<p>1) poli 1 - introduction to american politics
2) chem 1a - general chemistry
3) stat 2 - introduction to statistics
4) german r1a - reading and composition</p>
<p>1) i NEED a high gpa for med school. ok, so im taking political science 1 right now in a community college so i will at least have a backbone to work off of at berkeley. and the professor for this class is hard, im not slacking at all.</p>
<p>2) as for chemistry, i have some background. i opted out of the chem ap test but i’m sure i can at least give myself half a year worth of prep before i enter the class with last 6 week summer cramming.</p>
<p>3) never taken stats before</p>
<p>4) as for my writing ability for reading and composition, here’s an excerpt from an essay i wrote this summer for a book about cognitive therapy:
“Maintaining a sense of well-being in a relationship helps erase relationship dysfunction by manipulating the amount of insecurity in the human mind. Different levels of insecurity cause individuals to experience numerous mood swings throughout the day. For example, high levels fill the human mind with an excess of negative feelings, triggering individuals to act distressful and exhibit counter-productive behavior that would otherwise not exist if they had felt secure. Individuals who have low levels of insecurity and feel secure, on the other hand, can access their inner wisdom; they gain the ability to see the world beyond the pessimistic feelings of their self-doubting minds. This theory represents a 180-degree departure from mainstream thought. It affects individual relationships through high mood therapy, a counseling technique that extracts misunderstanding from its clients. Therapists aim to explain mood distortions to their clients by clarifying the extent to which their perceptions have changed due to shifting feelings.”</p>
<p>i got 5/5 on the ap calc bc so im done with the calc requirement. dont feel like doing 1b or w/e. i also opted out of psych 1 because of ap scores and an abnormal psychology community college class. here’s my other scores from high school just in case:</p>
<p>art history - 3 (12)
calculus bc - 5 (12)
calculus ab sub - 5 (12)
psychology - 4 (12)
spanish language - 3 (12)
microeconomics - 4 (12)
macroeconomics - 4 (12)
european history - 5 (12)
biology - 5 (11)
english lang - 3 (11)
us history - 4 (11)</p>
<p>This is a “what are my chances” thread AFTER you’ve been accepted… CRAZY! Anyways, i’ll read your post and- maybe- answer your question later. Haha… ‘best of luck,’</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure if you were interested in continuing your spanish, but i was just reading around UC med school web sites, and they said the ability to speak spanish is a huge plus. Perhaps, if you weren’t planning continuing it, you should stay fresh and pick it up later, because it might make your application that much better.</p>
<p>As to your courseload, i have no idea. How many units is that? It seems like a lot, and you should just check to see which classes are early drop classes, and, if it feels like you have too much and you want more free time or study time for other classes, don’t be afraid to drop a class.</p>
<p>kevMD: for admissions to competitive med schools, does not prior experience (internship, job, etc) during college help out more than 5% of an application?</p>
<p>research, maybe. But that’s only after you have a good handle on your gpa and mcat. maybe do a few hours volunteering at the local hospital to show that you’re interested in medicine… the usual cookie cutter stuff.</p>
<p>During your first 2 years, just worry about your gpa first. Don’t even try to complicate things with clubs and other shet. A premed should just focus on doing well in the premed sciences. doing well –> good mcat score.</p>
<p>if you had chemistry in high school, or ap chemistry for that matter, chem 1a shouldn’t be hard for you. But I’d advise you to channel most of your energy into the chem class since it is a weeder class and you will be competing with other premed for the curve. Good luck.</p>
<p>it will simplify things a lot more if you just take the math 1a/b sequence.</p>
<p>people from california apply to as many as 15-20 med schools. some even insane enough to apply to 30 schools. Some of these 30 will not take ap credit, so you might as well take the math classes and get them over with.</p>
<p>And for people who are worried about studying a lot… I’m doing fine at about 2-3 hours a day normally and about 5 right before exams (about 8 days out of the whole semester). I spend way more time in class than I do studying. Go to class. You won’t have to study as much.</p>