<p>I want to attend Emory and I made a tentative schedule based off of the course offerings for the past three years. I intend to major in neuroscience as a pre-med student.
In sophomore year, I am wondering if this schedule would be too difficult.</p>
<p>Fall
Microbiology
Organic Chemistry with Lab
Genetics
Physics with Lab
Cell Biology</p>
<p>Spring
Brain and Behavior
Organic Chemistry with Lab
Foundations in Behavior
Physics with Lab
Neurobiology</p>
<p>Which of the above courses are most beneficial for high MCAT performance. What isn't needed (besides the stuff for my major)?
Also, how many classes does one generally take per semester
I have 5 per semester so after 8 that's 40 classes. I think it is supposed to be 32? Not sure</p>
<p>You're gonna die like that... unless you love studying every day for 6 or 7 hours, and spending hours doing boring-ass labs. I know some pretty hardcore premeds that don't take half as many med-related courses as you're suggesting. Don't kill yourself; make sure you have some time to do well on your courses and actually do something else, like research or volunteering, or maybe a job... or even that thing called sleep.</p>
<p>so which class do you suggest I move to junior or senior year. I want to take ALL of them but I know some are better than others and I plan to take my MCAT the August before junior year. And I dont want to push all my major required classes back until junior year either, though I could if I HAD to. Also, how many classes each semester are you SUPPOSED to take? And if it is still 5, do you recommend me get a humanities or art class?</p>
<p>That is way too difficult of a schedule; you should only take 3 science classes at the max. You could postpone physics and two of the classes that only relate to your major. With these classes, you're going to have non-stop labs, homework, and you will want to die from it all. When you schedule classes, you want to see how many credit hours they are worth; you can't always go by the amount of classes. Usually, 15 credits a semester is good enough and you don't need to add much more. You want to show that you have other interests outside of school work.</p>
<p>out of those ochem and physics are needed for the mcat. Micro and cell bio would probably help.</p>
<p>I generally take 6 per semester. That's engineering, though. These threads are pointless because it depends on your own intelligence and other things. Most people I know in science take 5 per semester. That course load does look like a lot of memorization, though.</p>
<p>Don't forget English, History, Fine Arts, Social Sciences, Writing, Public Speaking, Western Civilization, and the many other general ed. requirements specific to whatever college you're considering. Take 2 lab sciences per semester max and balance the rest of the schedule with general ed. requirements and/or an additional non-lab science. Balance your schedule keeping in mind GPA.</p>
<p>How about waiting until you actually get in Emory?</p>
<p>Also, labs tend to take ALL afternoon and for many, it's just enough to spent 2 afternoons doing labs. Especially chemistry.</p>
<p>A typical pre-med schedule goes like this:
Freshman year- Chemistry, calc, maybe biology, gen ed reqs
Sophomore year- Orgo Chem, biology (if not taken yet), gen ed reqs
Junior year- Physics, upper level bio, major classes
Senior year-An upper level science class, major classes</p>
<p>Even people applying to other graduate schools don't take their grad exams until the end of their junior year or beginning of their senior year. I know quite a few people who were pre-meds. They worked to whatever pace was comfortable for them because A) all it mattered, they realized, was just finishing everything WELL for med school and B) There's more to life. You want to set up a curriculum that suits your own needs and abilites. For some, they need all 4 years to do their pre-med. Others needed only 3 years but they sacrificed other things. A few were a bit worn out (even after 4 years of pre-med stuff) chose to take a year or two off. All it mattered at the end just getting to med school, no matter how long it takes for them to eventually get there. Med school will ALWAYS be there. They found other things that they became passionate about during college and wanted to spend a little time dabbling on their side interests before going hard-core with med school.</p>
<p>So I suggest that you BREATHE and know that many, many people take time off and med schools STRONGLY encourage it (even early-admission programs) and the average of entering med school student is about 25 or 26 years old. You're seriosuly going to feel like a baby at 22 or 23 (take it from me, in a different field). Med schools like to see that you've pursued other interests so that you will go in knowing that you've seen other options and be more focused because THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT.</p>
<p>My course load as a Sophomore right now...
Organic Chem W/ lab
Genetics W/ lab
Behavioral Neuroscience
Philosophy of Language (300 level)</p>
<p>This semester is a little crazy and while orgo is not bad, combined with Genetics (which is a lot harder than most people expect) it makes it very difficult to allocate your focus to performing well on each exam, and believe me they often will overlap ( I had four of them in a week not too long ago). I honestly would not recommend taking more than 3 science courses in a semester and also try to take one liberal arts course a semester to balance your education.</p>
<p>If you can only handle 3 science courses in a semester you may as well switch out of a science degree and forget med school altogether. How do you expect to handle med school if you can't handle 5 science courses... lmao.</p>
<p>Just saying if the kid wants to maintain a decent GPA, considering orgo and genetics are both huge weeders for premeds, it doesn't make sense to overload with advanced courses while he is still in the process of learning basic biological concepts in genetics.</p>
<p>genetics wasn't a weeder course at my school. Actually fairly basic. OChem was hell, though. I still took 5 science courses that semester (when I took both of those) and I'm a lazy bastard.</p>
<p>Heh I think it is the opposite at my school. Genetics is fairly basic in terms of the material but our tests are absurd and always have really low averages due to the nature of the questions whereas most people that are struggling on genetics exams are doing relatively better in orgo. I think once you get past those core requirements and into your major it would certainly be reasonable to take more than 3 science courses just not when students are still grasping the fundamentals.</p>
<p>I don't know how your school does it, but I doubt at my school you'd be able to fit all that into your schedule. Most science classes come with a pre-lab and lab attached to them or maybe just a lab depending on the school and those labs are loooong. Plus, you should check out if they don't require prerequisites. Some uppper level classes might require that you have already taken another class or something. And you should work on getting all your general requirements before anything else. No need to put them off.</p>