<p>Are these classes good to take if I plan on going pre med in college</p>
<p>Honors Chem</p>
<p>Honors Anatomy and physiology </p>
<p>Pre calculus </p>
<p>Health science </p>
<p>An answer would be much appreciated</p>
<p>Chem and pre-calc–yes. You will be taking more chem and more math to fulfill pre med requirements in college. Both of these courses are crucial to your future success in those classes.</p>
<p>Health science and A&P–not especially. </p>
<p>Most med schools do not require A&P for admission. Most high school A&P courses will not help you do well later should you elect to take college A&P. Take it if you want to and enjoy the topic–fine, but don’t take it just because you think it’ll help you later.</p>
<p>I have no idea what health science includes at your school, but generally except for strong foundational academic coursework in bio, chem, math and physics, no class from high school will give you an advantage during college pre med requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply :)</p>
<p>two more questions , How important is it take upper level science in high school and on your college app. do you have to specify that you wish to be on the premed track ?</p>
<p>Pre med is just a set of classes that covers entrance requirements for most medical schools. At most colleges, there is no such thing as a “pre med” major.</p>
<p>Med schools don’t care what your major is. You can major in just about anything so long as it’s an academic area. (The other type of majors are called “vocational”. These include things like business, accounting, nursing, nutrition, communications, exercise science.)</p>
<p>So long as you take the following:</p>
<p>2 semesters introductory bio w/ labs
2 semesters gen chemistry w/ labs
2 semesters organic chem w/labs
1 semester biochem
2 semesters gen physics w/ labs
2 semesters “college level” math (most schools ask for Calc 1 + Stats)
2 semesters of ‘writing intensive’ courses (which will vary by college)
1 semester psych
1 semester sociology</p>
<p>…you will cover the admission requirements for most (but not all) medical schools.</p>
<p>If you have a science major or minor you will be taking higher level science classes. No choice about that! But there are successful med students who have never taken a science course beyond the basic requirements listed above.</p>
<p>As for high school–</p>
<p>If you intend to major in science, math or engineering in college, you will probably be well served to take the challenging math & science classes offered by your high school. When you get to college, your classmates will likely have had advanced science classes and you will be competing with them for those elusive As.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the reply 
Will just taking 2 yrs of regular science and then two years of honors science be enough preparation for a science major . And will taking CLEP ans SAT 2 test in science areas be of any help</p>
<p>Be cautious about CLEP.</p>
<p>Not all colleges accept CLEP credits. Most med schools will not accept CLEP credits so if you attend a college that accepts CLEP credits you may be forced to take higher level coursework than you need to to fulfill med admission requirements. (Like physics beyond the intro level or an additional year of upper level chemistry like PChem.)</p>
<p>SAT 2 tests will not help in college admissions unless your scores are good to excellent. And not all schools ask for or consider SAT 2 scores. So it depends…</p>
<p>4 years of rigorous science sounds right.</p>
<p>would it be harder to do the premed course work with say an English or history major than a science major</p>
<p>Not really, although the addition of biochem and stats to the 2015 MCAT has made some people less willing to major in non-science fields because of the increase in required science coursework.</p>
<p>The biggest problem for someone majoring in a humanities would be finding a lab in which to get some research experience.</p>
<p>I do know current med students with majors in Spanish, music theory, English lit, psychology, sociology, forestry and theology(!).</p>
<p>The ag major and all the humanities majors have minors in biochem --which probably helped them find a research lab slot.</p>
<p>If most of my classes and electives in hs are more humanities related would it make it harder to get accepted to college with an intended chem / bio major</p>
<p>At most colleges you cannot officially declare your major until sometime in the latter half of your sophomore year. Colleges may let you list a potential major when applying, but you’re not obligated in any way to actually major in it.</p>
<p>Science, humanities and social sciences majors all are admitted to the College of Arts & Sciences in one big lump.</p>
<p>Unless you plan on applying to technical colleges or engineering programs, what kinds of electives you take in high school shouldn’t affect your admission.</p>
<p>Generally yes WOWMom but not 100% true. What electives you take speak to your passions, and demonstration of passion and academic pursuit is a factor. It’s not that taking humanities classes would make it hard, it’s more that the question would be: if chem/biology are your passions, why aren’t you pursuing that? Are you pursuing them in some way outside of the classroom instead?</p>
<p>We’re going to have to disagree on this one.</p>
<p>While your choice of electives may speak to your “passion,” at large state Us and I believe at most colleges (except elite research Us and SLACs), an individual’s choice of electives will play a very small role, if any, in the admission process.</p>
<p>The adcomm knows that the average incoming college student will change majors 3 times during their undergrad careers. Colleges only ask a student to list their potential major for course planning purposes. (And at smaller schools to help admit a “balanced” incoming class. No one wants to enroll 1000 chem majors and 5 English majors. Or vice-versa. That’s an administrator’s nightmare!)</p>
<p>High school, and to a lesser extent college, is time to try on roles, explore boundaries, discover new interests. To expect that every 18 years has already found their “passion in life” is ludicrous. </p>
<p>What would be of most concern to me would be if OP deferred from taking the most challenging science & math courses in favor of humanities electives and then had to compete against students far more well prepared than s/he.</p>
<p>The reasons I’m not really pursuing science are at my school we don’t have many science related electives and The only upper level science I can take are chem and A and P ( You have to be in advanced math to take honors physics and my teacher would not recommend me for pre AP bio .) Math is a whole other can of worms . Speaking of math would it be worth it to take preAP math even if I do not end up taking Ap math ( Ap math is only open for students who took algebra in 8th grade , how ever I would be able to take preap if I work hard next year .)</p>
<p>Ok, I have a bias… I think math is very important. Both of my kids were math majors. (Well, actually one was math & physics, one was math and biological neuroscience) My spouse is research physicist. We value math skills very highly in our household.</p>
<p>I think if you intend to major in a science, especially chem, you need the strongest math background you can possibly get. That means pre AP math if you can at all manage it. Even if you aren’t eligible to take AP Calc AB as senior.</p>
<p>The thing with that would be though , math and science are not my strongest subjects (math more so) and I have been trying to find other ways to demonstrate an interest in science and the medical field than taking alot of upper level science and math in hs. BTW any ideas on how I would go about that .</p>
<p>If you want to be physician, you absolutely need good science and math skills. In high school you need to develop strong foundational skills so that when you go to college you’re prepared to compete with the best students at the college. (The strongest students tend to cluster in a few STEM majors–including pre-med.)</p>
<p>If you want to demonstrate an interest in medicine, you can do volunteer work. </p>
<p>Ask if your local hospital or clinic will accept high school students as volunteers. Some hospitals have special summer volunteer programs for high schoolers. You may end up working in the gift shop or coloring with sick kids in the pediatric playroom, but you will get a chance to be around doctors and patients and see how they interact. If you hang around long enough as a faithful volunteer, people will start to show you around and answer your questions. </p>
<p>Do any kind of charitiable volunteer work --maybe Special Olympics, tutoring younger kids in after school programs, working at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen, visiting nursing homes.</p>
<p>Medicine is about serving other people.</p>
<p>Medicine is a very challenging career. It requires so many skills beside just being a good student. It also takes a very long time until you’re finished with your training. It’s not something anyone should choose because they thinks it’s cool or that doctors make alot of money.</p>
<p>I’ve known I wanted to work in a health care field since I was 8 or 9 years old when I got a hold of some anatomy texts books from the library . </p>
<p>I also know that the training involved with medicine is long and hard , I know that medicine is constant learning . As for the money thing , the specialty I want to go into (endocrinology) is not one of the top earners. </p>
<p>And what does strong foundational skills mean , does that mean just doing well in the typical on level science and math ?</p>
<p>WOWMom,</p>
<p>We can agree to disagree, I am simply speaking based on what is asked of me as an interviewer for Brown and what little I remember from my high school admissions counselor, a guy who was often paid $20,000+ for his advice by people who did not attend my school, and where it was commonplace for more than 1/3 of my class to wind up at ivies with the vast,vast majority of the class at top 5 LACs and top 20 unis.</p>
<p>I’ll admit that his advice might not be representative of the vast majority of schools, but for the top schools, even 17 years olds are expected to be passionate about something. That’s not the same thing as knowing what you’re going to do with the rest of your life (e.g. I was very passionate about journalism in high school but gave it up in favor of being able to devote enough time to D1 athletics in college. I similarly made the decision to not put in the hours necessary to be an all-conference selection or even a consistent starter in favor of keeping my grades up and pursuing leadership roles in greek life, during my gap year when I no longer had greek life or athletics, I became very involved in teaching), but you can be passionate about something as a high schooler.</p>
<p>I therefore don’t think it’s so odd to say that it would look weird for the OP to write an essay about their passion for science without having taken as much science as was available to them.</p>
<p>Strong foundational skills means taking all the basic science (biology, chemistry, physics) and math classes offered at your school at the most challenging level available to you.</p>
<p>AP if possible, Honors if not.</p>
<p>But more than just taking—you need to do well in those classes and thoroughly understand the basic concepts involved so that you can move forward and take even harder classwork in college. For example, not having really good algebra skills will severely inhibit your ability to do well in your later math classes. Not understanding what electron orbitals are and how they affect chemical reaction will absolutely prevent you from doing well in your future chemistry classes.</p>
<p>Math skills will be very important. A chemistry majors requires a good deal of higher level math (calculus and beyond). Biology requires less math, but at the very least you need pre-calc in high school.</p>