Just about all medical schools require applicants to complete at least one year in several basic courses with satisfactory grades in order to enroll. Biology, organic chemistry, English, physics and calculus are among the most common prerequisites.These requirements generally are fulfilled by completing a bachelor's degree program. For those who graduated without meeting these requirements, the courses can be taken at a community or four-year college. Grades in these courses that fall below a C often will not be considered.
Competition to get into most medical schools is stiff, and grades can be a determining factor in acceptance. While programs might not have hard and fast rules about grade point averages, you can look at the class statistics from a previous year to gauge a school's standards. Students with GPAs that are 3.5 and high generally fare better than those with lower ones, according to the StudentDoc website.
Scores on the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, need to meet the school's standards as well. As with GPAs, schools may not have a minimum score, but higher scores generally provide greater options. For instance, the MCAT scores in biology for Harvard averaged 12.36, with 12.48 for physical science. The website Eduers shows that the most competitive medical schools accept students with science average scores of 11 or higher, such as 11.8 for Johns Hopkins and 12.5 for Washington University in St. Louis.
Medical schools require applicants to have earned a bachelor's degree prior to enrollment. A scientific degree won't guarantee your place in medical school, just as a degree in a non-science field won't keep you out. Some schools even prefer applicants with a degree in a field outside of science. These applicants provide the kind of well-rounded, diverse student body that medical schools strive to have.
While not required by medical schools, several factors can boost your chance for admission. Students with laboratory experience or previous experience in the medical field have a leg up on the competition. If an application lists volunteer work and community activity, schools often view this as a huge positive. Harvard Medical School, for instance, notes on its admissions requirements page that knowledge of other languages and strong writing abilities are pluses on an application.