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Required Courses | The Liberal Arts Path | The Direct Entry Path | Selecting a Major | Selecting Courses | Grades and GPA | Special Projects and Research Experiences in the Major

Academic Concerns

Many students who plan to enter the Health Professions also want to experience the broad array of liberal arts opportunities in the humanities and social sciences available at Colby. A large percentage of students hope to study abroad, and others play a varsity sport that puts large demands on their time. Traditional pre-med courses of study can make these goals difficult or conflicting, while in fact health professions schools place a high value on applicants with a broad education and a variety of experiences both inside and outside medicine.

To enter medical, dental, or veterinary school directly after graduation from Colby, all premedical requirements must be completed by the end of the junior year. This timetable will require that you take the appropriate entrance exams (MCAT/DAT/GRE) in the spring of junior year (or in the summer following junior year), and submit applications in the summer following the junior year. However, more than two thirds of successful Colby applicants spread their preparation over a longer period of time and do not apply until after graduation, spending the "glide" time doing research or working in a clinical or community service position. For this reason, we will talk about course selection from two perspectives: the Liberal Arts path and the Direct Entry path.
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Required Courses

The following science courses comprise the minimum required for admission to most US and Canadian medical and dental schools. Specific requirements for individual schools can be found in the guides published for allopathic, osteopathic, dental and veterinary schools.

BIOLOGY: General or Introductory (163, 164), one year with lab.
CHEMISTRY: General or Inorganic (141, 142), one year with lab.
CHEMISTRY: Organic (241, 242), one year with lab.
PHYSICS: (141 or 143, followed by145), one year with lab.
MATHEMATICS: One or two courses, usually calculus (121 or 161) and one other.
ENGLISH: One or two courses, usually English 115 and one other. While many medical schools will accept other writing intensive courses not in the English Department, it is usually safer to take actual English courses rather than risk having other courses not accepted at application time.
OTHERS RECOMMENDED BY MANY SCHOOLS AND REQUIRED BY SOME: biochemistry and genetics as well as courses in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Note that many of these will be taken in the context of the Colby distribution requirements.
EXTRACURRICULAR: January and/or summer internships providing clinical exposure to healthcare settings and practitioners; research; community service; leadership.
AP COURSES: students who enter with AP credit (4 or 5) must take a least one additional course in that field. For example, if Colby gives you credit for Physics 141 and 142 based on a 5 AP score, medical schools will require one additional college physics course taken at Colby or over the summer at another institution. Despite having placed out of a science course, students who feel that they would benefit from taking the introductory level course at Colby (which will move at a significantly faster pace and have more lab work than a high school AP course) is encouraged to do so. Students placing out of Chemistry 141/142 may not take Organic Chemistry in their first year at Colby without petitioning the department for permission.

Required courses for veterinary school and many other allied health professions are somewhat more specific but vary from school to school, and vary slightly from those for medicine and dentistry. You should check the requirements of each school to which you plan to apply, and speak with the health professions advisor in the Career Center. The official guides to allopathic and osteopathic medical schools and dental schools are available to borrow from the reserve desk at Miller Library (class name "premed").

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The Liberal Arts Path

By spreading out the required courses over four years instead of three, a student can accomplish a number of objectives: avoid overloading on science and math courses in the first year while making a transition to college-level work; take a broader array of non-required courses in multiple disciplines, and study abroad without compromising MCAT or DAT preparation. Additional time is also made available for clinical internships, research, and community service. Students following this path will usually take the MCAT or DAT in the spring of their senior year, and apply following graduation. The opportunity to work for one or two "glide" years in a position related to healthcare is often an enormous advantage, helping the student confirm that medical or dental school is the right choice, and showing the admissions committee substantial evidence of relevant experience and commitment. This has been a very successful model for many liberal arts students and, at Colby, is the most common approach.
It is strongly suggested that students following this path do not take more than two science courses with lab OR one science course with lab and one math course during each semester of the first year.
Students following this path who have a Math SAT of 650 or below should not take more than one science course with lab and one math course during each semester of the first year. A gradual start can result in stronger preparation and better success.

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The Direct Entry Path

Students who want to enter medical, dental, or veterinary school directly after graduation, and those who want to focus primarily in the natural sciences, need to take the basic prerequisites earlier in their time at Colby.

Students with an SAT Math score above 650 may consider taking two science courses with lab and one math course during each semester of the first year if they are confident in their ability to do this successfully.

It must be emphasized that there is no one way to prepare for medical school that is correct for all applicants. The only correct sequences or combinations of courses are the ones that lead to optimal performance for you personally. For some students, taking all of their required courses in a relatively short time is appropriate, but for others spreading the courses out over a longer time frame, which may include taking some courses in summer school or after graduation, makes more sense. Pacing your studies according to your own interests and abilities is the key to a strong finish.

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Selecting a Major

Science major or not?

It is important to emphasize that no specific major is required for admission to medical school. This has been the case for many years. Students should select a major area of study that is of interest and that will provide a foundation of knowledge necessary for the pursuit of several career alternatives. Students who select a major area of study solely or primarily because of the perception that it will enhance the chance of acceptance to a school of medicine are not making a decision in their best interest.

A science major is not a prerequisite for medical school, and students should not major in science simply because they believe this will increase their chances for acceptance. Medical schools are most concerned with the overall quality and scope of undergraduate work.

For most physicians, the undergraduate years are the last available opportunity to pursue in depth a non-science subject of interest, and all who hope to practice medicine should bear this in mind when selecting an undergraduate major.

Acceptance rates by major

There is some degree of variation in acceptance rates across undergraduate majors. Recent data reveal that although students majoring outside of the natural sciences represent a smaller proportion of those entering medical school than do science majors, the probabilities of being accepted are not systematically different. Moreover, recent studies find that science and non-science majors are not differentiable in terms of performance in medical school or in their careers as physicians. Overall, no one major can be said to provide a big edge in terms of medical school admission. Medical schools readily accept well qualified students with diverse academic backgrounds.

It is the general rule, however, that students who do not take more than the minimal number of science courses should have very high grades in those courses to insure serious consideration. Competence in the sciences, regardless of your major, is a key factor in medical, dental, and veterinary school admission.

The situation regarding choice of a major is similar for dental and veterinary schools. Academic excellence, regardless of major, is essential for success.

The Committee urges all students interested in the health professions to refer to current editions of the admissions guides for medicine, dentistry, and veterinary, as well as other health professions, in order to get a clearer sense of how these professions view undergraduate education. Medical and dental school guides are on reserve in Miller Library (course name "pre-med). Copies of those guides and veterinary school guides, along with directories of many other health professions preparation programs are also available to consult in the Career Center Resource Library.

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Selecting Courses

It is extremely important that you begin planning your overall academic program early. This will allow you to arrange a reasonable distribution of required and recommended courses during the undergraduate years, so that you can do as well as possible in each course. From previous academic experience, you should have some idea of which courses will require greatest effort, and you should plan each semester accordingly.

Students who plan to major in one of the natural sciences should follow the guidelines for enrolling in science and mathematics courses during the Fall semester that have been developed by the department in which they will major.

Students who plan to major in one of the social sciences or humanities should work closely with their academic advisor and with the advisor for the health professions to select the optimal combination of science and non-science courses for the Fall semester.

When planning course schedules, all students should keep in mind the following: The first of the introductory courses in Biology (BI 163), Chemistry (CH 141), and Physics (PH 141 and PH 143) are offered only during the Fall semester, and are prerequisite for enrolling in the second courses offered in the introductory sequence (BI 164, CH 142, and PH 145, respectively) in each discipline during the Spring semester.

If you plan to go directly to medical, dental, or veterinary school following graduation from Colby, all pre-professional requirements must be completed by the end of junior year. This timetable will require that you take the MCAT in the spring of junior year (or in the summer following junior year), and submit applications in the summer following junior year. However, well over half of Colby applicants do not apply until after graduation.

If you plan to spend a year or more in work and/or volunteer settings between graduation and entering professional school, your required courses can be taken over four undergraduate years and/or after graduation, and the MCAT can be taken in senior year or after graduation.

It must be emphasized that there is no one way to prepare for professional school that is correct for all applicants. The only correct sequences or combinations of courses are the ones that lead to optimal performance for you personally. For some students, taking all of the required courses in a relatively short time is appropriate, but for others spreading the courses out over a longer time frame, which may include taking some courses in summer school or after graduation, makes more sense. Pacing your studies according to your own interests and abilities is the key to a positive outcome.

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Course Grades and Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA)

Course grades and cumulative GPA are considered to be extremely important indicators of future success by medical, dental, and veterinary admissions committees. In recent years, the national average GPA of a student going on to allopathic medical school has been about 3.50. Those individuals admitted to M.D. programs with less than an overall GPA of 3.30 either have achieved strikingly improved performance in their later years of college, or have demonstrated other characteristics deemed desirable for medicine by various admissions committees. Frequently such students have "proven themselves" academically by taking more science courses, and/or completing a master's degree, following graduation. The national average GPA of students going on to osteopathic schools has been around 3.25 or higher.

The GPA situation regarding dental and veterinary schools is more variable. However, competitive dental applicants typically have at least an overall GPA of 3.00, while veterinary applicants are closer to 3.5. The higher the GPA, the higher the probability of being accepted.

If you do poorly in one of the courses required for professional school, it is not necessarily the end of the line for your aspirations! If you have high grades in most of the other required and recommended courses, there is no reason why you cannot retake the course in which you did poorly and apply as planned. Although professional schools certainly do not encourage this, they are well aware that no student is perfect under all circumstances and that overall performance speaks more definitively than one exception.

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Special Projects and Research Experience in the Major

In addition to demonstrating a strong record of achievement in your courses, it is very important to get involved in special projects or individual research, particularly those that are medically related and/or likely to be presented at a professional meeting and/or published. Such academic activities help enhance your attractiveness to medical, dental, and veterinary schools.

For students majoring in the natural sciences, projects in the major may take the form of laboratory research at Colby, at another college or university, or in a hospital or professional school setting. This research may or may not involve human or animal subjects, although if you are light on *medically related experiences*, (link to that section of text below) it would be beneficial to engage in the type of research that provides clinical contact with patients and practitioners.

For students majoring outside of the natural sciences, it is also beneficial to get involved in research in your discipline, especially if it is pertinent to health in the broad sense. Some recent examples are a Psychology major who helped to carry out a study examining perceptions of health risks among college students; an Economics major who got involved in research on the health and cost implications of hydrocarbon emissions near an airport in an urban setting; and a Philosophy major who wrote a senior thesis on medical ethics pertaining to contraception, abortion, and euthanasia.

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