<p>Hey guys</p>
<p>I am currently attending stanford and i am premed. I wanted to take organic chemistry at an easier school over the summer, since i've heard horror stories about orgo in these tough schools.</p>
<p>What do you guys recommend as to schools in the bay area that offer relatively easy organic chemistry courses over the summer?</p>
<p>I have been looking into them and so far, Santa Clara University seems to be the best place for me to take this course...</p>
<p>Come to Berkeley for Organic Chemistry over the summer. BTW “orgo” is an eastern thing. Here it’s “ochem”</p>
<p>This is not the way to get things done.</p>
<p>babydragon, </p>
<p>ive heard that berkeley organic chem is really tough during the year, and hard over the summer too</p>
<p>have you taken ochem at berk?</p>
<p>I heard that it is looked at unfavorably when you do that.</p>
<p>I recommend you tough it out and try to get a top grade at a top university for orgo. Doing this will get you accustomed to working hard–possibly translating to the amount of work you have to do in med school–and perhaps even look a bit better to adcoms [I know they say the prestige of the college doesn’t matter, but human beings are weird in that they get impressed when they look at name-brand things like Stanford…and Beamers ;)].</p>
<p>Tough it out, and dont be a wuss, it’ll come back to bite you in the behind, haha. I took Orgo at Johns Hopkins, it was freakin tough, but totally worth it in my opinion!! :D</p>
<p>I agree, taking o-chem at another college with no other courses is a blatantly obvious way to dodge a hard class. The adcom will notice.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with vader1990. Just take organic chemistry at stanford. You are not taking advantage of Stanford’s wealth of resources if you happen to dislike ochem and sweep it under your feet at cc or state or lesser known universities. But be warned! Anti-markovnikov and NMR will attack your backside like nothing you’ve ever seen before. JK></p>
<p>Agree with babydragon and friends. Taking orgo at any college but your own is a syn.</p>
<p>I took organic during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at my college. Was able to get a work study job in an office even though otherwise didn’t qualify for aid during regular term. Maybe it was because they needed student workers. Anyway, it was nice, because I didn’t have to slave in the cafeteria like usual. </p>
<p>It was tough, but it was nice to not have to worry about any other classes.</p>
<p>Bad side was that I did not take the lab. I had planned on taking the lab in the spring, while taking a lot of core curriculum classes, and wound up dropping it. Talk about bite you in the butt. I had to go back to school during the summer after I finished all my coursework so I could complete my degree. This made me not able to graduate in May, but got my diploma the following December. Missed out on the whole graduation thing. Always regretted it.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long story, but truth be told, whenever you dodge a class or drop a class, it will always come back to haunt you. They will never make an exception.</p>
<p>Check to see if a good teacher is teaching it in the summer, too.</p>
<p>I was lucky. For Organic II, Dr. Schultz, University of Miami, did teach the second session. He was an amazing teacher. He would run up and down the stairs and ask you questions. I really learned organic. Actually wound up with a B in the class, no small feat. </p>
<p>Organic is just one of those classes you have to suffer through. Must be pretty important for the MCATs, because Dr. Schultz used to tell us that we would not just learn organic, but we would feel it in our hearts, so that when that MCAT came, we would be fine.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Lol, Dr. Schultz is a funny guy! </p>
<p>I wish that O-chem was bigger on the MCAT. Now, rather than having lots of pure o-chem passages, there’s a lot of biochem passages that tend to be heavy on the bio and light on the o-chem.</p>
<p>I say take orgo at Santa Clara. An A in orgo from there certainly beats a B in orgo in Stanford!</p>
<p>Oh no! The dreaded B!</p>
<p>^ I love sarcasm.</p>
<p>Better yet, go to community college and snatch up one of those rare A double pluses.</p>
<p>it depends on what matters to you. Whether you see some type of honor/pride by taking the class at Stanford, then go for it. But if you want a lighter load, and an easier experience, go for a summer school. Taking 1-2 classes at another school vs. taking all classes at one schools will be viewed as a marginal difference at best by an adcom. There is no absolutely no reason to believe that an adcom will look down at you for taking orgo at another school…tons of people do this.</p>
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Hahahaha</p>
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Let’s not challenge ourselves. I’m sure an adcom would understand that the easy way out is the best route to take.</p>
<p>calm yourself dude, its literally two classes we are talking about it. If the OP was planning to take ALL or many prereqs at another school, that would be a bad idea. And besides, are you suggesting that all the people who go to state school’s are not worthy compared to Stanford med school applicants? You seem to be implying that any student who takes classes from a lesser-ranked institution will be viewed as a “cop out” to adcoms. If you don’t have an education from a top 10 school are you not worthy to be a doctor?</p>
<p>I’m an public school kid, so I’m sure you can guess my views. However, regardless of the class difficulty at stanford vs the school op wants to take it at, it will be perceived as fishy by the adcom. If you show up and they ask you at the interview why you did it and your reason is not so good, that might hurt you. If you have a good reason, it won’t hurt you, but trying to dodge a hard o-chem prof is not a good one in my opinion. Plus you have to them go through the pain of getting two transcripts checked by AMCAS.</p>
<p>While a single pre-req at another school isn’t going to hurt them directly (meaning pre-interview), neither would a slightly lower grade in that one class. They are both drops in the bucket, its a matter of not kicking it over by accident.</p>
<p>D. is at state school. The impression that classes are not rigorous is incorrect. D. graduated #1 from private HS. Both Orgo and ALL Bio classes have been extremely challenging. Orgo tests’ averages in class were around 60+%. Her very first Bio resulted in many Honors students (mostly valedictorians from Private schools) changing their major because of inability to handle toughness. D is surviving with very high GPA because she went to very tough HS, she is used to work hard. No matter where you end taking these classes, you will need to spend anormous amount of time on them. Summer classes are usually a bit more relaxed at any place, so that could be a reason why taking class at different school seems to be easier.</p>