Curriculum
Overview
After one year, individuals who have completed the Bryn Mawr Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program are well prepared to succeed in medical school.
Bryn Mawr offers a structured and comprehensive curriculum that fulfills all the premedical requirements you will need to apply to medical school. Over a 12-month period, you will carry a full-time load of courses in biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. This typically involves a two-semester general chemistry laboratory course during the summer session, and biology, physics and organic chemistry laboratory courses per semester during the following academic year.
Unless you have already taken the full year of general chemistry in the past five years, students will begin the program in the summer and will complete the program the following May.
Our introductory biology course and general and organic chemistry courses include biochemistry. In fact, the second semester of the postbac organic chemistry sequence is focused on biological organic chemistry. Our physics courses include information about the life sciences. In addition we offer elective courses in statistics and the behavioral sciences.
Typical Course Schedule
Summer Session
- General Chemistry
Fall and Spring Semesters
- Biology: Genetics and the Central Dogma; Biochemistry and Human Physiology
- Organic and Biological Organic Chemistry
- Physics
Optional Extra Summer Session
- Biochemistry or Statistics
May, June, or July
- Take the MCAT
Self-Scheduled Exams and the Honor Code
Like all of the undergraduate and graduate students at Bryn Mawr, you have the freedom to decide when to schedule your final examinations in many of your classes. This is one of the privileges of the College’s Honor Code, which allows students to govern themselves and take responsibility for integrity in their academic and social behavior.
Elective Courses
The program can be adjusted to meet your individual needs. If you have previously completed one of the core course requirements as an undergraduate, you may take an elective course. Bryn Mawr’s academic departments offer many undergraduate courses that are of interest to postbacs. Some of the more popular elective courses are:
- Biochemistry
- Biology and Public Policy
- Developmental Biology
- Genetics
- Math: Calculus and Analytic Geometry
- Math: Introduction to Statistics
- Introduction to Neuroscience