Are premed requirements really that difficult?

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to offend, but I see premed kids and their parents gloat about the difficulty of being premed all the time like doing premed requirements is equivalent to med school. But the way I see it, this is one possible way premed requirements can be distributed:</p>

<p>Freshman year—Year of bio and chem with labs
Sophomore year—Physics and orgo with labs (yes, I know orgo is difficult)
Junior year—Year of calc and any other necessary science classes for MCAT prep</p>

<p>I also know that some of these classes are weed out courses, but most of these premed requirements are the backbone of a bio major, and that's not seen as the most difficult of undergrad majors (but I'm not saying it's not difficult, either. And yes, I know, labs suck). But a major in math, physics, or engineering seems 10x more difficult. Am I missing something here? </p>

2

<p>That schedule might not match every school’s courses and curriculum.</p>

<p>For example, some schools have organic chemistry as a prerequisite or corequisite for part of general biology. They may also have calculus as a prerequisite for physics (even the physics for biology majors courses require calculus at some schools).</p>

<p>Also, even if the course material might not be that hard, the pre-meds in those courses will be competing for the ration of A grades in the grading curve.</p>

3

<p>I don’t hear any pre-med kids or parents gloating about pre-med classes. Perhaps, you’re just around people who would gloat regardless of what classes they’re taking?</p>

<p>For your plan though, you’re going to want to take calculus your freshman year because you should be taking calculus-based physics. Also, I would recommend you take any classes you’re taking for the MCAT by the beginning of your junior year, so that you have time to prep for the MCAT and take it, with time to retake it if you want to.</p>

<p>Difficulty really depends on a whole host of things: the school, the student, what past preparation they’ve had, etc. I didn’t think pre-med classes were difficult, but I also don’t think physics or engineering is 10x more difficult. It just depends on your strengths and weaknesses and what comes more intuitively to you. Some students treat a lot of pre-med classes like pure memorization, while others learn concepts and can just figure out the rest. Some students find it really hard to solve problems, while other students think it’s easy. It just depends.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the difficulty of being a pre-med isn’t just the classes. It’s that you have to do well in your courses, while volunteering, shadowing, doing research, participating in clubs, and (hopefully) having a life. Then you also have to do med school apps, if you want to go to medical school the fall after graduation. It’s basically applying to college all over again, but more competitive and with less support (you presumably don’t have your parents helping you with everything–even just cooking and cleaning takes time). So for me, the amount of stuff you have to do and figure out on your own is what makes it challenging. And again, the amount of difficulty is going to depend on the student and the school, but it does exist.</p>

<p>So basically, don’t worry about it. People with a tendency to brag will brag about anything pre-med or not. If you’re planning on being pre-med, then just plan on it being hard. If you find it easier, then great! If you find it hard, then at least you were mentally prepared for the challenge. </p>

4

<p>It is probably compatibly difficult, with the added pressure for high GPA requirement.</p>

5

<p>Thanks guys for the feedback, especially baktrax for the detailed response! I’m not doing premed myself, but I find it pretty fascinating for some reason or another. </p>

6

<p>I’d imagine hardly anynthing compared to med school itself.</p>

<p>If one has an affinity for those subjects it shouldn’t be too hard, in addition to whatever they decide to major in for their actual degree.</p>

7

<p>I have a lot of friends who are biochem majors but not premed. They take a lot of courses with premeds like intro chem and orgo for example and do not enjoy it. The reason the requirements for med school are so difficult for premeds is that many of them (definitely not all of them) try to get by without actually learning anything, all they care about is doing well on the test so they memorize and only think about what is relevant for their grade. They think that this is easier, but in reality it makes it harder in the long. Many of them also make classes more stressful than needed with their constant grade grubbing.</p>