Technical Standards
CWRU School of Medicine Technical Standards, Essential Abilities and Characteristics Required for the Completion of the MD Degree
Candidates of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine are selected on the basis of their academic, personal and extracurricular dimensions. In addition, candidates must have the intellectual, physical and emotional capacities to meet the requirements of the school’s curriculum and of a successful medical career.
- Learn more about requirements and technical standards.
Criteria & Prerequisites for Undergraduate Degree
General Degree Criteria
Applicants for admission must complete a course of study leading to a baccalaureate degree at an accredited US or Canadian college or university prior to matriculation. If you have received your undergraduate degree outside the US or Canada, then you must complete at least one year of advanced science-based course work at an accredited US institution prior to application. This can be achieved through a master's or PhD degree, formalized post-baccalaureate program, or through a variety of upper-level science coursework.
Prerequisite Requirements
Please closely review the chart in the next tab, entitled Course Requirements. If these prerequisites were not fulfilled at an accredited four-year degree-granting American or Canadian college or university, you should be prepared to take at least one year of challenging, upper-level sciences at one of these institutions prior to application. If you took AP biology, we recommend you take additional upper-level biology in college.
If all science prerequisites were taken at a community college, we strongly recommend that you take at least one year of upper-level sciences from an accredited four-year degree-granting university within the US or Canada. If a few science prerequisite courses were taken at a community college, we will evaluate them on a case-by-case basis. We are open to online biochemistry and others but do not recommend a total online curriculum. Our curriculum relies on students being comfortable in the classroom and working as a team.
Course Requirements
Required Coursework
These are the minimum amount of courses we expect you to have completed at the time of matriculation, not necessarily at the time of application. That said, it is to your advantage to have as many of the required courses completed in preparation for the MCAT and, ultimately, for medical school.
Recommended Coursework
These are courses that we strongly encourage you to consider taking in preparation for the MCAT and, ultimately, for medical school. You don't necessarily have to take all of these courses to be a competitive applicant, but use this as a guide for preparing for medical school.
Requirements by Course
| Courses | Required or Recommended | Lab | Duration (Semesters) | AP/IB Credit | Online | Community College |
| General Chemistry | Required | Yes | 2 | Yes | No | Case-by-case |
| Organic Chemistry | Required | Yes | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Biochemistry or Molecular Biology Including Metabolism | Required | No | 1 | No | Case-by-case | Case-by-case |
| Biology | Recommended | Yes | 2 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Physics | Recommended | Yes | 2 | Yes | No | Case-by-case |
| Writing or College English | Required | NA | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Psychology | Recommended | NA | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Social Sciences | Recommended | NA | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Behavioral Sciences | Recommended | NA | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Biostatistics | Recommended | NA | 1 | No | No | Case-by-case |
| Research Experience | Required** | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
** Minimum of two summers of hypothesis research experience in a medical or non-medical field is a requirement for the CCLCM program since the CCLCM curriculum program is designed to train physician investigators.
