Office of
Health Professions Advising

For specific information on how AP/IPC credit is awarded in biology, see Advanced Placement-Biology.

• AP/IPC credit in biology is listed on the Duke transcript as BIOLOGY 19. Nearly all medical schools require at least two biology courses with formal laboratories and we have found that they are generally strict about the laboratory requirement.

• BIOLOGY 19 credit is sufficient to serve as a prerequisite for upper level biology courses.

• If you are planning to major in biology and have AP/IPC credit for BIOLOGY 19, you can placeout of BIOLOGY 25L. You will then take BIOLOGY 26L and upper level biology courses. One of the laboratory courses required for your major will fulfill the second biology course with lab necessary for medical school.

• If you do not plan to major in biology and have AP/IPC credit for BIOLOGY 19, but want to take biology courses to prepare for medical school or other health professions schools you have two options. You can accept BIOLOGY 19 credit and take at least two BIOLOGY or EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY (formerly BAA) courses with laboratory. On the other hand, you might decide to take BIOLOGY 25L, in which case you would forfeit your BIOLOGY 19 credit, and then take an additional biology course with laboratory. While you could take BIOLOGY 26L, most prehealth students who are not planning to major in biology will opt for an upperlevel course with laboratory to fulfill the requirement for a second biology course with laboratory.

• We are often asked if an independent study will be accepted as the second biology course with laboratory (as it does for the biology major). If we were making the decision, a laboratory independent study would certainly count. But we aren’t making the decision and we have found that some medical schools are strict about the two biology courses with laboratory being formal bio lab courses rather than independent study. So the saftest route is to take BIOLOGY or EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY laboratory courses.

• If you are not planning to major in biology and you do not have AP/IPC credit for BIOLOGY 19, you should enroll in BIOLOGY 25L (generally students take it their sophomore year, but it is possibleto take it spring of your freshman year). Then you would follow up with at least one additional BIOLOGY or BAA course with laboratory (see below for information on additional choices).

The situation described above would be relatively straightfoward but for two additional aspects: preparation for the MCAT and for the courses you will take in medical/dental school.

• Many of our students tell us that a number of upper level biology courses are extremely helpful for the MCAT and for medical school and dental school courses. Among these is BIOLOGY 118 (Genetics and Molecular Biology), which does not have a laboratory. Consequently, many Duke students opt to take BIOLOGY 118. However, since it not taught with a laboratory, it would not count as one of the “two biology courses with formal laboratory” that are required by most medical schools.

• Additional courses that students tell us are particularly helpful to them in preparing for the MCAT and for preparing for medical school include, but are not limited to, BIOLOGY 103L, BIOLOGY 119, BIOLOGY 151L (the bio department recommends that you have had at least the first semester of physics before taking this course ), BIOLOGY 184L, BIOLOGY 205L.

• Most Duke students who apply to medical, dental, veterinary, or other health professions school, will have at least 3 biology courses rather than the 2 that are required. These will generally be two BIOLOGY (intro or upper level) or EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY courses with laboratory and BIOLOGY 118 (no laboratory).

• There are a number of biology courses available with and without laboratory that will be good preparation for medical school and for the MCAT. And you may want to consider the laboratory intensive courses such as BIOLOGY 184L or BIOLOGY 205L as well as the courses taught at the marine lab during the academic year and the summer sessions.

• Students report to us that BIOLOGY 184L and BIOLOGY 205L are particularly helpfulif they intend to do a laboratory independent study or seek a summer experience or a job in a biomedical research laboratory.

• Taken together, the information above means that BIOLOGY 19 is essentially superfluous when it comes to meeting prerequisites for medical school because it has no laboratory designation and you will end up taking other biology courses at Duke to fulfill the biology prerequisites for medical school. But it is our experience that taking the courses at Duke will prepare you better for the work you will be faced within medical school than your high school biology courses would have.

• It is worth noting that there is no anatomy on the MCAT. And medical schools will not presume that you have had a background in anatomy when they teach anatomy in medical school. Thus, if you plan to take only a limited number of biology courses as an undergraduate, it is best to focus on areas other than anatomy.

• In planning your courses, you may want to consult information online about the MCAT or the available MCAT prepbooks (we have some in our office in 011 Allen Building) to see where the gaps in your knowledge are at least with regard to what is tested on the MCAT.

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