Please help me with USA medical school question

You can get an awful lot of the information you need here by looking up med schools via their university websites. I strongly suggest you do that first.

Pisco Sour said:

Hi
I want my main character to have been kicked out of med school in the USA because she didn't pass a psych test. Is this plausible or is it me that needs the test? I don't even know if you have to pass such a screening to get into medical school in the first place. She's a self-harmer, 21, and she caves under the pressure of her study load. She's deemed "unstable".
Also, if anybody knows, do you have to go to a pre-med course before you can enter medical school in the USA? How many years is this degree and roughly how much does it cost per year?
many thanks in advance.

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Not really plausible, sorry. There are no psych tests or any sort of health screening for medical school. I also doubt it's legal for a school to kick out a student because she's sick.

Pre-med isn't a course or degree, it's a set of classes most medical schools wants you to have passed, generally during your undergrad, which can be in anything. Usually it's a year of bio, a year of physics and two or more years of chemistry (general, organic, biochemistry), with additional requirements like English and calculus, depending on the school. You also have to take an admissions test called the MCAT.

Medical school takes four years, usually following a four-year undergrad (21 is very young for a med student.) Tuition varies from school to school but is generally expensive. My top choice med school currently charges a little over $50,000 a year.

No psych test for medical school, although a student who is having mental health issues may end up getting referred to medical professionals via the student health system, and those mental professionals may make requirements on the student to ensure their continued attendance at the school (e.g. "you must meet with a therapist once a week"). Usually the result is the student being forced to take a semester off, though, not getting kicked from the program entirely.

There is no psych test, but there are interviews to get into medical school. It is possible that during an interview, someone may notice indication of instability. If your character self harms, they could see marks on her arm and wonder. It is so competitive to get into Med school, that perhaps all it would take to eliminate someone as a candidate would be a suspicion that they weren't stable.

Med schools do not want to lose a student. It's too big of a monetary hit. Remember this is big business. I knew some kids that were on the six year plan.

If you need your MC to miss time at school, have her(?) fail a class. A good example is Gross Anatomy, which is usually taken early, like as freshmen. If later, Pharm was a good weeder. Some of these classes are only offered once a year and a failing student usually needed to step back a year and repeat the year. (cha-ching)

There's nothing to stop a student from leaving voluntarily, but the bursar strongly discourages it. Seriously, you almost always become unstable at some point in professional school, it's part of the territory.

Pisco Sour said:

Hi
I want my main character to have been kicked out of med school in the USA because she didn't pass a psych test. Is this plausible or is it me that needs the test?

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The 'psych' test to get into medical school is the series of admission interviews; they get a feel for who you are. Med schools don't like you to drop out once you get in, it looks bad for them, that is why they scrutinize so hard in the interview process. Your character would have to absolutely have examples in her life where she was a leader and pulled a group through a situation.

Pisco Sour said:

She's a self-harmer, 21, and she caves under the pressure of her study load. She's deemed "unstable".

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Your character would not have made the GPA needed (3.5 - and that is on the low end), in her undergrad if she caves under pressure.

Pisco Sour said:

Also, if anybody knows, do you have to go to a pre-med course before you can enter medical school in the USA?

Click to expand...

Your character can be any major to get into med school. They just have to fulfill the admission requirements of the school they wish to go to ( you need to look that up yourself) and pass the MCAT. Classes needed for the MCAT are Bio I & II, Chem 1& II, Organic Chem I & II Physics I & II and Calculus I & II.