Would my son be able to do this?

Parents Forum
#1

<p>My son wants to go to Ohio State University and wants to double major in Economics and Biology while taking his pre-med requisites and wants to do this all in four years. Would he be able to accomplish this in four years, would any summer school be needed, what would his coarse load/schedule be like?</p>

<p>I apologize if this is posted in the wrong place!</p>

<p>Course Descriptions:
<a href="http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/econ.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/econ.pdf&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/premed.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/premed.pdf&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/biology.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www-afa.adm.ohio-state.edu/u-majors/pdf/biology.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

#2

<p>This is possible at any school.
For med school (any of them) you need the following classes:</p>

<p>1 year of Bio (w/ lab)
1 year of Physics (w/ lab)
1 year of gen. chem (w/ lab)
1 year of orgo. chem (w/ lab)
1 year of calc/statistics.</p>

<p>That's it. You need to take these courses during your first three years of college, which should be no problem regardless of choice of majors.
Of course it goes without saying that you need to do exceptionally well in these classes, but you knew that already.</p>

#3

<p>Two major factors that will determine if your son is able to do this is:
1. Does he have the drive and dedication to handle the workload.
2. Will he be able to schedule all of the classes he needs. Science classes have labs attached to them and even though a lab may only be for 1-2 hours a week, I would suggest more time as sometimes labs have to be repeated and of course the write-ups can be very time consuming.</p>

<p>He would probably have to take full loads in the summer and have no social life.</p>

#4

<p>So Proud Mom are you saying that he would need to take summer classes every summer? Because the previous poster made it sound like it shouldn't be a problem or even anything out of the ordinary.</p>

#5

<p>@proud_mom:
What are you talking about?
Thousands of students do this pre-med sequence without taking summer courses.</p>

<p>Spreading these 5 classes out during three years of college should not present much in the way of a challenge, especially since both the Bio and the Math will also count towards his Econ and Bio majors and he'd be taking them anyway.</p>

<p>I had a classmate of mine who was a double major: music and computer science and still took all the pre-med classes without doing any summer work.</p>

<p>In fact, many med schools will NOT accept summer classes or night school for the pre-med sequence. They want see you take the classes during the regular school year.</p>

#6

<p>OP - What you're proposing is absolutely doable ... without summers ... as long as your S is willing to take a reasonable overload each semester. How do I know? My D did it ... WITHOUT giving up her social life or affecting her high GPA.</p>

#7

<p>Even my son's Tier 3 LAC requires 2 sciences (only one with a lab) so it is really just 2 extra science classes and worst case scenario these will eat up 2 electives. </p>

<p>I have heard multiple times that organic Chem is very difficult so maybe he should take that course during a semester when he has a lighter load.</p>

#8

<p>I wanted to know what you mean by "reasonable overload" NewHope33.</p>

#9

<p>This should be do-able without summer school and probably without taking an unduly heavy course load -- especially if he has any AP credits and therefore can omit some prerequisites. The only problem (and it's faced by all students who double major) is that his opportunities to explore fields other than biology and economics will be limited.</p>

#10

<p>How would i go about creating a sort of mock schedule if you will that will show him the amount of classes he would take, when he would take these classes etc.... Also I have heard that TOSU will be changing over from a quarter system to a semester system so I would also like to know how many classes he would be allowed to take each semester.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help in advance, this is my first child going to college and thus I am very confused.</p>

#11

<p>Does he have AP credit? The state schools can be very generous if a student scores well and that will make a difference. Have him look at what credits Ohio State gives before you sit down with the schedule. Also keep in mind that what a young person wants to do today, may not be what he wants to do tomorrow or next week or next year.</p>

#12

<p>Son is going to be a junior but by the time he finishes High School he will have taken all the AP courses available to him which are very few but include.... AP Latin 3 AND 4, AP Calculus, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP European History, AP English. But one of my nieces who also attended the same high school and college said that she HIGHLY recommended not taking the AP BIO and AP Chem tests because she said that the colleges go quite a bit more in-depth in the introductory classes than the high school does and that he will most likely miss out on quite a bit of information.</p>

#13

<p>Maybe Ohio's website has something similar. This is from U of Minnesota</p>

<p>BIO - <a href="https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=17381&programID=9&programSeq=13024%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=17381&programID=9&programSeq=13024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Econ (BS) <a href="https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=14048&programID=105&programSeq=9742%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=14048&programID=105&programSeq=9742&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Econ (BA) <a href="https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=17014&programID=101&programSeq=12596%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogSamplePlan.do?samplePlanID=17014&programID=101&programSeq=12596&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

#14

<p>This is my son's GF's goal...bio & econ double major and pre-med</p>

<p>Coming in with AP Credits that the school will accept will make the process much easier, but you usually can't rely on those for med school acceptance. </p>

<p>My son's GF has had to take one or two summer classes each summer.</p>

<p>I would think that doing a Bio major with an Econ minor plus pre--med sequence would be much easier.</p>

#15

<p>@Kajon, they do have something like that if you look at my links and scroll down on the left side they show the classes you may take each year but what I wanted to know is do you just combine the classes of each year and divide by two for an estimate on the number of classes you will take each year? (Of course excluding the overlapping classes)</p>

#16

<p>It is doable IF you son can get into the science classes he needs, in the sequence he needs to take them. </p>

<p>Would also need to have this happen for Econ.</p>

<p>How many students at TOSU finish in 4 years....with just 1 major? Some state schools have "standard" 4.5 or 5 year grad rates. When one of my kids toured Berkeley, it was stated that very few kids finish in 4 years, especially engineering and sciences...mainly because they get shut out of some of the required classes. Don't know if this is an issue at Ohio State or not.</p>

<p>There are pre-med advisors @ Ohio State. You'll probably get the best info. from them as to similar experiences for other kids. Pre-Health</a> Advising Program | PreHealth</p>

<p>As for AP, many med school will require the courses be taken in college....even if the college accepts the AP credit. Your child could, and still should, take the AP tests, but may not have to submit for credit or placement.</p>

#17

<p>Why isn't he doing this himself?</p>

<p>If the university really is changing to a quarter system from a semester system there is no way you can figure this out now anyway. A typical load (without counting credits) will be four or five courses a semester. Most schools have both requirements for their majors (both specific courses and a total number of courses) and some sort of distribution requirement and usually a freshman writing course that may be one or two semesters. Some schools may be generous with AP credit, others aren't. </p>

<p>In any event if your son is mature enough to become a doctor and also double major, he should be mature enough to work out a schedule that works.</p>

<p>As for whether it's doable - I'd imagine so. My roommate's boyfriend graduated from Harvard with a BA in Econ (summa cum laude to boot) and went off to med school.</p>

#18

<p>@patel1568:
Given that your son still has two years of high school, I think it's very premature to be worrying about class schedules at a particular university.</p>

<p>He might end up going somewhere else.
He might decide he wants to study something else.</p>

<p>The bottom line is that the pre-med sequence is very doable for a bio/econ major without going to summer sessions. This would be true at ANY undergrad school.
Just chill and have him concentrate on doing as best as he can in HS.</p>

#19

<p>@mathmom, he is doing this himself as well even more than I am but my curiosity is just as great as his! No need to be so rude, and I apologize if you weren't trying to be rude but to me what you said seemed like it was!!</p>

#20

<p>re: How much is "reasonable overload?"</p>

<p>If I recall correctly, D's program required 154 credits ... for an average of just over 19 credits per semester ... less any AP credit the student has. As Kajon pointed out, taking overloads the same two semesters a student takes Organic Chemistry is NOT recommended. Organic Chemistry is enough of a challenge on its own ... without some universities using it as a "weed out" course for pre-Meds.</p>

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