Medical schools vary in their acceptance of AP credit. Consideration will only be given to AP credit that appears on the applicant’s college transcript, which can be arranged through the registrar's office. In general, students with AP credit in recommended science courses should plan to take an equivalent number of credits in that discipline in higher level coursework. Consult our list of recommended courses for additional advice regarding AP credits for mathematics, statistics, and social sciences.

Medical schools generally prefer that prerequisite / recommended courses be taken at a four-year college or university. Students transferring from community colleges after taking these courses, or others who have taken prerequisites at community colleges, should plan to take upper level courses in the same disciplines at UVM to demonstrate their science competency. A single community college course will not make a student ineligible for consideration. However, the candidate should be prepared to share the reasons for the coursework and be able to strongly demonstrate competency in the material through additional coursework taken and MCAT subset scores.

It is not ideal to take any of the science prerequisite/recommended courses during a summer term as admission committees like to see that science courses can be successfully managed as part of a rigorous course load during a normal fall / spring term at your home institution.

Studying abroad is encouraged as it allows you to grow in unique ways and strengthen many of the  Core Competencies required in a career in healthcare. However, fitting this experience into your four year college curriculum requires advanced planning. There are many two-semester-sequence courses in the typical premedical or predental curriculum which can make the timing of your abroad experience more challenging. We strongly advise against taking any required/recommended premedical science or social science courses during the study abroad program as they may not be accepted by medical schools and may not prepare you as well for the MCAT.