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Department of Biochemistry
433 Babcock Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1544
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Pre-medicine

NOTE: The following was taken from the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science publication "Pre-Medicine at Wisconsin."

The Admissions Tests
Evaluations and Credentials
Making Applications to Medical and Dental Schools
Pre-med Advising
Sites of interest to pre-medical students

The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT)
The Dental Admissions Test (DAT)

An important part of applying to a medical school or to many other schools in the health professions is taking a general test of your academic achievement. Materials describing these tests, the dates of administration, and applications are available at the LSAC, 25 Ingraham Hall.

Medical, osteopathic, and podiatric schools require students to take the MCAT. The general format is not far removed from the SAT or the ACT, which you may have taken in high school. If you want a more detailed idea, the bookstores sell the MCAT Student Manual which describes, outlines, and provides sample questions and a complete practice test. Some companies offer crash courses on preparing for the MCAT it is up to each student as to whether he/she feels such a course will be of value. There is nothing wrong with taking a review course from a reputable firm. The major drawback is the cost. We do not recommend that every student use his/her time or money in this manner. After all, you really can't learn enough science in "a few easy lessons" to replace or supplement six or more semesters of solid academic course work. The course may, however, help you become familiar with the test format and structure which is also essential. However, it must be said that review of your course work before taking the MCAT is crucial. If you are a good self-disciplinarian, you can do it on your own. On the other hand, if you have trouble making yourself review, an expensive program might be a real incentive.

There is nothing mysterious about the MCAT. It is an all-day test administered twice each year, usually the second or third weekend in April and the second or third weekend in August. The tests are administered at centers in every state and in a number of foreign countries. Tests may be taken on either Saturday or Sunday. The registration deadline for the MCAT is usually about a month in advance of the test date. (MCAT registration packets are available in LSAC, 25 Ingraham Hall, about 6-8 weeks prior to the April deadline for applications.)

The MCAT exam includes four sections: Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Verbal Reasoning, and a Writing Sample, requiring 5.75 hours. The test day includes a break for lunch.

Section	Number of questions	Time in minutes
Verbal Reasoning	60	85
Physical Sciences	77	100
Writing Sample	2	60
Biological Sciences	77	100

The Verbal Reasoning test draws upon materials from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. It assesses your ability to comprehend, reason, and think critically. Subject matter knowledge in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences will not be tested.

The Physical Sciences test covers physics and general chemistry. Problem solving is the major required skill, and the answers to questions require the integration of two or more science disciplines.

The Writing Sample requires two 30-minute essays as a means of testing critical thinking and writing skills. Topics are provided for essays, and do not test subject matter knowledge in the sciences, nor are they related to the medical school application process.

The Biological Sciences test focuses on the biological sciences with integration of knowledge and problem solving in biology and organic chemistry.

Medical schools would like to have you take the MCAT in April of the year you apply. Normally this is near the end of the sixth semester or your junior year. However, you can take the test in August, if circumstances warrant. In general, it is better to test on the spring date rather than the fall because for the latter there are no make-up dates. Further, pre-meds should not take the MCAT until they are properly prepared, with most of the pre-med courses behind them. (Students who wish to apply to medical school a year early must move these dates up one year. Students planning a junior year or semester abroad must plan ahead for taking MCAT.)

Get the MCAT registration packet in LSAC (usually available in February) for the April and August tests. MCAT registration materials postmarked AFTER the published registration deadlines will not be accepted for registration--no excuses are allowed. Late registrants must pay a non-refundable late registration fee and meet a late registration deadline.

Test scores are sent automatically to the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). (Application materials for AMCAS are usually available in late April for you in LSAC.) The earliest you may submit your AMCAS application is June 1. On the MCAT registration form you can designate up to six medical schools not in AMCAS to review your scores. This is included in the MCAT fee. (You can, of course, have the results sent to more schools for an additional fee.) You will receive a copy of the results, too, including your percentile standing in each category. A 15-point scale is used for reporting scores on the biological sciences, physical sciences, and verbal reasoning sections. The essays will be given alphabetical scores, J-T, to keep them distinct from the other test scores.

If you wish, you can take the exam a second time. We have no firm data on how much improvement most students show if they take the MCAT over, but we suspect that unless the circumstances were unusual the first time, the difference would not be significant. It is also possible to take the MCAT and, during or at the end of the test day, request that the results not be scored.

The best preparation for the MCAT is simply doing a good job in a varied college program that includes completion of the pre-med required courses. Your scores will reflect what you have retained from literally years of schoolincluding high school. This is why it is futile to try to cram for the MCAT, although a thorough general review is an excellent idea. You might consider brushing up on logarithms, exponents, sine, cosine, etc.; a brief review of biology and anatomy; and some review of your chemistry notes. Certainly, everyone should have a copy of the MCAT Student Manual or other review manuals by the junior year.

Part of the anxiety pre-meds have about the MCAT is the uncertainty of the relative weight medical schools place on the results. You have to live with this, because the weight will vary from school to school (depending on the correlation they have learned to expect between MCAT scores and success in their particular program) and even from applicant to applicant. We do not have firm data on the specific differences in practice from one medical school to the next and there is probably no reliable way to compile it. Nevertheless, we can make several general points. Actual classroom achievement as reflected in your record carries more weight than test predictions, which are at best one step removed from performance. You simply hope both are equally favorable and confirm each other. If they are not equally favorable, good class work offsets mediocre MCAT results more than vice versa. It may not often be this simple, because individuals' situations are too varied. If your record reflects some mediocre work mixed with the good, favorable test scores validate the good side and could tip the balance in your favor. If you tend to have a fine record but the medical school knows little about your undergraduate school, good test scores help confirm that your record represents real achievement and not simply easy conditions.

We suspect that pre-meds themselves often view the MCAT results as being more monolithic and absolute than do medical schools. Give admissions committees credit for being able to interpret the scores in light of the course work you have had when you take the exam. All in all, and although we cannot offer statistical proof, we feel there are more ways the MCAT results can help you than ways it can hinder.

If you are planning to enter dental school, you can get an informative brochure about the Dental Admission Testing Program at LSAC. There are two testing dates usually in April and October; however, it is suggested that applicants take the DAT in April, one year prior to entering dental school. Much that we have stated about preparation for the MCAT also applies to the DAT. The DAT requires about 5.15 hours of testing, and includes sections on the Natural Sciences, Perceptual Ability, Reading Comprehension and Quantitative Reading.
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Evaluations and Credentials

Letters of recommendation help to round out medical school's view of you as a person in a way that your academic record, no matter how impressive, alone cannot do. You should plan carefully when you select people to write letters for you because there are limits to the number of letters to send to admissions committees. The University of Wisconsin Medical School requires three academic letters plus one non-academic, and will accept others from employers, advisors, etc. Some medical schools ask for as few as two.

Considering that you may have only four or five letters in your file, who should write them? Letters can be written by professors and teaching assistants who know your work well. Admissions committees are not going to be impressed by letters from full professors who write something like "she got an A in my course, therefore she must be a good student." On a large campus such as ours, it may be difficult to know teachers, but that is something you must take into your planning. Make it a point to know three or four teachers well enough for them to make reasonable statements about you and your work. It is a good idea to include at least two science professors among your recommenders.

You should plan to get letters of evaluation as you go along. Ordinarily, it isn't necessary to ask someone to write an evaluation for you during the freshman year. However, you might plan to collect a couple of letters in each of your sophomore and junior years, plus one from the advisor in your major. Obviously, it is difficult to get letters from people in several disciplines, but try for some variation with a slight preference for the pre-med sciences. To repeat, ask people who know your work best.

You should be aware that procedures for handling letters conform to the Faculty Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, which became effective January 1, 1975. Some writers of evaluations prefer you sign the waiver of the right to read your letter; check with the prospective writer on this matter.

The procedure for building a file of letters is simple. We have established the Pre-professional Recommendation Services Office as a part of LSAC (25 Ingraham Hall) to assist you. Decide upon the teacher from whom you would like an evaluation. As a matter of courtesy, ask that person if he or she would be willing to complete a pre-med evaluation form for you, then come by to see the recommendations secretary in 25 Ingraham Hall. The secretary will give you the details of building your file or letters (evaluation forms). At your request, the secretary will send an evaluation form to the person you want to write the evaluation. That person will complete the form and return it to the Recommendation Services Office where the secretary will maintain your personal file of letters. It is important to obtain letters of recommendation by the end of your junior year if you plan to apply by your senior year. Be sure to allow sufficient time for requesting the letters, with time for them to be written, returned, and processed. Medical school deadlines require early mailing of letters of recommendation, so plan accordingly; do not wait until two weeks before the deadlines! See additional information on the Recommendation Service in Appendix E.

At the beginning of your senior year (or when you apply to medical schools), you will want your letters forwarded to schools of your choice. To complete these credentials, we add a brief cover letter and a brief course description sheet of typical pre-med courses taken on this campus. When you make application, provide the secretary with a list of the schools you are applying to and your credentials will be mailed promptly. There is a small handling and postage fee for this service. Letters are mailed only to admissions people in medical, dental, and other health professions and graduate schools.

Transfer students should have some of the evaluation sheets sent to instructors at schools previously attended, especially if they will be spending a limited amount of time on this campus. (Students in the Center System should make arrangements on their campuses.)

A final point on this subjectpre-meds are often too sensitive about choosing instructors to ask for evaluations, feeling that somehow if they did not earn an A, their instructors are eager to trumpet their "inferiority" to the world. Outright bad evaluations are rare, unless you have been dishonest in a course. Your instructor may note some chinks in your armor, but then few medical schools will believe you have no weaknesses no matter what he or she tells them. Most commonly, the instructor will note your particular strengthsanalytical ability, broad interests, care in technique, ability to grasp and order a mass of information, and the like. At any rate, it is only common courtesy to ask the person if you can have an evaluation sheet sent out, and then if your teacher plans to be hard on you he or she will probably tell you.

So far we have looked at things that are fairly fixed. Other things you must decide in your own terms.
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Making Applications

The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS)
The American Association of Dental Schools Application Service (AADSAS)
The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS)

In the summer before you begin your senior year and extending until sometime into the fall, you will make application to medical, dental, and other professional schools of your choice. In 1996, 111 medical schools participated in a centralized application service called AMCAS. Students applying to any participating schools must submit applications through AMCAS. (Applications to non-participating schools must be made directly to each school.) AMCAS applications are available in LSAC (25 Ingraham Hall). Also, a detailed discussion on the admission process may be found in Chapters 5 and 6 of MSAR. If you apply to only one medical school, you should be aware of the Early Decision Plan (EDP). For details, see Chapter 6 of MSAR.

Completion of AMCAS application forms requires detailed information and will take a considerable amount of time. You can't whip out an application form overnight. After you have completed your forms, return them to AMCAS. Also, at the same time you should request the Registrar (Room 60 Peterson Building) to forward an official transcript of your work to AMCAS (or AADSAS for pre-dents). If you have taken work at more than one campus, you must submit a transcript from each campus. Transcripts should be requested promptly.

AMCAS processes your application and forwards the information to the schools to which you are applying. The medical schools then will inform you of further steps necessary to complete your application. These often include the submission of a supplementary or "secondary" application form, which is the individual med school's own application. It is probably best to submit letters of recommendation when you are running your secondaries. A fee is charged by AMCAS according to the number of schools to which an applicant applies. Additional application fees will be assessed by each medical school. AMCAS does not make admissions decisions.

Dental schools, schools of osteopathic medicine, and some others have a central application service. All of these application services serve a similar function and purpose. Proper forms, information about them, etc., are available in LSAC, 25 Ingraham Hall.
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Pre-med Advising

A large fraction of Biochemistry majors wish to attend medical school after graduation. The following is an outline of key considerations in pre-med planning. A longer document is available through the Letters and Science Advising Center (LSAC), 25 Ingraham Hall. The sections of this document dealing with MCAT exams, references and applying to medical schools have been copied from the LSAC publication "Pre-Medicine."

(1) The student has to really be interested in a medical career.

The simplest way for a student to discover whether he or she is interested in medicine and to demonstrate this to an admissions committee is through jobs or volunteer work in a hospital, clinic, nursing home or some similar operation. Volunteer work carries with it the added impression that the student really wants the experience and is not just doing it for the income.

(2) Undergraduate academic performance.

A biochemistry major automatically fulfills all the course subject matter requirements for admission into medical school; but, of course, the level of performance also counts. The student should aim for a GPA of at least 3.5.

(3) Letters of recommendation.

Meaningful letters of recommendation are of the utmost importance to a medical school application. Independent study is an excellent way for a student to develop a good professional relationship with a faculty member during which work ethic, personal relationship skills, and other characteristics can be judged.

(4) MCAT examinations.

See the extract from the LSAC brochure.

(5) Independent studies.

A real research experience teaches students what science is all about. More and more medical decisions are based upon science and thus this knowledge becomes invaluable in a successful scientific career.

MD-Ph.D. Programs.

MD-Ph.D. programs are extremely competitive to get into and usually involve at least 7 years of very challenging work. Students who wish to be considered for these programs must have outstanding undergraduate records and MCAT scores, and must have extensive undergraduate research experience including one or more publications. Do not apply to these programs simply because of the available fellowships.
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Sites of interest to pre-medical students

You may find these sites useful as you navigate your way toward a medical career.