How to Succeed as a Harvard Premed
/Everything you need to know about being a Harvard premed, including detailed premed requirements, the best extracurriculars, and the Harvard premed acceptance rate
Learn how to get into medical school as a harvard premed
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Part 1: Introduction
As one of the world's most famous institutions of higher education, Harvard University sits at the top of the Ivy League. Its professors are brilliant, its science and technology research is outstanding, and its connections reach worldwide – with many global leaders calling it their alma mater.
As a Harvard undergrad, you can count yourself among a highly fortunate pool of students to make the cut. In 2023, they admitted only 1,966 applicants out of a pool of 56,937 for an acceptance rate of just 3.45%. You’ll be part of a class of ambitious, intelligent, and hardworking students.
This means that to succeed as a Harvard premed, you’ll have your work cut out for you. You will have to maintain top-tier grades amongst a pool of top-tier students and go above and beyond to ensure you gather enough extracurriculars, research, and shadowing experience to get accepted into medical school.
The good news is that Harvard’s connections and the greater Boston area offer some of the nation's best research and shadowing opportunities. Indeed, if your dream is to become a physician-scientist, there’s no better place to begin your journey and make connections, with Harvard Medical School ranked #1 in research by US News and World Report.
In this guide, we’ll look at how to carefully plan your time as a Harvard premed to get all the benefits of a Harvard education and still be able to navigate the uncertain seas of premed life. We’ll include insights into how to construct a class schedule where you can excel, how to find outstanding extracurricular activities, and how to negotiate the application process, setting you on your way to a white coat.
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Part 2: Harvard Premed Requirements
The options for carving your path from undergraduate premed to medical school are plentiful and varied at Harvard. Known for its rigorous sciences and humanities programs, Harvard premeds can dive into subjects as diverse as Anthropology, Integrative Biology, or even Slavic Languages.
As with any premed plan, specific requirements must be met to enter medical school. Completing those requirements at Harvard necessitates proper planning and consideration when applying to medical school.
Harvard’s Premedical Blue Book spells out the paths premeds can take to satisfy the requirements for med school and includes helpful advice for students seeking a career in medicine. It states that about 75-80% of medical school applicants from Harvard wait until their senior year and afterward to apply. This points to the academic demands Harvard students are under and the difficulty of managing those demands with the added pressures of preparing for medical school.
When your goal is to successfully complete your coursework as a Harvard premed, determining when you will take the required courses is only a part of the puzzle; you’ll also need to know what those required courses are and whether you can choose among different ones. We’ve created a table below listing the most common premed requirements and their associated Harvard courses.
| Biology:
One year with lab |
Two of the following courses: Life Sciences 1b Life Sciences 2 Life Sciences 50a* Life Sciences 50b** Molecular & Cellular Biology 60 Molecular & Cellular Biology 68 Organismic & Evolutionary Biology 10 Organismic & Evolutionary Biology 58 Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology 50 Human Evolutionary Biology 1420 Engineering Sciences 53 BIOS S-1a (Harvard Summer School) BIOS S-1b (Harvard Summer School) |
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| General chemistry:
One year with lab |
Two of the following courses: Life and Physical Sciences A or Life Sciences 1a or Life Sciences 50a* Physical Sciences 1 (no longer offered) or Physical Sciences 11 or Physical Sciences 10 Engineering Sciences 181 (for Engineering concentrators) Advanced inorganic or physical chemistry.** |
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| Organic chemistry:
One year with lab |
One of the following series: Chemistry 17 and Chemistry 27 Chemistry 20 and Chemistry 30 CHEM S-20ab (Harvard Summer School) CHEM S-17 (Harvard Summer School) and Chemistry 27* |
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| Biochemistry:
One semester |
One of the following courses: Most medical schools that require biochemistry will accept a combination of Chemistry 17 and Chemistry 27 as fully meeting both the organic and biochemistry requirements. Molecular & Cellular Biology 63 Molecular & Cellular Biology 65 BCMP 234 BIOS S-10 (Harvard Summer School) Advanced courses such as Chemistry 170 or Chemistry 171. Please consult with OCS advisers. |
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| Physics:
One year with lab |
One of the following series: Physical Sciences 2 and Physical Sciences 3 Physical Sciences 12a and Physical Sciences 12b (Please note that PS 12a is a prerequisite course for PS 12b) Physics 15a or Physics 16, and Physics 15b Applied Physics 50a and Applied Physics 50b PHYS S-1a and PHYS S-1b (Harvard Summer School) |
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| Math:
One semester to one year (calculus and/or statistics) |
One of the following sequences: Math Ma and Math Mb or Math 1a or Math 1b or Math 19a or Math 18 or Math 21a or 21b or Applied Math 21a or 21b or Life Sciences 50b** or Any more advanced Math or Applied Math course PLUS Any statistics course (e.g., Statistics Department courses or Psychology 1900 (please note- Psychology 1 or equivalent is a prerequisite for this course), Math 19b, Sociology 156, Applied Math 101, or Engineering Sciences 150) |
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| English:
One year |
One year of the following options: Expos 10 and Expos 20 One semester of the English requirement is met with Expos. (Students who take Expos 10 and Expos 20 have met the full requirement of two semesters of English.) For many medical schools, the second semester can be met with English or Literature courses, many Humanities courses, or with some General Education courses. |
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From the table above, we can see multiple ways to complete the premedical requirements at Harvard. However you choose to organize your time, your courses will be heavy in the sciences, and it may benefit you to consider this when choosing a major.
For example, if you decide to major in biology, many of the courses listed above will be required for your major. If you’re a humanities student, on the other hand, most of these science courses will be in addition to your work toward your degree.
That said, medical schools don’t prioritize specific majors over others, and it’s considered prudent to simply major in what interests you, as this is likely to contribute to a higher GPA overall. If your choice of major is dependent on your perceived workload to reach your med school acceptance goals on a specific timeline, with proper planning you can fulfill your premed requirements without becoming overwhelmed. Harvard gives a few sample timelines that we’ve placed in the tables below.
Applying to medical school after senior year |
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| Freshman Fall | Life Sciences 1a or LPS A Math 1a |
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| Freshman Spring | Life Sciences 1b MATH 1b |
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| Sophomore Fall | Life Sciences 2 | |||||
| Sophomore Spring | Physical Sciences 11 Stat 102 |
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| Junior Fall | Chemistry 17 | |||||
| Junior Spring | Chemistry 27 | |||||
| Senior Fall | Physical Sciences 2 or Applied Physics 50a |
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| Senior Spring | Physical Sciences 3 or Applied Physics 50b |
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Applying to medical school after junior year |
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| Freshman Fall | Life Sciences 1a or LPS A Math 1b |
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| Freshman Spring | Physical Sciences 11 Stat 102 |
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| Sophomore Fall | Chemistry 17 OEB 10 |
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| Sophomore Spring | Chemistry 27 Life Sciences 1b |
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| Junior Fall | Physical Sciences 2 or Appied Physics 50a |
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| Junior Spring | Physical Sciences 3 or Appied Physics 50b |
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These are just a few of the options but be sure to check the Premedical Blue Book for a few more, such as those involving completing the premed requirements after graduation or working them into summer school.
How to maintain a high GPA as a Harvard premed
With all of the demands on the academic life of a Harvard undergraduate, it can be difficult to juggle the maintenance of a high GPA with the additional requirements of premed courses. With this in mind, it’s helpful to remember that many Harvard students finish their bachelor’s degree before even attempting premed courses.
Harvard offers a post-baccalaurete Premedical program at the Harvard Extension School allowing students to complete all of their premed coursework after graduation. These post-bacc students still retain access to Harvard pre-medical advising and the Office of Career Services to assist them on their journey to medical school.
While planning to complete premed requirements post-graduation may work for some students, it’s a less-than-ideal solution for many ambitious undergrads. Maintaining a high GPA at Harvard means managing your time wisely and using all of the resources at your disposal. We’ve found the following tips to be extremely helpful in ensuring you keep your grades up while still finding time to rack up extracurricular experiences and research hours.
Take advantage of assistance. Stay alert to your workload and how you manage it. You may occasionally feel you’ve got too much on your plate, making it difficult to get all of your work done. Make sure you remember the resources available to you at Harvard such as the Harvard Office of Career Services (OCS), pre-health peer liaisons (a list of which can be found in the Premedical Blue Book), and house premedical tutors.
Summer Classes. Trying to cram a full course load involving your major with the additional requirements of premed courses into just the fall and spring semesters can be overwhelming. Consider spreading out your time commitments and look for courses you can complete during the summer. This will allow you more time to focus on courses for your major without becoming distracted by assignments for premed courses. Remember, you’ll want to keep that GPA up above all else but you’ll especially want to show you have high grades in required courses for medical school.
Plan Early. Plan Well. Having a solid foundational plan in place before each year begins is crucial for success. If you want to apply to medical school in your junior year, you just need to plan to make that happen. Revising your plan each year may be necessary and this can also help keep you on track. Don’t forget to allow some wriggle room for yourself as circumstances can change as you go through your bachelor’s.
Consider altering your plan. If you’ve got your heart on becoming a doctor as soon as possible, you should be proud of your dedication and singularity of purpose. However, don’t let that cloud your judgment when it comes to planning your schedule. If juggling commitments to extracurriculars and classes becomes too much, you might think about taking a gap year. Many medical schools value the extra experience one gains from a gap year and as long as you spend it wisely, it can enhance your application while also allowing you some academic breathing room.
What are the best academic resources for a Harvard premed?
Just as Harvard expects its students to be committed to academic excellence, it is committed to providing students with a wealth of academic resources to ensure students are positioned to do their best work.
For example, the Academic Resource Center (ARC) has academic coaches available to provide workshops and sessions that teach students things like time management, organizational skills, good study habits, how to read efficiently, and how to make the college experience positive! They also teach students self-care techniques and how to hold themselves and others accountable.
Through The Writing Center, Harvard students can obtain one-on-one help for any writing assignment for any course. This is an invaluable resource, particularly since Harvard premed students can later apply what they learn from these consultations to developing their med school applications—particularly regarding their personal statements and answering secondary essay questions.
Peer tutoring is also available for Harvard premed students, and the Harvard Library has an abundance of additional resources, from live chat with librarians to an enormous number of accessible databases and even research guides for varying concentrations.
What is the best Harvard premed major?
Deciding which major to commit yourself to at Harvard can rack the brains of even the brightest minds. For premeds, this usually comes down to whether a STEM major or a humanities major will increase their chances of acceptance into medical school.
There’s no easy answer to this question, and no matter your major, you will still have to work extremely hard to keep your grades up. The best advice is to choose a major that fascinates you, regardless of your perceived likelihood of acceptance to medical school. That way, you’ll throw yourself into a subject you enjoy and more easily maintain a high GPA – which is most important for med school applications.
That said, the most popular majors at Harvard are the social sciences, biology, mathematics, computer science, and history. In an intellectual environment surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the country, high grades in any of these subjects would be looked upon favorably by adcoms.
When should you take the MCAT?
You should consider many factors when selecting an MCAT test date, including your personal circumstances, major, prerequisite courses completed, and whether you have an adequate study plan for the exam.
If you want to apply to medical school between your junior and senior year (i.e., to go to med school “straight through,” without a gap year), you’ll want to take the MCAT either after your sophomore year or between January and March of your junior year. By then, you’ll have likely completed the majority of your prerequisites—more on those in a moment—which will make your test prep experience much smoother.
In addition, our recommended test dates will give you sufficient time for an MCAT retake if you don’t achieve your desired score on your first attempt, as well as the space to pre-write your application essays and take full advantage of rolling admissions.
(Note: If you plan to apply following your senior year or beyond, taking the MCAT later would be fine.)
Remember that GPA and MCAT scores account for a large part of a successful med school application. It’s best to consider balancing the work required for a favorable outcome without the work for one dragging down study time for the other. If you try to cram too much into too little time, you may lower your GPA and not achieve the MCAT score you want.
You can retake the MCAT, but it’s worth noting that retaking a class or the MCAT must result in a higher score for it to benefit your application.
As a Harvard premed, ensuring you’ve taken prerequisite courses that will appear on the test before you take it, is a great strategy. For example, biochemistry questions are featured on the MCAT, so you’ll want to have related courses out of the way to get your best score. At Harvard, these courses include:
Chemistry 17 and Chemistry 27
Molecular & Cellular Biology 63
Molecular & Cellular Biology 65
BCMP 234 • BIOS S-10 (Harvard Summer School)
Advanced courses such as Chemistry 170 or Chemistry 171
It can also be beneficial to ensure you’ve taken courses that contribute to your understanding of human psychology and social interaction as this is covered on the MCAT. At Harvard, courses such as Psychology 1, Sociology 10, or 20-series classes can help you prepare.
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Part 3: Harvard Premed Extracurriculars
As a premed at one of the top Ivy League schools in the nation, ticking off all of the premed requirements will not be enough to guarantee your entry into medical school. You’ll also have to engage in various extracurriculars to bolster your application and stand out, even with the Harvard name on your bachelor’s certificate.
Opportunities for gaining extracurricular experience abound within Harvard and the greater Boston area. From student groups to hospitals to world-class research facilities, you may be spoiled for choice about which to pursue.
That’s not to say that it’ll be easy. To succeed as a Harvard premed, you’ll need to gain experience shadowing a physician, working in a clinical setting, doing research, and engaging in activities that display leadership and well-roundedness to adcoms.
The list of student organizations at Harvard is a fantastic place to start your search for extracurriculars with everything from hobbies to research and volunteering. Remember that adcoms love seeing candidates with leadership skills and engaging in science-related extracurriculars.
Volunteering at Harvard
Volunteering is a terrific way to bolster a medical school application by displaying your commitment to humanity and leadership abilities.
There are many campus volunteer opportunities at Harvard, with organizations engaged in various activities, from the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter to Cambridge Health Alliance and even East End House, an organization offering mentoring to children and support for families.
If you’re seeking clinical volunteering experience as a Harvard premed, contacting community clinics in the Boston area and asking how you might contribute your time and talents is a significant first step. Often, these clinics help underserved communities and the economically disadvantaged, who always need volunteers.
Remember that where you gain volunteer experience is not as important as what you do. You might look state-wide if you’re having trouble finding the right fit. Additionally, Harvard provides a list of programs in the greater Boston area and nationwide.
Research at Harvard
As mentioned earlier, Harvard Medical School is number 1 in the nation for research. Harvard premeds are surrounded by some of the foremost research facilities in the world. Gaining research experience as a premed can certainly grant you advantages on a med school application, especially if you’re considering an MD-PhD program.
Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (URAF) is where you can explore the possibilities open to you and get advising help. From here you can search and apply for opportunities that suit your interests.
For those looking to strengthen their biology credentials, URAF has a specific page dedicated to research in the life sciences. Furthermore, many premeds aspire to put lab experience on their application and Harvard has affiliations with labs that may be willing to take on undergraduate researchers. The labs within Harvard’s professional schools may be most interesting to premeds. These cover areas such as biomedical informatics, neuroscience, and stem cell research.
While searching for research opportunities it’s important to consider when you will take part in the research. Many premeds find juggling the demands of coursework and extracurriculars during the school year quite stressful and adding research or lab responsibilities to the mix can cause grades and your work on the research team to suffer. For this reason, joining projects during the summer could be an option to keep you on track and focused.
Planning wisely will ensure you get a good reference from the lab or project you were a part of. Remember that if you do pursue a project at a lab, you maintain consistent communication with your supervisor about your availability if exams are coming up or papers are due.
Shadowing at Harvard
Finding shadowing opportunities is one of the trickiest aspects of a premed’s life, as this involves building relationships with practicing physicians and possibly even cold-calling them. The Harvard Premedical Society has physician mentoring programs that can assist you with finding a good fit. Relationship-building takes time, so it is good to work on establishing and nurturing relationships with possible mentors early on in your academic career at Harvard. Some of the best opportunities come about organically, so, in the beginning, simply introduce yourself and work on establishing a relationship; there’s no need to mention that you’re a prospective med school student or that eventually you’ll need shadowing hours. Just let it happen, and eventually, it’ll just “make sense” to approach that person with whom you already have an established relationship.
Along those lines, it might make sense to approach your own medical team! Your own doctors, physician assistants, surgeons, and nurse practitioners can provide valuable information, so don’t overlook this obvious networking opportunity.
If you’re an athlete, you may want to explore opportunities within the Harvard Athlete Medical Mentoring Program. Furthermore, the Harvard BIOME (Biomedical Interdisciplinary Occupations and Medical Exposure) program offers students the chance to shadow a physician during Harvard’s Wintersession week.
If none of these opportunities suits you, it’s always worth reaching out to alumni. You can find alumni through the Harvard Alumni Association and Harvard Alumni in Healthcare. Harvard also offers an alumni advisor program called Firsthand Advisors, where you can connect with alumni in various professions to set up mentoring sessions.
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Part 4: Getting into medical school as a Harvard premed
No matter which university you ultimately call your alma mater, applying to medical school is an anxiety-ridden process. Crafting personal statements tailored to each school, choosing which experiences to highlight, and studying for the MCAT can leave even Harvard premeds on edge. The fact is that even an undergraduate degree from Harvard is unlikely to smooth your path to medical school without putting in a concerted effort. Your GPA will still have to shine and your MCAT scores will still need to be top-notch to land a place at the school of your dreams.
With that in mind, the Harvard Office of Career Services (OCS) is the place to look for guidance through the medical school application process. OCS offers advising sessions for premed students as well as links to organizations and clubs in the life sciences.
Through their premed portal, you can find information and advice on gaining experience as a student, jobs and internships, and recommendations on how to apply to medical school. OCS has even prepared a spreadsheet of admissions requirements for many U.S. medical schools that may be helpful.
Harvard premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics
According to AAMC data, there were a total of 243 applicants to medical schools from Harvard in 2023. There aren’t solid statistics published regarding the acceptance rate of those applicants, however, on a national level only about 45% of applicants in 2023 were accepted into medical school and just under 44% matriculated.
Many premeds that attend Harvard for undergrad do so with the intention of applying to Harvard Medical School and may wonder if it’s easier to gain acceptance having completed the rigorous coursework of a Harvard bachelor’s degree.
There’s no definitive answer for this. However, with the average MCAT score and GPA for the class of 2028 sitting at 520.42 and 3.9, you can rest assured that acceptance will not come easy. Across the board, Harvard Medical School is very selective with just 2.4% of applicants matriculating into the class of 2028.
Final Thoughts
Acceptance into an elite Ivy League school is a stunning achievement, but simply completing an undergraduate degree stamped with the Harvard name is not an easy pass into medical school. You’ll still need to find time to work in extracurriculars, shadowing, and volunteering to make a solid case to adcoms of your suitability for and interest in the medical profession. Add to this the pressure of maintaining high grades in a challenging academic environment, and you’ll have a lot to overcome.
Nevertheless, with proper planning and forethought, all of these concerns can be managed while building connections and confidence that will follow you from Ivy League undergrad to practicing physician.
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.
