<p>i am interested in either the northwestern 7 year or the brown plme (which seems impossible). i posted a while back saying how i wasnt able to ap chem this year as a junior. would it put me at an disadvantage if i decided to take ap chem senior year?</p>
<p>i took ap euro, and right now, im taking ap spanish, english, and us.
these are obviously humanities courses, and i was wondering if these school would view this as well-roundedness or just find it odd that i want to be a doctor.</p>
<p>however, i am involved in the ambulance corps and i will be doing internships and an intel project this year.</p>
<p>Why would it put you at a disadvantage to take AP Chem senior year?</p>
<p>Your courses aren't life or death to them. They look at what was offered, and waht you took. They aren't going to banish you to the depths of the woods for taking AP Spanish instead of Astronomy or something.</p>
<p>idk if chem is the most important subject... maybe organic chem could be considered... but i'm pretty sure med schools prefer a whiz in bio vs a whiz in chem (or better yet, a whiz in both bio AND chem AND physics!)</p>
<p>Chemistry is not the most important subject for medical school. Yes, you're tested on inorganic and organic chemistry on the MCAT, versus general physics and general biology, but there's no way you'll do well on the exam if all you know well is the chem.</p>
<p>Evilbooyaa, there is absolutely no preference for bio over chem at the med school admissions level. Majors generally matter little during the admissions process. The perceived preference is due to the fact that bio and chem students cover more of the required subject matter in the course of fulfilling their majors than do other majors, so generally they're more prepared for med school.</p>
<p>wow MCAT has general chem on it as well? bah I didn't even realize. I thought it was all orgo.</p>
<p>i know that majors dont matter, but I thought since medicine relates more to biology, medical schools would prefer someone whow as good (not necessarily majored) in biology (and not good in chem) vs someone who was good in chem (and not in biology)</p>
<p>Actually, of all the undergraduate requirements, the most important one <em>by far</em> is physics. Certainly there are some advanced bio classes that correlate very well - biochem, physiology, etc. - as well as some economics classes that turn out to be very useful (data analysis), but if we're talking about the basic "requirements", it's physics - hands down.</p>
<p>Not only does the MCAT test gen chem, but there's approx. 2x as much gen chem tested as organic.</p>
<p>For the MCAT, the Physical Sciences section is 50% Physics, 50% Gen Chem. Biological Sciences is 75% Bio and 25% Organic.</p>
<p>As far as "importance" in medical school, I'd say that understanding physics concepts is probably the most useful, but I hesitate to rank importance simply because it might get misconstrued. Also, at least in my experience, the ability to actually DO physics isn't important - ie do the math and come up with an answer. There's also a fair amount of stuff that simply isn't relevant - but concepts like flow of fluids, circuits, electrical current, pressure, and force are important. </p>
<p>That's also not to say that you're not expected to understand the other subjects at an appropriate level. For example Chemistry as a whole (bio/general/organic) - at least at my school, I'd say that the understanding of the main principles is the most assumed knowledge. Professors simply expect that you'll understand why changing a single amino acid can alter the functionality of a protein, or how the hydrophobicity of a drug impacts its pharmacokinetics and bioavailability. Physics they seem to give a little bit more explanation of (but I of course instructed mainly Physics while I worked for Kaplan, so I get it).</p>
<p>Organic drops to the bottom though, simply b/c the academic study of the subject by PhD's who then go on to teach undergrads is a reaction based discipline. You learn Diels-Alder Rxns and Electrophilic Aromatic Substitutions and such, and those things just don't matter in medicine. That's not to say they have no place in healthcare, because I imagine that organic chemistry is a major part of drug development, but for the practicing physician knowing the reactions is of little clinical significance.</p>
<p>well there is no doubt that chemistry is very important for medical school.
my question was whether or not it would make a difference to take ap chem junior or senior year.</p>
<p>i personally think it disadvantages cause AP classes are the key to scoring well on the SATs with minimal outside study, and since most of your test scores will be coming from junior year, it might hurt. Test scores are ESPECIALLY important for this kinda stuff, you should be aiming as CLOSE AS YOU CAN to 800 so its not a disadvantage as long as you really selfstudy and kick butt on the SAT2 chem.</p>