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ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
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ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

The requirement for admission to the first year of the Department of
Medicine is a four-year high-school education or its full equivalent, and two
years of work in a college of arts and sciences approved by the Council on
Medical Education of the American Medical Association, as follows:

I. HIGH SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS

The following are the minimum high school requirements of the American
Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges and must
be satisfied for admission to all Class A medical schools. Students entering the
College of the University of Virginia for their premedical college work must
also satisfy the regular entrance requirements for admission to the college.
(See
General Catalogue.) These differ from the requirements stated below only in
that
units of mathematics (1½ in Algebra and 1 in Plane Geometry) are
required.

(a) For admission to the two-year premedical college course, students
shall have completed a four-year course of at least fifteen units in a standard
accredited high school or other institution of standard secondary school
grade, or have the equivalent as demonstrated by examinations conducted
by the College Entrance Examination Board or by the authorized examiner
of a standard college or university which has been approved by the Council
on Medical Education of the American Medical Association.

(b) Credits for admission to the premedical college course may be


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granted for the subjects shown in the following list and for any other subject
counted by a standard accredited high school as part of the requirements
for its diploma, provided that at least eleven units must be offered in
groups I-V:

Group I. English. (Three units required)

Literature and Composition.

Group II. Foreign Languages. (Two units required, both of which must be
in the same language)

Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, or other modern foreign
language.

Group III. Mathematics. (Two units required)

Elementary Algebra, Advanced Algebra, Plane Geometry, Solid Geometry,
Trigonometry.

Group IV. History. (One unit required)

Ancient History, Medieval and Modern History, English History,
American History, Civil Government.

Group V. Science.

Botany, Zoölogy, Chemistry, Physics, Physiography, Physiology, Astronomy,
Geology.

Group VI. Miscellaneous.

Agriculture, Bookkeeping, Business Law, Commercial Geography, Domestic
Science, Drawing, freehand and mechanical, Economics and
Economic History, Manual Training, Music—appreciation or harmony.

A unit is the credit value of at least thirty-six weeks' work of four or
five recitation periods per week, each recitation period to be not less than
forty minutes.

II. PREMEDICAL COLLEGE COURSE

The requirements given below are strictly minimum requirements. Premedical
students are advised to take more than thirty session-hours of college
work, either by spending an additional year in college or by taking thirty-three
or thirty-six session-hours during their two years as college students. Entrance
conditions of any kind whatsoever are absolutely prohibited and no substitution
can be allowed for any required subject.

In addition to the high-school work specified above, a candidate for admission
to the Department of Medicine must present evidence of the completion
in a manner satisfactory to this medical school of at least thirty session-hours
of collegiate work in a college approved by the Council on Medical
Education of the American Medical Association. A session-hour is the
credit value of one hour a week of lecture or recitation or two hours a week
of laboratory work throughout a session of at least thirty-two weeks, exclusive
of holidays. The subjects included in the thirty session-hours of college
work should be in accordance with the following schedule:


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Required Subjects:

             
Session-hours. 
General Inorganic Chemistry (a) 
Organic Chemistry (b) 
Physics (c) 
Biology (d) 
English Composition and Literature (e) 
Other non-science subjects (f) 

Subjects Strongly Urged:

French or German, Advanced Botany or Advanced Zoölogy, Psychology,
Advanced Algebra, Solid Geometry, and Trigonometry, additional
courses in Chemistry.

Other Suggested Electives:

English (additional), Economics, History, Sociology, Political Science,
Logic, Mathematics, Latin, Greek, Drawing.

Credit Not Given for an Incomplete Course.

Credit can be accepted only when the student has a clear record on the
entire course; for example, if the course in general physics is a six session-hour
course consisting of 3 hours lecture and six hours laboratory weekly for
three trimesters and the student passes on two trimesters but fails on the
third, no credit for admission to medicine can be given for the portion of the
subject passed, even though the credit value of this work is four session-hours.
In all cases the student must have completed the entire subject for
which he is registered. Deficiencies of this kind may however be made up by
obtaining a clear record in the portion of the subject in which the failure has
occurred, without repeating the entire course.

REQUIREMENTS IN INDIVIDUAL COLLEGIATE SUBJECTS

(a) General Inorganic Chemistry. Four session-hours are required, including
two session-hours of laboratory work. In the interpretation of this
rule work in qualitative analysis may be counted as general inorganic chemistry.

It is desirable that more time than this be given to general chemistry and
especially that either the elements of physical chemistry be included in a 6
session-hour course in this subject or a supplementary course in elementary
physical chemistry be taken.

Students are also advised when their premedical work extends over more
than two sessions to take at least four session-hours of qualitative analysis
and two session-hours of quantitative analysis.

(b) Organic Chemistry. Three session-hours are required of which at
least one must be laboratory work. Four session-hours including two session-hours
of laboratory work are recommended as giving better preparation
in organic chemistry.

(c) Physics. Four session-hours required, of which at least one must


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be laboratory work. It is urged that this course be preceded by a course
in trigonometry and solid geometry.

(d) Biology. Four session-hours required, of which two must consist
of laboratory work. The requirement may be satisfied by a course of four
session-hours in general biology or zoölogy, or by courses of two session-hours
each in zoölogy and botany, but not by botany alone. Courses in
physiology and hygiene, sanitation, bacteriology, histology, and other similar
work covered in the medical curriculum cannot be accepted as part of the
premedical college requirements in biology.

(e) English Composition and Literature. The usual introductory college
course of three session-hours, or its equivalent, is required.

(f) Non-Science Subjects. Of the thirty session-hours required as the
measurement of two years of college work, at least nine, including three
session-hours of English, should be in subjects other than the physical,
chemical, or biologic sciences.

Although not required for admission to the medical school, premedical
students are strongly urged to acquire the basic knowledge of French or German—and
preferably of both French and German—which will enable them
with a little practice to read with ease the medical literature published in these
languages. Apart from the cultural value of the study of a foreign language
and the use which may be found for French and German in the study of
medicine, a reading knowledge of one or both of these languages is required
for certain desirable post-graduate scholarships and fellowships. When the
student presents for admission to the premedical college course 2 units of
high school work in either language, the usual 3 session-hour "second year"
college course will amply give this basic knowledge. When he begins the
study of the language in college, he should take at least 4, and preferably 5,
session-hours in the language.

College courses in Physical Training and in Military Training or Military
Science will not be counted towards the thirty session-hours required
for admission to medicine; nor will required courses in Bible and Biblical
Literature be counted, unless the course has a credit value of at least three
session-hours for one session.

No entrance conditions whatever can be allowed nor can any substitutions
be made for the required subjects. Premedical students in other colleges
and universities who are considering the possibility of entering upon
their medical studies in this university are urged to have the authorities of
the University of Virginia pass officially upon their academic credit early
in their last premedical college year and in no case later than June 1, of
that year. Deficiencies may be discovered in this way in time to remove
them before the following September. Such students will incur no obligation
to enter this medical school. The prohibition of entrance conditions
in all Class A medical colleges makes it especially important for the student
to be absolutely sure six months or more beforehand that the course he is


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taking will admit him to the study of medicine. Many deficiencies can be
made up by work in summer schools.

In planning two years of premedical college work students are advised
to take English, mathematics (solid geometry, plane trigonometry,
and advanced algebra), biology, and general inorganic chemistry the first
year; and organic chemistry, physics, foreign language, and one or more
electives the second year. This arrangement of studies is advised because
mathematics should precede physics and general inorganic chemistry must
precede organic chemistry. Those who have to take four or more session-hours
of college work in foreign language may find it advisable to take
foreign language both years and take the mathematics in a summer school
following the first premedical college session.

Admission with Advanced Standing.—Students are admitted to advanced
standing in the second and third years under the following conditions:

1. Satisfaction of the requirements for entrance into this department at
the time of entrance of the class to which the applicant seeks admission.

2. The presentation of a certificate of honorable dismissal from the
school last attended.

3. The presentation of the complete record of the student in the school
previously attended, on blanks to be obtained from the Dean of the Department
of Medicine. This record will be submitted to the action of the Faculty
Committee on Advanced Standing, and the admission of the student,
together with the terms of admission, will be determined by this committee.

The Committee on Advanced Standing will not in general consider
favorably applications which are not accompanied by a distinctly good record
in the school previously attended. Only in case of illness or equivalent cause
will it admit a student to a year in which he has failed elsewhere and then
only when, in the judgment of his previous instructors, he would have succeeded
but for his illness.

Whenever a student is admitted to advanced standing he must take and
pass the full work of the class to which he is admitted unless by permission
of the Dean he substitutes for one or more of the regular courses of his
class other courses of approximately the same credit value.

Students are not received with advanced standing to the fourth year
class.

Limitation of Numbers and Reservation of Places.—The number of
students in the first-year class is limited to sixty-five. Reservation of a place, if
desired by the applicant, can be made beforehand on the conditions hereinafter
described.

At the time of registration, applicants will be registered in the order in
which they present themselves, until all vacancies are filled. Applicants who
have not made reservations, as described below, are therefore advised to
apply for registration at 9 o'clock of the first day of registration (September
13, 1928).


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Any applicant whose record has been endorsed by the Dean of the Department
of Medicine as entitling him to admission to the class to which he
seeks admittance, may at any time after June 25 and before the registration
period in September have a place reserved for him until 12:00 noon of the
first day of registration by depositing with the Bursar the sum of $50.00 in
part payment of the tuition fee. A reservation so made can be cancelled only in
exceptional cases. In case a student who has obtained a reservation fails to
register, the deposit of $50.00 will be forfeited to the University unless, in
case of illness or equivalent cause, the Dean of the Department of Medicine
directs that it be returned.

By the deposit, under similar conditions, of the entire fees for the year
a student may have a place reserved for him until 5 p. m. of the last day of
registration.

Women over twenty years of age are admitted to the medical department
by satisfying the entrance requirements specified above.