What basic course should one take before proceeding to med school?

To go to medical school in Canada or the USA, you first need a bachelors degree. It can be in any major but you need 8 to 10 specific sciences courses. In most schools Pre-med is not a major but the set of specific sciences courses you take for medical school. The courses vary depending on the medical school you choose. If you are a high school, the courses you take are not important as long as you can actually get into university or college. But you should take most of the AP sciences courses offered.

These courses generally take 2-3 years to complete.

Your choice of undergrad school is not that important as long as it is regionally accredited and they have the science courses you need. It is suggested that you may be better off at a less competitive undergrad school as you will likely get a better GPA. Going to an extremely competitive undergrad school generally makes little difference for getting into medical school and can hurt you if it causes you to get a lower GPA.

You should make sure the major you select is not a personal enrichment major but one that actually leads to a career in case you do not get into medical school. Biomedical engineering is one such useful major.

It is NOT recommended to double major if you want to go to medical school as this will not improve your chances but does have the very real possibility of dragging your GPA down enough that you will not get into medical school. Also going to community college for 2 years and transferring is not a good idea. Many medical schools will not count the sciences you took at community college and with scheduling issues it is not likely you will get all of them you need in 2 years of university. It is possible but it is very hard. More likely you will end up doing an extra year at university which will blow the money you saved by going to community college first.

A typical mix of required courses would include one year each of:

English

General chemistry with labs

Organic chemistry with labs

Biology with labs

Biochemistry

Physics with labs

Statistics

Calculus

and others that would be specific to the medical school you apply to.

If you are going the community college route and then transfer to a university as a junior, it is unlikely you can do the required courses in 2 years at the university. You will likely need three years which will wipe out your cost savings going the community college route. And if you went the community college route because of low high school GPA, it is doubling challenging as your chances are remote that you can improve your study habits enough get the very high university GPA needed for medical school..

As for what major to select, you may want to select a major that actually leads to a career just in case you do not get into medical school.

If you get a score on the MCAT exam of 32 you have a 3 in 4 chance of acceptance when accompanied by an undergrad GPA of 3.8 or higher. Go look at an MCAT study guide at a book store to get an idea of what you will need to learn.

Besides that, while an undergrad, you may want to become an Emergency Medical Technician. It will give you valuable experience in medical emergencies. And you will discover before it is to late if you have the stomach for the blood and you will learn how well you can handle life or death situations. Having pried bloody people out of car wrecks and saving most of them is something med schools like to see. And you may earn some money doing it.

My daughter got her EMT-B ticket while a senior in college by going to a community college three evenings a week for a semester. She tells me there is no rush like driving with lights and sirens. As well, some universities offer EMT training as an undergraduate course.

As a PhD student and EMT at a major university she that it appeared that 90% of the EMTs working for her school are pre-med as they believe it gave them an advantage, and after seeing a class of them graduate, it really did make a difference.

Regardless, to go to medical school requires a passion for medicine. If you are not passionate about medicine and the least bit doubtful whether it is the best choice for you, there is a very real possibility that you will not make it. That is, if you have to ask whether medical school is right for you, it likely is not.

Here is an example of what a top medical school costs excluding housing and board:

http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/fees/medfee.htm

As for specialties, you take those after you get your MD.

Also see:

https://www.aamc.org/

https://www.aamc.org/download/157450/data/table24-...

You need a bachelors degree in any subject and the premed classes to apply to med school.