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Pre-Health Course Requirements

Pepperdine Courses Recommended to Satisfy Medical and/or Dental School Requirements

As a pre-med student at Pepperdine, it is recommended that students take the following courses. This list provides the classes necessary to do well on the MCAT and for some dental and veterinary schools. Many medical schools presently do not have a required courses list. For details on particular schools and their requirements, consult the following external resources:

Medical School Applicants
Medical School Admission Requirements                                                              

Dental School Applicants
ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools -                                                 http://www.adea.org/publications/pages/officialguide.aspx

http://www.ehow.com/list_6531775_dental-school-prerequisite-courses.html

Recommended  Courses Recommended Semester Hours Pepperdine University Recommended Classes
Chemistry
(General)
8 CHEM 120 and 121 - General Chemistry I and II
Organic 4 CHEM 310 - Organic Chemistry I
Biochemistry 4 CHEM 330 - Cellular Biochemistry
Biology
(Introductory)
8 BIOL 211 - Biology of Cells
BIOL 270 - Principles of Human Physiology
Advanced Biology 4-8 additional BIOL 350 - Genetics
BIOL 410 - Principles of Physiology (for biology majors)
BIOL 411 - Advanced Cell Biology
BIOL 420 - Microbiology
Advanced Chemistry 4-8 additional CHEM 331 - Advanced Cellular Biochemistry
CHEM 430 - Bio-Organic Chemistry
Physics

8 PHYS 202 and 203 - Basic Physics I and II
Mathematics 4 Statistics (in any major/department)
Psychology & Sociology 6 PSYC 200 - Introduction to Psychology
SOC 200 - Introduction to Sociology
English 3-6 ENG 101 - English Composition and one additional English course may be required
Additional Courses   The above listed requirements should be regarded as general requirements and students must be aware of additional required or recommended classes of individual institutions by referring to the links above.

Other Information About Required Courses

Major Courses

Students can work with their academic advisors to plan their course requirements for their major.  If you are a science major it is less likely that your pre-med science requirements will conflict with your major requirements.

Summer School Courses

Pepperdine offers many summer school courses. It is an excellent time for pre-med majors to catch up on general education courses or explore an overseas program.  The only science class regularly offered in summer school is Chemistry 121 but sometimes Physics 203 is offered. More information about summer classes at Seaver can be found at https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/summer-school/.

Courses for the Medical School Admission Test (MCAT)

The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is a standardized test consisting of four parts. In order to prepare for this test we recommend taking the courses listed above. It is advisable to include both human physiology and genetics courses in the biology courses and biochemistry in the chemistry courses you take. For success on the MCAT exam, these classes need to be taken before taking the MCAT. It's common to take the MCAT in the spring or summer of your junior year.

For more information on the MCAT, please see: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/

Withdrawing from a Course

Medical schools generally disprove of a "W" on transcripts. Only drop a course if there is no way to bring your grade up to a C. When applying to medical school, it is important to explain why you dropped a class.

Advanced Placement (AP)

At Pepperdine you can receive pre-med course credit for calculus and physics if you have the required AP score. Please refer to the AP course credit handout from Pepperdine University.