How is my college freshman schedule? …
I’am going to attend Stony Brook University.
CHEM 131 recitation
CHEM 131 lecture
CHEM 133 Lab
MAT 126 recitation (Calculus B)
Hindi (language) (level 1)
Asian history
and 1 mandatory class for all undergrad freshman.
I’m a biology major by the way (pre-med).
Others cannot tell you much if you do not name your college and give some information about your high school preparation that may be relevant for appropriate placement into various college courses (including chemistry, math, and foreign language). No one knows that CHEM 131 or MAT 126 is, or what level of Hindi course you are taking, from your list.
Right. Freshman year, my kid took biology, chemistry, college calculus, and a required core course. And orchestra and music lessons. Engineering major.
My fault, I just edited in my university name
Instead of Hindi and Asian History, you may be better served by taking freshman writing–WRT 101 or 102 (most med schools require 2 semesters of writing intensive classes for admission and AP credits are not accepted), and/or intro psych/intro soc. --PSY 103 or SOC 105. (Psychology and sociology are both tested on the MCAT and most med schools have admission requirements that include social science coursework.)
Spanish is more useful for those seeking med school admission than Hindi.
Thank you, I took a placement test for a writing class and haven’t gotten placed in anything yet so I will ask. I will also ask for psych or soc class. I’am going to minor in spanish as well which is why I just took an extra language of Hindi as an interest.
Stony Brook Undergraduate Bulletin - Fall 2023CHE describes Stony Brook CHE courses. Looks like initial placement in CHE 129, 131, or 152 is based on the school’s chemistry placement exam and/or AP credit. Have you completed placement procedures, and is CHE 131 the recommended course based on that?
Stony Brook Undergraduate Bulletin - Fall 2023MAT describes Stony Brook MAT courses. Looks like MAT 126 is the second of a “slow” single variable calculus sequence 125, 126, 127 (the regular sequence is 131, 132). Was this the recommendation based on placement testing and/or AP credit, and is it appropriate for both your major and (according to your college’s pre-med advising) medical school admission?
Stony Brook Undergraduate Bulletin - Fall 2023HIN describes Stony Brook Hindi courses. Which level do you intend to take, and was that recommended by placement testing if higher than the beginner course HIN 111.
As mentioned above, Hindi may not be as useful as Spanish in a medical context, since the ratio of Hindi-speaking physicians to Hindi-speaking patients is likely much higher than the ratio of Spanish-speaking physicians to Spanish-speaking patients.
Do you already have proficiency in Spanish at a high level where you would be comfortable speaking it with a native speaker, and reading and writing instructions in it? If not, you may want to take a suitable level Spanish course to advance your proficiency in it.
If you plan to minor in Spanish, take Spanish at whatever level is appropriate, rather than Hindi.
Other than that, it’s a good schedule.
I would recommend you rhink about another major, though, since med schools don’t require that and there’s an oversupply of them.
You should take those main prerequisite courses in your major first so you can finish all the required courses in time. Are you required to take any Biology courses?
Yes but only after freshman year
Thank you, do you think a different science related major would be best? I chose biology since I heard it would be helpful for the MCAT
Biology may be a “convenient” major for pre-meds, since the major requirements heavily overlap with pre-med courses, but pre-meds can do any major while being sure to take any non-overlapping pre-med courses alongside.
If you are concerned about post-graduation pay levels associated with various majors if you do not get into medical school, you may want to check College Scorecard | College Scorecard
Are there specific pre-med advisors at your school? It may be worth getting in contact with them
The job outlook for all biological science graduates is…not robust. There are just too many recent bio grads entering the job market every year.
That fact coupled with the fact that 60% of those who apply to medical school every year do not gain a single acceptance means that pre-meds are advised to have a Plan B career option.
If you want to remain in healthcare, here’s a website with searchable database that can help discover some healthcare-adjacent jobs
Many of the better paying jobs require additional specialized training post college graduation.
Your other option would be to continue as bio major, but improve your post-graduation employability by taking some additional math classes (stats, probability, biostats, applied math), learning some computer programming or scripting skills (MATLab, R) and doing industry (agriculture, pharmaceuticals, environmental services) internships during undergrad.
Do you understand spoken Hindi ? A Spanish minor may be fine, IMO.
No I do not understand Hindi but am interested in learning
it seems to be pretty low impact schedule for a premed who needs to get through as many requirements as possible to take the mcat.
Unless you need Asian history and Hindi for graduation, these are throw away classes in the first semester.
Yes I need history to graduate and before I chose Hindi, I didn’t think of a minor yet and I needed a language to graduate. So I will be declaring a Spanish minor and replacing that class with Spanish.