Pre-Application Timeline
Your path to Medical School starts as early as high school.
This timeline will guide you through each stage of your journey—from high school to your application to UND Med School.
High School
It’s never too soon to gain real-world clinical experience. Early exposure helps you decide if medicine is right for you and strengthens your future application.
Recommended Clinical Experiences
Consider shadowing, volunteering or working in healthcare roles such as:
- Certified nursing assistant (CNA)
- Emergency medical technician (EMT)
- Paramedic
- Medical scribe
- Patient care technician
- Nurse
- Physical therapist (PT)
- Occupational therapist (OT)
Tip: Make sure your experience includes exposure to a physician. A CNA position in a hospital or clinic setting is more valuable than a similar role in a nursing home or home care.
Bachelor’s Degree
After high school, your college years are a critical time to build your academic and clinical foundation for medical school. Here's how to stay on track each year.
Choosing a Major
You may pursue any bachelor's degree. However, high-level coursework in biology, chemistry, physics and math is strongly recommended to prepare for both the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and UND’s medical curriculum.
Many successful applicants major in biology, chemistry or psychology, but others come from diverse academic backgrounds like nursing, biomedical sciences, neuroscience, biochemistry, engineering or computer science. Choose a major that matches your interests and strengths. We value strong performance and well-rounded experience over a specific degree title.
Freshman Year
- Meet with your undergraduate advisor to create a four-year semester plan. The Med School advisors are available for guidance too.
- Start or continue gaining clinical experience. While the minimum we consider is a collective 100 hours, including shadowing, volunteer work and paid clinical roles, most successful applicants apply with 500 hours or more.
- Look for research opportunities.
- Begin budgeting for MCAT prep. The cost of some MCAT prep resources can be $3,000.
Sophomore Year
- Take more challenging science and math coursework.
- Consider your MCAT timeline and plan to study for 2-6 months.
- Continue building clinical hours.
- Deepen your research involvement.
Junior Year
- Finalize your MCAT prep plan and aim to take it in spring.
- Begin your primary medical school application in May or June.
Senior Year
- Submit your primary and secondary med school applications by Nov. 1 (if not taking a gap year).
- Prepare for interviews in October, November or December.
- Continue research and clinical work.
- Stay focused on completing your bachelor’s degree with strong academic performance.
Research Expectations
Successful applicants demonstrate understanding and independence in research. Strong applications typically include:
- Knowledge of the scientific method.
- Autonomy in project work.
- Bench lab experience (preferred).
- Experience outside the classroom is a plus.
What Else We Look For
Beyond academic and clinical experience, we evaluate applicants on their ability to reflect and engage in meaningful service and leadership.
You should have experiences that demonstrate:
- Cultural awareness and humility.
- Experience with people of a different socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, cultural or religious/spiritual background than yourself.
- Focus on rural health.
- Mission fit with UND SMHS.
- Strong communication.
- Leadership and teamwork.
- Experiences with American Indian and/or Alaska Native populations (recommended, not required).
MCAT Prep Resources
UND’s minimum accepted MCAT score is 495, with an average range of 506–508 over the last four application cycles.
UND does not endorse a specific resource, but students have found success using:
- Kaplan
- Khan Academy
- YouTube
- Podcasts
- MCAT Basics – In-depth science topic reviews (25 minutes to one hour), ideal for targeted studying. New episodes are released twice weekly.
- GroSeries: An MCAT Review Podcast – Lecture-style episodes about an hour long focused on psychology/sociology and biology/biochemistry concepts.
- MCAT Flash GO – Quick daily practice questions (under 5 minutes) with explanations, perfect for on-the-go learning.
- The MCAT CARS Podcast – Guided Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) strategy podcast with real-time passage breakdowns; best followed in order from the beginning.
- The MCAT Podcast by Ryan Gray – Focuses on study planning, test-day strategies and wellness rather than academic content.
Ready to Apply?
Carefully review our Residency Eligibility and Admission Requirements pages.