<p>What does your schedule look like?</p>
<p>My daughter’s good friends with a pre-vet student. Does that count? Needless to say, her schedule is very full with labs, but I can’t tell you specifics.</p>
<p>This is anecdotal, but I know like 4 pre-meds at Smith.
- is a bio major. Schedule is full of bio, math and other pre-med requirements but also takes Chinese and will try to spend a semester abroad.
- is a SWAG major. Takes SWAG classes and pre-med classes pretty 50-50
- is a math major. Takes like all math, astronomy, and pre med stuff.</p>
<p>First semester for D:</p>
<p>Calculus
Chem I
Writing course
Phys Ed</p>
<p>She was advised to start with an easy schedule.</p>
<p>Second semester:</p>
<p>Chem II-Organic
Calculus
Intro to Neuroscience
The meaning of life</p>
<p>Mitul,</p>
<p>Email Margaret Anderson with your questions. Dr. Anderson is the director of health advising. She’s an extremely kind, understanding and wonderful professor. </p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Biological
Sciences](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/biology/faculty_anderson.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/biology/faculty_anderson.php)
and
[Smith</a> College: Biological Sciences](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/biology/prehealth.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/biology/prehealth.php)</p>
<p>Definitely get in touch with prehealth advising, if not before you arrive, then early in your first semester. Applying to med school takes a lot of planning. You should visit the pre-med forum on CC as well to read about the strategy for all students, not just those at Smith.</p>
<p>Most premed majors at all colleges take their “year of English” and “year of math” their first year to get those requirements out of the way. And most take general chemistry and intro to bio their first year as well. At Smith, organic chemistry 1 is offered in the spring only (or, at least, it was) so you will probably take that, too. My guess is that your first year schedule will look similar to this: intro to bio, chemistry 1, English/writing course, elective; organic chem I, English, calculus I, elective.</p>
<p>Be aware, the English requirement varies by medical school. JHU published an excellent compilation of English requirements. <a href=“http://web.jhu.edu/bin/s/g/english_requirements.pdf[/url]”>http://web.jhu.edu/bin/s/g/english_requirements.pdf</a></p>
<p>At some schools, the English requirement must be fulfilled with courses offered by the English Dept. </p>
<p>N.Y. Medical College: “English or Comp Lit Classes only.”
Saint Louis University: “Must be fulfilled with courses offered by English Dept”
U.C.L.A: “Preferred not to be met by alternate courses”</p>
<p>Others will accept any significant reading/writing course.
UNC Chapel Hill: “Can be satisfied by courses outside English Dept.”</p>
<p>Yale, Mayo, Tufts, et al. have no English requirement. </p>
<p>N.B. The JHU list is a few years old. Check with each school for current requirements. Harvard has new English guidelines for the class entering 2016</p>
<p>Everyone, thank you for your inputs. This was extremely helpful :)</p>
<p>NEmomof2, will your daughter be a Neuroscience major? </p>
<p>rocket6louise, can I get in touch with your friend who is a bio major? I’ll give out my facebook name in private, if that is possible.</p>
<p>Also, will being a Bio major with a minor in neuroscience be too tough to maintain a high gpa, considering that I will also be taking premed requirements?</p>
<p>The reason I can’t decide is because with I’m very interested in neuroscience but at the same time I feel like if I don’t take a bunch of Biology classes I’ll be missing out on all the stuff about Cells and body parts other than brains (which I’m also interested in). On top of that, I’ll be taking premed requirements as well as a requirement to complete 64 credits outside your major, which will mean a busier schedule and I don’t want to load myself up too much either. Though I am aware of the fact that I’m able to decide my major later, with all these requirements, I feel like I’ll be unable to complete my credits if I don’t start out organized.</p>
<p>One possibility is to take a few classes in neuroscience, but not minor in neuroscience. Remember that the nice thing about having an open curriculum is that you can take whatever you want. I took almost enough courses to be a history minor, I just never declared a minor because I was missing maybe 1 or 2 courses in areas of history that didn’t interest me and I wanted to fill those slots with other classes. So I got a really good understanding of the historical regions that interested me, without the baggage of being a major. </p>
<p>Similarly, if you’re concenred about it beign too much, you can major in Bio and then just take some neuroscience classes that interest you. Or major in Neuroscience and take some bio classes that interest you. </p>
<p>Remember that most people do not both major and minor, most just take a major. You can have a goal in mind and choose non major courses that concentrate in a particular area of interest and are designed to support that goal without the formality of the major/minor structure.</p>
<p>Could any of you talk about the Neuroscience department at Smith or the biology courses in general? I really want to minor in neuroscience, but I’m also majoring in Government (for law school – for sure!) and so I need a nearly perfect GPA. How difficult is Intro to Neuroscience? Do people get A’s? Also, would taking it in conjunction with an intro level Bio class be too much too soon? Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, it depends on you. If you did very well in your advanced science classes in high school you’re likely to do well in the science classes at Smith. People do get A’s in Intro to Neuroscience (not sure how many). I know of at least a couple of first-year students who took multiple science classes each term at Smith (I’m sure there’s many more) and at least one of them did very well (don’t know the other’s grades).</p>
<p>Can you do both pre-med and study-abroad in Smith in 4 years? How does study-abroad affect the schedule of a pre-med student?</p>
<p>I believe so, with careful planning. There’s a study-abroad page on the Smith web site in the prehealth advising section that you should check out. I know that biochemistry majors are able to study abroad, and their coursework is pretty similar to premeds. If you’re interested in France, Smith has a new science in Paris program that makes it easier for science students to study abroad for a year.</p>
<p>^^ How about German? D is studying German in high school after having completed Spanish AP. I will check out the web site too.</p>