Can you get into med school without taking biochemical subjects?
In the States, there are things with GPA and MCAT (don't ask me, someone explain this to me, please). I've heard it was surprisingly hard to get into med school with a 3.5 GPA.
In Belgium, everyone has to take a test, and only the best get into med school.
So what about the Netherlands?
Let me tell you something about the Dutch education system regarding med school and such.
This is an overview of the Dutch education system.
Wait, whats with this 4~6 yrs of high school and 1~6 yrs of tertiary education?! And whats with the arrows?!
In the Netherlands, all primary students are carefully separated at the end of their 7th and 8th grades of primary school through the means of multiple tests, called the CITO.
Based on their scores between 501 and 550 (501 being the lowest), the kids are separated into 3 main groups: VMBO, HAVO and VWO with VWO students being the rarest kind.
501~536: VMBO 67%
537~545: HAVO 23%
545~550: VWO 10%
VMBO: Even though these people score lower than their HAVO and VWO counterparts, this really is the average group. They're not necessarily stupid, but they have a way of learning that isn't enough for HAVO or VWO.
The majority of the VMBO students later goes on to MBO where they learn certain trades and crafts etc.
HAVO: 5 yrs, prepares you for higher education, second hardest education.
Prepares people for HBO (comparable to universities of applied science. Examples: physical therapy and nursing). This group of students is sometimes seen as an awkward stranger, seeing as they neither belong to the 'Average Joes' nor the Mastermind VWO-Frankensteins.
VWO: 6 yrs, prepares you for research universities, hardest secondary education. Students in this group are commonly said to be intellectual sponges, as they get to digest the greatest amount of info in the littlest amount of time.
They're also considered to be 'walking libraries' (at least, thats what my primary school friends called me..), 'nerds' and geniuses.
This is where things get interesting. Students who have finished their VMBO or HAVO, can get into the last 2 years of the study above their level. For HAVO students, this is VWO. Essenctially, a HAVO student who decided to study VWO, will have both a HAVO and a VWO certificate after 7 years. That's the blue arrow.
If you happen to have finished at least 1 year in MBO or HBO(and passed all of your courses), you can move on to HBO or WO respectively.
Alright, back to med school.
Not any kind of VWO or HAVO will get you into med school. VWO and HAVO are divided into 4 categories, each preparing you for a different job. The categories are N&G, N&T, E&M and C&M. (Simply translated Nature & Health, Nature & Tech, Economy & Society and Culture & Society)
For med school, you cannot apply if you don't have a N&G profile with physics or a N&T profile with biology. Both profiles have chemistry as a mandatory subject. So no, you cannot get into med school without biology, chemistry and physics.
Several studies in the Netherlands are so called 'Numerus Fixus' studies, meaning that only a set number out of so many students applying for a study gets to study it. Med school is one of them.
This year, over 8000 students applied for med school, although only 2500 got accepted.
There are two common ways of getting into med school:
The central selections, in which all students participate, and another tiny selection of the school itself.
You can only apply for a special selection of 1 school at a time, and if you happen to fail that, you can still participate in the central selections.
The central selections are a pest too.
Your high school results will have a say in this.
The system divides high school students into groups labeled A till E based on their grades.
In each group, a set percentage of the students are randomly selected to get into med school. In 2011, when 6000 students applied for med school, it was like this:
A group: 8 or higher 100%
B group: 7.5~7.9 45%
C group: 7.0~7.4 30%
D group: 6.5~6.9 20%
E group: 5.5~6.4 15%
Anyone with an avg of 5.4 or lower failed his finals, and is thus not yet done with high school.
I got into the E group with a pesky high school grade avg of 6.4 or so. Needlessly to say, out of 8000+ applicants, I did NOT get into med school, even though I've done bilingual education and gymnasium (I got a 7.5 out of 10 for Ancient Greek for my finals).
The central selections don't take any special feats into account. You may be an Olympic champion for god knows how long, if you don't have the 8+ avg or if luck seems to avoid you, you're not getting into med school.
Ok, I've rambled for too long already.
See ya around, folks.
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