truly are so you can talk about them meaningfully when writing your application. You never want to be involved in an activity to check a box.
- Middle of Undergrad (Years 2-3)
As you are settling into college you want to start thinking about when you want to matriculate into medical school. For example, if you are a junior in 2024 who wants to go to medical school straight out of college you will have to take your MCAT and apply in 2024 to go to school in 2025. This is the case because of the application cycle. The application cycle is a cycle throughout the year when you can apply to medical school. This cycle makes you think backward from the time you want to be in school to where you are now.
This backward thinking will allow you to make an adequate plan on how you want to attack everything. During this time you can start researching different resources you want to use but also learn about the premed process in general.
Some resources to get introduced to the premed space are Medschool Insiders and Med school Headquarters on YouTube as well as the Premed Playbook guides on Amazon, and many different websites out there like ours (Quick Guide To Applying To Medical School – Culture Healthline).
These resources may also help you to begin building your list of resources to use for the actual test and application. (MCAT Resource Guide – Culture Healthline)
While gearing up for the test continue to pour into your extracurricular activities and do well in your classes. This can all be overwhelming but staying organized and grounded and asking for help will get you through.
This leads to the next point which is the importance of finding a couple of good mentors to help guide you through this process. This can be a doctor, community leader, professor, etc… These people will be your pre-med village, the people you lean on when you need help.
Having this can make the process go a lot smoother and take some of the pressure off you.
- Late Undergrad (Years 3-4)
While you are on the tail-end of your time in undergrad this is when you will have to ramp things up a little bit. During this time you should be finishing up your required pre-rec classes needed for the test but also to apply to school. You also should be registering to take your MCAT soon if you have not already. A good rule of thumb is to have taken the test and have your application in by August/ early September of your junior year.
If you are at the stage where you have already registered for the MCAT, your study plan and resources should be secured and you should be in full study mode whether you are self-studying or in structured classes.
Extracurriculars and guidance from mentors should also still be happening at this time as they can help ground you and remind you why you are on this journey.
Lastly, you should begin working on your application roughly two to three months before you start studying for the MCAT. This may seem crazy to start working on it so soon but by doing this, it will allow you to have more time to study in the thick of the MCAT and also be prepared to take on secondary essays.
Nontraditional Students
If you are a non-traditional student the steps above still apply to you as well it will just be on a different timeline.
As a non-traditional student, you will need to think about when you want to matriculate into school, and from that you will need to subtract roughly a year to a year and a half to prepare. I believe this should give you adequate time to gather all your resources and put a plan together.
If you have not taken all the required classes to apply to school or for the MCAT you may have to look into a post-bac program which can boost your GPA if needed and also give you a good foundation of the knowledge needed. Other options include a master’s program and pulling together your own makeshift post-bac. There is no set-and-stone option it all depends on what works for you.
As stated earlier there is an application cycle that you have to follow to get into school. This means you have to take the MCAT and apply at certain times throughout the year to give you the best chance.
As for traditional students, the latest you want to get your application in is August/ early September, but the application opens in May so the earlier the better as admissions are on a rolling basis.
From that timeline, you want to work back 3-6 months and start taking that time to study for the MCAT and start working on your application. As stated above make sure you get into extracurriculars that are meaningful to you and identify a couple of people who can help you along the way.
Conclusion
I hope this guide will help give you a general foundation of what you need to get started on your premed journey. In future articles, we will go more in-depth on topics that need more explaining to help further your knowledge and help you be as prepared as possible.
For now, some of the other articles linked in this blog such as our quick guide and our resource guide in combination with this can give you a good start on your pre-med journey. Stay focused, work hard, and good luck!