Honestly, you shouldn’t plan to take the fast track. My girl is pre-med and her pre-med advisor told her she needs to take both gen chem and bio her freshman year. First semester freshman year was gen chem, bio, calc 3, and her first year seminar. I thought it was too much but the advisor said 95% of pre-med students take this schedule.
^And this is why SO MANY freshmen are weeded out. They need to pace themselves - getting to med school is not a dash, it’s a marathon.
You have 3 years to spread all the premed pre-reqs, use them.
^^Spreading out pre-reqs only works of you’re not a BS science or engineering major.
Delaying pre-reqs often means a science/engineering major will end up off track for an on-time graduation. Intro bio and/or gen chem and/or calc are all typically pre-reqs for upper level bio/neuro/chem/bme/chemE classes
Approach the above advice with caution.
This works for Bio, Chem, Biochem, Environmental Science majors:
1st semester, Calc + either Bio or Chem; 2nd semester: Biostats, either Bio or Chem 2, and the other one at level 1; summer: the other one at level 2. I’d recommend summer = General chemistry 2, to have less time with no “chem thinking” between the class and Orgo in the Fall. No need to take Physics along with Orgo: Physics can be taken Junior year along with biochem but biochem can be taken senior year (if the student, like most, applies senior year). Psychology and Sociology can be taken at any point during Freshman or Sophomore year.
Limiting the number of premed classes to 2 first semester allows freshmen to get used to college and not dig themselves into a hole they can’t get out of.
Engineering schedules don’t have any leeway and don’t allow students to spread things out, though.
^^The suggested schedule only works at large universities where bio/chem1 classes are offered both fall and spring.
At mid-sized and smaller universities and LACs, the above simply isn’t possible because gen chem 1 and bio 1 are only offered in the fall.
Summer coursework adds additional costs which not all students can afford, plus summer coursework limits a student’s ability to work full time. (Which my kids and many college students needed/need to do to help pay for college expenses.)
Taking biochem as a senior (depending on whether the university offers the course in the fall or the spring) may not allow the student to take the MCAT in a timely fashion and have a score by the time they submit the primary in early June.
You’re also assuming that the pre-med is a generic bio or chem major–if they are a less typical major (like a physics major which D1 was) or a double science major (like D2 was) or a science major with a science minor the schedule you suggested would put them dangerously off schedule for on-time graduation and/or require multiple summer classes.
Pre-med hopefuls need to lay out a spread sheet using their college's course catalog and departmental graduation requirements to figure the optimal course schedule. And do this before they meet with advisor to schedule freshmen classes. I agree it doesn’t work in all cases but I strongly stand by the “one science + calculus” first semester for freshmen. If that’s not possible, then Bio+chem, with calculus in the Spring. But these three weedout classes taken together are often enough to derail freshmen simply because they need time to get used to college even if they were theoretically, intellectually able to handle them all individually in a different setting.
Overall though I agree freshmen need to meet with their adviser and see where they can fit all their pre-reqs.
I think academically OP is not ready for pre-med, if the school advisor gave OP the classes as listed. For one thing, he did not placed into Calc, so we should not push some one into it. OP should take it easy in the first year and make sure get all As to boost his confidence,he could start the more intense classes in his second year and complete his prerequisites in the ensuing three years, take a gap year to prep for Mcat and ECs. There is no reason to rush into some thing that will fail. And most med school applicants have taken a gap year to update their short comings for the first round of application, nothing wrong with that.