<p>Hi, everyone! I’m going to be pursuing a B.A. degree. At my university B.A. students have to take a lot more generals than B.S. students, so I’m trying to figure some stuff out.</p>
<p>First off, by the end of my fourth year I will have taken Biology 1&2, Calculus 1, General Chemistry 1&2, Organic Chemistry 1&2, Cell Biology, and General Physics 1&2. I know that meets the requirements for most of the medical schools. However, that will barely allow me to take all of my major courses and general courses for graduation at my university. A lot of the med school websites I’ve visited so far “strongly recommend” things like Anatomy and Physiology, Biochemistry (by the way what is the difference between biochem and org chem?), full courses in Genetics, etc. Will just the classes I have lined-up prepare me for the MCAT and Med School? Or should I just go for a B.S. degree?</p>
<p>I want to do my B.A. in Creative Writing because if I can’t go to med school I would like to try to go to an M.F.A program and try to write books. Another question, has anyone here done a creative writing degree and pre-med before? I’m a little worried that creative writing will be too time intensive and will eat up my volunteer/shadow/research/club leadership/study for science class time. Thanks again Pre-Med section, you haven’t failed me yet.</p>
<p>D1 is currently a sr majoring in English/CW and doing premed coursework. She has not had a problem with CW workshops being too time intensive (she’s taking her 4th one this semester), and actually likes the balance of taking English and science classes rather than one or the other. It’s too early to tell if she has spent enough time on medical ECs since she hasn’t applied to Med school yet. But she does have time to volunteer at a clinic, shadow intermittently, work with disadvantaged HS students interested in medicine, etc., as well as non-medical ECs. She did research last summer only, so that is defintiely the weakest aspect of her medical resume.</p>
<p>As far as coursework, she took Organic & Biochem to fulfill her Chem requirements and will have taken cell bio and physiol for her upper level Bio, but nothing beyond the basics. She will take a prep course this summer and then the MCAT, again too early to tell whether or not the minimal coursework is sufficient.</p>
<p>Since she’s sitting the MCAT this summer, she’ll be taking a 2 year break before (hopefully) entering Med school. Americorps or a MFA are possible interum activities.</p>
This is what DS (who is a premed) once explained to me: biochem is the application of what you have learned from orgo chem. I do not get it though because I know neither orgo nor biochem.</p>
<p>entomom, My gut feeling is that your D will have taken enough science courses before taking the MCAT. Also, it is rumored that an English major in general has an edge on this kind of test :)</p>
<p>^^I appreciate your confidence mcat2! She would have taken a couple more science classes that she heard were good, but the scheduling never seemed to work out. I’m preparing to sign her up for a Kaplan course starting in June, luckily we have one here in town. It will be good to get that over with and once she has a score she should be able to put together a reasonable list of schools.</p>
<p>That is unless she gets published first, then all bets are off ;).</p>
<p>I just saw this thread and since it’s been about3 years I wanted to know how this track has worked for you. I’m considering majoring in English: creative writing with pre-med coursework. Please let me know.</p>
<p>D1 chose to take 2 yrs off after graduating for several reasons: to apply for a MFA, to gain more experience in the medical field and take time off between UG and med school. She would have spent the 2 years in a MFA if she would have been accepted to one who fully funded their students, but it didn’t happen. Instead she did Americorps for a year working in a low income clinic with un/under-insured patients, and a year working for a health related non profit.</p>
<p>As WOWMom said, she’s happily headed to med school in Aug. One of the things she looked for in selecting schools to apply to were ones with a Narrative Medicine program.</p>
<p>Closing this thread since it’s old, but please feel free to use the New Thread button to ask more questions.</p>