bluedevilmike

Being a premed is not a major, or a program, or a special type of school. You go to college, major in whatever you like, and take a few extra courses. Then you apply to medical school. Simple, right?

Core Requirements: 1 year of biology with lab (2 for Texas), 1 year genchem, 1 year organic, 1 year physics, 1 year English. Many schools also require a year of Math.

Math is a tricky requirement; generally I recommend up through Calc II (or III if you have BC credit) and one semester of statistics. English classes may include classes labelled as English, Literature, Composition, Writing, etc. This list is probably not exhaustive.

Extra courses: While not usually required, biochem is also a good idea, and two semesters of bio is probably on the low side. Good classes would include Anatomy, Microbiology, Physiology, Principles, Cell Biology, and Genetics. Higher-level physics or chemistry (i.e. p-chem & a-chem) are not recommended.

AP Courses: The sad fact is that many medical schools do not accept AP credit, at least for some of the important requirements. They will always accept higher-level courses (i.e. biochem instead of genchem), but you should plan on taking classes as if medical schools do not accept AP requirements.

Schools appear to be most AP-lenient with Math requirements, if they have any in the first place.

Timing: Many premeds wish to finish their courseload before the MCATs, which definitely has merits as a plan. The disadvantage is that you are forced to take many classes simultaneously. The solution is to delay as many classes are possible. Here are my suggestions:
1.) Do not take any biology classes related to ecology, evolution, diversity, etc. Focus instead on physiology, cell biology, and genetics.
2.) If you feel like you had a strong high school background in physics - or even if you just feel like you're good at physics - then push that back as well. Physics on the MCAT is fairly easy, and a high school background (not even AP) combined with a good prep class should suffice.

Harder classes: There is really very little advantage to taking harder courses unless the material is actually relevant to medical school, in which case it will help you as a medical student, not in the admissions process per se. With that said, I will caution people that sometimes more advanced courses are graded on an easier curve, and that sometimes it is actually easier to receive high grades in "more advanced" classes.

Whether it's too hard: We get a lot of threads on this, and I am afraid that the answer is very simple: nobody else can help you. This varies a great deal from school to school, but more importantly, from person to person. How smart are you? How good was your high school? How good are your study habits now? How good will they be when you enter college? If you think you don't know the answers - and you probably don't - then there is certainly no way any of us could know the answers. Simply put, the members on this board cannot compose a reasonable answer for you.

Now, I will comfort you with this. If you have one bad semester, it is unlikely to kill you. Then you lower your courseload, take the MCAT a little later, and possibly - if necessary - you could even delay your application by a year with no harm done, so that you have more time in college to deal with actually being a premed. You can do things wrong and still survive.

bluedevilmike

I should be clearer:

Timing: Many premeds wish to take the MCATs early and try to cram all their premed courses in during their first two years. This definitely has merits as a plan.

Hope

Wow thank you soo much.

Hope

Do you recommend taking biochemistry before the MCAT?

bluedevilmike

Nope. It's not really on the MCAT, and it would mean rushing through genchem/orgo anyway. So no.

Hope

Is it ok for me to push back the ecology/evolution/plant bio semester of General Bio to Senior year? "General introduction to plant development, form, and function; population genetics, ecology, and evolution."--

The other semester of Gen. Bio that I will take before MCATs (before sr. year) is described, "General introduction to cell structure and function, molecular and organism genetics, animal development, form and function."

i am who i am

Finally someone posts something generally asked and very useful!
Thanks BDM!

(But I still bet there will be a bunch of people who don't search for anything and just ask...sigh)

bluedevilmike

Hope:
Yes, I was trying to explain that delaying in such a manner is, in fact, a very important thing to do.

IAWIA:
Yeah, I'm hoping the thread gets sticky-ified.

VelaenOscuridad

So, we can take the "required courses" of the med schools to which we apply in our senior year? Is the application similar to undergrad apps, where we state which courses we intend on taking for our senior year and the schools look at that as well?

tangents

For General Chemistry, does that include Chem 101 or is there a specific course description? because at the college I'm going to it's all # ie. Chem 131 etc. and I'm not sure which would be the lowest level of General Chemistry.
Also you said to delay evolution, plants etc b/c they are not on the MCATS or b/c it's not important?
Also is it typical to take Chem and Bio freshman year to have OrgoChem all by itself( for more focus?)

bluedevilmike

VO: Yes, but you don't want to do that with very many of them at all. If you plan on taking more than one or two semesters of premed requirements your senior year, you should take a year off afterwards to apply to medical schools (while doing something else, of course).

Tangents, as I'm sure you're aware, course codes vary dramatically from school to school. General chemistry is generally understood to mean the sort of thing that Raymond Chang's text might cover.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007...307931?ie=UTF8

IHS

Is it recommended to take organic chem freshmen year before gen chem?..because i'v been taking genchem for 4 years and I thought a change would be nice...

i am who i am

please stickify this thread! (but how do you contact the admin...?well the question is, who is the admin?)

bluedevilmike

Genchem as described above re: the Chang book is a prerequisite for organic chemistry.

IHS

We've got a placement exam during orientation! So you might be able to take organ before general chem!