Hello! I am curious into what classes I should take in High School to be successful in Pre-Med in college. Do any of you guys know the best classes to take in math and science for my sophmore, junior, and senior years?
You are a HS freshman and you are wondering what HS courses you should take to prepare for pre-Med? Do I have that correct?
You need to take courses that will fulfill your HS graduation requirements and college admission requirements. Your state probably requires all that you will need.
In addition, you might want to spend some time starting to shadowing a doctor or two. You might look into some volunteer work in a health related field.
Beyond general college preparation, be aware that college courses taken while in high school and their grades will be included in medical school applications. Good if you earn A or A+ grades, bad if you earn B+ or lower grades.
Speaking of the math/science portions only (since those are my specialties), more important than which courses you take is that you learn them well and retain that knowledge. Learn and remember all of those Bio/Chem/Physics terms, then be able to apply them. Learn Alg 1, 2, and Geometry (with a higher emphasis on Alg, then Pre-Calc). Don’t just memorize the math. Learn it. Be able to apply it. If your teacher tells you to skip certain questions because they are harder than you need, do them anyway on your own. If you’re assigned odds, glance over the evens to be sure you would know how to do those as well. (You don’t have to do them if you’re solid with the others, but if you only “sort of” get it, do them for more practice and brain training.)
Training your brain to pick up new terms and keep them (vs forgetting a month later) and being able to truly understand concepts - able to apply math across to science and being able to do last year’s math easily today or carry on a discussion about various science topics long past when you’ve learned them - will help you far more in college and beyond than just checking off certain boxes of classes taken.
Your goal is to train your brain to retain info and to think - being able to apply what you’ve learned far beyond a simple assignment. Doctors have to do that. The teen years are years when the brain naturally can learn to do such things. Take advantage of it.
Otherwise, if you’re solid with your prep, go through Calc if you can - just to see it and be introduced to it - retaking it in college to be more solid if you don’t feel you are in HS. Take advanced Bio and Chem if available. Be sure you get some sort of Physics in.
As the PP said, beware of any college credits you get in high school because those will count on med school apps. It’s perfectly fine to take college level classes - many students do - just be sure you get As in those classes by putting the work in.
One last bit of advice I’ve picked up from students I’ve seen who have done well (and my own lads) is to try to take a Public Speaking class. The tidbits one learns in those classes about humans and their expectations/reactions plus being able to practice speaking in front of groups are extremely useful regardless of what you end up doing in life. They help with interviews. They help with jobs. They help with being comfortable in all sorts of situations.
Even if you end up deciding not to go pre-med or to med school later, all of these things will be useful in life. Even if you never use the math/science again, your trained brain can reuse that space for whatever path you end up taking.
Are you interested in BA/MD or BA/DO programs? These programs offer highly qualified high school students admission to medical school at the same time they are admitted to college. Combined degree programs allow a med school hopeful to bypass some of medical school admission process later on–like taking the MCAT or applying to multiple med schools–provided they fulfill the conditions of the program. (Typically maintaining a certain GPA and sGPA, meeting program goals for clinical and non-clinical volunteering, having a successful med school admission interview, displaying appropriate maturity, etc)
There is a separate forum to discuss these programs:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/
As you might guess, admission to these program is extremely competitive with acceptance rates in the single digits.
To be competitive for these programs, one needs to take the highest level of science & math classes offered by their high school–AP/IB/dual enrollment–to show readiness to do college level academics. BA/MD applicants are also expected to have physician shadowing, volunteering at clinical sites (hospital, medical office, public clinic) and community service with the less fortunate.
Any high school student who wants to become a doctor should make sure that he/she has a very strong math and science foundation. One of the reasons premeds get weeded out is because they don’t have a strong math/science foundation and they do poorly in the premed prereqs.
Agree with @mom2collegekids - Take the hardest science and math classes to be better prepared for college.
Math through calculus (do not try to go faster - deeper and thorough is the key here), bio/chem/physics honors + AP Chem and AP bio if possible.
I agree wrt public speaking. Don’t skimp on English in general. In college, for your gen eds, try to take philosophy and bioethics, public speaking/intercultural communication/interpersonal communication.
HS or college world history, foreign languages, anthropology - anything that exposes you to other ways of speaking/thinking.
Spend time in hospitals, clinics, food banks, churches that serve refugees: you need to get used to helping people different from yourself, people in pain, people who may not speak English well. Shadow doctors, nurses, PAs. At the HS level, you only need a variety of experiences.
Try to have a positive impact for one group you’ve been volunteering for.