Pre-Med Student- study abroad junior year?

cellardweller
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:00:13 +0000

Your son really needs to talk to his premed and academic advisors;

Typically, premed requirements include:

Two semesters of Biology with lab
Two semesters of Inorganic Chemistry with lab
Two semesters of Organic Chemistry, with lab
Two semesters of Calculus
Two semesters of Physics
Two semesters of English/humanities courses


All of the premed classes are expected to be completed by the end of junior year if your son intends to apply to medical school during his senior year. If your son takes a semester off junior year, that leaves only five semesters to complete all premed requirements in addition to whatever other requirements need to be met in his major as well as the various distribution requirements. Most of the time, these requirements can’t be met in a study abroad program and no premed requirements can be taken pass/fail. It is also unlikely students can expect to do any serious physician shadowing/hospital volunteering while abroad. Foreign countries have completely different medical education systems which generally start right after high school.

While it may be technically possible to manage a very busy schedule and take a semester abroad, it could force your son to take more classes per semester than is advisable. Medical schools admission is is all about GPA and MCAT scores and having to take organic chem on top of an otherwise loaded program sophomore year can be a recipe for disaster.

In virtually all colleges and universities, the number of students who apply to medical school senior year has declined considerably over the past few decades and now represent less than 25% of the med school applicants from a particular college with the vast majority taking one or more years off between college and medical school. If you then survey those that actually did apply senior year, you may be hard pressed to find any that took a semester off on a study abroad program.

my D was in exactly the same situation and had to make the choice between taking a semester abroad and a hellish sophomore year if she wanted to be ready to apply to medical school. That was despite the fact she was a science major and could fit most of the premed requirements as part of regular course of study. In the end, she skipped the study abroad program.