<p>I was looking at our state med school. They only have couple of required courses. The rest are recommended </p>
<p>Biology (any 2 courses with lab) 2 semesters/8 credits
Chemistry (any 2 courses with lab) 2 semesters/8 credits
English/Composition 1 semester/3 credits</p>
<p>They don’t accept AP credits for any of these courses but the student can take an upper level course instead.
My son used his AP credits for one of the intro Bio course and English requirements. He took biochemistry as an upper level course and taking biochem 2 next year. But neither of them have lab component. He’s planning to take genetics in senior year. which is a bio course and doesn’t have lab either. He wasn’t planning to take English at all. </p>
<p>My question is does he need to have all the required courses done when he starts applying next year or as long as he gets the courses in before graduating he’s good? Will the med school take him regardless of these courses and just expect him to have them done eventually?</p>
<p>When your son goes to fill out his AMCAS application, he will list his anticipated coursework for senior year. </p>
<p>The school will look at his already completed coursework and his anticipated coursework and decide if he’s met or will meet their admission requirements. If he doesn’t, they may not consider him for an interview. If he does get an interview, he will asked (repeatedly and in excruciating detail) what his plan is for fulfilling the missing pre-reqs. If he doesn’t have a satisfactory answer, they will almost certainly drop his name from admission consideration.</p>
<p>Med schools hate admitting people they know won’t qualify for matriculation.</p>
<p>Remember that ALL medical school admission offers are conditional. (On fulfilling pre-reqs, passing the criminal background check, proving one meets the technical & health standards,)</p>
<p>After he graduates, he is required to send a final transcript showing all his completed coursework usually by early-mid June. The med school registrar will then compare his transcript against the admission requirements. If he hasn’t fulfilled them, his admission offer will be revoked. </p>
<p>At the very least, he should start emailing admission deans at med schools he’s interested in applying to to see how they will treat his AP credits and if they will allow him to use his AP bio in lieu of a second semester of bio lab.</p>
<p>You son should be aware that many schools require a minimum of 2 semesters of English or “writing intensive” classes. </p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom he took a lot of history classes that were writing intensive. In fact he’s considering minoring in history. Would that qualify instead of actual English classes?</p>
<p>It will depend on the 2 things:</p>
<p>1) if his undergrad officially lists his history classes as “writing intensive”. Designation of “writing intensive” varies by school. Most colleges will have an official list at their writing center of courses which will fulfill the writing requirements for college graduation. Any course he wants to use to fulfill the “writing intensive” requirement for med school needs to be on that list. </p>
<p>(As an example, D2’s undergrad required 2 semesters of writing credits for graduation, but it did not permit students to use upper level social science or humanities classes to meet school writing requirements for graduation. D2 had upper level courses in anthro and philosophy but they weren’t acceptable to her undergrad as fulfilling the writing requirement for graduation. She took a writing class offered by the mathematics dept–with a MTH course number and everything but which was marked on her transcript as fulfilling the school writing requirement. D1’s second writing class was titled “Technical writing for professional scientists” and was offered by the physics dept. It too was marked as fulfilling the school’s graduation requirement for writing on her transcript.)</p>
<p>2) the specific policies of the individual med school. Some medical schools specify only English classes will be considered ; most simply say “writing intensive”. He needs to consult the MSAR for specifics.</p>
<p>Your son needs to ask the pre-health professions advisor at his college about the specific requirements w/r/t writing courses at his undergrad.</p>
<p>tl;dr</p>
<p>It’s how the undergrad classifies his history classes that’s important. If his undergrad marks on his transcript that one or more of those classes fulfill the school’s own graduation requirements for writing, that’s all that matters. </p>
<p>AMCAS does not make any judgements about whether or not HIST 101 or HIST 300 are writing intensive. Neither do adcomms. It all depends on how the coursework appears on his transcript.</p>
<p>(Too many applicants. Too many different school policies and requirements for med school adcomms to look up specific class curricula to see if a class is writing intensive.)</p>
<p>look at the course description.</p>
<p>My son used his AP English credits, but his school req’d 6 credits of upper-division Writing Intensive coursework in his major or in the Honors College. The courses state that they are WI designated. That was acceptable to all the med schools he applied to. </p>