<p>Hi, I am going to be an incoming freshmen starting in the summer b term this year (2012). I declared a microbiology major in the liberal arts and science college and going to be on the Pre-Med track. I am in need for some advice about a few things whether its from other pre-med students or people who when to med school from UF.</p>
<p>I am going to going into the college with many science credits. I scored 5s in Chem+ CalcAB + Physics B, awaiting scores on Physics C and Calc BC and i believe did well on those exams. I have all 6 of my english credits so I do not need to take those classes.</p>
<p>I plan to take two classes needed for my gen ed during the summer an get involved in some research.</p>
<p>So here is what I need help in for the fall.</p>
<p>Everyone at this school (whether from student advisors, pre-health advisors, and other students) are telling me a different things to take. First, is it absolutely the best option to retake general chem 1 (CHM2045) and calc 1 (MAC2311) for medical school? Even though i heard those classes are "weed-out" classes.
Second, the pre-health advisor recommended to take CHM2047/L (the one that combines chem 1 and chem 2 into one semester). Has anyone heard anything about that class and is it good for pre-med? My chemistry foundation was solid at one point but that was junior year of high school.</p>
<p>Any other general advice is also welcome!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the help, I just don't know where to begin and how to use these credits. I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Just my opinion, but I would just retake CHM 2045 instead. Some people may suggest to take 2047 because you can get out of taking the CHM 2046 lab which is a huge pain, but I would play it on the safe side and do CHM 2045 and CHM 2046 separately so you have grades for both courses for med schools. However, that’s just my opinion, and I’m sure a lot of other people will have other opinions. </p>
<p>And as far as I know (and from what I have heard) you can go in Calc 2 (MAC 2312), I don’t think you have to retake Calc 1… you just need some type of advanced math. I knew some people who did this.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response. I am just receiving so many different opinions and advice from people, even the pre-med advisor actually was encouraging the 2047/L class due to the much smaller class size which is very appealing. Do you happen to know who teacher 2047 because I have heard for practically everyone that the teacher for 2046 is very difficult.</p>
<p>UFhopeful24 is correct in that you need some type of advanced math if you decide to AP out of calc I. Just curious how you feel about your math skills. If you AP (5) in B/C, just as you did in A/B, you are eligible to AP out of Calc II, as well. D didn’t take A/B, but she got a 5 on B/C and a 770 on the Math SAT II. Math is a strength for her. All the engineering advisers were wanting her to start in Calc I, as that is what they encourage, but her dad encouraged her to take Calc III. His belief and anecdotal info that we heard was that CalcII tended to be the weed-out course, and calc III was so very different than Calc II that she needn’t retake it. I guess what I’m saying is that grades are hugely hugely important for pre-med. I’d suggest re-taking the Calc I and get the “A,” or if you are truly opposed to that (assuming you get a 5 on your B/C and feel really well prepared in math), go to Calc III, skipping the weed-out II. Just something to consider. </p>
<p>Btw, she had the worst Calc III teacher at UF (Thomas Walsh) and got an A-. But if she hadn’t had a lot of math to take for ChemE and didn’t want to slog thru all the Calcs, she’d have taken Calc I and gotten the easy A.</p>
<p>Chem and Calc 1 will not be harder than the higher level courses. The student pool is just younger and weaker as a whole at the lower levels so they don’t do as well. If you get weeded out of Calc or Gen Chem 1 you would have gotten weeded out of the next class in line as well.</p>
<p>Med schools do NOT accept AP/high school credits as a replacement for college credit. Meaning, you HAVE to take ALL pre med requirements in college (all bios, chems and physics).</p>
<p>Not all med school require calc or a calc sequence, but the ones that do will not accept your AP/high school credit, and therefore you’d have to retake calc too. No doubt.</p>
<p>PrettyPeridot, thanks for the help. Its really weird how I had someone at advising look at my schedule themselves (Chem 2 with lab, Calc 2) and they said it was fine and even recommended to take CHM2047. Do you know this from other peoples’ experiences or did you acquire that information yourself?</p>
<p>I just finished my freshman year and went in with HS AP credits for math, chem, physics and bio etc.
I did calc II and III, general chem 1 and 2, accelerated Chem lab ( 2credits which covers gen Chem 1 and 2 labs) and enriched physics 1 + lab so far without any difficulties. I felt well prepared with HS AP classes. I had time to work in a research lab 6 hrs a week during the spring and did many fun activities every week.
All med schools require general chem 1 and 2 + lab sequence so just start with CHM 2045. Some medical schools require 1 full year of calculus. Best to just do it.<br>
All med schools require 2 semesters of bio but not necessarily bio I and II. You can take higher level bio and 2 credits of bio lab. I started with behavioral neuro bio and plan on doing bio II + 2 credit lab next year. Most med schools want to see you take math and science requirements in a 4 year university in traditional classroom setting so AP and DE credits do not count but they do prepare you well so you do not get weeded out. You can use them towards humanities, language, English etc or get placed on higher level classes in the area that interests you. Remember med schools want to see you do something else besides science. I had gen psychology credit so I took psychology of personality and loved it.
All the advisors are not familiar with pre med requirements. Go to pre med adving office once you get to UF. Even then you will receive different info. Research UF pre med website: [Pre-Health</a> Advising](<a href=“http://www.advising.ufl.edu/prehealth/]Pre-Health”>Pre-Health – Academic Advising Center) .</p>
<p>And remember to always double check what advisors tell you! Sometimes they are misinformed, or just aren’t listening to you and giving you their full attention (I’ve found that this is the case more often than not, honestly).</p>
<p>Some of the advice above just isn’t correct. The vast majority of medical schools that require Calculus (there’s around 13 of them) accept AP credit for it. However, this could always change, and to be most competitive it’s a good idea to take university level math courses for a grade. Most schools DO accept AP credit for other prerequisites (a few do not), but many will only accept them if they’re supplemented with higher level courses. Even if that’s not required, it’s expected. You simply have to ask yourself if you want to review some of the material you are already familiar with, or move on to higher level classes. That’s hard to do in Physics because of prerequisites, so repeating Physics is probably a good idea. Keep in mind that Chem and Physics are on the MCAT too, so maybe take a look at some practice MCAT tests and see how you do with those questions. Many people find it hard to get to know their professors here, so having a smaller Chemistry class like CHM2047 would be great (you’ll need letters of recommendation). Bottom line is if you want to be able to apply absolutely anywhere, then repeat your coursework, but most people only apply to around 15 schools, so if you move on to upper-level courses you’ll still have plenty of choices. Take a look at the admission websites of some med schools, that will give you a better idea of what they’re looking for.</p>
<p>Np. The info is on the med schools web page. For example if you go to the UM med school page (I believe…its 5am…hazy memory) and click on the requirements tab it will tell you the required courses/sequences. Above it there’s a paragraph stating they do not accept AP credits. I can not speak for every single med school in the US, but from what I’ve seen, the more reputable schools atleast, do not accept AP credits as a substitution for requirements. This isn’t rocket science, just go to the school of your choice’s website and click on their requirements. That should settle any doubt that some people try to stir up on this fairly straight forward topic.
P.s- yes a lot of advisors are misinformed. I have heard horror stories. I suggest you see the Pre-Health advisor over a general advisor. I also agree with telecom about the required biology courses.</p>
<p>I took chm 2045 (Uf) and i did not do so good on the tests and i decided to drop it before the final so i wouldn’t fail it and lose my scholarship. I wanted to re-take it in the fall but when i registered there were no sections left. None. During the summer i kept checking and there were still none left. Then i saw bsc 2010 was open and an advisor said i don’t need to take chm 2045 to take bsc 2010 so i signed up for that. My advisor said that there most likely wont be anymore seats opened for chm 2045. I looked at what i did when i took chm the first time (not studying hard enough, not reading before lectures) and i know i can fix that now. But what i am worried about is what if i forget what i learned in chm 2045 from the spring and right now i’m freaking out about it. Also my major was biology on a premed track, but that’s only because i want to go into research. Do anybody know what i can major in that can incorporate scientific research without all the sciences (namely chm 2045), but i know its a stretch?</p>
<p>I think you probably would need to take CHM 2045 for almost any science major for research, and probably CHM 2046 also… however, I don’t think its accurate that there won’t be any seats opened up in that class. Check every time there’s a preview session because seats get opened up then, and during drop/add.</p>