Poskashflo

What kind of course list should we expect for a freshman pre-med?

Thanks!

dufay

At any college: Biology, Chemistry and electives. Some med schools still require calculus, and many biology majors do require it. Remember, you can major in anything and still be pre-med as long as you satisfy the basic requirements (1 year biology w/lab, chem, organic chem, physics +/- calculus).

HartinGA

If you attend one of the summer programs, you will get to spend time with an advisor at that time and even register early. They can walk you through how to fit in the pre med requirements within your major. If your major is a hard science, then most of them will already be included as requirements. If not, you might have to string them out a little. Frankly, the latter is not a bad idea anyway, rather than cramming them all into the first few semesters.

jcool155

The Life Sciences guide from ArtSci pretty much outlines everything you'll do as a pre-med Life Sciences Guide | The College | Arts & Sciences

If you major in Biology or Chemistry, then most of the pre-med classes will count towards those majors. That's why most pre-meds end up majoring in one of those two fields.

Wash U really encourages you to take Bio III and two semesters of Physics and one more calculus class than you might find at other colleges.

You'll take Chem 1 in your fall semester freshman year, and Bio I and Chem II your second semester. I think this schedule is one semester more advanced than many colleges' sequences. The thing about Wash U is that they introduce some stuff in the intro level chem courses, which is most always reserved for more advanced chemistry classes elsewhere.... so placing out of Chem 1 here will be to a severe disadvantage and no one really does it. The benefit is that you'll be extra prepared for organic chem and med school!

HartinGA

I want to reinforce jcool's comment about Chem I. Not only was my son glad he had AP Chem, he swears that without AP Physics it would have been overwhelming. He said there were many elements in the first semester that were not in AP Chem, but at least he had covered them in AP Physics.

ash90

For first semester, you'll take Chem 111 (general chemistry) and Chem 151 (chemistry lab). Chem 151 is more of the stuff from AP Chem than 111, and is two credits. Chem 111 is 3 credits, and as jcool said, is pretty advanced considering it's an entry level course (jcool is also right in that skipping these courses is not at all recommended). Many will also take a calculus class first semester (personally I did not), and then second semester most people take the intro level biology course (Chem 111 and 151 are prerequisites for bio).