Nyu Pre Med Acceptance Rate

NYU was ranked #121 on College Factual’s list of the best schools for Biology majors. It is also ranked #7 in New York. There are three options available to students pursuing a major in Biology at NYU.

Is NYU Good For Pre-Med? (Everything You Need to Know)

Choosing a great college for undergrad studies can make a big difference when it comes to being a pre-med. But because there’s so much choice, and a lot of factors hanging in the balance, it’s difficult to know what schools are best.

NYU has an excellent reputation in terms of academics, but does it stack up for pre-med? Here’s what we know about NYU’s strength and reputation at the undergrad level.

Is NYU good for pre-med in 2021?

NYU is a great school for pre-meds hoping to go on to study medicine. Its connections with its own affiliated NYU Grossman School of Medicine provide a ton of extracurricular (shadowing, research, and volunteering) opportunities, while its AMSA chapter and pre-health advisory service do a lot to help improve students’ applications. The 32% admissions acceptance rate it boasts is another huge plus.

Of course, attending NYU by no means guarantees a spot in med school (that’s the same of all colleges/universities) – you’ll still have to work hard to attain a superb GPA and MCAT score regardless – but it definitely can help set you up.

Read on if you want to learn more about what it offers pre-meds hoping to go on to become successful physicians.

Does NYU offer pre-med?

Pre-med is not a dedicated major at NYU but rather a “track” called Prehealth. What that means is that you can have a major in any field while having the support of the track to help guide your application.

Also known as the Robert and Ellen Salant Prehealth Program, it prepares students for an advanced degree after they finish their undergrad in careers like medicine, dentistry, public health, allied health, and veterinary.

The track gives you the flexibility to choose from hundreds of different majors and minors. For example, if you’re someone that wants to opt for biochemistry with a public health minor on the pre-health track, you’ll be able to complete the requirements to graduate with your desired degree and the ones necessary to apply to medical school.

If your major closely aligns with your prehealth courses (like the example above), then you don’t have to take many additional classes to complete the track.

But you can still also major in music, performing arts, etc., and be part of the program. It just means you’ll have to pick up the common prereqs along the way!

NYU Pre-Med Requirements

As for what those are, here’s what NYU’s Prehealth program lists (you can take each of these at the school) as its requirements:

• General Chemistry I & II (& Lab)
• Principles of Biology I & II (& Lab)
• Organic Chemistry I & II (& Lab)
• General Physics I & II
• Calculus I
• Expository Writing
• Biochemistry I/Protein Biochemistry

According to their advisory services, except for Chemistry and Expository Writing (which should be taken in Year 1), you can do these at any time/order during your undergrad. You can also do them at any of the college’s study away sites (London, Syndey, Shanghai, etc) too!

While you do these courses (and your undergrad), NYU’s Prehealth Program is there to help you arrange clinical and research experiences, civic engagement opportunities and be a bridging point between relevant clubs and organizations that you can get involved with to help round out your future application (more on this later).

The video below helps show what pre-med life is like at the university…

What’s good about NYU pre-med

The Prehealth track at NYU is built in such a way that students can choose any major they want while creating an excellent foundation in STEM and writing.

“This is extremely beneficial for students at NYU. It gives you a chance to explore different fields that you are interested in and be a flexible thinker.”

– Zahin Ahmed, Neural Science Major, College of Arts & Science, NYU

But besides the degree of freedom being a pre-med at NYU affords, here’s what else is good about it:

1. The classes provide a very solid foundation for the MCAT
2. NYU has a prehealth activity that helps you get letters of evaluation from all your teachers every semester (you can even get these sent to the prehealth office)
3. You get individial mentorship and support from pre-health staff
4. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) at NYU connects undergraduates to a network of medical professionals
5. AMSA also organizes activities like MCAT prep sessions, medical students panel, volunteer excursions, and peer mentorship programs
6. There are many student clubs from the Pre-Vet Club to the Pre-Dental Society that help students explore the field and community service
7. The Medical Dialogue Review, NYU’s student-run medical journal ranges from discussions of public health to reviews of recent medical journal publications

That last one is incredibly useful for helping you gain publications (something that looks amazing to medical school admissions teams).

But let’s take a little closer look at what else NYU offers when it comes to really strengthening any med school application…

Clinical Experience

NYU Prehealth can help hook students up with Manhattan hospitals and their volunteer departments and connect them with valuable summer clinical and research opportunities.

Research Experience

NYU’s Medical Record e-newsletter, something available to all on the Prehealth track, helps keep students informed about potential research opportunities on campus and beyond the square.

Civic Engagement

NYU’s Center for Student Activities, Leadership, and Service can help you get involved in the types of community projects that look great for med school apps. Their ties with NYU CMEP, the Office of Global Spiritual Life, and the College Cohort Program are very useful too.

What’s bad about NYU pre-med

Based on our research, the main complaints are as follows:

1. Big class sizes (making it hard to get close to professors and score important letters of recommendation)
2. Patchy pre-health advisory support (the quality can be a little hit and miss – more on this later)
3. No undergraduate EMT program (missed opportunity for clinical experience)
4. Not allowed to take courses affiliated at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine

Are you at an advantage for getting into NYU medicine?

Being a pre-med at NYU offers no clear advantage for helping you get into NYU medicine. The school is still super competitive; it has a tiny 2.2% acceptance rate and is tuition free (encouraging a lot of applicants).

NYU’s pre-med acceptance rate

Getting into a medical school from pre-med highly depends on factors like the combination of MCAT scores, GPA, and interviews. But according to the statistics, the acceptance rate of NYU pre-meds to US medical schools is 32%.

Here’s the data from 2017:

To get into NYU as an undergrad (before then signing up to the Prehealth track) is pretty tough, however.

According to 2020’s data, their acceptance rate was just 16.2% and the average GPA was 3.69 or higher (1510 SAT or a 34 ACT).

What NYU majors are best for pre-meds?

As per the AAMC data of 2016, amongst the 21,030 students who got accepted to medical school, 52.8% were majors in Biological Sciences.

NYU offers various majors that are best for pre-meds that’ll help you get through the MCAT, such as:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Neural Science
• Physics

The trick is to pick something you feel you’ll get a high GPA in!

We discuss all this (and more) in this article : What’s The Easiest Pre Med Major?

Is NYU good for Biology?

NYU was ranked #121 on College Factual’s list of the best schools for Biology majors. It is also ranked #7 in New York. There are three options available to students pursuing a major in Biology at NYU.

1. Biology track
2. Ecology track
3. Global Public Health/Biology

This ensures an overall strong foundation when it comes to the training for medical school as you experience various sciences and their value in the health field.

Is NYU good for pre-med? Reddit’s Opinion!

Reddit is a great place to get honest student opinions away from NYU’s own promotional materials.

The positives

Yes, I would recommend it! The classes are hard which makes it difficult to get through for some people (ex. Molecular cell and orgo are two big weed out classes). But if you make it through, NYU prepares you really well for the MCAT and also applying and the difficult classes means that you’ll be better prepared for med school in the future which is a plus!

– go_girl_08

“I really like NYU and being in the city really really exposes you to a bunch of internships, hospitals, mutual aid organizations, and volunteer opportunities.”

– u/zero300

I’m in GPH/Applied Psych and I just want to say that if you get Professor Marybec Griffin (which you probably will) for your intro public health class, she is amazing and it’s sort of unbelievable to have a prof that genuinely wants you to learn. I’m trending towards an A in her class so far!

– u/Traditional-Yoghurt0

The negatives

I’m not a big fan of premed advising because they don’t know much about what they’re talking about. The premed reddit exposed me to a bunch more requirements and opportunities. I would take advantage of NYU’s premed clubs because a lot have alumni panels and dr panels and peer mentoring which is much more helpful for me.

– u/zero300

Premed advising isn’t the best… it’s not horrible but not great. My advisor was always really nice and didn’t give me horrible advice but I know some who have. Also, my advisor literally told me to apply MD Ph.D. and made it sound like she was sure I’d get in even though I had little research.

– u/go_girl_08

NYU vs Columbia for pre-med

The Columbia University Postbac Premed Program is highly regarded as one of the top medical schools for its rigorous approach to medical school preparation.

Both universities require a GPA of more than 3.5 to get into. But if you were to look at the acceptance rate, NYU is easier to get into than Columbia University (5.4%).

At the end of the day, it all depends on the cost, the environment, and the facilities that look right to you!

Conclusion: Is NYU good for pre-med?

NYU, although it isn’t Ivy League, is a top school for pre-med. Its acceptance rate to postgraduate health programs is a solid 32% and it offers huge opportunities for research, civic engagement, clinical experience, and student leadership.

Although its pre-health advisory service isn’t without criticism, in terms of infrastructure and opportunity the school has everything you need to put together an unbelievable med school application.

How to Succeed as an NYU Premed

All you need to know about being a premed student at NYU, including NYU premed requirements, majors, extracurriculars, and the NYU premed acceptance rate.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: NYU premed requirements

Part 3: NYU premed extracurriculars

Part 4: NYU getting into medical school as an NYU premed

Part 1: Introduction

NYU has long been reputed as one of the top schools in the country, securing its elite status this year (2023) with the #25 position among national universities in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings list. Spread across New York City’s bustling Manhattan and Brooklyn boroughs, its main campus offers a distinctly more fast-paced, urban lifestyle than the traditional campus atmosphere of many similarly ranked schools. Renowned as a center of innovation and progress, the school has yielded six Nobel laureates since 1967.

Many premeds that dream of making a substantial impact in the world of medicine imagine NYU to be an ideal undergraduate institution for these reasons. Furthermore, its two accompanying medical schools, the Grossman School of Medicine and the Long Island School of Medicine (LISOM) are both known for their contributions to dramatic improvements in people’s lives. Grossman is currently ranked #10 in the nation for research and LISOM houses a unique Diabetes and Obesity Research Center which employs teams of multidisciplinary researchers engaged in studying all aspects of the condition.

While completing a bachelor’s degree at NYU in no way guarantees an eventual acceptance from Grossman or LISOM (or any other medical school), spending four years as an undergraduate with access to robust research, clinical, and career-building opportunities can certainly bolster an application anywhere in the country.

It almost goes without saying that such a vibrant, opportunity-rich university is sure to catch the eye of thousands of applicants each year—close to 120,000 in the 2022-23 application cycle, to be exact.

The challenge doesn’t end with getting into this increasingly competitive undergraduate program. Curriculum requirements are rigorous, and if you’re aiming to attend medical school in the future, you’ll need to make intentional, calculated decisions about how to plan your schedule, maintain a strong GPA, build close bonds with professors and mentors, and rack up an impressive list of shadowing, research, and clinical experiences. Each of these elements will prove vital to your medical school application, and you’ll want to start developing a strategy well before even stepping foot on campus.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to succeed as an NYU premed, mapping out a plan from your first day as a freshman all the way through the medical school application process. With a clear vision for your trajectory and well-articulated short- and long-term goals in place, you’ll be set to reap all the benefits of life as an NYU premed and boost your chances of acceptance to the medical school of your dreams.

Part 2: NYU premed requirements

As an NYU premed, you’ll be working your way through the Robert and Ellen Salant Prehealth Program, which provides a broad range of flexible course options and support, ensuring that you’ll graduate fully-equipped with the foundational knowledge for admission to medical school.

By choosing prehealth as a course path, you’ll be able to properly plan your journey toward admission by ticking off each prerequisite you need along the way.

Premed course planning at NYU

You won’t have to declare a major at NYU right away; you’ll technically have until the end of sophomore year. However, you’ll want to begin planning out your course schedule as soon as possible. NYU premed students don’t follow a prescribed timeline for which courses to take when, and with the exception of the Expository Writing and General Chemistry courses designed for freshmen, all other required courses may be taken at any point in your time as an undergraduate.

However, a significant amount of planning will still be necessary to ensure that you’re able to complete every course by the end of your senior year. You’ll want to pay particularly close attention to courses that have prerequisites and those that are only offered during one semester each year. For example, Biochemistry II—which is strongly recommended but not required—is offered only in the spring, but you’ll need to take Biochemistry I before you can register for it.

Also, don’t make the mistake of piling on all of your most challenging courses at once. A single semester, if poorly planned, can bog down your cumulative GPA for years and suck up all the time and energy you could be investing into extracurriculars and MCAT studies.

While specific coursework requirements vary from one medical school to the next, generally speaking, most medical schools have similar requirements. We’ve outlined those requirements and how you can meet them with courses at NYU in the table below.

Since you can take these courses at any time as long as you’ve met the prerequisites, you won’t need to follow a strictly prescribed scheduling guideline. Still, it’s a good idea to map things out ahead of time to ensure you can fit all the courses you need to take into your four years. Here’s just one example of what a well-balanced premed course schedule might look like for your freshman and sophomore year.

Sample NYU Two-Year Course Plan
Semester	Courses
Freshman Fall	BIOL-UA 11 (and BIOL-UA 123) CHEM-UA 125 MATH-UA 121
Freshman Spring	BIOL-UA 12 (and BIOL-UA 123) CHEM-UA 126 MATH-UA 235
Sophomore Fall	CHEM-UA 225 CHEM-UA 881 EXPOS-UA 1
Sophomore Spring	CHEM-UA 226 ENGL-UA/EXPOS-UA

In addition to these courses, you’ll also need to ensure you’re fulfilling your major-specific course requirements, some of which might overlap with your premed courses as well as a selection of electives suited to your interests. NYU has compiled a very helpful list of electives commonly taken by premed students, including Health and Disease in Human Evolution, Ethics and Disability, Sociology of Medicine, and Life and Death.

AP credits at NYU

While you’ll likely be able to count several of your AP classes toward your degree, many medical schools won’t accept credits from AP science classes. As a result, the Preprofessional Health Advising Center strongly suggests that premed students take all biology, chemistry, and physics coursework at NYU, even if their AP score would allow them to skip the foundational classes.

Study abroad at NYU

In addition to its degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, NYU hosts more international students and sends more students to study abroad than any other school in the country. Several courses in the premed curriculum are offered at NYU locations around the world including London, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, and Tel Aviv. In addition, Tandon School of Engineering’s Prehealth Committee coordinates overseas service learning opportunities during summer breaks that provide students with hands-on clinical experience while they serve communities in need.

What’s the best premed major at NYU?

As an NYU premed, you’re free to pursue whatever captures your interest. If you’re wondering whether medical schools favor students with a particular kind of undergraduate degree, it’s great that you’re already planning for the long-term, but there’s no data to suggest that any one major will give you an advantage over other medical school applicants.

Most students usually settle on a major in the sciences, which may cut down on the number of courses you need to fulfill both your degree requirements and your premed requirements for medical school applications. However, NYU’s flexible curriculum allows you to find your personal niche by combining your passion for medicine and healthcare with even a seemingly unrelated interest, like marketing, literature, or environmental science.

Medical schools are always on the lookout for promising candidates who can demonstrate aptitude in the social sciences and humanities as well as the hard sciences. Even the MCAT evaluates critical analysis and reasoning skills, in addition to knowledge about the psychological and social foundations of behavior.

If you’re still feeling stuck as you select a major, try asking yourself the following questions:

• What are some common threads between my high school extracurriculars and the classes I enjoyed the most?
• Which major will allow me to complete my degree and my premed program without taking on too many additional courses?
• Which major will challenge me while also allowing me to maintain a high GPA and find the time to engage in extensive resume-building extracurricular experiences?
• What areas of specialization within the medical field am I interested in exploring?

Medical school admissions committees do prefer to see that you’ve identified a clear area of interest, passion, or specialization during your undergraduate years, both in your course selections and your extracurriculars. That’s not to say you can’t experiment and try a few things on for size before making up your mind, but if you’re still struggling to calibrate your compass by junior year, you may want to reevaluate your priorities and revise your strategy.

Prehealth Advisors from the Preprofessional Advising Center are especially well-equipped to support students in this predicament but don’t wait until you’re already miles off the path to send out your S.O.S. Make it a priority to visit the Preprofessional Advising Center during your first weeks on campus and keep in close contact with the advising team throughout your four years as an undergraduate. Through one-on-one mentoring, workshops, and other programming, they’ll offer crucial insights and guidance to help you get the most out of your prehealth experience.

How to maintain a high GPA as an NYU premed

NYU’s rigorous coursework will demand your best efforts, and as a premed student, you’ll need to make sure you’re maintaining a competitive cumulative GPA to remain a strong candidate from a medical school admissions standpoint. Keep in mind, the average undergraduate GPA for US MD program matriculants is 3.75. (For NYU Grossman, it’s 3.92!)

As mentioned above, carefully planning your schedule so as not to overwhelm yourself with too many challenging courses in a single semester is one way to avoid the risk of deteriorating your GPA. But a few other GPA-preserving tactics include the following:

• Attend office hours with your professors. NYU’s 8:1 student-to-professor ratio ensures that the majority of classes will remain pretty small. Still, you’ll likely have at least a few lecture-based classes with dozens—or even a couple hundred—of other students, where it’s difficult to engage with your professor and grasp the course material in-depth. No matter your class size, taking the time to stop by and introduce yourself to your professors, ask them questions about the course material, and build some rapport with them could yield the personalized support you need in order to excel.
• Choose your professors wisely. Do your research ahead of time by reading reviews and speaking to other students who have taken classes with the same professor. Look into their areas of academic and professional specialization, too. If they run a lab you think you’d enjoy working in as an undergraduate researcher, then it could be beneficial for you to register for their class!
• Utilize the assistance of your TAs, tutors, and study groups. NYU’s University Learning Center (ULC) organizes Group Sessions and Study Slams to bring students together to review course materials and prepare for exams, in addition to Learning Groups and Bits, where students can collaborate to solve practice problems based on recent in-class lecture material.
• Start building sustainable study habits for the long-term. Intensive, well-structured study plans are an integral part of the premed and medical school experience, and NYU’s ULC offers several essential resources and services aimed at helping students succeed, including their Academic Skills Workshop and Study Smart Series.

When should you take the MCAT?

There’s no universal best time to take the MCAT, so don’t worry about comparing yourself to your peers on this point. You should plan to take the MCAT when you have completed the classes that will equip you with the foundational knowledge you need to perform well on the exam, and when you have plenty of time to devote to an MCAT study plan.

If you don’t plan on taking a gap year to work and study for the MCAT, we typically recommend taking the exam in the fall of junior year. This allows sufficient time to complete the necessary classes and to study over the summer, while also leaving open a window for retaking the exam in case things don’t go as planned the first time around.