<p>I've taken Gen Bio 1, 2 and General Physics at a local state university as a dual enrollment student and i was wondering if these would count for my pre-recs for med school. I intend to retake Bio 2 second semester as review for the MCAT, would it be worth it?</p>
<p>Also, I have a little more than a month left before I have to register for Fall classes. I've already satisfied all gen eds (except maybe one) and will be entering college with a plethora of AP/IB/Dual enrollment credit. I'm planning to major in either Chemical or Nuclear Engineering while aiming to fulfill med school requirements. Can anyone who's gone down this road before provide insight as to what classes i should take my first year? (I have, or will likely have, credit for Bio 1, 2, Calc 1 and 2, Gen Physics I, and Chem I)</p>
<p>I was thinking of taking... my first semester
Chemistry 2 and Lab - 4 credits
Gen. Physics 2 and Lab -4 credits
Honors Calc 3 - 4 credits
Fundamentals to Nuc E - 1 credit
and another 3 credit class for minor</p>
<p>And my second semester
Organic I
Gen Bio II
Diff. Equations
and a class for my major</p>
<p>I would be hesitant loading up on so many credits my first semester, but I've talked to two professors at local state university and will be sitting through both Chem II and Calc III this summer</p>
<p>And another quick question... Do math classes count towards your science GPA?</p>
<p>Hi, I don’t mean to jack your thread but it seems like a good place to ask my questions as well. I’m sort of in a similar situation as you, I took a few AP tests and I know that a lot of schools don’t take AP tests for credit so I’m more wondering about upper level classes.</p>
<p>I’m actually also going for a Chemical Engineering degree as well, but I also want to minor in Computer Science so I’m totally unsure of what I want to do. My school is under semester system as well, and I was planning on taking </p>
<p>Math 53 - Multivariable Calc (4 units)
Chem 4A with lab - General Chem 1 (I guess) (4 units)
Physics 7A with lab - General Physics 1 (?) (4 units)
Chemical Engineering Seminar - Required (1 unit)
Music - Breadth Requirement (4 units)</p>
<p>I have the ap credit to skip to 7b which is probably Physics 2 for me, but I’m wondering if I take this option, does this only count as one semester and not the one year of physics needed, even if I, for instance, take an interdisciplinary class like Physical Chemistry or go in depth into Thermodynamics with ChemE? In essence, if I skip to my 2nd class for physics, is it possible to get the 1 year of credit if i take higher level things even if its not specifically from physics department?</p>
<p>You might as well say that you will attend UC Berkeley, because the course numbers are those used at UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>(Chemistry 4A and Physics 7A are the “harder” versions of those courses; Chemistry 1A and Physics 8A are the “easier” versions taken by biology majors and pre-meds whose majors do not require the “harder” versions.)</p>
<p>Yes. For medical school admission purposes, dual enrolled credits >>> AP credits. Potentially much less competition when you take a dual-enrolled class because you could pick a less-competitive college for taking these classes (and relatively few student live close to a prestigious/competitive college, statistically speaking.)</p>
<p>Disclaimer: OP, I do not accuse you of taking advantage of this, because you might get credits from Stanford or Cal or a school of a similar caliber. I just hold the opinion that, if a loophole still exists as of today, EVERY premed should be informed of this, in order to be fair to everybody in the “game.”</p>
<p>(College board: You got to do something about it to protect your “business” here. For example, have some arrangement with some second/third-tier colleges that are extremely hungry for additional revenue/profits and let the students get college-level credits there instead of your AP credits which are useless for medical school admission purpose. There is some money to be made here by some simple manipulation (before the loophole is plucked.)</p>
<p>One more point (since one of you seems to be from California): I had an impression some UC Medical School insists the student take the first-year BCPM classes. One master/PhD-candidate student who TAed these classes at a UC once complained about this because he had taken the classes elsewhere. UC medical schools could be quite “mean”/strict in the sense that they really want to see how you perform against strong competitors.</p>
<p>BTW, is it only me who feels it is not right for a graduate student WHO HIMSELF/HERSELF MAY BE A PREMED ALSO, or a past premed student to TA the premed class? I know many colleges want to save money. (these students, many of them likely internationals if we are talking about a research university, are dirt cheap especially in terms of the quality/price ratio.) But having a potential competitor grade the other competitors who may even apply in the same year? It just does not seem right to me. Plenty of schools may do something like this. Maybe some private college (more likely LACs, less likely a national research university as the latter has the enormous help from companies like US News and Reports so it does not need to work so hard to advertise itself.) could take advantage of this and advertises they will not do something like this. Public school? It may be a more hopeless case considering the dire financial status of many state governments right now.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to respond MCAT… </p>
<p>While I wasn’t dual enrolled at a school of Standford caliber, I took my classes at a public state school… I also will not be attending the school I was dual enrolled in, so i doubt i would have more of an advantage than other premeds attending my school. I took the classes more out of interest, rather than just to get credit (I’m taking IB HL/ AP Bio this year). If somewhere along the road I have an opportunity to take further bio classes, I will. </p>
<p>While i do find it unfair graduate students who themselves are premeds are able to TA a premed class, I doubt the number of premed TAs is very high, let alone the number of premed TAs who actively seek out to fail their students with the hopes of improving their own chances.</p>
<p>OP, Bio 2 (assuming that you refer to the second semester of bio class) could be different at a different school. At some schools at least, the majority of what is covered in a bio 2 class has little to do with the MCAT test.</p>
<p>BTW, it appears your course load is very much loaded with sciences. Some may claim that some science majors may have some disadvantage when taking MCAT (even in the science section) because</p>
<p>1) MCAT is basically a reading comprehension/crtical thinking test, not an achievement test,</p>
<p>2) SOME (but not all, and not necessarily you) science majors just do not read as widely or as much as other majors. This is especially true for those whose ability is more lopsided toward the “problem set heavy” science/math area – e.g., good at solving math/physics/chemistry problems in high school but somehow not very much into solving critical reading problems (e.g., verbal section in SAT) quickly.</p>
<p>So reading widely and often while in college (instead of just studying those science/engineering tomes) will likely help with MCAT in the future. </p>
<p>Some “heavy-lifting” philosophy classes are rumored to be helpful too. DS once tried to take this kind of class even though he was a science major – It was likely influenced by his philosophy major roommate. It was definitely not a cup of tea for him even though he used to be very good at SAT verbal. (In HS, his goal was not to miss any question there, not just getting 800, just for the fun of it…) He ends up doing fine on MCAT. Even though he did not complete his general education requirement required by his school until the middle of junior year (with ~10 APs coming in, but they are of no use at his school), he seems to still spend a lot of his time on those reading-intensive general education classes in his first 2.5 years of his college career.</p>
<p>Thanks again mcat2… All but one of the questions i missed on the SAT Verbal were vocabulary questions. I have a bunch of mcat practice tests and have been glancing over the verbal questions whenever I’ve had the time just to see how they’re structured</p>