Bio 141 and Calculus?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
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<p>I'm an upcoming freshman, and I plan on majoring in bio/following the pre-med path. I had a few questions concerning AP credits and whether I should use them for certain classes.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I got an 800 on the Bio Subject test, a 5 on the AP exam, and a very high A in the class. However, all of that was sophomore year, and since then, I have probably forgotten a lot of material. I've read some older threads started by others who had AP credit asking whether they should take the credit and just take Bio 142, and if I remember correctly, the general consensus was that the student should. However, I'm worried that taking the AP Bio credit and going straight into 142 2nd semester would put me at a huge disadvantage/put me very behind the rest of the class, especially since it's been years since I took AP Bio. Also, I'm worried that med schools will look upon my taking the AP credit for bio unfavorably, especially since I'm a bio major. Should I use the AP credit or not?</p></li>
<li><p>I took the AP Calc BC exam last month, and I don't know how I did yet, obviously, but if I did pass (4 or 5), I don't know what my next step should be. All of the med schools whose websites I've visited accepted the Calc BC credit as fulfillment of their math requirement and did not require any further math courses. However, in a previous thread I posted in, someone said that some med schools did not take the Calc BC credit. Is this true for a significant number of schools, or just for like one or two? Also, while in other threads I've looked at, pre-med students who took the Calc BC credit ended up moving to Calc 3 or Linear Algebra or Multivariable or whatever, if I do end up taking the Calc BC credit, I will not be taking any math courses at all in college, as I have talked to several ppl/visited many threads, all of which said that math beyond Calc II was not required or useful for med school. If I do end up taking a math course in college, it'll be Calc with Life Science (since it sounds useful to bio/pre-med). What should I do here? Would I be at a huge disadvantage when applying to med school if I don't take ANY math courses in college, or would it not be that big of a deal? If you do suggest I take a math course in college, should I take Calc with Life Science I and II or II only? If it makes any difference, I got a 4 on the AP Stats test soph. year. </p></li>
<li><p>First semester, I'll definitely be taking Chem 141 (there's no way I'm using AP credit for that or moving straight to orgo, since I did not get a 5, an 800, and I'm much weaker in chem than in bio), a freshman seminar (any suggestions??), a foreign language, and the required health 101 course. As of now, I'm getting more and more inclined to take the AP Bio credit [definitely not 100% sure], while I'm still on the fence about what to do about calculus. If I end up taking both AP credits, I might add another GER course. I really don't want to make any mistakes picking classes my first semester. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks in advance for all the help! =)</p>

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<p>1)No, skipping bio 141 will not put you behind the rest of the class. 142 and 141 are not really related. You can do one without the other, skip it. Plus, intro. classes here don’t grade on any sort of curve (if anything, grades will be raised to adjust for difficulty), so being behind or ahead doesn’t really help or hurt you more. You are up against yourself, and trust me, one could easily kill 141 and 142 with no background. Find a more interesting class to replace 141.<br>
2)Are you going to listen to a thread here or the actual medical school website? I would go with the latter. Also, I don’t like the logic of simply not taking upperlevel math because “it’s not useful or required for medical school”. They could actually make you stand out as a person who took a more rigorous schedule than your peers in the app. process. The classes will not be that hard here (as we don’t have engineering so there isn’t true pressure to make them that rigorous), so you could also do well in them. But anyway, if you find it useless, perhaps take statistics or something (calc. based since you may get BC credit and since you got 4 on AP stats). That’s generally regarded as useful for med. school.
3) Orgo. can be done w/o general chemistry. If you got a 4 and something in the 700s (seriously, you think you need a perfect score to demonstrate sufficient aptitude of knowledge in gen. chem? Seriously, do you think all of the people who go into orgo. sophomore year have perfect understanding of general chemistry. I would argue that as many of those who got B, yes including B-, and A grades that will find organic chemistry difficult are those who will find it not as hard). Chem 141 will largely be a waste of your time. However, if that’s what you wanna do, carry on! Seems as if you have your mind made up.</p>

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<p>^Thank you very much for all your help, Bernie!! I really appreciate it! :D</p>

<p>1) I’m 100% sure now that I’ll be going straight to 142.
2) I’d trust the med school website over a CC post, lol, but I’ve only looked at 5-6 med schools’ course requirements and knew that there was a chance that the vast majority of med schools had different requirements from the few I looked at. Obviously, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care at all about my GPA, but the rigor of an upper lvl math course is not a reason why I’m not sure about moving on to upper lvl math classes. I just want to spend that time taking more bio classes or classes in other subjects that sound more interesting than “multivariable calculus.” At the same time, I simply don’t feel comfortable applying to med school w/o taking a single math class in college. If I do move on to an upper lvl math class, which one should I take? I looked at Emory’s Course Atlas, and Multivariable, Differential Equations, and Linear all have Calc II listed as the prereq. Also, which stats class is the calc based one? Math 107, 361, or both? </p>

<p>3) I do not really feel comfortable in my general chem. knowledge/ability at this time, so I’m still pretty set on Chem 141. =)</p>

<p>Also, how do I get to that feature on LearnLink that has previous students’ comments on specific classes or teachers? I clicked on “Class Comments,” but all that led to was a bunch of students advertising textbooks, and I wasn’t sure I clicked on the right thing.</p>

4

<p>That was the right thing, you have to seek posts regarding courses and professors, just keep scrolling the page. Look for professor names or courses w/number. Also, 361/362 is calc. based stats.<br>
Trust me about biology, the courses are not but so interesting. It is heavily dependent on the professor, and over half of the upper level professors conduct their class the same as 142, a standard lecture course w/nothing but exams and quizzes, no further engagement with coursework such as projects or problem sets (some even give pure multiple choice exams, like Human Phys, which is a 300 level course! Thanks to the vanilla pre-meds for making a potentially useful class lame lol.). Trust me, many biology classes get boring pretty quickly. If you don’t choose them carefully, your ability to solve problems and think critically will diminish (you will become one among the many vanilla pre-meds that only value and will be capable of memorizing, which won’t help on the MCAT or med. school for that matter. Be a good pre-med :wink: ) , whereas supplementing your bio major w/some math courses and humanities social science/writing intensive (do not make every non-science GER the easiest class possible. When your schedule allows it, put in one moderate-rigorous one. Easy ones only help when you fear the science courses for the semester will be too rigorous) courses will keep you sharp. Also, graduate level courses, if accessible, I would highly recommend. If you do this, you can preserve a good GPA (if you work hard) while setting yourself up for success on the MCAT.</p>

<p>Class comments: If you are looking for chem. comments. Just know that Mulford and Morkin are the best. Choose either one.</p>

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<p>I’ll definitely be taking at least one more math course in college even if I get Calc BC credit. Still not 100% sure what all classes I’ll be taking this year, but now, I have some really good info to help me make my decision. Thanks again, Bernie! =)</p>