This page provides a brief overview of the prerequisite courses for that will satisfy admissions requirements for nearly all medical schools, and at the same time prepare students to excel on the MCAT. These prerequisites are the same for Osteopathic medical schools (DO) and Dental schools. Note that Texas medical schools have slightly different requirements, see below the section titled, "Texas Medical School Prerequisite Requirements," for more information. Also, Veterinary schools have two additional biology courses. For prerequisites for other graduate programs in health professions, please see those pages, and feel free to reach out to your pre-health advisors.

For more detailed information about prerequisite courses, please review the following documents. 

Pre-Health Prerequisite Courses & D-Planning

Getting Started in Biology & General Chemistry at Dartmouth

Timetable of Pre-Health Prerequisite Courses 2025-2026

Additional Notes on Pre-Dental/Veterinary Coursework

Additional Notes on Texas Medical Schools Coursework

In general, medical schools and MCAT preparation require the following courses or equivalent (in Dartmouth terms). Below you will find the list of the most common pre-health courses taken by students:

• English/Writing: 2 terms
• Mathematics: 2 terms (1 term Calculus and 1 term Statistics)
• Biology= 2 terms w/labs (although 3 is recommended for the MCAT preparation)
• General Chemistry= 2 terms w/labs
• Organic Chemistry= 2 terms w/labs
• Biochemistry= 1 term w/ OR w/out a lab
• Physics= 2 terms w/labs
• Additional Courses for MCAT preparation= 1 term of psychology and 1 term sociology

BIOLOGY PREREQUISITES: Most med/dental schools with specific prequisites require a baseline of 2 biology courses+labs which usually translates to 8 semester credit hours for biology. However, Texas schools currently require 14 biology credit hours.

• Dartmouth courses are the equivalent to typical semester hours. A course+lab translates to 4.5 semester credit hours. Therefore, with a minimum of 2 biology foundation courses you have 9 credit hours, which fulfills the baseline requirements at most med schools (many students do take more for MCAT preperation, their major, or just out of interest).
• A course without a lab , or a lab course without a lecture, are equivalent to 3.5 semester credit hours.
• Because Texas requires 14 biology semester hours, two course+labs would NOT be sufficient for Texas schools. Even with a 3rd foundation course at 13.5 credit hours, an applicant would just miss the Texas requirement.
• However, if a student has 3 foundations and one other course, or 2 foundations and 2 other courses then they would have enough credits hours.
• A student could also supplement their biology class hours by taking a final course at a community college, state college, or extention course during the application cycle - many students are able to do this while also working fulltime. Even an online course would be sufficient since it would not require more lab hours.