<p>When Medical Schools say that the course Requirements include: </p>
<p>1 year of Biology (with Lab)
1 year of Inorganic Chemistry (with Lab)
1 year of Organic Chemistry (with Lab)
1 year of English
1 year of Calculus or College Level Math
1 semester of Biochemistry (at select schools only)</p>
<p>do they mean intro classes like biology 101 or upper level classes like second or third level?</p>
<p>Also I got a 4 on the AP chem exam so should i jump into chem 3003 or go back again and start at intro level. I want to be a bio major and I'm supposed to take 2 semesters of chemistry but what level should i take? thanks</p>
<p>One last question: do med schools prefer honors diplomas and is a 3.5 honors GPA better than a regular 3.8 or 3.7 GPA if they are weighted the same? how are honors courses harder: for example do they have a heavier workload or harder tests?
thanks</p>
<p>they want the introductory classes for each major…usually there will be a Bio 100 class for general eds for example…and a Bio 110 class for students going into the science major. You need to take the latter…they’re harder classes but will help you on the MCAT.</p>
<p>IMO, a 3.5 honors GPA is worse than a regular 3.8 or 3.7 GPA for most premeds.</p>
<p>With this said, it is often the case the students in some (but not all) honor classes/program may even get a better GPA for whatever reason it may be.</p>
<p>However, be careful about taking some “super-honor” classes in which high-power professors (e.g., potential Nobel Prize winners) intend to hunt for a selected few super-star students in their classes who would like to follow their academic steps. Those professors may be only interested in giving very few super-stars a good grade and do not care about giving bad grades to all others if they are not super-star materials (reads: spending 90 percents of your study time on their subject – leaving out very little time for anything else.) However, if your intention is to go to a very top research medical school, you may have to take this kind of class and becomes one of the selected few students (hopefully, not just one) who are favored by this kind of professor (for his LOR later on.)</p>
<p>In a sense, medical school admission system encourages students to get good grades no matter how/where they get the good grades. (The grades can not be from CC though.) Thus, it is rumored that many students try to be in a somewhat easier major (a potentially easier life in junior/senior years when they need to work on their ECs or to be on the interview trail) or to take easier classes in order to be “grade efficient” – less time spent on academic but still get a good grade, and hopefully more time for other activities (who will talk about academic/grades in the interview session anyway?!)</p>
<p>^^^ Probably because honor classes are smaller, and they see their classmates working their asses off, so they too feel the need to work their asses off.</p>
<p>^ At least one of the classes DS took in senior was like what you describe. Most undergraduate students in that class are likely destined to some top-20 medical school. (Others are PhD students who major in this field.) DS said even the TA-led session was intense, and all the students in DS’s TA session appeared to work their asses off. – their session grade average was likely 5 to 10 points higher than a session consisting of the PhD students only. (It is a required class for the PhD students in this immuno department.) DS’s TA was a MD-PhD, and their TA was a PhD Candidate. The former TA is likely more hardcore in making sure her students are “better”.</p>
<p>There is a great deal of discussion regarding whether or not to use your AP credits. MOST med schools will not accept AP credit, but MANY will be fine if you skip the intro year and take upper div classes in that subject.</p>
<p>Thus if you are talking AP BIO and your university allows you to skip intro bio, and if you feel well prepared, you can do that and move right into upper division bio classes. This will allow you to take more interesting upper division coursework. But you had better be prepared and earn As.</p>
<p>My DD chose to do this on bio, but did not skip other AP track courses. It depends on you and on what your school will allow.</p>
<p>I am not familiar with any med schools who would accept AP credit in lieu of a class without taking other classes in that same subject.</p>
<p>Why are there more premeds who tend to dislike physics, or pay less attention to physics?! Premeds tend to take more advanced bios but are perfectly fine with taking as fewer physics as he can which may be at a level that is below his/her capability. I guess MCAT kind of encourages this indirectly.</p>
<p>Because physics is hard, the grading curves are horrendous and most physics classes require more math than more pre-meds are willing to take. (Like 3-4 semesters of calculus.)</p>
<p>I was talking about college physics, not high school physics, bubbabubba.</p>
<p>Nearly all college level physics classes require math past Calc 1. The main exception being physics for non-scientists–aka physics for poets. Or pre-meds. </p>
<p>Even Modern Physics, which is generally the first college level physics classes that physics, engineering, CS and chem majors take, requires calc 1 & 2. Higher level physics coursework requires multi-function calc and matrices.</p>
<p>^But Med. Schools do not require Calc based Physics. You can take the very first, easiest physics and focus deeper on your area of interest… unless it is physics. If it is not physics, there is no reason to take calc based physics. For some physics is fascinating, for others just boring required class. Only student can decide what he wants.</p>
<p>Unless your college only offers calc-based physics… which is the situation at D2’s uni. Everyone (engineering, chem, physics, CS, bio, biochem, BCS) takes calc-based physics. The uni doesn’t even offer a algebra-based class. Pre-meds who can’t do calculus get thrown to the wolves.</p>
<p>And I know that med schools don’t require cal-based physics, I was answering mcat2’s question as to why more pre-med don’t seem to like physics. They don’t like physics because the field as whole requires knowing a great deal of math if you are going to truly explore the subject area. (And the grading curves in college physics classes are brutal. There’s a saying about physicists—physicists eat their young. Which is why the attrition for physics majors in undergrad is even bigger than that for pre-meds or engineers.)</p>
<p>For me, not liking physics was just purely personal preference…which happened to jive with the preferences of my other premed friends too. Looking at upper level physics classes just sounded overwhelming and way too challenging for way little reward. The upper level bios sounded fascinating to me, and at least maybe somewhat relevant down the road in my preclinical years. Plus, I wanted to be able to focus on other areas than just science, so taking upper level science classes in multiple departments would have just taken time away from other interesting but non science classes.</p>
<p>For example. This semester, I’m taking mammalogy (required), a humanities class about the Holocaust, a public health/public policy class, and have an internship with a state representative. My friends are taking classes ranging from culinary arts to Beef Production in the US to introductory piano. (And one, the science nerdiest of us all, is taking astrophysics “for fun”) So for the majority of us, focusing on the upper division classes in the major field allows for much more flexibility, even if it would be “good for us” to take challenging science courses like physics.</p>
<p>Ah! But once understand quantum mechanics, you understand everything. </p>
<p>(According to D1, once she aced graduate quantum, suddenly all of chemistry made sense and so did cellular biology. She could derive it all from fundamentals.</p>
<p>And the g<strong>d</strong>* Los Alamos physicists are the bane of doctors everywhere in the state because as the chief of neurology at the med school once said to me “they think they know every g<strong>d</strong>* thing.” To which more than one Los Alamos physicist replied after a moment’s of thought: “That’s because we do.”</p>
<p>I really do believe they issue an ego with every physics degree.)</p>
<p>Hahaha! You make a great point. Looks like bio majors can just be kinda lazy (and you’re right, just go through the motions of completing physics and not really get a lot out of it).</p>
<p>That could easily be the case. But if physics is all math…isn’t math the answer!? </p>
<p>^^^^LOL! Yepper, reminds me of a very old joke (told to me by a mathematician, of course!):</p>
<p>Biologists only talk to other biologists though one will occasionally talk with a chemist. Chemists only talk with other chemists though one will occasionally talk with a physicist. Physicists only talk with other physicists though one will occasionally talk with a mathematician. Mathematicians only talk with other mathematicians, though one will occasionally talk to god.</p>