Learn how to navigate premed at the University of Texas at Austin, including premed requirements, the best premed extracurriculars, and the UT Austin premed acceptance rate

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: UT Austin premed requirements

Part 3: UT Austin premed extracurriculars

Part 4: Getting into medical school from UT Austin

Final thoughts

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: UT Austin premed requirements

Part 3: UT Austin premed extracurriculars

Part 4: Getting into medical school from UT Austin

Sample UT Austin premed two-year course plan

How to maintain a high GPA as a UT Austin premed

What’s the best premed major at UT Austin?

When should you take the MCAT?

Clinical and community volunteering

Shadowing

Research

UT Austin premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics

A smiling UT Austin premed wearing a yellow shirt and holding books — LEARN HOW TO GET INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL AS A UT Austin PREMED

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The saying “Everything’s bigger in Texas” can also feel like it applies as a premed at the University of Texas at Austin. The numbers bear that out—in the 2021–2022 cycle, there were over 1,000 medical school applicants from UT, second only to UCLA.

While the large enrollment at UT certainly helps to create this high number of applicants, the resources that Texas offers also make it an excellent place to pursue your dreams of becoming a physician. As the flagship of the massive University of Texas system, UT is the number one public university in the state and one of the top 10 public universities in the nation.

UT students have significant opportunities for research, with large graduate schools in life and social sciences. The campus boasts the newly established Dell Medical School, which is rapidly building a national profile. The unique Health Science Scholars program allows undergraduates to earn a degree with honors in the life sciences and provides intensive advising, significant research opportunities, organized community involvement, and a community of like-minded individuals. Plus, living in Austin offers many wonderful opportunities to get involved in a dynamic, rapidly growing city.

While the resources and reputation of UT can be a big boost to a medical school application, it can be easy to feel lost in the crowd, given the school’s 40,000+ undergraduates and more than 1,000 premeds in each class, especially as you look for opportunities to demonstrate leadership and innovation. Standing out as an applicant from a school like UT requires expertly navigating the wide array of opportunities for research, volunteer work, shadowing, and extracurriculars, all while maintaining a top-notch academic record.

This guide combines insight from alumni and current students who have managed to rise to the top of this massive institution through hard work and careful planning. We will also analyze the data on how UT students have fared when applying to medical school and provide advice on how to emulate the successful applicants and avoid the pitfalls that have kept other students out. Through step-by-step guidance on how to succeed academically and identify extracurricular opportunities, you’ll learn how to stand out as a medical school applicant from UT Austin.

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Starting your freshman year with thousands of other students can quickly feel overwhelming. As a premed, you may feel similarly about your required science classes, many of which are among the largest on campus. However, these classes will provide you with a great foundation as you build to upper-level courses in your major, prepare for the MCAT, and ultimately satisfy the requirements for the medical schools you will apply to.

While there is no one right way to arrange your courses as a premed, UT does a great job of providing you with resources to help you decide on the best arrangement for your individual needs. Specific timelines for four-year and five-year graduation plans are detailed here. UT also provides an excellent flow chart to help you understand the sequence of common premed courses.

While these guides are terrific resources that should help you fulfill the guidelines for most medical schools, we also encourage you to confirm your requirements with your academic advisor and check them against the listed requirements of the schools you plan to apply to, since these can occasionally change.

The suggested coursework below applies to both the Texas-specific application (TMDSAS) and AMCAS for schools outside of Texas.

UT Austin Premed Requirements
Medical school requirement	Required courses	Optional courses
Biology: 12 hours lecture + 2 hours lab*	One of the following lecture sequences: Biology 311C, 311D, 325, and one 3-hour biology elective Biology 315H, 325H, and two 3-hour biology electives One of the following labs: Biology 206L, 2 hours of upper-division lab, or Biochemistry 369L (for majors)
General chemistry: One year with lab	One of the following lecture sequences: Chemistry 301 and 302 Chemistry 301H and 302H (honors) One of the following labs: Chemistry 204 or 317 (honors)
Organic chemistry: One year with lab	One of the following lecture sequences: Chemistry 320M and 320N Chemistry 328M and 328N (for majors) One of the following labs: Chemistry 220C or 128K + 128L (for majors)
Biochemistry: One course	Biochemistry 369 or 339F (for majors)	Biochemistry 369L
Math: One year	One of the following statistics courses: Math 316, 358K, 378K, or 384C/D One of the following calculus courses: Math 408N, 408K, or 408C	Statistics & Data Science 328M
Physics: One year with lab	One of the following sequences: Physics 317K + 105M and 317L + 105N Physics 302K + 105M and 302L + 105N Physics 303K + 105M and 303L + 105N (engineering majors) Physics 301 + 101L and 316 + 116L (some science and engineering majors)
College-level English/writing: One year	One of the following rhetoric (composition) courses: Rhetoric 306, 309K, or any Rhetoric Dept. Writing Flag course One of the following literature courses: English 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or any English Dept. literature course
Courses helpful for MCAT prep:		Psychology 301 Sociology 302

*Only 8 hours are typically required (6 hours lecture + 2 hours lab) for medical schools outside of Texas.

Looking at this list of courses, it can seem overwhelming to try to fit in all of the various medical school requirements throughout a variety of departments. However, many of these courses, such as the sequence from general chemistry to organic chemistry to biochemistry (as detailed by the flowchart linked above), need to be taken in sequence. While this limits your flexibility, it has the benefit of giving you a basic course structure for your first few years.

Outside of these courses, there are several different ways to slot in your required coursework in physics, English, and math, plus the classes needed to complete your major.

It might feel confusing to see that there are a number of ways to fulfill certain requirements. For example, when it comes to physics, an engineering major who wants to attend medical school would likely take the sequence of Physics 303K + 105M and Physics 303L + 105N to complete their major requirements. In contrast, a major in sociology or psychology would have all tracks open to them but would likely take the sequence of Physics 317K + 105M and Physics 317L + 105N, which would suffice for learning the topics on the MCAT.

Similarly, you might take certain courses if you are in the honors program or meet the requirements for specific departments’ honors courses. While all of the different tracks will satisfy the requirements for medical school, it’s important to consider the difficulty of courses, needs for your majors and minors, and your overall goals when deciding which path will be best for you.

Some factors to consider when planning your courses:

Requirements for your major(s), including if you are seeking departmental honors and minor(s)
General graduation requirements, such as the requirement for courses in American history/government (6 hours), with up to 3 hours consisting of Texas history
Prerequisites for certain premed courses (check course descriptions and the flowchart for more info)
Your goals for graduation, including plans for either four- or five-year graduation, both of which are available from the premed office
When you want to take the MCAT (if you’re planning to take a gap year, you might delay taking the MCAT and thus take the necessary prep courses at a slower pace—we’ll discuss this more shortly)
Balancing your schedule to keep a manageable mix of courses in order to avoid burnout and unnecessary stress

While the premed office at UT offers suggestions for creating your own schedule, here’s an additional potential plan for your first two years at UT.

(Note: This plan assumes you are a non-engineering student who is not in the honors college, and that you intend to take the MCAT fall of junior year and apply to medical school without taking a gap year.)

Given the large class sizes and strong academic culture at UT, it can be difficult to earn top grades as a premed. Not only do the courses present material that is challenging at any school, many also utilize difficult grading curves as you compete against other students, though this is more common in upper-level courses.

A common fear among premeds, both at UT and nationally, is of being “weeded out” of medical school candidacy by a low GPA in early classes. This is a legitimate concern—a low GPA is one of the most common reasons for students to be unsuccessful in medical school applications, and it can be difficult to recover your GPA after initial struggles.

For that reason, it’s important not only to work hard, but also to take advantage of the many resources at UT designed to help you succeed in your courses and improve your study skills.

Here is some advice for premed success at UT:

Use the resources available. Resources like The Sanger Learning Center provide incredibly helpful tools for succeeding in classes. This includes workshops on study skills, peer academic coaching, and even one-on-one tutoring for most of the common premed courses. Office hours with TAs and professors can also be useful to reinforce difficult concepts or to build relationships that could turn into letters of recommendation or research opportunities in the future.
Identify the professors you’d like to take courses with. Many premed classes use a rotating group of instructors that can vary year-to-year or depending on the time of day. Utilize course evaluations, the UT Reddit community, Rate My Professor, and discussions with older students at UT to help you to identify which professors best suit you in terms of approachability, teaching style, and overall course difficulty.
Identify upper-level/non-prerequisite courses. Given that these courses will give you the most flexibility, it is important to understand how to manage your workload, your interests, and your career goals. Utilize the same resources mentioned above for looking up professors in order to avoid classes with unnecessary difficulty or workload, create relationships with kind faculty, and develop your passions.
Consider pre-studying. If you’re concerned about a particular course, studying ahead of time can be a great way to be prepared for your semester. Utilize the time prior to the course, such as during summer or winter break, to study the subject using the prescribed textbook for the course, online resources like Khan Academy, or even prior lecture recordings for the course if they are available.
Don’t take an unnecessarily challenging course load. While it can be tempting to explore all of the different courses available at UT, in general, your first priority should be to maintain your GPA. Select majors and minors that will allow you to take these interesting courses while still moving towards graduation and devoting time to the other aspects of your med school application, such as extracurriculars and research. In addition, try to avoid semesters with excessive amounts of coursework, whether that be in terms of the total number of courses or the difficulty of courses taken simultaneously.
Consider taking classes over the summer. Summer classes can have several benefits, including spreading out your coursework, providing dedicated time to a challenging subject, and possibly having an easier curve than during the semester. Summer courses can be taken at UT or at many other universities, depending on where you will be living. Courses commonly taken during the summer include accelerated programs that allow you to complete both semesters of physics or organic chemistry.
Make use of practice questions and old exams. Many classes will provide you with access to prior years’ exams and/or problem sets as a study tool. We encourage you to use these as one of your most important study aids since they allow you to look at the way that questions will be asked in the course. Alternatively, exams available online for other schools’ similar courses can be helpful study tools, provided the overall course is similar to the one at UT.
Work hard! Getting a great GPA at UT will not always be easy, even if you were at the top of your class in high school. Your classmates are some of the brightest students in Texas and from around the country, so be prepared to spend a significant amount of time studying. Try to focus on using your study time wisely by identifying your individual learning style, whether that be spaced repetition with flashcards, video learning, or traditional textbooks and lectures.

(Suggested reading: How to Study as a Premed)

Nationally, applicants to medical school pursue majors in everything from chemistry to computer engineering to cabinet making, meaning that, in general, there isn’t one ideal major for premeds. This also holds true at UT, where, according to the database of applicants, premeds have pursued majors as diverse as art history, advertising, and petroleum engineering.

Despite the array of majors overall, premed students nationally and at UT tend to cluster in just a few common majors. Typically, most major in the biological sciences, as these courses closely overlap with both the career goals of many premeds and the overall premed requirements needed for medical school.

At UT, the five most common premed majors are biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, human development and family science, and psychology. The first three in particular allow students significantly more academic freedom compared to other majors, given the considerable overlap between the courses needed to complete these degrees and the required premed courses. However, other majors are also quite achievable.

For students in the College of Natural Sciences, an option unique to UT is the Pre-Health Professions Certificate. This program provides you with a focused area of study in addition to your major in the natural sciences, perfect for students who are interested in a career in the health professions but want to diversify their courses beyond the sciences. Completing this program requires 18 credits of theme courses across several areas, including cultural awareness, health and anatomy, healthcare policy, human and societal development, and nutrition.

Completing this certificate is not a requirement for applying to medical school, and not completing it does not preclude you from exploring interests outside of the sciences. However, if you hope to do so, it can provide a great way to direct your studies.

Ultimately, picking your major and minor(s) requires you to consider a few key questions:

Can you maintain a high GPA while completing this major and your premed requirements?
Can you graduate on time with this combination in four (or five) years?
Can you find your passion in this major?

While there are several schools of thought regarding when to take the MCAT, in reality, the best time to take this high-stakes test often depends on individual factors. For some, this may mean taking the test during their sophomore year if they’ve completed the necessary courses as preparation. However, this strategy would not work if you are planning to take multiple gap years (scores do expire!) or if you were unable to fit all the courses into your schedule.

Similarly, someone planning to apply as a senior without a gap year may not be well served by taking the MCAT in their junior spring, as they would not have time to retake the test if their result did not meet their target score.

Ultimately, choosing when to take this test will depend on when you feel prepared. Some students are strong test takers and may feel largely prepared from their coursework and a few weeks of studying. Others may not be quite as proficient at retaining information from courses they took some time ago and may require a longer period of self-study. As such, this decision requires a good degree of introspection to identify your own strengths and weaknesses.

As an example, for a traditional applicant from UT who intends to apply as a senior without taking a gap year, we often recommend taking the MCAT during the fall of a student’s junior year. This would allow you to potentially complete all the required classes in your first two years and then utilize the summer after sophomore year as dedicated study time. It also gives you the opportunity to retake the exam during the winter or spring of your junior year if your score isn’t what you’d hoped for while still staying true to your original application timeline.

To take the MCAT on this schedule requires some careful planning in order to complete the necessary courses that appear on the test. In general, these are the UT Austin courses we recommend completing prior to sitting for the MCAT:

Chemistry 301, 302, and 204 (or 301H, 302H, and 317)
Biology 311C and 311D (or 315H and 325H)
Physics 317K + 105M and Physics 317L + 105N (or another physics sequence detailed above)
Chemistry 320M, 320N, and 220C (or 328M, 328N, 128K, and 128L)
Biochemistry 369 (or 339F)

While completing all of these courses in your first two years can make for a relatively full schedule, it is achievable if balanced with some easier courses. Alternatively, taking courses over the summer will open up significantly more flexibility in your schedule.

You may hear conflicting information on the necessity of taking courses like biochemistry, sociology, and psychology. In general, our strong recommendation is to take biochemistry prior to taking the MCAT since biochemistry makes up a significant portion of the exam, with 25 percent of the C/P and B/B sections.

Sociology and psychology can be helpful; however, the overlap between these courses and the corresponding MCAT topics is not always as high as it is for other subjects. These subjects also lend themselves well to self-study, and thus many students will learn from outside materials instead.

Looking for MCAT practice questions? Check out our proprietary MCAT Question Bank for 2000+ sample questions and eight practice tests covering every MCAT category.

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Getting involved in activities outside of the classroom is a crucial part of creating a well-rounded medical school application. At a school like UT, the options for extracurriculars are incredibly numerous and diverse, with over 1,100 registered student organizations. These include things you may be familiar with such as dance teams, student government, premed societies, and volunteer clubs. However, as a UT student, you could also pursue activities you may not have thought of, such as the Beekeeping Society, Super Smash Bros. Club, or the Drone Racing League.

With this many potential opportunities, it can quickly feel overwhelming to choose something to get involved in. You may also feel the temptation to overextend yourself and join too many things, which could ultimately prevent you from having meaningful experiences or even cause your GPA to suffer.

Our recommendation is to look broadly at different opportunities in research, volunteering, and other activities in order to carefully select things you can see yourself being passionate about. Also make sure to consider the time commitments involved, potential for leadership, and ways these clubs can fit into the overall narrative you will craft for your medical school application. Finally, once you’ve picked your extracurriculars, get engaged and dive headfirst into working on projects that will be both personally and professionally rewarding.

Below is a list of many common ways premeds at UT have gotten involved in extracurriculars, divided by type of activity. While these are great opportunities, the HornsLink website can also connect you to hundreds of additional options. If you’re still unable to find what you’re looking for, consider broadening your search to some of the great organizations doing work in the Austin community, or even consider starting your own organization to fill a need that you identify.

The UT Health Professions Office offers a great list of options for clinical volunteering in Austin.

In addition to volunteering in a clinical setting, volunteering in other settings can be both rewarding and beneficial for your application. UT provides a helpful website to connect you with up-to-date options for volunteer work and to help you track your hours.

Here are some options for groups that students can volunteer with:

Shadowing is a crucial part of any med school application, as it shows your commitment to becoming a physician and demonstrates your understanding of what the profession entails.

There are several options for finding shadowing opportunities at UT Austin. One of the best is the Health Career Mentorship Program, which is a program that places students with physicians at several local hospitals to shadow in both inpatient and outpatient settings. In total, this program provides eight hours of shadowing per week for 12 weeks, which could make up a significant component of your overall shadowing time.

Outside of this formal program, there are several local hospitals that may also offer opportunities for shadowing experiences.

In addition to the opportunities above, also consider reaching out to private practice physicians, both in Austin and in your hometown. It can be helpful to use any connections you have with physicians, such as friends of your family, your family doctors, and any professors that may see patients, as ways to get connected with other options.

(Suggested reading: How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor)

Pursuing meaningful undergraduate research can be incredibly rewarding and is an important part of your medical school application. UT offers numerous opportunities to get involved with research across many disciplines, including chemistry, biology, neuroscience, sociology, and anthropology.

UT has an excellent system called Eureka to help connect interested students with faculty seeking assistance in their research. The Office of Undergraduate Research also provides informational sessions to help you learn more about selecting faculty to work with and recommends attending one of these sessions prior to reaching out to faculty through Eureka.

Additional methods for finding research include participating in the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI, for first years) or Advanced Research Initiative (ARI, for non-first years). These programs combine one semester of learning from a faculty member in an introductory laboratory course, followed by a second semester of working in an advanced course to apply those skills to real-world problems in the faculty member’s research.

Outside of these specific programs, here are some other recommendations for finding research opportunities:

Use your connections. Talk to your friends and other premeds about their experiences with research. Positions in labs can often be found through connections like these prior to being posted on Eureka. Your academic advisor can also be an excellent resource.
Go to office hours. Visiting office hours is a great way not just to reinforce the material and meet your professor, but also to learn more about research. Most professors at UT will have some involvement in research, but even if they do not or are not in your field of interest, they can still be a great resource to connect you to other opportunities.
Take a smaller or upper-level course. Taking an upper-level course, or one that’s otherwise small in size, can help you form great connections with professors. These courses can also teach you the general skills necessary to work in a lab, which can help bring your resume to the top when you meet with potential research mentors.
Cold-email faculty. If your other methods of finding mentors are unsuccessful, cold emails can also be a way to get involved with research. Look through the faculty listings for the departments you are interested in, making notes of the faculty who are conducting research that appeals to you. Then send emails to several professors with your resume attached, asking if they have space to accommodate a research intern. This method can often feel discouraging, as many professors may not have space or even respond, but you can be successful if you are persistent and cast a broad net.

After you get involved in research, try to learn as many techniques in the laboratory as possible in order to expand your knowledge and ability to participate. In addition, you might consider having discussions with your PI on how to plan your work to target a publication or presentation prior to your medical school application.

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In order to do well in your courses, excel on the MCAT, and find opportunities to develop your interests outside the classroom, timely advice is often incredibly helpful. The Health Professions Office (HPO) at UT is an excellent resource that can help you navigate your premed years.

Their Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Pre-Med guide is an excellent first resource for most of your common questions. If you still feel like you need additional guidance or more specific advice, HPO also offers one-on-one coaching sessions and walk-in hours, allowing you to get your questions answered in person.

UT also offers other resources to help you with the medical school application process, such as the University Writing Center, which can help with brainstorming and editing your personal statement. HPO also offers the opportunity to schedule a 30-minute mock interview with their coaches to help you prepare for your interviews, though there is a limit of one per semester. Outside of the pre-health office, you can also schedule a mock interview with the UT Center for Public Speaking.

When it comes to letters of recommendation, UT does not offer a committee letter and recommends submitting your letters of recommendation directly through the application systems (i.e., AMCAS, TMDSAS, and AACOMAS).

While the resources available through HPO will be incredibly helpful during your application process, completing your application will still require a significant amount of independent effort. This includes drafting a strong personal statement, completing your AMCAS Work & Activities section, providing transcripts and letters of recommendation, and composing secondary essays.

(Suggested reading: The Ideal Medical School Application Timeline)

While UT Austin has a large number of premeds, do a large number actually get accepted into medical school? Let’s take a look at the statistics on UT premed admissions for both AMCAS and TMDSAS.

The most recent available data show that, in 2019, 45% of first-time applicants from UT who applied through TMDSAS ended up matriculating at Texas medical schools. However, this does not mean that 55% of TMDSAS applicants didn’t get into medical school, since some of these students likely chose to attend medical schools outside of Texas.

Digging deeper into the data, the most common medical school for TMDSAS applicants was McGovern with 72 or 26% of matriculants, followed by UT San Antonio, UT Galveston, and UT Southwestern. In total, all 10 schools within the TMDSAS system were represented in the matriculants pool.

(Note: Since the 2019 application cycle, two new Texas medical schools have opened, University of Houston College of Medicine and Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition, Baylor has switched over from the AMCAS application, bringing the current number of TMDSAS schools to 13.)

Looking further into the numbers, we can also see clear trends based on GPA and MCAT scores when it comes to admission to medical schools in Texas from UT. The majority of matriculating students had GPAs between 3.61 and 4.0, with the highest rates of admission seen for those between 3.91 and 4.0. Similarly, for the MCAT, the majority of matriculating students had MCAT scores in the 509–520 range.

We can see similar trends when we examine the success of UT premeds applying outside of Texas through AMCAS. Overall, 57% of AMCAS applicants were accepted to at least one school. Of those accepted to at least one, 27% matriculated to an AMCAS school, while 61% chose a school within TMDSAS.

As for where students matriculated through AMCAS, Baylor was by far the most common school, representing 41 of 87 total applicants, with no other school having more than five matriculants (Baylor was also the second-most attended med school across both systems). Other AMCAS schools with more than one matriculant included TCU, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Uniformed Services University, Stanford, Morehouse, Drexel, Dartmouth, and Rosalind Franklin.

In total, matriculants from UT attended 31 different AMCAS medical schools in 2019. Similar to the trends seen with TMDSAS, students who successfully matriculated tended to have GPAs greater than 3.6 and MCAT scores between 509 and 520.

Sample UT Austin Premed Two-Year Course Plan

Semester

Courses

Freshman Fall

Chemistry 301
Math 408N
Biology 311C
Rhetoric 306

Freshman Spring

Chemistry 302
Chemistry 204
Biology 311D
Psychology 301

Sophomore Fall

Physics 317K + 105M
Chemistry 320M
Biology 206L
English/writing course

Sophomore Spring

Biochemistry 369
Chemistry 320N
Physics 317L + 105N
Chemistry 220C

While UT may be a massive producer of premeds, it also comes with an incredibly large array of resources to help you succeed and stand out amongst the crowd. Whether your goal is to attend medical school in one of the many public medical schools in Texas or to apply throughout the country, following the advice in this guide will help you make this dream a reality.