Academic Preparation

Prerequisites for Medical (MD/DO) Schools

Academics Intro

Watch this October 2024 information session to learn about prerequisites, advanced placement, majors, grades, and other academic topics.

Prerequisites for Other Health Professions

Use the Explore Careers pages to explore the requirements for dentistry, veterinary medicine, physician assistant, and other health professions.

General Policies around Prerequisites

  • All requirements should be taken at an accredited college/university in the US or Canada, with grades reported on a US/Canadian transcript. 
  • All requirements must be taken for a grade, not PDF (with some exceptions during the pandemic).
  • Many schools require C or better grades and will not accept a C- to fulfill prerequisites.
  • All requirements should be taken in person, not online (with some exceptions during the pandemic).
  • Professional schools may list their prerequisites by required credit hours. One Princeton course = four credit hours (each college/university has its own credit hour system).

Advanced Placement

Individual schools may have different policies regarding credit earned through advanced placement (e.g., AP, IB, A-Levels, departmental examinations). Most schools will accept advanced level courses that supplement advanced placement to satisfy requirements. Generally, expect to take at least one advanced course to supplement advanced placement in each discipline except calculus. We have included specific advice by discipline, as well.

Alternative Introductory Sequences

Professional School Prerequisites Spreadsheet

This google sheet compiles the science, math, English/writing, and other prerequisites for US MD and DO, dental, veterinary, and PA programs. 

Princeton login required

Competency-Based Admissions

Some allopathic medical (MD) schools no longer require specific courses; instead, they focus on expectations for your content knowledge and scientific preparation but leave it to the applicant to choose how to meet these expectations. 

See the list (google doc)