<p>By the way, would you mind to tell me how much it costs to attend SBU? According to CollegeBoard, the average estimated total for an in-state person to attend SBU is $22,133. Did you pay that much? I also noticed that room and board ($11,364) costs more than tuition ($8001), which seems to be a little bit ridiculous to me. Are you allowed to live outside of the campus? I’m from upstate NY, so I’m not going to live at home when I’m there. Even though Long Island is a pretty expensive place to live, I should be able to find a place that is cheaper than $947/month ($11364/12). It’s also very less likely that my parents will contribute a lot to my college education, so I’m trying to save as much as possible. Thank you so much if you’d share something with me.</p>
<p>22 is the going rate at Stony Brook but I don’t know enough about your financial or educational situation to be able to comment on your eligibility for financial or merit aid, but most people get some amount of assistance. There are no required courses in college for graduation besides some Gen Ed courses (called DECs) and some writing requirements. Everything else is for your major. Bio can be a way to satisfy a DEC requirement but it is not the only way. You should probably start out with PHY and Chem for he premed track. Bio is simply not taken until sophomore year, that’s the way it is at SBU.</p>
<p>Okay. I went to the SBU biology webpage and it did say that general chem is the prerequisite for bio, which means it’s likely that I’ll take bio my sophomore year (after completing general chem in freshman year).
[Stony</a> Brook Undergraduate Bulletin - Spring 2014 - BIO](<a href=“http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/courses/bio/]Stony”>http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/courses/bio/)
However, as I looked over the bio courses, I realized that there are three introl level bio courses: Fundamentals of Biology: Organisms to Ecosystems (BIO 201), Fundamentals of Biology: Molecular and Cellular Biology (BIO 202), and Fundamentals of Biology: Cellular and Organ Physiology (BIO 203). Does this mean that I’ll have to take all three intro bio classes? If not, will you recommend to take all three? I realized that these classes are the most “general” classes that cover everything I’ll have learned in AP Bio, so I’m assuming they’re the college equivalent courses for premed students.</p>
<p>I think all you questions and worries can be solved if you do yourself a favor and re-read frugaldoctor’s reply:</p>
<p>"As a physician, I want to commend you for aspiring to be a physician. But as a physician, I want to tell you that you are getting WAY ahead of yourself.</p>
<p>Becoming a physician is as similar to what it took to get to where you are right now except a lot tougher. While you could have planned all of the grades you were in, you could not have planned your life experiences. Similarly in medicine, you can plan your college education and have an idea what you will learn in medical school, but you can’t plan the experiences you will obtain from here on end. You need those life experiences to mature and become a true caring physician. Otherwise, you will find your life in medicine completely unfulfilled. </p>
<p>The most important advice I have is to surround yourself with competent mentors, specifically physicians as soon as you can. Volunteer at a hospice or hospital. Gain as much intangible experiences as you can and use your premed advisors. You have a lot of questions that can not be adequately addressed here. But slow down, enjoy the moment, or you will drive yourself crazy with all of the planning."</p>
<p>Yeah I agree, calm down and take your time, you haven’t even been admitted to SBU yet. AP Bio helps for 202 but 203 is completely new material. You take 202 and 203 for the MCAT if you are not a Bio major.</p>
<p>You’ll have an adviser you will tell you what to take. Look at the general education rereqs. Remember that as a premed it’s better not to major in biology (there’s a glut of bio majors right now) so if you can handle chemistry, think of chemistry or biochem.</p>
<p>Take it easy and one step at a time. Forget for now about JHU. Your goal for your UG is to get all As in every class, believe me it is a very good goal to have.
One more suggestion. I do not see any reason to taking more math, unless specific Med. Schools will not accept credits for AP. You have to contact adcoms of specific Med. Schools on your list to figure this one.<br>
Another point, many schools will not give you full credits (I do not know about your UG) for AP grade below 5. My D. had 4 in AP English and had to take one semester of college English, which was complete waste of her time, learned nothing, just wasted time reading boring novels.
Still more points, most pre-meds are taking several advnaced Bio (like Genentics, Physiology, Anatomy), since they are very helpful for MCAT and Anatomy has lots of vocabulary for Med. School. Keep in mind that. D. was taking some kind of Bio in all of her 4 years, and they get progressively harder and harder.
Still next point, if you are pursuing CS, then, frnakly, I do not know when you will have time to take Med. School pre-reqs and do Medical ECs. You will be spending all of your free time debugging your computer programs. I am in IT, have been for few decades and started out my education in CC. Even at CC, all I was doing primarily is working on my programs, the rest of the time I was hoping to briefly cover other academic material. You will not have time. Bio classes, Orgo are very challenging, you cannot just skim over, you need hours upon hours and in Junior year you will have to prepare for the MCAT (which is hours every day for many weeks) and in senior year, there are Med. School interviews. Why do I know - my kid is 3rd year Med. Student.<br>
There are international students (at least in my D’s class) in the USA Med. Schools.</p>
<p>@TheBombingRange:
I just got my letter from SBU a few days ago and I have been admitted into the school. This is the first school that I got notified of (since I applied all schools through regular decision, in which a lot of schools release their notification in late March). I’ll visit the school during my February break with my family. Hopefully, I’ll like it and go there for the next four years.</p>
<p>@MiamiDAP:
Are you a B.S in CS? If so, I’d like to know how challenging can the major be. Do you spend hours and hours of time on your programs because it’s hard or is it because it’s tedious so that it consumes a lot of times? Since I don’t want to waste my money to go to a top-notch school, I’m concern that I may not be able to find a decent job if I can’t get into any of the med school. Just to be clear, it’s not that I’m not confident enough to major in biochem or other med-related majors; statistics shows that only 40% of the TOTAL med school applicants actually get accepted into med school every year (that is a very very low number). I just want to be aware of the other side of reality just in case if I don’t make into med school. Since CS is in demand right now, I figure that I should use CS as my “back-up” major. If I decide to go to University of Chicago or Cornell, then I would easily pick economics since it’s something that I’m interesting in. However, I don’t really want to spend extra $100,000 in UG if I’m really planning on going to med school, which will cost another $200,000 at least.
I’ll really appreciate it if you’d answer my question!</p>
<p>To all: No, I’m NOT an internationally student. I’ll be a naturalized citizen of the U.S. within the next year. So, don’t worry about my eligibility for med schools. Thank you!</p>
<p>"I also noticed that room and board ($11,364) costs more than tuition ($8001), which seems to be a little bit ridiculous to me. Are you allowed to live outside of the campus? I’m from upstate NY, so I’m not going to live at home when I’m there. Even though Long Island is a pretty expensive place to live, I should be able to find a place that is cheaper than $947/month ($11364/12). "</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>You’re just looking at rent. Room and board costs would be Housing and FOOD. And if you’re looking at rent, where’s your consideration for utilities? Those costs have to be considered as well. You’re not likely going to find a place where rent and utilities are cheap enough…and you’ll have money left over to eat. You have to estimate a few thousand for food. </p>