Pre-Med Major Advice

ucbalumnus
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 15:48:53 +0000

CSE or ECE tends to have a high volume of major requirements, many of which do not overlap with pre-med courses. Of the pre-med courses:

Physics: required for major

Calculus: required for major

Statistics: may be required for major

General chemistry: may be required for major, otherwise needs to be added

Organic chemistry: need to add it to your schedule

General biology: need to add it to your schedule

Upper level biochemistry, etc.: need to add it to your schedule

English composition: overlaps with general education requirements

Psychology, sociology: choose these for general education social studies requirements

So you need to plan your schedule carefully to fit in all of the additional pre-med courses around your schedule. Depending on the volume of non-overlapping courses for your major, it may require overloading your schedule. Note that AP credit does not reduce the volume of courses required, since medical schools often expect substitution with more advanced courses if using AP credit for lower level courses (also, if you repeat AP credit or a previously taken college course, you will have to mark “repeat” on your medical school application, which looks bad).

In terms of extracurriculars, medical schools expect them in clinical experience, helping others (including the more disadvantaged / underserved), etc…

You may want to post your questions on the pre-med forum section.