How To Succeed as a Boston College Premed
/Everything you need to know about Boston College premed, including premed requirements, the best premed extracurriculars, and the Boston College premed acceptance rate
Learn everything you need to know to succeed as a boston college premed
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Located on Chestnut Hill, just a few miles outside the hustle and bustle of arguably the most dynamically scientific city in America, Boston College sits comfortably among the top colleges in the country for intellectual inquiry. Currently ranked #39 nationally by US News and World Report, Boston College’s reputation for research output stretches far and wide. With no less than 35 associated research centers investigating everything from human rights and international justice to the integration of science and society, ambitious undergraduates are sure to find their niche among its varied offerings.
A storied institution with a history stretching back to 1863, Boston College maintains its Jesuit Catholic identity but welcomes students of all backgrounds and faiths. The Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center seeks to support traditionally marginalized and underrepresented students in achieving their highest potential.
Graduates of Boston College join the distinguished ranks of former US Ambassadors, actors such as Amy Poehler, business leaders such as Karen S. Lynch of CVS, and perhaps most interesting to Boston College premeds, Peter B. Dervan, Bren Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at CalTech. Even Leonard Nimoy was a former student.
But even with this distinguished pedigree behind your diploma, medical school admissions committees (adcoms) will not go easy on you. If you’re a Boston College premed or pre-health student looking to navigate your way to a white coat, you’ll need to know which prerequisite boxes to tick, how to build an impressive extracurricular profile, and how to properly plan for the MCAT.
We’ve written this guide with all of this in mind from a Boston College premed’s point-of-view. We’ve broken down the process for successfully gaining admission to your dream medical school program below, including which courses to take at Boston College, how to gain volunteering and shadowing experience, and even the Boston College premed acceptance rate.
Read on to learn how to best set yourself up for success.
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Part 2: Boston College premed requirements
Medical schools in the US don’t all follow the same requirements, but they do look for a particular set of classes during your undergraduate years. As a Boston College premed, you’ll be tasked with satisfying certain prerequisites to gain admission into medical school.
Students at Boston College have the significant advantage of being able to work through one of the Pre-Health programs offered at the university, which helps take some of the guesswork out of the process. If you join a pre-health program, your path will be adapted to your desired profession. Whether an MD, DO, or even a DDS is on your radar, their program will help guide you to successful entry.
Even with assistance, you’ll still need to plan how to approach these requirements and fit them into your schedule. Depending on your major, some of them may overlap, while others will need to be taken in addition to the classes for your primary course of study.
Furthermore, all undergraduate students at Boston College must complete the “Core Curriculum,” which is a set of classes designed to expose students to a wide range of majors. You’ll take courses in the arts, writing, social sciences, and mathematics, among others. The good thing is that many of these may overlap with your medical school requirements in addition to helping you on the MCAT.
Boston College lists their required and recommended courses for medical school as:
Two semesters of biology with lab
Two semesters of general chemistry with lab
Two semesters of organic chemistry with lab and/or one semester of organic chemistry with one semester of biochemistry
Two semesters of physics with lab (algebra-based physics is acceptable contingent on major program requirements)
Two semesters of English
Two semesters of math (strongly recommended)
However, we’ve found that becoming a successful medical school applicant means considering math courses such as Calculus to be required and biochemistry to be strongly recommended. While social science courses aren’t absolutely necessary, many schools prefer to see them, and they go a long way to helping you on standardized tests like the MCAT or Casper—should you need to take it.
To help you determine the courses you’ll need, we’ve put together the table below listing the general medical school requirements and the associated courses at Boston College.
| Biology: One year with lab | BIOL2000 Molecules and Cells BIOL2040 Investigations in Molecular Cell Bio Lab Plus any course above Biol 2000 (see notes in 'optional column') |
Boston College Notes: Any other Biology course above BIOL2000. For example: Intro to Physiology, Ecology and Evolution, Genetics, Cell Biology. Please note that Molecules and Cells is a prerequisite for advanced Biology courses. Additionally, the MCAT and DAT contain a subset of questions on Ecology and Evolution, so you should study the sections on ecology and evolution in the standardized test preparation materials for either the MCAT or the DAT. Boston College Notes: Biology/Biochemistry majors will take the Biology lab sophomore year; all other majors will take the Bio lab junior year. |
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| General chemistry: One year with lab | CHEM1109 General Chemistry I with Lab
CHEM1110 General Chemistry II with Lab |
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| Organic chemistry: One year with lab | CHEM2231 Organic Chemistry I with Lab
CHEM2232 Organic Chemistry II with Lab OR 1 semester of Biochemistry |
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| Biochemistry: One course | CHEM446101 Biochemistry I
( This is a 2 semester course for non-chemistry majors)
Chemistry majors will take: CHEM446501 |
Shemmassian Notes: We recommend taking a year of Organic Chemistry along with a course in Biochemistry as it's beneficial for the MCAT. |
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| Math: One year |
MATH110001 Calculus I
MATH110103 Calculus II Note: Chemistry, Computer Science/B.S., Geology, Geophysics, Mathematics, and Physics majors should enroll in: MATH110201 Calculus I MATH110301 Calculus II |
SOCY2200 Sociology Statistics
PSYC1120 Psychology Statistics or BIO2030 Biostatistics Boston College Notes: Please note that the majority of Pre-Health students do not take Calculus for Math/Science majors as this is for the Chemistry/Computer Science, Geology/Geophysics, Mathematics, or Physics majors. |
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| Physics: One year with lab |
PHYS1500 Foundations of Physics I (Algebra based)
PHYS1501 Foundations of Physics II (Algebra based) Note: The following courses are primarily for biology majors and other premedical students. Each course is paired with a lab listed below. PHYS2100 Physics I (Calculus based) PHYS2101 Physics II (Calculus based) Labs: PHYS2050 Introduction to Physics Lab I PHYS2051 Introduction to Physics Lab II |
Boston College Notes: Foundations of Physics (PHYS 1500–1501; algebra based) and lab (PHYS 2050–2051) also fulfill health professions graduate school requirements. Depending on your major requirements, you may have a choice to fulfill the Pre-Health requirement with Algebra-based Physics. Please note that in preparation for the MCAT and Health Professions Graduate Schools, either Physics course sequence is acceptable. Please check with your department regarding your major requirements. |
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| College-level English/writing: One year |
ENGL101001 - First Year Writing Seminar
Plus another writing intensive course such as: ENGL108001 Literature Core |
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| Social and behavioral sciences: Two courses |
PSYC111101 Self, Mind, & Society
SOCY100101 Introductory Sociology OR the below course instead of Introductory Sociology: SOCY100201 Introduction to Sociology for Healthcare Professions |
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The courses listed above will leave you with your hands full, and balancing the demands of your major alongside your premed requirements can be a daunting task. To help you with this, we’ve put together a sample three-year course plan in the table below to show how you might go about planning your journey from freshman to medical school matriculant.
Sample Boston College premed three-year course plan
Applying to medical school after junior year |
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| Freshman Fall |
CHEM1109 General Chemistry I with Lab
MATH110001 Calculus I PHYS2100 Physics I (Calculus based) PHYS2050 Introduction to Physics Lab I |
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| Freshman Spring |
CHEM1110 General Chemistry II with Lab
MATH110103 Calculus II PHYS2101 Physics II (Calculus based) PHYS2051 Introduction to Physics Lab II |
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| Freshman Summer |
SOCY100101 Introductory Sociology
PSYC111101Self, Mind, & Society ENGL101001 - First Year Writing Seminar |
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| Sophomore Fall |
CHEM2231 Organic Chemistry I with Lab
CHEM2232 Organic Chemistry II with Lab BIOL2000 Molecules and Cells (for biology majors in preparation for Biology lab) |
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| Sophomore Spring |
BIOL2000 Molecules and Cells (for non-biology majors in preparation for Biology lab)
BIOL2040 Investigations in Molecular Cell Bio Lab (for biology majors) |
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| Sophomore Summer | ENGL108001 Literature Core | |||||
| Junior Fall |
BIOL2040 Investigations in Molecular Cell Bio Lab (for non-biology majors)
CHEM446101 Biochemistry I (for non-chemistry majors) OR CHEM446501 Biochemistry (Chemistry Majors) |
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| Junior Spring | MCAT | |||||
From the three-year plan we’ve outlined above, you can see that the first two years of your time as a Boston premed will be intense. To get everything squared away on time, you’ll likely need to spread out your classes into the summer to avoid overloading yourself.
Keep in mind that this plan assumes you want to continue straight into medical school and not take a gap year. If you’ve been considering a gap year, this can be a great way to spread out your commitments and reduce your levels of classroom stress. Furthermore, you’re not alone. Boston College notes that 76% of its med school applicants take one or more gap years before applying and according to the AAMC’s 2023 Medical School Questionnaire (MSQ) 48% of respondents indicated that they took one to two years off before applying to medical school. Taking a gap year gives you breathing room in a number of ways since you might consider a post-bacc program to complete your prerequisites or use the time to bolster your extracurricular profile.
Suggested reading: (How to Spend Your Gap Year Before Medical School)
How to maintain a high GPA as a Boston College premed
It’s no secret that you’ll need stellar grades to get into medical school. In the 2023-2024 cycle, the average GPA and MCAT among applicants was 3.64 and 506.3, while among matriculants it was significantly higher at 3.77 and 511.7. To have the best chances of getting into med school, keeping your grades up is crucial.
While you’re studying at Boston College, it will be important to take advantage of every opportunity and resource available to you. As mentioned earlier, the Pre-Health Advising office is a great place to start. Keeping the following pieces of advice in mind will also help.
Plan your course schedule carefully, and plan ahead. It’s incredibly important that you take the time to map out the courses you’ll take each semester and consider how your plan fits into your larger goal of med school acceptance. You know you will need particular classes, but be sure to take them at the optimal time. Carefully consider when you will take the MCAT, which extracurricular activities you plan to take on (such as study abroad, and summer research programs), and even when you plan to enter med school (depending on whether you take a gap year or apply before graduation).
Remain aware of your workload. Along with planning your classes properly, you’ll need to remain aware of how much work these courses will take. Everyone’s time is limited, and you’ll need to take into account your own abilities in addition to the workload in the classes you sign up for. If organic chemistry is challenging for you, make sure you take it during a semester without any other stressful classes so that you can devote your full attention to doing well.
Summer classes. Taking classes during the summer is a great way to get prerequisites out of the way so you can concentrate your efforts on difficult courses that will matter to your medical school application. Many medical schools look at your science as well as your non-science (overall) GPA, so giving as much space as possible to focus on courses like chemistry and biology is a great strategy.
Take advantage of the resources at Boston College. If you find yourself struggling in a class, it’s best to reach out for help as soon as possible. Ignoring the situation or holding off getting assistance risks lower grades on tests and assignments. It’s always more difficult to raise a GPA once it drops than it is to keep it up. With this in mind, here are a few resources you may find useful.
The Academic Advising Center’s Pre-Health Program at Boston College has a wealth of resources available to help you succeed as a premed. Here, you can get academic support, advice on what medical schools are looking for, help with planning and studying for standardized tests, as well as get connected to individualized tutoring.
The BC Writing Center Many classes will assign essays and research papers throughout your journey as a Boston College premed. If you’re having trouble finding the right wording or are simply struggling with your ‘voice,’ they’re here to help. You can schedule individual tutoring sessions via Zoom or in-person.
The Connors Family Learning Center (CFLC) The CFLC at Boston College provides assistance to learning-disabled students as well as tutoring for the entire undergraduate community on campus. Students are able to book 50-minute tutoring sessions in a variety of subjects from Biology and Chemistry to Philosophy and Economics. They also provide writing help through services such as the Online Writing Lab (OWL), in which you can submit a draft of an assignment and obtain feedback through an online portal.
Professor Office Hours One of the most important and often overlooked resources for ambitious premeds is their professors’ office hours. These are times teachers set aside for students to ask any questions they wish and get clarification or help on course material. If there’s anything you don’t understand, meeting one-on-one with your professor before a test goes a long way toward maintaining your grade.
What’s the best premed major at Boston College?
Choosing your major as a Boston College premed is one of the most consequential decisions of your premed journey. Not only will you be selecting your focus for the next four years, but it could also have implications for your future chances of acceptance to medical school.
That said, this decision is not easy and should not be taken lightly. If you major in biology or chemistry, your prerequisite workload may be lightened since many of the courses required for your major will overlap. For Boston College undergraduates, the most popular majors range from finance and economics to biology, political science, and psychology. However, most premeds want to know if there’s any benefit to a particular major when it comes to applying to medical school.
This question is a difficult one to answer. While biology majors make up the largest contingent of medical school applicants by far, they don’t gain acceptance at a rate exceeding other majors. For example, in the 2023-2024 cycle, about 43% of biology majors matriculated while about 51% of humanities majors did.
We could speculate on the reasons for this—Are humanities majors better essay writers? Do they have higher overall GPAs? Are their courses just easier? But that’s outside the scope of this guide.
It’s important to keep in mind that regardless of your major, adcoms will be looking at your GPA, and you’ll need to satisfy the largely science-based premed prerequisites to even be considered.
Our best advice is to major in something you’re passionate about and that you will enjoy studying for the next four years. This will be reflected in your grades when it comes time to apply to medical school, making your application stronger. You may even find you can handle a greater workload if you enjoy what you’re doing, leaving more time for extracurriculars and MCAT preparation.
Suggested reading: (The Best Premed Majors to Get Into Medical School)
When should you take the MCAT?
As standardized tests go, the MCAT strikes fear into the hearts of premeds across the country. This one exam is incredibly consequential for your chances of getting into med school, and we advise taking every precaution possible to achieve your highest score.
The optimal time to take the exam will come down to a number of factors based on your personal situation, your major, and how many of the prerequisite courses you have completed.
For example, if you plan to take a gap year, waiting until your senior year to take the MCAT shouldn’t be an issue. At that time, you should have already taken most of the courses covering the material on the exam. However, if you’re planning to go straight through to medical school after graduation, we recommend sitting the exam after your sophomore year or from January to March of your junior year. This will keep you on schedule and build in a bit of extra time for a retake if you’re not happy with your score.
Whenever you decide to take the MCAT, it’s important to have a thorough study plan in place long before scheduling your test date. Setting aside a few hours each day to go over test content months before the exam will make a huge difference to your overall score.
Furthermore, making sure you’ve taken as many of the science courses you’ll need for the exam as possible is a sound strategy. For example, having your biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry courses checked off will help you greatly come exam time.
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Part 3: Boston College premed extracurriculars
All medical schools take a holistic approach to admissions, meaning that your GPA and MCAT scores are just one (albeit very important) factor in their decision process. They’re looking for candidates who can demonstrate leadership, a wide range of interests outside of academics, and crucially, a knowledge of what entering the field of medicine entails.
To this end, they want to see a robust extracurricular profile in applicants that includes volunteering, shadowing, and possibly even research. If you’re thinking of entering an MD-PhD program, gaining research as a Boston College premed is absolutely necessary.
Boston College Student Groups
You’ll also want to showcase your interests through your extracurricular activities, which can be done by engaging in student groups. Boston College has more than 300 registered student organizations catering to every interest from politics and culture to sports and music.
Of particular interest to Boston College premeds may be the Mendel Society, a group focused on pre-health track students, and the STEM and Health Organization for AHANA, a support group for BIPOC (black, indigenous, or persons of color) and other underrepresented students pursuing STEM or pre-health tracks.
Additionally, if the intersection of biotechnology and ethics fascinates you, you may be interested in joining the Boston College Bioethics Society. Founded in 2018, this group explores current topics surrounding gene editing, providing care to undocumented immigrants, religion in medical decision making, and stem cell research, among others.
Volunteering at Boston College
The greater Boston area has a variety of volunteer opportunities available to Boston College premeds. An excellent place to start your search is the Volunteer and Service Learning Center, where you’ll find opportunities in the community through organizations such as BC BIGS, a youth mentoring program for Boston College students, and Rebuilding Together Boston—a project connecting BC students once a semester to work on a rebuilding project around the city.
For clinical volunteering experiences, there are a number of hospitals around Boston College that accept premed volunteers. BC notes that many of the hospitals have their own processes for accepting volunteers, so you’ll have to apply to them directly. However, a few of the hospitals include the Beth Israel Deconess Medical Center, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and even Massachusetts General Hospital.
Additionally, the Boston College Neighborhood Center has multiple programs where your skills are needed. You may decide to offer your time teaching English, tutoring, or mentoring girls a few hours a week. These programs are a great way to highlight your leadership skills and initiative to adcoms.
Additionally, the Boston College Neighborhood Center has multiple programs where your skills are needed. You may decide to offer your time teaching English, tutoring, or mentoring girls a few hours a week. These programs are a great way to highlight your leadership skills and initiative to adcoms.
Research at Boston College
There are few universities in America that offer better undergrad research opportunities than Boston College. Here, you have access to top-tier faculty exploring questions in a plethora of fascinating fields. Some recent explorations include creating more sustainable plastics from wood and investigating the mechanisms behind how memory functions.
Begin your search for opportunities on the Boston College research page, where you’ll find out about what’s going on around campus, as well as information on how undergraduates can get involved.
Whether you’re interested in a medical, science-based, or humanities research project, you can find information on obtaining funding for your idea. There are also a number of undergraduate research journals that may spark your interest. Being able to point to your name in a publication is greatly beneficial for any applicant interested in pursuing academic medicine.
Summer undergraduate research opportunities are another excellent way to add experiences to your resume. As a Boston College premed, you’ll find plenty of them through the Biology department, which lists a diverse array of programs that you can apply to. Among these programs are the following:
National Institutes of Health Summer Internship Program: These summer internship programs are specifically geared toward students with an interest in careers in research and healthcare. Participants are placed on a team of researchers at an NIH location for a full-time research position in areas such as biomedical and social science research.
Biomedical Science Careers Program: This Boston-area program supports underrepresented students in pursuing careers in medicine and the sciences while supporting healthcare institutions. If you happen to belong to an underrepresented group in medicine, they may just have an internship opportunity for you.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Summer Research Program: A top-tier research program at MIT for undergraduates and graduates across the country, this program will put you on a team contributing to a cutting-edge research project.
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBioEd): The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council runs various summer internship programs for undergraduate students to explore research in the life sciences.
Shadowing at Boston College
No matter where you attend for undergrad, finding shadowing opportunities is a daunting challenge for premeds. It takes time to build relationships, and opportunities are often found organically through friends or word-of-mouth. This means you’ll also need to strategize how you’ll go about gaining this vital shadowing experience early on in your premed years.
Fortunately, there are a few ways Boston College helps your shadowing efforts succeed. The Pre-Health Program office periodically sends out notices of volunteering and internship opportunities to students. This may include information about shadowing programs in the area.
There is also the recently launched EagleShadow, a virtual shadowing program created by BC pre-health students as a response to Covid-related shutdowns of shadowing opportunities. The interactive platform they created helps premed students interface with physicians they wouldn’t otherwise be able to and virtually evaluate case studies.
If you’re still having trouble finding the perfect fit, you may want to reach out to practicing physicians directly. Family friends or fellow members of your religious organization are a great place to start looking. If you need to start cold-calling or cold-emailing doctors, there are ways to warm up the initial contact. For example, searching the alumni network at Boston College can help create some common ground, as well as seeking out BC alumni on professional social networking sites like LinkedIn.
Suggested reading: (How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor [Example Scripts Included])
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Part 4: Getting into medical school as a Boston College premed
Successfully gaining acceptance into medical school is a true exercise in patience and persistence. It may seem at some times to be a drawn out waiting game, while at other times an endless stream of assignments, study-sessions and volunteering.
You’ll need to become an expert in balancing your time effectively. While maintaining responsibilities for classes and other commitments, you’ll need to find time to craft an outstanding personal statement and tailor your secondary essays to each school you wish to attend—not to mention that this may all coincide with your MCAT study.
However, you’re not alone in this process. Navigating your path through Boston College premed will have you supported by the Pre-Health Advising Office, who are there to advise you on your extracurricular experiences, the strengths and weaknesses of your application, managing and submitting your application through AMCAS, and even interview skills.
Boston College premeds work with the BC Pre-Health Committee and are assigned a Pre-Health Advisor. Each fall, a meeting is held to kickstart the process for students interested in applying to medical school during the upcoming summer. At this meeting, you’ll be given your BC Committee Application as well as a checklist calendar to keep you on track.
During the spring semester, you will need to obtain three letters of recommendation, one of which must be from a science professor you have worked closely with. Following that semester, your application will be submitted with your advisor’s approval to the committee, who will then review your undergraduate performance and prepare your committee letter vouching for your suitability for medical school.
Boston College premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics
In the previous admissions cycle (2023-2024), Boston College produced a total of 163 applicants to medical schools across the country. Unfortunately, there isn’t any data pertaining to exactly how many of them were accepted, but BC notes that in the past few years, the students accepted from their school had GPAs in line with the averages of accepted students nationally—specifically 3.6.
Many Boston College premeds are curious about their chances of acceptance into a top-tier medical school in the area, such as Harvard Medical School, the Tufts University School of Medicine, or the Boston University School of Medicine. Again, there’s no hard data pointing to an easy answer for this, but we do know that 7 former Boston College students were accepted to Tufts in the 23-24 cycle.
Anecdotally, volunteering at one of these hospitals during your time as a premed may be beneficial to your application if you can get a glowing letter of recommendation, but it’s unclear how much of an advantage (if any) this will grant you with the adcoms at those schools.
However, we can say with the robust assistance provided by the Pre-Health Committee, applicants with solid scores from Boston College are highly qualified.
Final thoughts
The road to medical school from Boston College will test your determination and commitment to a career as a physician at multiple points along the way. There's no single "perfect" way to succeed as a premed, but if you stay focused, work hard, and are prepared to adapt, you will count yourself among the other privileged BC graduates to don a white coat.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
