What Is Pre-Med and How Can My Student Prepare for Med School?

While many students preparing for medical school choose to study biology and chemistry, it's by no means a requirement. We've seen many successful medical school candidates major in everything from humanities fields (Classics, Music, Philosophy, Art History, Philosophy) to STEM fields (Computer Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Kinesiology) to social sciences (Public Health, Psychology). 



Regardless of their major, your student will need to have the following experiences during their undergraduate years in order to be a successful applicant for med school (and a successful doctor!):


  • Clinical exposure to patients
  • Research: either bench (traditional lab work, often at the molecular level) or clinical (human-based studies that help find new and better ways to treat patients)
  • Service to others
  • Shadowing 
  • Leadership 
  • Exposure to all kinds of diversity


It's hard to believe that it’s already time for students to begin making activity plans for this coming spring and summer. On January 24 at 4:30 PM CT, we will be hosting a webinar on Planning for Student Engagement This Spring & Summer.

This webinar will focus on how parents can help support high school students as they deepen their engagement during the spring and summer, what involvement and initiative look like, and a review of the variety of options a student might consider.


When your student is evaluating schools during the college search, they should keep those experiences in mind. That will help them ask better questions about each school and be sure that the colleges they're looking at offer the type of opportunities required for pre-med. Here are a few things your student should be asking:


  1. How does this college give hands-on experience? In a clinical setting or in a lab? 
  2. What kinds of service or leadership opportunities have successful pre-med students participated in recently? 
  3. Is there a pre-med scholar program? 
  4. Is there a science-based study abroad program? 
  5. Does the school have a pre-med committee? (Note: this is different from pre-med advising. And no pre-med committee doesn't mean the school isn't preparing your student, it just means your student might have to do some extra leg work.)
  6. How is grading done in the courses medical schools care most about? (For example, courses graded on a curve could negatively impact a student's GPA.) If a course is graded on a curve, are there options to take the course “off-cycle” or at a community college? 



Of course, the most important factor in being a successful undergraduate is that your student is happy and healthy while they're there. They may find a great college for pre-med, but it's not worth it if it doesn't fit them in all the other ways that are important to them. Pre-med is just a small slice of your student's college experience, and there's absolutely a school out there that will fit them and offer what they need to become a successful medical school applicant.


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