Question 9: What are the pre-requisites for medical school

The pre-reqs for medical school vary from school to school. According to the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR), the following numbers of school in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico require the following courses:

Physics -120
Inorganic/General Chemistry- 119
Organic Chemistry- 121
English- 84
Biology- 85
Biology/Zoology-40
Calculus - 17
College Mathematics - 35
Behavioral Sciences - 9
Humanities - 14
Biochemistry- 13

out of 129 schools polled.

This however, does not give you the exact number of semesters required for each course. The most common recommended list is:

One year (2 semesters) of General/Inorganic Chemistry and labs
One year of General Physics and labs
One year of General Biology and labs
One year of Organic Chemistry and labs
None of these labs may be taken online, and all of these courses are needed to be optimally prepared for the MCAT.

In addition:

2 English courses, with writing portions
1 Calculus class and 1 statistics class.

I also recommend a semester of biochemistry and genetics. Neither of these courses are commonly required, but both of them are extremely useful as reviews for both the MCAT and medical school. I would also definitely suggest that you buy an MSAR the year that you apply and check the requirements for each school that you applied to. You do not have to have all of these requirements done before you apply, only by the first day of classes at medical school. I would strongly recommend that you not try to get around these requirements, and finish anything that you need in you Spring semester.

Here is a link that claims to have compiled all the math requirements for schools that have them:

http://www.brynmawr.edu/healthpro/documents/MedSchoolMath_Requirements_2009.pdf