<p>I always LOL at Berkeley’s course descriptions… there’s the intro course for “Scientists and Engineers”, and then there the intro course for “upper division study in biology and architecture.” Apparently, biologists don’t seem to really count as scientists. </p>
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<p>Since you dig around my post history, you should’ve caught all the time I talked about econ being a joke major. And remind me, which econ majors come and talk about their lives being difficult. If there is such a person, I would glady tell them to stop being lazy bums. But I welcome any of the pre-meds to come tackle Computer Science (my other major), and tell me all their proclamations of difficulty is justified. Because I don’t complain about my major’s difficulty half as much as pre-meds. </p>
<p>If you boast/complain about your major being difficult, be prepared for the snickers.</p>
<p>@ Silent - that makes sense for colleges to separate the intro physics classes…premeds here just do general physics which most physics majors place out of with AP credits</p>
<p>@Ray - I just read your last post which showed me you go to Cornell…I don’t think Econ is a joke in general (easy in undergrad though) but it is at Cornell (I have a friend who left Cornell because of Econ there, and it wasn’t even AEM). A lot of people in my major are premed and we take classes in the Comp Sci dept since it’s a related field…I guess the general premed classes are about as hard as basic comp sci classes, if you want to relate the 2. Not much to complain about.</p>
<p>The reason you’ll hear a lot of preMeds complain is because many (half in my college) are non-Science majors. If you’re studying Sociology, Orgo just might be the hardest class you’ll have to take. If you’re actually majoring in science, Orgo will not seem hard at all.</p>
<p>It kind of is, though. The curricula at most schools is actually designed this way. Graduate study of economics is actually pretty mathematically heavy, but most undergraduate economics programs hide a lot of this sophistication from their students because they want to make sure that the bros (sorry about the pejorative, but I think it makes my point clearer) have a shot at graduating.</p>
<p>What I really want to see is for pre-meds to take orgo and to take a comparable CS class (probably something like systems programming or a higher level data structures class) and end up complaining more about orgo. Because really, all the complaining the pre-meds in my college do make us CS kids sound like content little puppies.</p>
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<p>Huh, I thought people looking to go to a professional school completely filled with science would excel at science and mundane classes like orgo… oh wait, that doesn’t apply to pre-meds. Dang it. :p</p>
<p>Regardless, my point is, stop complaining. Especially if your major is sociology.</p>
<p>It’s all the biz majors/business major wannabes. Give them some partial derivation problems and their level of complaints will make an orgo class sound peaceful.</p>
<p>At my friend’s college, the biz majors rebelled in the intermediate microeconomics class and now there are no more calculus problems in the class. No calculus. In intermed micro. Blargghhh.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, because I don’t know much about medicine, but my impression is that practicing medicine is pretty far removed from science. You don’t have to be a science whiz to practice medicine.</p>
<p>Likewise, I wouldn’t expect an electrical engineer who designs circuits for a living to be able to explain physically how they work all the way down to the quantum mechanics in the semiconductor devices that electronic devices are made of nowadays. It just isn’t that useful for an average circuits engineer to know–other people have/will have worked it out for them.</p>
<p>I didn’t say medicine needed a lot of science prowess. I said medical school does. And oh they do.</p>
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<p>Except EE/CEs don’t usually complain <em>too</em> much about their limited amount of physics courses. I’m not saying that they should know quantum mechanics, but competent engineers usually get intro engineering physics done fairly easily.</p>
<p>Well, that is, except Electromagnetic waves/fields. But even physics majors complain about that one.</p>
<p>They do? I really don’t know much about this, but I find it hard to believe. Why do they require so few science classes then?</p>
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<p>That’s too bad. A lot of concepts would be made simpler had you some knowledge of calculus. I haven’t taken an economics class, so my definitions may be wrong, but things like marginal tax rates would not be difficult when you could say “suppose you have a function that takes in your income and spits out the amount of taxes you owe. the marginal tax rate is just the derivative of that function”</p>
<p>From what my friends in med school tell me, they go over the entire pre-med curriculum in about half a week after med school starts, and move on from there assuming perfect competence in those subjects. If you don’t have a good handle of that stuff you’re essentially f’ed. </p>
<p>Looking at first year med school courses, they’re almost entirely physiology/molecular bio/genetics/pathology courses.</p>
<p>Whoa, over in the pre-med forum, the advice is pretty much always “only take as much science as you need to get a good score on the MCATs and no more–your GPA could be at risk!”</p>
<p>lol yeah, he didn’t ask for this, but his question was a really really baby question and then when he whipped out the premed at a prestigious private university card, he was pretty much asking to get dogpiled on.</p>
<p>That’s too bad. I’d at least expect an appreciation of the subjects. Medicine would be in terrible shape today had there not been pioneers in these fields.</p>
<p>Engineering students can be the same way with respect to math and physics. I guess that’s what happens when you are only in it for the money . . .</p>
<p>Ray, a lot of non-science premeds want to “practice medicine” (what they see on Grey’s Anatomy) but they’re not genuinely interested in science, they don’t care about mollecular bio or genetics, they want to treat patients and work as general practioners. A lot of premeds also study liberal arts to keep their GPA up, kind of silly because if you can’t handle undergrad classes…Med school is a lot more intense and fast paced. Plus the majority of premeds drop out. So that’s why they complain more about classes like Orgo.</p>
<p>I love my major, Orgo is required, but I didn’t enjoy Orgo…I didn’t complain about it as it wasn’t too hard, but I didn’t love it. So I get why an Engineer might not love math or physics. Applying those subjects directly to their field might be what they prefer. </p>
<p>Not all Biz majors have it easy…my boyfriend’s doing finance, and nyu-stern is pretty intense for finance majors. I’ve heard a lot about Econ/Biz at Cornell and I know AEM’s supposed to be a joke, but not all biz majors take easy classes like AEM.</p>
<p>I disagree… the stars are nurses when you count XXX shows.</p>
<p>Every girl’s dream. </p>
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<p>Meh, nurses start earning the $$$ way quicker than doctors. It can take doctors something like 15 years of school/practice before they start getting the bling. And then med school debts… </p>
<p>I wonder how many pre-meds actually thought their careers through.</p>
<p>Nursing school is hard but easier than Med school (most nurses will tell you this) and it’s a lot cheaper and less time-consuming (you do it in Undergrad) and it’s a high-demand job that pays decently and salaries are rising, and with the baby boomers dying off, it’s a great profession to get into now; there’s a shortage of nurses in the US. Meawhile, Med students have 8 years of school, then 3-6 years residency (low salary) and sometimes internships/fellowships…nurses have a reliable income from an early age. </p>
<p>Ray, the majority of preMeds drop out and don’t actually apply to Med school, or they simply don’t get accepted (acceptance rates are like 3-5%). So rest assured most of the whiny-I-hate-Orgo kids will likely not make it, as anyone who can’t handle basic intro classes will probably off themselves in M1 (assuming they even get in).</p>
<p>Plus no offense but you go to Cornell, which is obviously an amazing school, but it’s filled with lots of anxious-types who are worried they won’t make it to Law/Grad/Med school and like to complain about the bitter weather and hard classes (I have lots of friends at cornell lol). Your view of premeds, prelaws and Biz majors is skewed because of Cornell.</p>
<p>Yeah, finance kids are usually more academically inclined than other majors. </p>
<p>But still, I contend that econ departments across the country should double the math content of intro/intermed econ classes. Just to welcome our business major friends into the fold. </p>
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<p>Exceeeeeellllllllllllleeeeeeeeent.</p>
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<p>Well, I can’t say I admit to have balanced viewpoints of things… but no matter where I go, biz majors are usually lazy/hate math and premeds are usually grade-grubby. Maybe in LACs things are different. </p>
<p>Oh and I find pre-laws are a lot more chillaxed and intellectual that the other two. And they don’t complain. :)</p>