I am planning on taking several courses before going to college. What do you think are best three subjects of the 5 to take:
Microbiology, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology
to take in terms of:
-Taking it now and then retaking it in college and thus it would be a review.
-Perhaps some of these courses are easier to handle than the others
-Importance in Pre-Med course curriculum
-Importance in Med School
Personally, I cannot take all 5 subjects because of financial and workload concerns and thus I was hoping your input on which 3 subjects would be the best to take.
<p>Did you post this in the pre-med forum too? I can't answer or help you pick whiich 3/5 you should take, but I heard that medical schools don't like it when you take your pre-reqs at a different place from the main uni, especially if it's a cc. Happy Hunting :p</p>
<p>Are you looking to get credit for these courses once you get to college?If so, you really need to look at the policies of the schools which you are interested in attending as many schools will not give you credit to entering freshmen for college courses taken in high school. Other schools do not give credit for college courses taken prior to freshman matriculation because you will have not taken the school's prerequisite courses. You may be able to use the courses for placement purposes, but because coreses vary in depth and breadth from school to school are you sure that this is the way you want to go. Policies vary from school to school so make sure that in the end you are not wasting your time or money.</p>
<p>Are you taking these for credit or just so that you might make a higher grade at your regular college? You might get into some difficulties if you take classes, get grades, and then never report those grades to the medical school admissions office. It might be better to audit or self-study. If you are not taking these courses at a college, then it doesn't matter so much. My daughter's high school offers an anatomy and physiology class, for example, but it is not the type of course that the future pre-meds would take.</p>
<p>Having said that, med schools emphasize that you do not have to have any more than the required pre-reqs to be considered for admission - some do recommend biochemistry, maybe one or 2 suggest microbiology. The most important single class for med school admissions is still, I think, organic - it is not a bad idea to audit or self-study organic, but I would not take it at a community college, and have it appear on my transcript. As Celebrian points out, think twice before taking absolute pre-reqs away from your main university. For example, I don't think a med school would frown on you taking and receiving credit for calculus at a school away from your college, particularly if you are not majoring in a science - just be sure it is a 4 year institution. Some people take physics in summer school at a close to home school, for the same reason - free up their schedule for study abroad, for instance.</p>
<p>A biochem class that doesn't have organic as a pre-req would not be a college level class, so that's out. Microbiology, or better yet molecular or cell biology, would actually be a better addition than some of the ones you mentioned. Anatomy and physiology won't help or hurt your app, and might be of some value to youin med school.</p>
<p>Honestly, I've never heard a practicing doc say "Gee, I'm glad I took anatomy before med school, because it made gross anatomy so easy", but I have heard many regret not studying more history and literature when they had the chance.</p>