As a premed student, you know that you have to work harder than all of your college peers—except, perhaps, engineering students.
In addition to acing notoriously difficult medical school prerequisites—often dubbed “weeder classes”—you have to pursue multi-year extracurricular activities like research, physician shadowing, clinical volunteering, and community service.
Beyond that, you have to develop close relationships with professors and mentors to eventually obtain strong letters of recommendation for medical school. Additionally, you have to do well on multiple exams like the dreaded MCAT and the newer Casper, as well as write amazing application essays.
While it’s tough to meet all of these medical school requirements, what’s worse is that schools’ expectations differ. What satisfies one med school might not satisfy another. Moreover, some expectations, like research, are not explicitly stated. Even MSAR—the best up-to-date, organized source for individual med schools’ requirements—can only list what a school officially provides.
It can all be very confusing and overwhelming. Perhaps if you knew the undergraduate requirements for medical school, you would appropriately plan ahead.
This resource, along with our guide on how to get into medical school, was created to demystify everything you need to complete for medical school. If you follow the listed guidelines, you’ll meet every med school’s requirements and be eligible to apply to the widest range of programs.
What degree do you need to get into medical school?
Every U.S. medical school requires the completion of a four-year degree from an accredited college or university. It doesn’t matter whether your degree is a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.).
“Four-year” doesn’t mean that you have to be enrolled in school for four years. For instance, you can complete your degree sooner by taking more classes per term to graduate in three or three-and-a-half years. The degree requirement can also be satisfied through a BS/MD program.
In addition, your four-year degree must be obtained prior to matriculating into medical school. In other words, you can apply to medical school before you complete your degree. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to go straight through from undergrad.
Some students choose to pursue graduate degrees before matriculating into med school, such as a Master of Public Health (MPH) or Special Master’s program (SMP), but advanced degrees are not required.
Medical school prerequisites are what vary most from school to school, which is why they’re so confusing. For instance, a certain set of courses might meet Harvard Medical School's requirements but not another program’s.
The AAMC website lists the general courses you will need to complete for medical schools, as follows:
This list clarifies little, because it’s vague and incomplete. Most medical schools will require more than this, including more specific courses.
Given how hard it is to get into medical school, you’re strongly encouraged to aim beyond the aforementioned minimum requirements. In fact, we recommend that you take courses that will satisfy requirements for every med school, so that you’ll have the option to apply anywhere. Completing the following list of courses will help you do just that:
(Note: Certain science majors have additional course requirements.)
If you complete the courses above, you will meet every medical school’s requirements. The one other recommendation is that you take courses in arts, humanities, languages, literature, and social sciences, though there are no specific guidelines to follow. It’s not necessary that you take courses in all of these areas, but definitely aim to take courses in some.
As with your degree, you have to complete your prerequisites for medical school prior to matriculating to medical school. In other words, you can apply to medical school even if you have a few outstanding prerequisite courses to complete. So long as you get them all done before matriculation, you’ll be just fine.
Be aware that AP credits, even if accepted by your undergraduate institution, might not be permitted to satisfy certain medical schools’ requirements. Therefore, you should research the websites of schools you’re most interested in so that you’re not caught off guard by missing course work during your application cycle.
As far as medical school requirements go, your exact schedule is inconsequential. However, for the best chance at successfully matriculating and getting your white coat, you’ll want to stick to a carefully planned schedule.
There are two main reasons to pay close attention to your schedule. First and foremost, the premed path is extremely challenging, especially when compared to high school. You’ll need to balance your schedule between difficult subjects and easier humanities or arts courses so that you can focus more on the material you will likely struggle with. Some schools even go as far as preventing students from taking too many tough courses at once.
The second reason you should create a specific schedule during your undergraduate years is because the best time to take the MCAT is between your sophomore and junior year. This test is no joke and should be taken only after completing certain courses, followed by months of dedicated MCAT study. Unless you are planning to take a gap year, arranging your course schedule around the MCAT is a good idea.
Your premed major does not matter when it comes to medical school admissions.
As long as you complete all the prerequisites for medical school, you can major in anthropology, biology, chemistry, English, history, or physics. Most colleges and universities do not offer a separate premed major; therefore, it is not expected nor required.
Moreover, there is no such thing as a best premed major. All else being equal, an English major with a 3.8 overall GPA and 3.7 science GPA will be just as competitive of an applicant as a biochemistry major with the same stats.
Therefore, you should prioritize majoring in an area of interest, one that you feel you could do very well in. Going back to the previous example, it would be preferable to have a 3.8 overall GPA and 3.7 science GPA as an English major rather than have a 3.6 overall GPA and 3.6 science GPA as a physics major.
This might not seem fair, since certain majors are generally tougher than others. You might believe that, had you chosen an easier major, your GPA would be higher. (Some students also lament having a slightly lower GPA as a result of attending a notoriously difficult institution.) That’s where the MCAT, a standardized test, comes in. More on the MCAT in a moment.
We often get asked whether a double major or a minor boosts your odds of getting into med school. While some admissions committee members will likely admire your diverse interests and pursuits, we have not observed the presence or absence of a double major or a minor as a significant factor in medical school admissions. Therefore, you should pursue a double major or minor if you would like, but it would not likely make or break your application.
Most medical schools will not post a minimum GPA requirement.
In addition, most medical schools will automatically send you their secondary application once your primary application is verified, regardless of your GPA and MCAT score.
Despite the routine mentioning of “holistic admissions” and no minimum GPA requirements, medical schools have high, yet variable grade expectations. The average overall GPA among successful applicants during the most recent cycle was 3.77 across MD programs.
It’s much tougher to get into medical school with a low GPA, so make sure to protect your grades at all times. Some students end up taking too many courses or participating in too many extracurriculars at the start of undergrad, and their grades suffer as a result. A few terms with lower grades early on will make the rest of college an uphill academic battle.
Students routinely ask whether their GPA is “too low” or “good enough” to get into medical school, and whether medical schools employ a cutoff when evaluating applications. Some do and some don’t, but what’s most important is that you do as well as possible and apply to a balance school list based on your stats.
When using MSAR, make sure that your GPA is at least at a given school’s 10th percentile mark. Below that, and your chances of getting into that school will be extremely slim. Of course, the higher your grades, the better.
Unless you’re enrolled in certain BS/MD programs or other early assurance programs, you will have to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Unfortunately, some BS/MD and early assurance programs require you to achieve a certain minimum MCAT score to remain eligible.
At the vast majority of medical schools, you will be required to submit an MCAT score from within the last three years. If you last took the MCAT over three years ago, you will probably have to retake the exam.
The earliest students typically take the MCAT is during the summer after their sophomore year. January of junior year is also a good idea for students who want to apply to med school straight through (i.e., without taking a gap year or two.) The latest we recommend taking the MCAT is in April of your application year, and even that’s pushing it. Regardless, in most instances you should give yourself 3–4 months of study time and develop a great MCAT study schedule to maximize your score.
Of course, you should aim to do as well as possible on the MCAT. If you’re looking to get into an MD program, your score target should be, at minimum, a 508. This is an incredibly conservative target, as many medical schools post a higher average MCAT score among matriculants. Moreover, the average MCAT score among matriculants during the 2023-2024 application cycle (i.e., students who started med school in fall 2023) was 511.7.
If you’re interested in applying to DO schools, your MCAT score does not need to be as high. But whether you’re applying to MD or DO programs (or both), the score you’ll want to aim for also depends on your GPA. The higher your GPA, the more you can withstand a slightly lower MCAT score.
Students often ask how close to a school’s median stats they need to be competitive for that school, incorrectly viewing average stats as a threshold for getting in. However, keep in mind that median means “middle score.” Therefore, a school with a median MCAT score of, say, 514 admitted half of its students with an MCAT score below a 514 and half of its students with an MCAT score above a 514.
