<p>Hi, I'm and incoming freshman/Pre-med and I need alot of advice as I register for fall classes. I plan on majoring in something outside of the field of science, most likely history or classical civilizations. I want to take Gen Chem 1, Gen bio, Calc 1, and maybe calc II my first year. I want to know when I should these classes and what combination to do it with. Is gen bio harder than gen chem? should I take both gen chems or gen bio in the same year? I'm also wondering if two sciences w/ lab and two maths is too much for my first year or if I should take more to make room for my major rquirements? I really want to take my first semester light with only one difficult class but I dont want to stress myself out later at the same time...Also Im wondering if I should spread my med school requirements over 4 years or try to knock them all out the first two years? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Oh and can premed students post their first semester/first year schedule or tell me how you spaced out your classes? Especially if you are a pre-med student with a major in the social sciences/humanities or other non-science majors</p>
<p>I’m just going to say that spacing out your requirements too much over 4 years can be bad in a few ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The MCAT. This is the big reason. If you plan to go straight into medical school after college, you need to have your MCAT done by spring of junior year, summer at the latest. The MCAT covers gen chem, organic chem, bio, physics, critical reading, and writing. If you don’t have those intro courses done by the time you start studying for the MCAT then it’ll be very rough. Plan on about 3 months for MCAT studying. </p></li>
<li><p>Some medical schools (I know Cornell and UWashington specifically) require you to finish all your requirements by January of the year you plan to enroll. That means you must have finished all your requirements by the end of fall senior year. Other schools just require you to finish them all by the time you enroll. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Overall, it doesn’t hurt to spread courses out a little. But don’t do it too much. Leave one or two english or bio labs until junior/senior year but try to get most of it out of the way by then.</p>
<p>
Fall
[ul][<em>]Chem 31 Gen Chem
[</em>]Math 31 Calculus I
[<em>]Writing 20 or FYS
[</em>]Elective[/ul]</p>
<p>Spring
[ul][<em>]Chem 151 Organic Chem I
[</em>]Math 32 Calculus II
[<em>]Writing 20 or FYS
[</em>]Elective[/ul]</p>
<p>Alternately, you could push Chem 31 back to the spring semester and take Chem 151 & 152 as a sequence your sophomore year if you’re afraid of forgetting the material over the summer. Four semesters of chemistry are required, however, so that would require pushing Chem 32 (I think?) to your junior fall semester.</p>
<p>If you choose the first route, consider taking the second semester of organic chemistry (Chem 152) over the summer, as it tends to be a bit easier then. The marine lab is a great place to do it; if you’re going to do orgo, you may as well do it at the beach. ;)</p>
<p>For pre-med, you’re also going to need 2 semesters of biology with lab. Unless you have AP credit for biology, you’ll need to take either Bio 25 or 26 during freshman or sophomore year, since you need one of them for upper-level courses.</p>
<p>For classical civ, the pre-reqs are one of three options:
a) a year of Greek or Latin (Greek 1 & 2 or Latin 1 & 2)
b) Greek and Roman civ (CLST 11S & 12S)
c) Greek and Roman history (CLST 153 & 154). </p>
<p>It would be worth getting a start on those requirements as a freshman or sophomore. Greek/Roman civ would count as your first-year seminar, Greek/Latin would count toward your foreign language requirement, and Greek/Roman history would count toward both the classics and history majors.</p>
<p>[Office</a> of Health Professions Advising – Duke University](<a href=“http://prehealth.duke.edu/preparing/sample-schedules/]Office”>http://prehealth.duke.edu/preparing/sample-schedules/)</p>
<p>This website gives sample schedules based on your educational background, and other programs you might be interested in participating in. Maybe it would be helpful…</p>
<p>I think it’s worth pointing out that the intro bio classes are now Bio 101 and 102, both of which require Chem 31 as a prereq (and both of which are closed to freshmen this semester).</p>