Another first term courseload thread

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>So for my first semester my schedule right now is:</p>

<p>Calculus II 4 credits (scored a 5 on bc and very good at math, seriously considered skipping calc ii but decided would be better to take t)
Intro to Bio 4 credits (Biology I) only ever took bio in 9th grade as an honors class.
Bio lab 0 credits (add on to intro to bio)
Physics II 4 credits (took the ap physics b class, got a 5, self studied for both ap physics c exams the next year, scored a 5 on mechanics and 4 on electricity and magnetism) Pretty comfortable with physics.
Chemistry I w/ advanced lab 4 credits (adv lab simply means more technique oriented labs) I took ap chemistry but I unfortunately slacked off most of the year and scored a 3.</p>

<p>I am going to rensselaer and am majoring in biomedical engineering with Pre med track. Does this schedule sound manageable given by abilities or too much for first semester? I am a bit worried I may not have room to take, in the future, organic chemistry, second semester bio an chem courses in addition to my major concentration classes and English sufficiently before taking the MCAT. I am not worried at all about calc ii and feel good about Chem and bio, but is it just the workload that would be really tedious and hard? If I change, I would take an English course instead of physics II, which I would take next semester. I am not an athlete and plan on doing a few clubs such as quiz bowl, ambulace club, physics, an intramural, hopefully more shadowing, etc.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>It’s a pretty intense schedule. Labs are huge time suck. So are the lab reports. ( Anecdotally, lab reports take longer to write than the lab period itself and not uncommonly run into a dozen pages or more.) While it’s possible this schedule may be manageable, it won’t be easy or fun. And it’ll be very easy to get yourself into academic trouble quickly.</p>

<p>The truth is most of your classmates will have had AP classes in math, bio, chem and physics also. So simply having done well in a high school AP class isn’t going to give you much, if any, advantage in college.</p>

<p>Consider dropping one of the sciences. (Bio probably since you’ll need the phys and chem to stay on track with the engineering curriculum.)</p>

<p>P.S. don’t forget to add into psych and intro to soc somewhere in your schedule since both will be included in the new Human Behaviors section of the 2015 MCAT.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes. Engineering is one of the most rigorous undergrad majors. ANY engineering is gonna be hard (and a gpa-killer).</p>

<p>(Architecture is right up there in level of difficulty.)</p>