My son is a sophomore in local flagship state school and with Biochem major (at least as of now) and doing well with Chem/OChem so far. I heard that advanced Biochem courses are harder and may not be that useful in MCAT (other than Biochem1) and later in Med Schools. Is that true?
Btw, this is my first post but I have been to this site for the past couple of years. I see many good responses from everyone and I really appreciate your time and energy and WayOutWestMom - your posts are very thorough.
@WhyR
Med school pre-clinical coursework includes a heavy emphasis on biochem, but how much advanced undergrad biochem classes help with that is debatable. Med school coursework is intense and a med school-level course will cover an entire semester’s worth of upper level undergrad ( or lower level grad) material in 3-4 lectures.
Med school will include a formal biochem class, plus biochem is integral to understanding pharmacology, immunology and several other topics.
Can a med student be successful without advanced undergrad biochem coursework? Absolutely. Will advanced biochem classes be at least minimally helpful to a med student? Probably.
Is your concern centering around PChem? It’s conventionally considered the most difficult class required for chem and biochem majors. It’s a very math intensive class and requires advanced calculus and calc-based physics to do well in. It’s basically modern physics/ elementary quantum mechanics for chemists. How’s your son’s math skills.
(DH–a physics & chem major and D1–a physics & math major/chem minor–both thought PChem was not terribly difficult compared to the UL physics classes they took. YMMV.)
@whyR If your S likes BioChem and can manage reasonably good GPA, no harm.
As WOWM mentioned some of the courses helps in both MCAT and also during grueling MD learning in 1-2 years.
For example in 1 MD school, BioChem just 3 weeks (almost covering 10+ weeks of course in UG), Cells and Tissues are all 3 weeks but relies most on BioChem and 10+ weeks of course. Non BioChem majors manage but lot of stress and intense reading compare to BioChem.
@WhyR
One additional consideration. A biochem degree is more employable post-graduation than a biology degree.
Since most pre-meds never actually apply to med school and since 60% of those who DO apply to med school don’t get an acceptance, you may want to consider the Plan B career options offered by biochemistry or any other major your decides to pursue.
Thanks texaspg, WayOutWestMom & GoldenRock for your comments and suggestions… I really appreciate that.
@WayOutWestMom - I am really not sure what upper level classes that BioChem students will take , just heard from upper class students that BioChem is the toughest major the college that my DS is attending. Regarding his Math skill, he did well on Multi variable calculus and hopefully he can apply the same in PChem.
As of now, he is not looking plan “B” (may change, later don’t know) and really focus on Med School and so far he is doing well with GPA (4.0) and are not sure if tougher classes in future may take his time from preparing MCAT next year ( 3rd year in college) and may dent his GPA as well.
A heavy class load + MCAT prep the same time is not a good plan.
Your son should consider using the summer after junior year to prep for the MCAT, then take the exam in late summer or fall. This means he will need to postpone his med school application until after college graduation.
Gap years are now the norm for successful med school matriculants.
BTW, I can reasonably assure you that no matter what college your son attends, there is a more, or at least equally difficult, major than biochem. (Though deciding what’s tougher–biochem, physics, theoretical mathematics, chemistry or any of the various flavors of engineering is mostly a moot point.)
@WhyR
And PSA: the only thing a good GPA+ MCAT score does for a med school applicant is it keeps their application from getting auto-rejected. Med school admissions are holistic and once the student passes the minimum GPA/MCAT screen, their application is considered on primarily other factors (the academic, social, ethical, cultural and interpersonal competencies expected of all incoming med students as demonstrated through the other parts of their application.)
Med school is buyer’s market and every year 12-18% of applicants with perfect 4.0 GPAs and MCATs >99th percentile get rejected from every single med school they apply to.
Every pre-med needs a Plan B, even if they have good grades.
@whyR Based on your posts that he is academically doing well (and assume he is good test taker based on how well he performed in SAT/ACT/Subject Tests) then it is doable and may do well in MCAT. With proper timing and planning he may be able to do it by April of Junior year and can apply. But as WOWM says it depends on how much he can and willing to juggle and take risk. Because he can focus and maintain the GPA and do the MCAT but if he is not able to get time for EC, still it may force for a gap year. During UG, it is more important to maintain the GPA than which year he can apply because repairing GPA is much more challenging than making up EC or even taking MCAT for the second time at the worst case.
Some times you need to wait and get a feel how he is performing this year or this semester. Is he able to juggle too many things or not.