My current cumulative weighted GPA as a sophomore is 4.28. Is this good for premedical school? What is my unweighted GPA given that I have A’s in all courses except for B’s in AP Biology, AP American History, Math Honors in Grade 9, and Math Honors in Grade 10, with a total of 10.25 credit hours? Also, should I take more AP courses in junior year, such as AP Chemistry and AP European History? I’m concerned it might affect my GPA. What courses would you recommend?
To get your unweighted gpa, using core courses, an A is a 4, B is a 3, C is a 2… add up the numbers and divide by the number of courses. Colleges will do this because high schools have different weighing systems. How many years of a foreign language will you have? Highest math?
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There is no such thing as premedical school. You can be premed at any 4 year college in the US except music conservatories. Med school is very expensive so it’s generally a good idea to try to do undergrad as inexpensively as possible so many suggest looking at your state flagship university.
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Here is how:
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As noted, you can take the required courses for medical school applicants at almost any four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.
For high school…you must take the courses that fulfill your HS graduation requirements…and the requirements for colleges of interest. At the very least, you need four years of social studies, math, science, English, and at least up through level three of one foreign language. An arts course is often required as well.
In terms of colleges, do you have an annual budget without loans? If you even think medical school is in your future, you want an undergrad school that won’t break the bank because medical school will easily be $100,000 a year and will be funded by loans loans and more loans…and/or the bank of mom and dad.
You also want colleges with a variety of majors because the vast majority of those entering with a premed intention never apply to medical school.
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You’e gotten great advice in this thread.
Pre-med is an intention and not an actual major in college. Many pre-med hopefuls major in biology or a related field like neuroscience or biochemistry because those majors have the greatest overlap with the required classes for medical school. But a pre-med can major in any field as long as they complete their med school pre-req classes.
You high school coursework should give a strong foundation for the science and math classes you’ll take in college
4 years of science–including one year each of biology, chemistry and physics
4 years of English
4 years of math --you’ll need at least math through pre-calculus during high school since you’ll need to take calculus for your college classes
3-4 years of social sciences (However many your state requires for graduation)
3 (or more) years of one foreign language
Art or music, if required by your state for graduation
Successful pre-meds come from all sorts of colleges–from lofty brand name universities to regional I-never-heard-of-it colleges; from tiny rural LACs to huge state flagship Us.
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I also think you have gotten great advice so far. I would just emphasize you are definitely on track to be admitted to a variety of colleges that would be great for premed, IF you do well enough in your college courses.
To that end, I might suggest you reorient to focus a little more on how to get prepared to do well in those college classes, less on the sort of college where you are doing that.
Like, I personally think not just pre-meds, but really any STEM intender, or really any kid intending to go to a selective college, should make sure they have done all of Physics, Chem, and Bio in HS, and then probably one of those at an advanced level. If you can do more than one at an advanced level without sacrificing overall academic balance, great. The reason is these are foundational sciences, and having the best foundation in these sciences that you can get in HS is going to help you be prepared for the college classes you are going to need to take.
And it probably won’t hurt for admissions either. But I think too often, at least here, everyone is focused on the admissions question, and not the preparation question.
In terms of non-STEM classes, I would also make a point of reasonably challenging yourself in core English and History classes. If that means APs in your HS, fine.
Again, I think a lot of STEM intenders, including premeds, are sometimes a bit shocked at the level of reading and writing ability they eventually have to demonstrate. But those of us who are working professionals know why–it is very rare for it NOT to be important that a professional in the US be good at absorbing written information, and also communicating complex information clearly in writing. Doctors certainly not least.
So again, the more you can do in HS to advance your reading and writing abilities, the better prepared you will be for college, on really any professional track, and ultimately a professional career.
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^ Good advice.
Pre meds are expected to take 2 semesters of writing skills classes in college and some med schools require or recommend a public speaking class in college as well.
(Why? Because you need to be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people from different backgrounds than yours both in speech and in writing. Also as doctor you need to be able to project a confident and trustworthy demeanor so that you will be able to convince your patients to disclose sensitive–and sometime embarrassing–heath information to you within a 15 minute long appointment. Lastly, believe it or not, doctors do A LOT of writing. Every patient you see, you’ll write a patient note which is a short, accurate description of your observations and discussions with the patient as well your diagnoses and your reasoning why you reached that diagnosis.)
Med schools are looking for well rounded individuals with interests outside of science. Several reasons why, but mostly because people who have a variety of interests and backgrounds are better able to communicate effectively with their patients.
Medicine is not a science job–it’s service-to-others job.
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