Navigating the College’s General Education Requirements as a Pre-Med

When I started choosing classes for my first semester at Penn, I was overwhelmed by the amount of courses I had to take before graduating. I was unsure how I was going to balance being pre-med with being a student in the College. Now, almost a year later, I have completed most of my general education requirements and am close to finishing the infamous “pre-med sequence.” Although it’s only been 3 semesters, completing the Gen Ed requirements has been a very easy process that hasn’t taken away from my academic experience at Penn. Instead, it has enriched it in many ways. During my first year, I decided to split my schedule between classes that fulfilled the Sectors of Knowledge/Foundational Approaches and the general pre-med classes. My first semester courses included calculus, chemistry, history, and a climate change class. Having a good balance between STEM and humanities courses allowed me to explore my interests in both fields while also understanding how to effectively manage my time as a first-semester college student.

It is extremely important to strategically plan your classes as a pre-med student, taking into account what classes can count towards your major, pre-med requirements, Gen-Eds, etc. It is also crucial to plan out when to start your Biology and Chemistry class sequences to be prepared to take the MCAT at the time you plan to. A great resource that is offered by Penn to help students navigate choosing classes as a pre-med at Penn is Pre-Health Advising Services (offered by Career Services). The pre-health advisors at Penn offer amazing advice about class choices, MCAT timeline, and applying to medical school! Overall, fulfilling the Gen Eds at Penn is not something that is as daunting as I had expected it to be and has actually allowed me to immerse myself in the culture of Philly and of the world.

- Ananya M.