<p>Why would you ask for advice on this forum if you’re already pretty adamant about keeping that schedule? The opinions here are pretty unanimous and yet your opinion is the same as before you posted.</p>
<p>Although I agree with most of the others posters, I’ll tell you that it doesn’t look that bad. If you like planning things out…why not? Just know that things are likely to morph over time. Stay light on your feet.</p>
<p>My D was told (by me and others) that there would be no added admissions value to her bio major to also have a chem major and a Religious Studies minor over just taking random courses that show her “well-roundedness”. She said “These are the courses I like.” and did it anyway. And yep. Those are among the toughest courses at her school (P-chem, etc).</p>
<p>Take what you want, just don’t expect people to ooh and aah. It ain’t a big deal.</p>
<p>And I don’t know if she would have done better on the MCAT after those courses. She took it once after soph year.</p>
<p>Agree
Drop the Chemistry minor. Switch and do the Art Major. Stand out Major in something you enjoy. Why are you majoring in BioPhysics?</p>
<p>Why do P Chem. Is it required for BioPhysics? It is probably one of the hardest courses at any Univ and will not help you out on MCATS or life.</p>
<p>Drop the summer courses unless you take Art, Shakespear, something interesting.</p>
<p>I would look at your application above and toss in the round filing cabinent immediately.</p>
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<p>Umm because he said he enjoys physics?</p>
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<p>pchem is like physics-lite for chem majors. It isn’t the hardest course in college. I do agree that he shouldn’t take it, but for the reason that he’ll already learn most of the material in physics classes.</p>
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<p>e-slam. 10char</p>
<p>“Why do P Chem. Is it required for BioPhysics? It is probably one of the hardest courses at any Univ and will not help you out on MCATS or life.”</p>
<p>and we wonder why science is on the outs in america…</p>
<p>You don’t have to take difficult upper level chem courses at college to be passionate about science.</p>
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<p>Well yeah, but to sneer at someone for studying a science seriously (no, taking 2 courses each in biology and chemistry and then taking art history for your remaining coursework is not studying a science seriously) is pretty dumb.</p>
<p>Considering that the OP (who posted that) has never set foot inside a college class, I think it’s fine to say it. He has no idea what it’ll be like.</p>
<p>If someone, after their freshman or sophomore year decided to go through with such a schedule, then I’d be more receptive. But I see way too many high school kids plan out ridiculous schedules with two majors and a minor in some unrelated humanities field because they kinda liked that topic in high school and think it’ll look diverse and possibly help them out 25 years down the line.</p>
<p>If someone has actually experienced college and has some experience or coursework in the area of their potential major/minor and really is passionate about it (or believes it will help with their career) and THEN decides to undertake such a schedule, then I think that’s great. All the better for them, they will study something that’s right for them, something they like. But I think it’s ridiculous for high schoolers to plan something like that.</p>
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<p>Oh, I agree. A lot of high school kids don’t realize how much work college is. Planning out your schedule 4 years in advance is pretty silly too. </p>
<p>Studying physics is pretty cool though. I don’t see why he should be encouraged to do another major. He should cut out the art and chem minor, but physics is a solid subject.</p>
<p>P Chem is not physics-light. It is why physics works. You push electrons and learn the reasoning. At some schools, the physics majors have to take it and it is tough for them. It is regarded as one of the hardest couses at most colleges.</p>
<p>Planning your four years. One has to do that in order to figure out where and when to take required courses. There is nothing wrong with that if you are sure what your major is going to be.</p>
<p>However, with the above majors, one would have to convince an adcom that one did it because he wanted to and not because she thought it would make it easier to get in. The old “What will you do if you don’t get into Medical School question” or why did you major in what you did?</p>
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<p>Yes it is. It is a summary of important results in physics for chemistry majors. Physics majors learn the real thing in courses on quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics . . .</p>
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<p>Why do you think that it is weird to enjoy physics?</p>
<p>Silence
At Stanford, the physics majors had to take p chem as it was the reason why things worked.</p>
<p>I don’t think it weird to enjoy physics. It just sounds like he wants to do it for “in” and not because he wants to. The question then becomes, what if you don’t get it.</p>
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<p>Oh. Well, then I agree with you.</p>
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<p>um… post #15: </p>
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<p>I haven’t commented here yet, but I find it slightly irritating that all the advice he gets is, drop this course, because it’s hard, drop that course, it’s time-consuming and difficult.</p>
<p>What if he truly likes it?</p>
<p>I mean, when someone posts and says “I want to be history major/african-american studies major/whatever non-science major and be premed”, everyone is like: OK, that’s perfect, you can even play on the well-rounded key.</p>
<p>But when sb posts and says “I want to learn Quantum Mechanics, Pchem and be a biophysics major/premed,” then everyone is like “Woah, why would you do sth like that!”
No wonder why science/math in the US is in decline.</p>
<p>Enough of me ranting. Here is my opinion. I’m someone who also loves science, and I know how challenging it can be. However, med schools won’t give a **** about how difficult your coursework was, how interesting/useful it was. What they want are good grades, so if you can maintain a decent GPA and be a biophysics major, great! If you can’t, you’ll have to re-evaluate your priorities. Sacrifice the biophysics major, for your future MD, or sacrifice the MD for the love of biophysics.</p>
<p>Part II:</p>
<p>I would also like to reformulate my advice. Focus on quality, not quantity. What do you like best? Biophysics, history, or chem? Don’t just get the chem minor b/c you’re like, WTH, just 2 courses left in chem, so why not… THat’s the wrong attitude. Choose what you do and like best, hopefully get a good GPA in that subject, and have fun in that subject. But focus on quality first, and quantity second.</p>
<p>Part III:</p>
<p>I don’t think it will be useful to plan all 4 yrs, because administrative issues in college are just a pain in the @$$. You never know ahead when some course problem might occur. If it makes you feel less stressed, go ahead, but I don’t think it has any practical use.</p>
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<p>There is another aspect of the same problem, at the finer grain level. Some premeds may hesitate to take an interesting but demanding non-pre-req class when they find out that the professor rarely gives out A’s. They have no choice but take the medical school pre-req classes, even when the professors grade harshly. But for other electives, they may try to maximize their grades while minimizing the efforts they need to put in. It is sad, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Several years ago, a professor from a flag-ship state university ranted that this practice would waste the brainpower of the brightest students in this country. On the other hand, some star professors from some departments (often those from some very highly regarded departments) may hold the arguably twisted views that the brightest students in their field should go to the Ph. D program in their field, and only those students deserve A’s from their classes. In fact, many of them do not particularly like premed students. A question here is that, do you more likely run into this kind of professor in a science department (like Biophysics) or in some other department?</p>
<p>“Hard” is relative. Orgo was a conceptual disaster for me - nucleophiles, chair-boat structures, and S2 reactions still make my cerebral cortex cower in fear. On the other hand, I did very well in P-chem I and II - the basic topics we covered in quantum mechanisms and thermodynamics made sense to me. Don’t avoid a class because it’s got a reputation for being “hard” - remember, what’s hard for your neighbor may not be hard for you.</p>
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<p>Are you saying that this professor looks at students’ majors and then makes a decision about how to grade? That sounds far-fetched. If he is just expecting a lot from his students, then there is no harm in that.</p>
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<p>Pre-meds have earned their reputation for being grade-grubbers . . . I doubt you’ll find many grade-grubbing pre-med students outside of chemistry or biology–those students are probably studying something they like and are less obsessed about gaming the system. A premed studying biophysics knows that he/she is going overkill for medical school admissions.</p>
<p>“Hard” is relative</p>
<p>Hey, shades, I agree that “hard” depends on your skillset, but sometimes, the curve in certain subject will simply make it an “easier” subject. For example, consider a PChem course curved with 10% A’s, and another intro english lit subject with 50% A’s. I’ll bet I can get an easier A in the intro english subject, than the PChem, although I consider myself much more qualified with math/science. Also, you have to consider the fact that any students who will take PChem are also self-selected. English is a very difficult subject for me, but English classes tend to be relatively easy.</p>
<p>Finally, some subjects like PChem, where most of the grade is not hwk based (pset/projects/research papers), and less subjective, tend to be harder than subjective subjects, where the professor can allow himself to award higher grades on the basis of subjectivity.</p>
<p>I don’t think professors actually look at someone’s career objective before grading. He’s just way to busy for that (he’s actually way to busy to even care about any undergrads for that matter most of the time). However, people who aim for PhD’s, and are single-mindedly interested in a single major, will tend to perform better than other premeds who take courses for that major simply to fullfill prereq’s (of course, both cases can occur at once). That might be why premeds see some disparities between premed grades vs. other academic superstars grades in premed courses.</p>
<p>I saw that particularly with HS AP courses, where some students obviously with no interest in [insert science subject here] took the course to look “good” to colleges/BA/MD programs. They ended up hating people like me, who truly cared about the course and wanted to learn, because we tend to “break the curve” (Teachers aren’t allowed to award grades better than 100, so if you scored 95/100, she can’t add more than 5 pts to all the class). Those grade-grubbers tried to get shortcuts in physics, to create memorizing devices (LOL, it’s sad when all they cared about was “memorizing” physics equations… ended backfiring on the AP test), when all they needed was to truly understand the material backward/forward to do well.</p>