Information for the Pre-Professional Student

Texas State’s pre-medical, pre-dental, physician’s assistant and pre-veterinarian advisor is Dr. Dede Armentrout. All pre-professional students should make it a point to meet with her. Dr. Armentrout is on campus and available to meet with existing and prospective pre-professional students. Her office is in SCI room 348. To make an appointment, call her at 245-3367 or email da05@txstate.edu.

NOTE: Juniors and Seniors -- make an appointment with Dr. Armentrout to discuss the Spring Interviews (see contact information above).
JAMP applicants or prospective applicants will also need to see Dr. Joe Koke. The JAMP program provides assistance to selected pre-professional students. To learn more see JAMP at Texas State.

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  1. Introduction
  2. Choosing a major
  3. Required courses
  4. Course load and grades
  5. MCAT
  6. Extracurricular activities and grades
  7. Important questions you must ask yourself as you determine your career
  8. The application timeline

INTRODUCTION

Although preparing for entrance into medical school is arduous, competitive and demanding, it is essential to put energy and time into building a good academic background if becoming a physician or dentist is your career goal. Texas State does not have a program in the sense that Baylor and TCU do; that is, you are not put into special "weedout" sections of science courses designed to determine whether you will be allowed to continue as a pre-professional. At Texas State you are considered a pre-professional student by your own proclamation. You will be taking a common core of courses required by medical or dental school as part of whatever degree program you choose and you will be offered advice along the way by advisors.

CHOOSING A MAJOR

Since many students who enter college as pre-meds or predents ultimately either change their career goals as they find other opportunities more to their liking or are not accepted into medical school, you are encouraged to choose major and minor fields that best reflect your interests and abilities. There is no preferred major as far as medical schools are concerned. Their preference is to have an entering class which consists of students with diverse backgrounds in academics, interests, and experiences. The majority of applicants to medical school have majors in biology with minors in chemistry. The curriculum at medical school is heavily oriented toward fields within biology (anatomy, physiology, microbiology, pathology, biochemistry, etc.) and all of the prerequisites for medical school can be met without having to take extra courses if one majors in biology.

REQUIRED COURSES

Although some professional schools state that they accept students with a minimum of 90 hours of undergraduate coursework, the reality is that your chances of being accepted without a B.S. or B.A. degree or Combination Degree (see below) are minimal, mainly because you are competing with other applicants with undergraduate degrees or professional degrees such as the Ph.D. Some out of state schools may have additional requirements. Please check the requirements for the school you would like to attend. All of the medical schools in the U.S. require the following courses (Texas State numbers are used) with a minimum grade of C in each one:

Performance in these courses is scrutinized intensely; that is, in order to be competitive for medical school you will need to have mainly A's in them.

For Pre-Physician’s Assistant: check individual schools. Prerequisites vary widely from school to school. See Dr. Armentrout for a list of the latest requirements for Texas Physician’s Assistant programs.

COURSE LOAD AND GRADES

In assessing overall academic performance, medical schools consider the load of classes you take each semester. Admission deans expect you to be able to handle a full load of difficult courses (17-18 hours) and do well. The load of courses in professional school is approximately twice that of undergraduate school (~35 hours).

Medical schools tend to calculate and consider your Grade Point Average (GPA) in three ways: overall GPA, science and math GPA, and GPA on your last 60 hours. The grades of all coursework tend to be included in these GPAs, meaning that if you repeat a course for a higher grade, both grades will be counted (the exception is the osteopathic medical schools, which use the later grade).

You are discouraged from dropping courses, even with a W, because it appears as though you have "quit under pressure." It is possible to overcome a poor 1st semester academically because admissions committees are aware that there is an adjustment period after entering college. Poor grades, especially in upper level courses during the year preceding your application can cause alarm to admission deans - resolve to buckle down early.

MCAT

For your application to be considered complete, you will have to request that your scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) be submitted to the appropriate schools (this should be done at the time of the test). If you are a JAMP applicant, you must have your scores sent to your pre-professional advisor and the JAMP director at the same time. Your overall scores on the MCAT are at least as important as your GPA in determining whether you will be accepted into professional school. Applications for this exam are available through your advisor; deadlines are generally about a month before the test date. Competitive scores on the MCAT are generally 25 or higher (out of 45 points), with many schools expecting scores in the 30s.

The MCAT has 4 sections: Verbal (reading comprehension in all disciplines); Biological Sciences (biology and organic chemistry); Physical Sciences (inorganic chemistry and physics); and, 2 written essays. It is very analytical in nature, with questions being multi-faceted and not as much on factual knowledge as on your critical thinking skills. It is worth putting as much study time on preparing for the MCAT as you would on one course, so it is recommended that you reduce your course load by one course during the semester in which you take the exam. You can prepare for the exam by using a prep book and sample exams or by taking a commercial course (such as offered by Kaplan or Princeton Review).

The MCAT is administered twice a year (3rd Saturdays of April and August). You may take it as many as 3 times. Some schools use the latest score while others use all scores or the highest score. The time recommended to take MCAT is during the spring of your junior year. It takes about 8 weeks for you to receive your scores. If you wait until August before your senior year to take the MCAT, your scores may not get to you before the deadlines the medical schools set for applications. When your scores arrive late in the admissions process you are less likely to be granted an interview unless the scores are exceptionally high.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Medical schools seek applicants who are well-rounded and who can organize their study time well enough to include non-academic activities. Such activities include organizations (Premed/Predent Society and Medical Explorers are two helpful ones), social groups (sororities or fraternities), student government, band/choir/orchestra, athletics, etc. Holding office in organizations is considered important.

Service to others is viewed as important since your commitment to helping sick or injured people involves your innate desire to help those in need. Therefore, community service during high school or college is considered commendable. Consider involvement in a program such as adult literacy, tutoring, Special Olympics, women's shelter, drug rehab, etc. It also is expected that you will gain experience by volunteering or working in a clinical setting such as a physician’s office, hospital, nursing home, or local clinic. Many pre-medical students undertake to be part of a medical mission trip to Mexico or to another region of extreme poverty for a week or two during the summer.

You have to like people in general and to be comfortable in intimate settings with people from all walks of life in order to be successful and happy as a physician. Most physicians devote part of their free time to indigent care and are leaders in their communities.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS OF YOURSELF AS YOU CONSIDER YOUR CAREER - BE REALISTIC!

Question #1. Can you do the work? To answer this question, admission committees look at your GPA and you MCAT scores. Because the MCAT is a standardized national exam, your MCAT scores are often more important than your undergraduate GPA.

Question #2. Do you know what the work is? Admissions committees want to see that you do know what the work is by exposure to it during your volunteering experience or your work experience. They want to know that you can handle being around sick people. Many very intelligent people do not want to be around sick people on a regular basis. Also, many very intelligent people would rather not do the procedures required to be a physician.

Question #3. Why do you want to do the work? "I always wanted to be a physician since I was 5 years old" is not the answer that admissions committees are looking for . Also, "I want to help sick people" will not cut it with admissions committees. Be sure you can clearly articulate why you want to be a physician. Many other people in the health care field help sick people. Why do you want to be a physician? Admission committees want to be sure you are doing this because you want to do this rather than others (your parents) want you to do this.
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THE APPLICATION TIMELINE

Incoming medical students start classes in July or August depending on the school. To apply to medical school for the class starting August 2005:

Posted and last updated on Saturday, November 8, 2003.