The Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Certificate in Pre-Medicine is a cross-disciplinary certificate program that better prepares students to enter Medical School. The Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Certificate in Pre-Medicine will be of interest to students who have earned a bachelor’s degree and wish to change their career path to medicine. By taking course work across disciplines, students will develop the knowledge and skills required for success on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and in the medical profession.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), over 15 percent of the individuals who apply for medical school have completed some form of post-baccalaureate pre-medical program. Typically, these programs fall into two basic categories:
- Programs for students who have completed the pre-med curriculum but want to improve their GPA and increase their competitiveness; and
- Programs for students who have completed an undergraduate degree and wish to change their career path and enter medical school, but who haven’t completed the pre-med curriculum.
The proposed Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Certificate in Pre-Medicine focuses on the students in this latter category.
The goal of the program is to provide high quality accelerated pre-medical preparation for post-baccalaureate students wishing to enter medical school. This full-time program will only be open to post-baccalaureate students and is intended for those who wish to change their career path to medicine and have not yet completed the pre-medical course work.
This program provides participants with tangible evidence of their motivation and rigorous preparation for a career in medicine. Pre-medicine post-baccalaureate programs prepare students well for the competitive medical school admissions process.
Admission Requirements
- Must be admitted to the University of Kentucky as a post-baccalaureate student.
- Must submit an official transcript showing an awarded undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university with a minimum 3.5 undergraduate cumulative GPA.
- Must be admitted into the Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Certificate in Pre-Medicine.
- Must have completed freshman English composition and calculus (calculus 1 or higher) course work before admission into the program.
*Admission into the program does not guarantee admission into medical school. Students must still apply for medical school through the normal application process.
Curriculum
To earn the certificate, students must complete the 51 credit hours of the Post-Baccalaureate Undergraduate Certificate in Pre-Medicine Curriculum (from the list below). Students must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours of certificate course work after they are admitted into the certificate program. At least 12 credit hours of the 15 credit hours must be at the 200-level or above, and at least 6 credit hours must be from the 300-level or above.
A minimum of 15 credit hours of the certificate course work must NOT have been previously successfully completed by the student.
Students may count previously earned course work towards the certificate curriculum (grades earned on prior course work, even if taken at the University of Kentucky, will not count towards the certificate GPA.)
Students must complete a breadth component where at least 3 credit hours of course work must be taken from a second discipline using a different course prefix.
All course work for the certificate must be taken for a letter grade and students must earn at least a B in all course work taken after admission to the certificate program in order to receive credit.
No more than 9 credit hours taken for the certificate can be used to satisfy the requirements for a second bachelor’s degree, a minor, or another certificate at the University of Kentucky.