Q: What are the medical school pre-requisites?

​Each school has slightly different pre-requisites. If you have a school that you really want to get into in mind, we suggest that you look on their website for more specific information. Most medical schools require:
• 1 year of English
o Ex. Comparative Literature R1A and Slavic R5B
• 1 year of General Chemistry with Lab
o Ex. Chemistry 1A and Chemistry 3A/3AL
• 1 year of Organic Chemistry with Lab
o Ex. Chemistry 3B/3BL and MCB 102
• 1 year of Physics with Lab
o Ex. Physics 8A and Physics 8B
• 1 year of Biology with Lab
o Ex. Biology 1A/1AL and Biology 1B/1BL
• 1 year of College Math
o Ex. Math 1A or 16A and Math 1B or 16B
The strongly recommended courses include:
• 1 semester of Biochemistry
o Ex. MCB 102 or MCB 100A/100B
• 1 semester of Statistics
o Ex. Statistics 2 or Statistics 131A
Below are typical schedules of MCB student
              ​​ General MCB Premed Schedule:                            General Schedule; Spring Chem1A:

 

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​http://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/advising/advising-office/typical-plans/​

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Q: How does the medical school admission process work?​

​A: There are three phases to medical school applications: Primary applications, secondary applications, and interviews. Before you apply, make sure that you have completed all of your pre-requisite courses, your MCAT, finished your personal statement, and have your letter of recommendations.

• Primary applications open on June 1 of every year and they are available on the AAMC website (https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/). They are like the UC applications where you send one application to as many schools as you want. The first waves of applications are not sent to schools until around June 30, so you want your applications to be sent around June 20 so that all the schools will see your applications. Medical schools are on a rolling admissions basis (meaning that they accept students as

applications come in), so you want to send in your application as soon as possible.

• Secondary applications are packets of essays that each school sends you if they want more information from you. Some schools will send secondary applications to every applicant, while others will “screen” primary applications based on their MCAT and GPA before sending secondary applications to applicants. Each school has slightly different secondary applications. Be prepared to be spending a lot of time writing these applications if you are applying for a lot of schools.

• You will be invited to an interview with medical schools if they find that they may want you in their school. You should dress in professional attire and be prepared to fly out to their school for a day long interview (sometimes more depending on if you’re applying to MD/PhD or not) with faculty and current medical students on the admissions board. This is where schools decide if you will be a good fit for the school or not. It is also a good time for you to ask any questions you may have that you cannot find on their website or other online sources.​


Q: When should I apply for medical school?

 

​A: The short answer is whenever you feel ready. The longer answer is below. The “traditional route” to medical school is applying the summer of junior year, and going straight from undergraduate into medical school. However, a lot more people are going the “non-traditional route” to medical school, where they take a year or two off before they go to medical school.

Here’s some general advice on applying to medical school:
• When going traditional route to medical school, you will have to be studying for MCAT while trying to maintain a high GPA. This can sometimes be very difficult and you will be studying all the time. If you are a non-traditional student, you have the option to be able to take time off just to study for MCAT.

• As a traditional route student, you will be missing classes during your senior year of college. You do not have to worry about this if you are applying after you are out of school (although you may have to miss work if you are working).

• When going into medical school straight out of college, you will be able to maintain the “student mentality” (maintain current study habits, spending money, etc). However, going into medical school as a non-traditional student, you may have the “working person mentality” and have trouble adjusting to student life again.

• You can use the time you take off in order to bolster your application for medical school. You can increase involvement in the activities that you are currently doing. You can also spend this year to absolutely make sure that going into medicine is exactly what you want to do.

These are only some of the many points that come into someone’s decision of when to apply for medical school. If you do decide to take a time off, be sure to make good use of the time. Also be prepared to discuss what you did during your time off during interviews. Remember, everyone is different and there is no single way to medical school. If you want more advice on when you should apply to medical school, feel free to send an email to the SPAN advisors.

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Q: My grades aren’t up to par, what should I do?​

 

A: Do not think that grades are everything. They matter a lot but don't ever think that because of a few bad grades you can't go to medical school. There are always options. It just depends on how determined you are.

Here's some general advice on grades. If you want more individualized advice, feel free to contact our advisors.
• Many admission boards do consider "trends" in your grades (but how much they consider it differs from school to school). Thus if you were off to a bad start and really bring up your grades in your last years here, admission boards are more likely to cut you some slack (as opposed to doing well then bombing your last semesters). So put in that work and study hard in your coming semesters.

• Think about why your grades are lacking. If you are just too busy (too many units, working full time and school full time, etc) then think about how to better manage your time so that you can achieve higher grades the next time around. You won’t get extra “points” for being able to work while taking on a full school load at the same time.

• Medical schools look at GPA under two categories, overall GPA and BCPM (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math). In general, you do not want to have a huge difference in your overall and BCPM GPAs.

• If there was a serious or legit reason why you had a bad semester or two, you can explain this in your personal statement where you may be able to turn negatives into positives

• Always do your research on the classes you choose to take. GPA booster classes can do just that. Also if possible, find the "easiest" classes/teachers to take for your harder classes.  Some students use https://www.courserank.com/berkeley/main to help them with this.

• Both GPA and MCAT scores are considered very important and many see MCATs as a way to compensate for a lacking GPA (and vice-versa). Because difficulty varies from school to school, the MCAT is a perfect way for schools to standardize grades. So if your grades aren't stellar, put in the time and effort to get that great MCAT score.

• And Even if your GPA here at Cal isn't that great when you graduate, you still have options later with post baccalaureate programs (http://www.services.aamc.org/postbac/).