How to Succeed as a UT Dallas Premed
/Everything you need to know about the premed student experience at UT Dallas, including premed requirements, premed extracurriculars and research, and the UT Dallas premed acceptance rate
Everything you need to know about the premed student experience at UT Dallas
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Part 1: Introduction
Located in the heart of the ninth-largest city in the US, the UT Dallas campus is within a ten-minute drive of six different hospitals, twelve free clinics, sixteen hospice facilities, and eleven long-term care facilities, in addition to various other religious and charitable organizations. In such a convenient location, premed students at UT Dallas never have to worry about a lack of opportunities to serve the community and gain clinical experience.
UT Dallas is an attractive option for any student, but particularly for Texas residents, who benefit from in-state tuition of around $14,500 per year. Nonresidents, however, could be in luck, too. Students who receive a competitive institutional scholarship of at least $1,000 also receive the Competitive Scholarship Waiver, which waives out-of-state tuition for up to twelve months. While this waiver isn’t renewable, students can receive it again if they’re awarded another qualifying scholarship in subsequent years. In 2023-24, the student population of over 21,600 undergraduates included students from over one hundred different countries, and it received an impressive 0.7 rating on a scale from 0-1 on the US News Diversity Index.
Tuition is steeper (around $40,000) for nonresidents who don’t receive the Competitive Scholarship Waiver, but rates are capped at twelve hours, allowing students to take additional courses without any additional costs.
UT Dallas may not have acquired the international prestige of some of its counterparts, but its status as the #18 medical school feeder in the nation will put any doubts about its value to rest. The curriculum is rigorous, but unlike other universities that are widely known for their premed programs, UT Dallas doesn’t require students to endure numerous “weed out” classes, wherein all but the few highest-achieving students receive a failing grade.
Whether you’re a current UT Dallas premed student; a Texas resident interested in taking advantage of an affordable, high-quality premed education; or a nonresident trying to choose between UT Dallas and another university, this guide will provide all you need to know about the UT Dallas premed student experience.
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Part 2: UT Dallas premed requirements
If you already have your eyes set on a particular medical school, it’s advisable to check their specific course requirements and create your four-year plan accordingly. If you don’t yet know where you will apply, though, don’t fret; most medical schools lay out the same (or very nearly the same) list of required courses. Depending on the undergraduate institution, these courses may go by slightly different names, or you may have the option of choosing from a few courses that fulfill the same requirement.
Premed course planning at UT Dallas
Here’s a list of the courses at UT Dallas that fulfill the requirements of most medical schools in the US:
| Biology: Two semesters with lab | BIOL 2311 Introduction to Modern Biology I BIOL 2312 Introduction to Modern Biology II BIOL 2281 Introductory Biology Laboratory | |||||
| General Chemistry: Two semesters with lab |
CHEM 1311 General Chemistry I + CHEM 1111 General Chemistry Laboratory I CHEM 1312 General Chemistry II + CHEM 1112 General Chemistry Laboratory II |
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| Organic Chemistry: Two semesters with lab |
CHEM 2323 Introductory Organic Chemistry I CHEM 2325 Introductory Organic Chemistry II + CHEM 2233 Introductory Organic Chemistry Laboratory |
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| Biochemistry: One course |
BIOL 3361 Biochemistry I | |||||
| Statistics: One semester | STAT 2332 Introductory Statistics for Life Sciences | |||||
| Physics: Two semesters with lab |
PHYS 1301 College Physics I + PHYS 1101 College Physics Laboratory I PHYS 1302 College Physics II + PHYS 1102 College Physics Laboratory II |
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| Two additional upper-division BIOL or NSC (biology, biochemistry, or neuroscience) courses | ||||||
Also, most medical schools require a year of college-level English/Writing, which is fulfilled by UT Dallas's university-wide Communication core curriculum requirement.
One notable feature of the UT Dallas premed curriculum is the uniquely human-focused biology courses, where the standard curriculum of Plant Biology and Animal Biology is replaced by Molecular BIology and Body Systems. These courses provide premed students with a solid foundation in principles like biochemistry and genetics, which will prepare you especially well for medical school coursework.
And for the two additional upper-division BIOL or NSC courses required for premed students, a wide variety of interesting options are available. A few of the most commonly recommended courses include BIOL 3385 Medical Histology, BIOL 4345 Immunobiology, NSC 4354 Integrative Neuroscience, and NSC 4358 Neuroscience of Pain.
UT Dallas premed two-year course plan
When planning your schedule, be sure to take advantage of the Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC)’s expert advising services, where you’ll get one-on-one guidance in crafting a schedule that suits your interests, goals, and extracurricular obligations.
And no matter how eager you might be to dive into your science coursework, we strongly recommend sticking to just one science course in the first semester. There will be plenty of time in subsequent semesters to dive deeper into the sciences with other required courses and electives, but fall-semester freshmen are especially prone to biting off more than they can comfortably chew. Don’t tank your GPA before giving yourself a chance to adjust to college-level coursework!
Here’s an example of what a well-balanced plan for your first five semesters as a UT Dallas premed might look like. This schedule is designed to ensure you complete your MCAT prerequisites before attempting the MCAT (see more on MCAT timelines and prerequisites below). Keep in mind, though, that several of the courses you’ll need to take outside of premed and core curriculum graduation requirements could depend on your major. Allow this table to give you a general idea of how your premed schedule could shape up:
| Freshman Fall | CHEM 1311 General Chemistry I + CHEM 1111 General Chemistry Laboratory I
PSY 2301 Introduction to Psychology College-level English/Writing |
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| Freshman Spring | CHEM 1312 General Chemistry II + CHEM 1112 General Chemistry Laboratory II
PHYS 1301 College Physics I + PHYS 1101 College Physics Laboratory I College-level English/Writing |
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| Sophomore Fall | CHEM 2323 Introductory Organic Chemistry I
BIOL 2311 Introduction to Modern Biology I PHYS 1302 College Physics II + PHYS 1102 College Physics Laboratory II SOC 1301 Introduction to Sociology |
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| Sophomore Spring | CHEM 2325 Introductory Organic Chemistry II + CHEM 2233 Introductory Organic Chemistry Laboratory
BIOL 2312 Introduction to Modern Biology II STAT 2332 Introductory Statistics for Life Sciences |
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| Junior Fall | BIOL 2281 Introductory Biology Laboratory
BIOL 3361 Introductory Biochemistry I Upper-division BIOL or NSC (biology, biochemistry, or neuroscience) course |
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How to maintain a high GPA as a UT Dallas premed
GPA is an essential piece of the med school admissions puzzle, and even a single semester of slacking can do a great deal of damage to that sacred number. So how can you maintain your equilibrium throughout all four years? Here are a few key points to keep in mind:
Don’t overcommit yourself. Extracurriculars and research are very important, but you’ll need to find a balance that works for you. Allow yourself some time and space to work out that balance during your first semester.
Don’t be afraid to go to office hours. Professors are there to help—it’s literally their job! No need to feel weird or ashamed about dropping in for a visit.
Time management is one of the most important skills you’ll develop as a premed student. Learn how to establish your priorities for both study time and down time. This will help you keep sight of the bigger picture and avoid burnout.
Take advantage of the various academic support services offered through the UT Dallas Student Success Center. These include Academic Success Coaching, Peer Tutoring, and Peer-Led Team Learning.
Don’t fall into the trap of majoring in the most impressive-looking scientific discipline just because you think it will look good to medical school adcoms; these are often some of the most challenging majors. Medical schools accept students from a wide variety of majors every year, so choose something that interests you and will allow you to keep up your GPA! More on this in the next section.
Premed majors at UT Dallas
A few examples of majors with course requirements that overlap well with premed requirements include biology, neuroscience, and biochemistry. However, premed students at UT Dallas aren’t boxed in by their career plans; they can follow the pre-health track while fulfilling any major of their choice.
This flexibility allows students to explore their interests both within and outside of the traditional sciences, which can lead to exciting new paths in interdisciplinary research. With 57 different bachelor’s degree programs to choose from, the possibilities are almost endless. If you’re interested in anthropology or environmental science, go for it! Your unique blend of skills and experiences might even help you stand out among a crowd of medical school applicants who mostly majored in biology.
And for students interested in enhancing the STEM components of their premed education with a sociological and political lens, the Healthcare Studies major is particularly fitting. Courses like State and Local Government, The U.S. Healthcare System, and Issues in Patient Education are designed to encourage students to investigate complex questions surrounding the American healthcare system while preparing them to provide culturally sensitive patient-centered care.
When should you take the MCAT?
The best time to take the MCAT will vary from one student to the next. If you’re planning to take one or more gap year(s), you’ll have more flexibility. Still, be aware that different medical schools have their own criteria for how long your scores remain valid, and be sure to plan accordingly.
If you intend to start medical school the fall after your college graduation, aim to take the MCAT no later than April of the year you apply. This way, you’ll be able to put thoughts of exams and study schedules behind you as you move into the busy period of writing your personal statement and secondary essays during the spring and summer.
In general, it's wise to plan your test date for a time when you:
Have completed your prerequisite courses,
Have devoted ample time to your study plan,
Don’t have an overwhelming course load to balance with your MCAT preparations,
Still have time for at least one reattempt, in case you’re unsatisfied with your initial score.
As a UT Dallas premed student, you should aim to take as many of the following classes as possible before your MCAT test date. These prerequisites will prepare you for the content you’ll encounter on the exam.
CHEM 1311 General Chemistry I + CHEM 1111 General Chemistry Laboratory I
CHEM 1312 General Chemistry II + CHEM 1112 General Chemistry Laboratory II
CHEM 2323 Introductory Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 2325 Introductory Organic Chemistry II + CHEM 2233 Introductory Organic Chemistry Laboratory
BIOL 2311 Introduction to Modern Biology I
BIOL 2312 Introduction to Modern Biology II
BIOL 2281 Introductory Biology Laboratory
PHYS 1301 College Physics I + PHYS 1101 College Physics Laboratory I
PHYS 1302 College Physics II + PHYS 1102 College Physics Laboratory II
BIOL 3361 Introductory Biochemistry I
In addition to these, Intro to Psychology (PSY 2301) and Intro to Sociology (SOC 1301), while not strictly prerequisites for the MCAT, will equip you with social psychology skills also covered on the exam.
And remember, your GPA, your MCAT score, and your extracurricular experiences are all crucial to your success in the medical school application process. Don’t make the mistake of sacrificing one for the others. Instead, work closely with your advisor at the HPAC to design your four-year course plan around your MCAT preparations, and budget your time wisely in the months leading up to your test date.
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Part 3: UT Dallas premed extracurriculars
UT Dallas’s central location makes it an ideal home base for students looking to get beyond the campus bubble and engage with the community. As a premed student, you’ll want to hit the ground running from freshman year onward in order to start gaining hands-on clinical and patient care experience. This way, by the time you fill out your TMDSAS and AMCAS for your medical school applications, you’ll have already spent three solid years serving and getting to know your community.
With so many opportunities at your fingertips, it might be overwhelming just deciding where to start.
(Suggested reading: How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)
Premed shadowing at UT Dallas
Shadowing is a relatively passive activity, but med school adcoms like to see lots of it, and it’s important for every premed to gain a wide variety of shadowing experiences. After all, there’s really no better way to get a picture of what your future as a physician could look like. How can you know this is the right career for you without experiencing the day-to-day realities of life as a doctor?
As is usually the case, there are no formal shadowing programs hosted by UT Dallas or the surrounding hospitals. But don’t let this discourage you! Physicians are very accustomed to receiving emails and phone calls from premeds interested in following them around for a day or two. Feel free to use our phone and email templates for setting up a shadowing gig if you’re stumped about how to get the conversation started.
You may also want to check out the virtual shadowing resources provided on the HPAC website. But while virtual shadowing is great for gaining casual experience, be sure you also take the initiative to reach out to doctors in the Dallas area to secure in-person opportunities. These opportunities will allow you to fully appreciate the hospital environment and the people and systems that keep a clinic running.
Clinical and community service opportunities at UT Dallas
In addition to pursuing volunteer positions at one of the six hospitals, twelve free clinics, sixteen hospice facilities, and eleven long-term care facilities in the area, premed students may also seek experiences that allow them to shoulder the responsibility of patient care more directly. The Career Center advises premed students in applying to Dallas-area paid health care positions as medical assistants, medical technicians, nurse assistants, and emergency medical technicians.
These unique opportunities not only help you determine what area of specialization you would like to pursue in medical school and beyond, but also allow you to get the truest sense of what day-to-day patient care looks like in various clinical settings. These experiences often yield some of the most compelling medical school admissions essays as well.
Premed research at UT Dallas
UT Dallas was founded in 1960 as the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest, so you can bet they take research pretty seriously here! Students across every discipline are encouraged to pursue independent research supervised by their professors, and for those seeking a more structured research program, there are plenty of options to choose from. A great starting point for students seeking research opportunities is the Research Explorer portal.
UT Southwestern Medical Center, located just a few miles from UT Dallas campus, invites premeds interested in Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D careers to spend the summer conducting research in their labs through their Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.
For rising juniors and seniors seeking to assist a faculty member in their ongoing research, the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program is a great option. This is a unique chance to work closely with your professors in a professional setting while contributing to a body of research in a very tangible way. Although this program is hosted by the Honors College, all rising juniors and seniors are eligible to apply. Did I mention that students selected for this program are awarded a $4,500 stipend?
For students interested in clinical research, Texas Emergency Medicine Research Associates Program (TEMRAP) provides recipients with a research practicum credit as they contribute to clinical research at the Emergency Departments (ED) of Parkland Hospital and/or William P. Clements, Jr, University Hospital. If that sounds like it’s above your level of experience, not to worry—the program commences with a certification process, allowing students to safely and confidently conduct research alongside patients, doctors, residents, and medical students in the ED.
Students in the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College are eligible to apply for the Green Fellowship, a competitive program that allows around 20-25 recipients per year to take on a full-time biomedical research project at UT Southwestern Graduate School of the Biomedical Sciences. Only students from a select group of twelve STEM majors are eligible for this opportunity.
Premed student organizations at UT Dallas
The best way to stay in the loop about new opportunities and initiatives on campus is to join one (or a few!) premed student organizations. With over a dozen different premed student organizations, you won’t have any trouble finding like-minded students on campus.
Joining student organizations like Alpha Epsilon Delta, Delta Epsilon Mu, and Molding Doctors is a great way to network with other premed students from various backgrounds and majors, as well as to find out about volunteering, professional development, and clinical opportunities.
The American Medical Student Association of UT Dallas is focused specifically on the medical school application process, assisting members with MCAT prep and medical school interviews.
Organizations including the Minority Association of Pre-Health Students, National Society of Black Women in Medicine, and the American Medical Women’s Association focus on fostering community, opportunity, and mentorship within specific groups of the UT Dallas premed population.
And members of UTD Blood Initiative, University Emergency Medical Response, and PIH Engage UTD unite over their shared passion for specific causes and areas of specialization—including blood donation, emergency medicine, and global health.
In addition to student organizations, the Pre-Health Living-Learning Community (LLC) cultivates a close-knit community between current premed students, alumni currently in medical school, and medical doctors within the UT Dallas faculty. These connections can lead to unparalleled research and mentorship opportunities, as well as unique bonding experiences with like-minded future medical professionals.
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Part 4: Getting Into Medical School as a UT Dallas Premed
Although your medical school application period will take place from the spring of junior year to the spring of senior year (if you’re not taking a gap year), it’s important that you start preparing as early as freshman year.
In addition to an impressive GPA and MCAT score, you’ll also need to consider your time outside of the classroom and beyond the study sessions. Your resume will be a crucial piece of your medical school application, so start exploring extracurricular and research opportunities as soon as possible.
As you make your way into your application year, you’ll need to set aside plenty of time to carefully craft an impressive personal statement and secondary essays. We recommend starting as early as January on the brainstorming process, so you have plenty of time to sift through all of your ideas before settling on the best ones.
And finally, you’ll need to secure recommendation letters starting as early as a year before your application submission date. Don’t wait until the last minute; your recommenders may be busy writing letters for more than one student. And besides, you’ll want to allow them plenty of time to craft a genuine letter that casts you in the best light.
The number of letters you’ll need will vary depending on which medical schools you’re applying to. Most schools require three, but we recommend compiling one or two extra—that way you have a few backup options, and you can even be selective about which recommendations are most suited for which medical schools. Choose your recommenders carefully, as their words can hold more weight than you may expect. In general, you should try to obtain a combination of letters from the following types of individuals:
A science professor whose classes you took for a letter grade,
A non-science professor whose class you took for a letter grade,
A physician who witnessed you providing care to patients,
The principal investigator of a research project you’ve worked on,
An authority figure (like a supervisor, nurse, volunteer coordinator, or postdoc) with whom you worked closely on one of your extracurricular experiences.
Most importantly, only ask people who can personally vouch for your work ethic, personality, and passion for medicine. For example, a letter written by a professor with a Nobel Prize who knows little about you beyond your name and major is far less valuable than a letter written by a volunteer coordinator who learned your life story over lunch breaks at the memory care home.
(Suggested reading: (The Ideal Medical School Application Timeline)
UT Dallas premed acceptance rate and admissions statistics
The HPAC offers one-on-one mentorship services for all premeds. With their guidance, you’ll select your classes and major, pursue meaningful extracurricular experiences including research and clinical opportunities, and carefully hone every component of your medical school application.
Thanks to these excellent support services, UT Dallas was a top twenty feeder school to medical schools in 2023-24, boasting a remarkable 418 students who submitted applications. Although updated data is not available on medical school acceptance or matriculation rates among UT Dallas premeds, it’s clear that students who utilize the HPAC’s services are at a significant advantage.
Impressively, 80% of students who completed all steps of the HPAC’s Applicant Support program gained admission to medical school in 2022 (compared to 38% of students nationally and 40% of UT Dallas students who did not participate in the program at all). This unique program offers free, personally-tailored support (including a committee evaluation) to all UT Dallas students within a year of their application to medical school—including alumni who have taken time off between completing their undergraduate degree and applying to medical school. (As an added perk, all participants in the Applicant Support program, regardless of whether they complete all of the steps, will benefit from the HPAC’s complimentary clearinghouse service during the recommendation letter submission process).
As of 2022 (the most recent available data), the top five medical schools that UT Dallas premeds matriculated into were UT Southwestern Medical School (Dallas), Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (Ft. Worth), UT Health Long School of Medicine (San Antonio), UT Medical Branch (Galveston), and Texas A&M College of Medicine (Bryan).
Final Thoughts
UT Dallas may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of premed programs, but it still boasts one of the highest numbers of medical school applicants in the country—a result of a well-established premed program that continues to attract students from around the world.
With a robust Health Professions Advising Center and over a dozen different student organizations designed to connect premed students with clinical, research, professional development, and community service opportunities, you’ll never struggle to find ways to build your resume for medical school. And despite large class sizes, the diverse curriculum provides a challenging yet manageable academic environment for students with their sights set on medical school.
Whether you’re a current UT Dallas premed or still deciding which school to attend for undergrad, let this guide be a springboard into the next chapter of your journey to become a doctor.
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.
