<p>I am looking at potentially being a biochemistry/engineering double major (of course, all subject to change), which I've planned out and seems feasible enough. Fulfilling all pre-med requirements would obviously be tough, but the bio, chem, math, and liberal arts would be all taken care of (i go to a lac). The physics requirement is the one i have questions about. </p>
<p>Is this requirement flexible? meaning if I place out of intro. physics and just take engineering courses, would some of my engineering courses be taken as physics? There is a mechanics course, E&M, and quantum would be covered in the chem major. Basically, do I have to take the intro physics courses to be a pre-med?</p>
<p>It is DEFINITELY the case that advanced physics classes – such as those that would naturally follow introductory physics – taught within the physics department would count. Some other courses in the physics department would definitely NOT count – for example, Astronomy as typically used by non-science majors to fulfill general education science requirements.</p>
<p>You seem to be asking, however, about courses which sound identical to introductory physics but are taught out of the Engineering School. I’m not sure about this. Also bear in mind: if your advisor thinks medical schools will have difficulty with them, your engineering school might permit you to take the premed sequence.</p>
<p>I doubt an engineering school would allow an engineering major to take pre-med physics (= physics for biology majors, with little or no calculus) courses. In such a situation, the likely requirement would be to take physics courses that physics majors take.</p>
<p>Just to talk more generally for a moment, the pre-med requirements are not the intro courses per se. They are 1 year of X, 2 years of Y with lab etc. Most people take the intro because it’s easier and faster than taking the more advanced courses but pretty much any advanced course in the same department will count.</p>
<p>I would ask adcoms of Medical schools. My D. did, she got responses very quickly, she did not need to guess after that, their responses are the only reliable ones.</p>
<p>If your school has a track record of sending students to med schools, they should be aware of which classes qualify to meet the requirements of a premed. If med schools want you to show 1 year of physics, you need to be able to show it and if your school labels one of the engineering physics as being acceptable and classify it as physics on your transcript it would work. An engineering class by itself wont be considered an equivalent class.</p>
<p>I was checking out Texas med school requirements recently and some of them need a statistics class. I was shocked to notice that they had a school by school listing of which statistics class was acceptable and also noticed that an engineering stat class my kid was recommended to take as an engineering major is not listed and also fell short of the credits requirement.</p>
<p>^Most pre-meds are not in engineering though. The question might be very specific to this applicant. Anyway, why not to ask adcoms, it is their job, the answers will be definitve, no grey area anymore.
BTW, Stats is the easiest A in UG. Why not to take it anyway, improve your GPA with the min. effort
And it is absolutely correct that Med. Schools even in the same state might be different in their requirements.</p>
<p>Taking Stat is a given. However the default Stat class for the major does not meet the requirement of the med schools. </p>
<p>I would think the premed depts in a college would know more about which of their classes are allowed for med schools. You have to poll a lot of adcoms since each med school behaves differently.</p>
<p>Why would a statistics course for statistics majors not meet pre-med requirements, since it is likely a more rigorous course than one for biology majors?</p>
<p>Yes, agree, make sure that Stats class is OK as Med. School pre-req. Also, keep in mind that Stats are actually usefull for pre-meds and explain a lot about Med. Research procedures while Calc seems to be useless (aside from meeting requirements) - this is according to my D. (MS3 in few weeks), who also happen to have the easy time with any math. Boy, I wish they had more math based material in Med. School, but our body Bio does use much math and of course, D’s favorite are kidneys (more math and her favorite Chem.), too bad the specialty requires 8 years of residency.</p>
<p>UCB - it is a stat class for engineering majors that was not listed by med schools in texas. I was surprised they had listed about 4 of them for this specific college but the engineering stat class was not one of them.</p>
If this is true (It is not that I do not believe you), some med schools really have prejudice against anything related to engineering. – It is not so in i-banking/finance. I heard that some i-banking/finance companies actually welcome engineering majors or physics/math majors. I recently heard that a BME major got into this industry.</p>
<p>Brown,
"Unless its changed recently, nephrology is a 2 yr fellowship that follows a 3 yr internal medicine residency so not 8 years. "
-Are you sure it is not 4 + 4? Or maybe even 4 + 4 + 2? 6 years would be great news. Nephrology is definitely one of the most interesting academically for my D., but she is scared off by the long process.</p>
<p>mcat2 - they do have a process where you can request classes to be added to the list. I don’t know if it was not accepted because it is 3 credits actual vs 4 credits required or no one ever asked for it. It is early enough for my kid that she can take the appropriate stat class as opposed to finding out later she has stat but not the right stat class.</p>
<p>Some schools require two semesters of English/Intensive Writing courses while others require STAT and Biochemistry. Should all these be completed before submitting the application?</p>
<p>^ I learned from CC in the past that the answer is no. The applicant can take the course in the application cycle, but (s)he needs to complete the course before matriculation.</p>
<p>Regarding “two semesters of English/Intensive Writing course”, DS’s college will make sure every student would complete these courses (I think they should be completed by the end of sophomore.) Otherwise, the student will receive an “academic warning” from the academic dean from his/her college (and maybe even a “counseling” session by her/his froco who is a senior year student who is assigned to the student to “help him/her”?)</p>