Are you dreaming of being a physician? You’re not alone. From 2017–2019, over 200,000 people took the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), the exam required for admission to nearly every medical school in the United States and many schools outside the U.S.
If you’re planning to pursue the pre-med track in college in the hopes of attending med school — and ultimately becoming a medical doctor — you should know that it’s an extremely rigorous path. Up to the challenge? Here’s how to navigate it.
“Pre-med” doesn’t describe a specific major but a set of courses that most medical schools require for admission. Often, your undergraduate college will assign you a pre-med advisor in addition to a major advisor to help you ensure you fulfill these requirements, even if you don’t necessarily need to take them to graduate.
Rather than immediately matriculating at a med school after receiving their bachelor’s degree, more than half of students take one or more gap years, pursuing opportunities like working in research or being a medical scribe. There are also post-baccalaureate programs for students who decide to enter the pre-med track later on as undergraduates.
If you’re thinking of being a pre-med, it’s important to consider how challenging the road is — even before med school. Up to half of students originally interested in medicine in a given freshman class don’t ultimately end up fulfilling the requirements and applying to med school, and only 30% of that original pool gain admission to med school. Even among those who apply, less than 50% receive admission in a given year.
Anyone who chooses to take on the pre-med track will face stiff competition from peers, in terms of opportunities for research and extracurricular activities and tough curves. It can be difficult to earn high grades in curved classes that are required for med school, especially at large schools, because so many other students are pre-med, too.
You’re also contending with a strict schedule that leaves little time for socializing and extracurricular activities that aren’t related to medicine. You’ll need to have discipline and be willing to make sacrifices.
Generally speaking, medical school applications are weighed accordingly:
Of course, this varies from school to school.
You don’t have to wait until college to start building a pre-med profile. In fact, demonstrating your passion for medicine and career aspirations now will make you a more appealing candidate for undergraduate admissions.
Participating in team competitions like Science Olympiad and Chemistry Olympiad can be useful. However, selective colleges will want to see you placing in regional competitions to be competitive for admissions. Meanwhile, individual competitions like Intel ISEF are highly impressive, but offer fewer awards and no opportunities for leadership.
Undertaking scientific scientific research is another prestigious activity for pre-med hopefuls. Consider conducting your own research or working under the guidance of a professional. There are also research programs like Summer Science Program, Research Science Institute, and Governor’s School.
While not quite as valuable for admissions as the above activities, science interest clubs at your high school will also demonstrate your passion for the subject. The best way to differentiate yourself from other candidates is to secure a leadership position.
Service work can also play a role in setting you apart from other applicants. You could, for example, gain patient experience by shadowing a doctor or working as a receptionist in a medical facility. Most students volunteer in a medicine-related capacity instead, so a more involved role could allow you to differentiate yourself. Keep in mind that there may be age or other restrictions.
If you do volunteer in a hospital, nursing home, or other medical facility, look for opportunities that allow you to demonstrate long-term commitment.
There are plenty of other opportunities for community engagement, too. Global health work is one popular option, and many students are pursuing social justice advocacy, which shares many of its core tenets with medicine.
Anyone planning on majoring in a STEM or related discipline should, of course, have strong grades in the STEM coursework. Colleges will also want to see plenty of advanced coursework in science and math, including honors or AP-level classes in biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus. You should also be competent in the humanities, although solid performance in honors or AP-level English, foreign language, and social science classes is a bonus.
You’ll also need a strong score in Math on the SAT or ACT. If you take the ACT, your Science score will need to be high as well. Scores are generally slightly higher for pre-meds on these exams than they are for people pursuing other disciplines.
SAT Subject Tests are generally optional for the high school class of 2021 due to the pandemic (as are the SAT/ACT). In future years, you’ll want to take Subject Tests in Biology, Chemistry, and/or Math II.
Grade Inflation & Deflation
A school that has grade deflation (for instance, a B at a grade-deflation school would be equivalent to another school’s A) can be detrimental to your medical school prospects since your transcript and GPA will appear weaker compared with those of other applicants.
How do you figure this out? One way is to speak with older students who have attended or are currently attending the school. You can even ask this question on college tours. You can also scan internet forums like Reddit and Student Doctor Network to learn more.
If you are a strong student at a prestigious school, though, you will do well even if the school does have grade deflation.
Advising Services
The quality of the pre-med advising you receive in college can certainly impact your candidacy for med school. Judging this will also require speaking with current students and alumni. It’s a good idea to speak with the admissions office about the resources available, such as one-on-one meetings and help with your personal statement, too.
If you can, try to ask the admissions office to connect you with pre-med advising. Ask questions about when they typically start meeting with pre-med students and if they have materials to review about the med school process and timeline.
Affiliated Hospitals and Research Institutions
If there are affiliated hospitals on or near campus, you’ll have a much easier time integrating clinical activities like shadowing doctors and volunteering into your schedule because your commute time will be short. You’ll also have greater access to research facilities, promoting more productive work.
Moreover, the name recognition of schools and medical facilities that are part of one institution makes it possible to take advantage of available positions — there’s a sense of familiarity and trust.
You can still take advantage of unaffiliated hospitals and research facilities near the campus, but it will be more difficult to secure coveted volunteer or work positions.
It’s no secret that college is expensive — and whether you like it or not, it may play a role in the school you ultimately attend. Private institutions can cost as much as $260,000 over four years and public institutions cost around $140,000 for undergraduate education. Many students take out loans of up to $50,000/year (private) or $20,000/year (private). There’s another roughly $5,000 for book costs and $10,000 for room and board.
Meanwhile, medical school tuition costs $200,000 on average, and students take out roughly $50,000 in loans per year over four years.
In total, between your undergraduate education and medical school, you could be looking at a $450,000 price tag. If cost could be an issue, consider your state medical school, when financial aid becomes especially important.
College Reputation
Students may notice the feeder school effect — the fact that colleges with attached medical schools tend to accept more applicants who were undergraduates at the university than from any other school. This is not a guarantee, though; in a medical school class of 200, perhaps 20 or so will come from the associated undergraduate school. And if there are 250 undergraduate pre-meds at a given school, the cast majority can’t follow the path to med school. (Bear in mind that even if there is no established affiliation — like UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco — many students may be admitted to medical school from a given undergraduate college.)
Prestige matters, too. Top-tier schools often have better advising and a stronger track record of top med school admissions. Because many of these schools may have grade deflation, it’s more difficult to have a competitive GPA, and medical schools will take note if you have a high GPA from one of these schools, especially compared with equally high GPAs from a lower-ranked school. If you have excelled at a lower-ranked school, then leaving additional time for extracurriculars will strengthen your application.
Ultimately, a high GPA and MCAT score will play the biggest role in your likelihood of admission to medical school.
There are several benefits to attending a large state university for your undergraduate education. For example, there’s generally strong research funding, along with connections to in-state medical schools. Because medical schools have received so many applications from these schools, they are well known.
On the downside, there’s less personal pre-med advising and more competition for opportunities. At the most prestigious, large universities like UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, you may also encounter grade deflation.
Small liberal arts colleges often have strong pre-med advising and solid majors and courses even outside of the sciences. There are usually fewer pre-meds competing for opportunities, too. However, there are also fewer opportunities overall, along with less research funding and a lack of affiliated hospitals to provide clinical experience. To learn more, see our post: Should I Attend a Liberal Arts College as a Pre-med?
Private universities share several of the qualities of both public universities and liberal arts schools: strong pre-med advising and great research funding. Additionally, you’ll receive a potential prestige boost during med school admissions — these schools tend to be well-known to med schools.
That said, you could also be contending with possible grade deflation and tough curves, as well as a higher price tag and more competition for pre-med opportunities.
Ultimately, your goal is to maximize your GPA. Ideally, you will start out with strong grades and maintain them. Still, it will also be to your benefit to show an upward trend over time. A downward trend, on the other hand, will reflect poorly on you.
For admissions, your science GPA will be considered separately from your cumulative GPA. Most med school matriculants were science majors as undergraduates because this makes it easier to cover pre-med requirements. The most common majors are:
*Mean MCAT is highest for students in mathematics and statistics fields at 510.5.
However, you could help differentiate yourself if you’re able to perform well in both a humanities major and your pre-med courses. In fact, we recommend double-majoring in the humanities and STEM to stand out, if possible. For more about choosing a pre-med major, see our post: Best Pre-Med Majors .