With campuses positioned all throughout the state of New Jersey, Rutgers University is today known for being the only university in the nation that is colonial-chartered, a land-grant institution, and a state university. While most colleges do well to run and maintain just one campus, Rutgers University operates four campuses! Two of those campuses are considered the New Brunswick campuses, located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. The other two campuses are in Camden and Newark. The primary New Brunswick campus—which is located in New Brunswick (as opposed to the NB campus located in Piscataway)—is also the oldest Rutgers campus.
A prestigious school with the background and merit that Rutgers proudly boasts of is a dream for any premed student. Currently (2023), Rutgers is ranked #55 in National Universities and #19 in Top Public Schools according to US News. While the school itself is one that any undergrad would be proud to call their alma mater, no doubt you’re reading this guide because you’re interested in understanding how well the school prepares students for med school. Whether you’re considering attending Robert Wood Johnson Medical School—which is located in New Brunswick and is part of Rutgers University—or another medical school, you can feel confident that Rutgers will certainly prepare you well.
How can you be amongst those successful Rutgers premeds? In this guide, we’ll cover all the bases and walk you through what it takes to flourish as a Rutgers premed student. We’ll review the premed requirements (including a sample schedule), and some extracurriculars. Finally, we’ll discuss getting into med school as a Rutgers graduate.
Before we can dive too deeply into what it takes to successfully complete Rutgers as a premed student, you’ll need to know which courses you can expect to take. Rutgers provides a list of courses for students interested in attending medical school. (They actually state that the list is useful for those interested in medical, dental, optometry, physician assistant, or podiatry school, and we’ve included it here for premed students.)
With this in mind, we’ve also put together a useful table (below) that outlines the most common medical school requirements and how you can fulfill those requirements as a Rutgers premed.
| Rutgers University Premed Requirements | ||||||
| Medical school requirement | Required courses | Optional courses | ||||
| Biology: Two semesters (with lab) | 01:119:115 General Biology I 01:119:116 General Biology II 01:119:117 Biological Research Laboratory | |||||
| Chemistry: 1. General Chemistry: Two semesters (with lab) 2. Organic Chemistry: Two semesters (with lab) 3. Biochemistry: One semester | Choose from among the following: | |||||
01:160:161 General Chemistry
01:160:162 General Chemistry
01:160:171 Introduction to Experimentation
01:160:307 Organic Chemistry
01:160:308 Organic Chemistry
01:160:313-314 Organic Chem Lab
What if you were able to obtain AP credit for some of the requirements listed above? Will those help you get into medical school faster? Chances are, you probably opted to take AP courses in high school to fast-track your college education by eliminating the number of courses you’d need to take. While this is true in most instances, when it comes to preparing for medical school, it doesn’t quite work like that. Medical schools typically want to see you demonstrate an ability to successfully complete college-level science courses with a high grade point average. Additionally, AP credit usually counts for introductory college courses.
So what does all of this mean for a premed student? Colleges apply AP credit in different ways, so you’ll want to speak with a Rutgers advisor to determine exactly how your AP credits will be applied. In any case, even if you scored a 4 or 5 on your AP exams, you’ll still need to take the requisite number of science courses listed in the first column above. Using AP Bio as an example, Rutgers says if you’re able to apply AP credit to the sequence of biology courses (e.g., 01:119:115, 01:119:116, and 01:119:117), it would still require you to take at least two upper-level biology courses.
There are many options for how you complete the premed requirements above. As long as you complete the requirements, it won’t typically matter. In some instances, however, you’ll be required to take specific courses because of your major.
That said, we’ve developed a sample three-year course plan for a Rutgers premed student that shows one way you could squeeze in most of the med school requirements.
It’s no secret or surprise that a Rutgers premed needs to maintain a high GPA throughout their entire undergraduate career. This is especially true with regard to science courses. That’s not to say that a low GPA (usually defined as one that is less than 3.5) means your dreams of becoming a physician are over, but it’ll undoubtedly be that much more difficult to pursue if you’re not starting out on the right foot. But, how do you successfully do that—especially if you’re also spending large amounts of time immersed in extracurricular activities that are necessary for premed students?
There’s a lot of debate in premed circles concerning when you should take the MCAT. Ultimately, it comes down to how prepared you are and whether or not you plan to take a gap year.
Assuming you intend on entering med school immediately after undergrad, we recommend you take the MCAT for the first time in the fall of your junior year. This plan allows you to study the summer before your junior year while also having enough time for you to retake the MCAT if needed.
By now, you probably realize that it takes more than just good grades to get into medical school. You’ll also need extracurricular activities. Specifically, you’ll need to show that you’ve been involved in the extracurricular activities common for premed students. These activities generally include community service, patient care or clinical opportunities, physician shadowing, and research.
Below, you’ll find a (non-exhaustive) list of volunteer opportunities for Rutgers students. While most of the locations listed have a medical focus, don’t disregard non-medical volunteer opportunities as well. In some instances, two separate departments handle the various types of volunteer options. If we’re aware of it, we’ve included a note to this effect.
If none of those interests you, consider checking with Student Affairs. Student Affairs is part of Rutgers which is dedicated to student volunteer opportunities. This means they help manage volunteer opportunities for Rutgers premed students as well as those who aren’t involved in health-related majors. As a result, they’re really an excellent go-to resource for all things related to volunteering in and around the New Brunswick area.
A few initiatives Student Affairs gets involved with include:
Additionally, VolunteerMatch has tens of thousands of volunteer opportunities in New Brunswick.
It’s a good idea to reach out to private practices for shadowing opportunities. It can also help to look into who you might already know within your network, such as on LinkedIn or through Handshake (specific to Rutgers). In addition to the hospitals we’ve listed above, here are a few area hospitals and clinics that may provide additional shadowing opportunities:
As a Rutgers premed, your interests are likely varied—just as they’d be regardless of your major. We’ve included some student organizations that are likely to appeal to students who have a future in medicine:
Is global health something you’re interested in? As a Rutgers premed, there are numerous opportunities for you to make an impact. Some such opportunities include:
Visit the Rutgers Global Health Institute for other ways you can get involved on a global scale.
Of course, everything we’ve mentioned in this guide is done with one main goal in mind: acceptance into medical school. Whether Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is part of your plan or you’re considering attending somewhere else, you can rest assured knowing Rutgers will have prepared you well.
For some perspective on the quality of that preparation, it helps to review the school’s med school acceptance rate amongst applicants. In 2022, 477 Rutgers (New Brunswick) graduates applied to med school, and 277 of those students matriculated. (In case you’re curious, 182 matriculants entered allopathic/MD programs and 95 matriculants entered osteopathic/DO programs.) That’s a 58% acceptance rate—and that’s just for the New Brunswick campus!
Naturally, you may wonder if attending Rutgers gives students a leg up when it comes to applying to Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). While we don’t have specific numbers or stats on Rutgers premed students who later matriculated to RWJMS, we do know that there are several unique programs specifically for Rutgers students that may prove advantageous for applicants.
For example, the Early-Assurance Program is a distinct program for Rutgers students who may be educationally or economically disadvantaged. If you're still looking around at colleges but you're certain you want to go into medicine, then you might be interested in the Joint Bachelor/Medical Degree Program, which is a BS/MD program that enables students to earn an MD in as little as seven or eight years. Both of these programs allow Rutgers premed students an opportunity to matriculate into RWJMS that they may not have as a student at another institution.
Working your way through a rigorous program as a premed is challenging regardless of the school. However, when the university is as reputable as Rutgers, you know you’re being well prepared for the next step: medical school! When a school prides itself on the training it provides students, you tend to see large numbers of graduates applying to medical school, as is the case for Rutgers. As a Rutgers premed, you’ll have the chance to align yourself with a distinguished community of students with similar interests, and you’ll benefit from the wealth of knowledge and assistance found in the health professions office.
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
