<p>As a student who plans to follow the pre-med track in college, I'm a little concerned that the many degree/GE courses that colleges require could possibly delay taking all the recommended pre-med classes and thus preparing for the MCAT (or force me to take an extra year to get my degree).</p>
<p>So to current students and/or parents,
1) Did you find it challenging to fit the degree/GE requirements, major requirements, and recommended pre-med courses into your 4 year college schedule?
2) How did you plan your courses around taking the MCAT?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Use your GE requirements wisely. Take psych, soc, and English as part of your GEs since they ar all either required by med schools or needed for the MCAT.</p>
<p>The ones who have a similar to your concern resolved it by having Bio related degree that covers all requirements plus additional Bio since these people are mostly interested in Bio anyway. However, very many (maybe all of D’s pre-med friends) had un-related to medicine minor(s) or combo of major(s)/minor(s) to get educated in area of personal interests (and these additional area of of study might have covered some additional requirements, say, for example, the requirements of Honors program or simply gave students some easy classes to balance the hard classes of their major). Many also had lots of APs. While some UGs do not recommend using science AP to skip first college science classes, there is nothing wrong with using your APs for History, Math, English. So, to have an example, D. did not really have that many of GE classes in her Honors college at all. She had one semester of English (only because she had 4 on AP, not 5), she had one semester of Stats (both English and stats are required by Med. Schools any way) and some classes of her Music Minor covered few requirements of her Honors program (something like Music History as far as I remember). I do not believe that she had anything else, but she had tons of Psych classes also (new MCAT requirement???) for her other minor in Neuroscience which she did not have chance to complete being 2 classes short. She did not need to take any soc., but again, maybe some classes in one of her minors would cover this requirement, not sure.
So, in short, not a problem, you should be just fine. It is a good idea to complete all requirements and some additional upper Bio classes before taking MCAT, you got this one right. </p>
<p>Random thoughts as to your concerns:</p>
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<li>your high school decisions could have already played a role: AP credit (and if applicable, some college courses taken in high school) allowed S to satisfy several GE reqs and also gen bio req. (Note: he still had to take several upper division bio courses to satisfy premed reqs but as this wasn’t a big deal for S being a bio major whereas it would be for a non bio major. Do you have AP credit, what is college’s AP policy, and how it all plays out with med school course prereqs at any particular med school at time you might apply, and new MCAT will need to be checked out.</li>
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<p>As to course scheduling: colleges tend to offer registration in connection to units earned. So seniors (also athletes, honor students) tend to get first crack at scheduling whereas freshman get last. S’s AP credits allowed him to register a week ahead of his friends which made it pretty easy for him to create any schedule he wanted whereas friends faced scheduling difficulties as to time of day and/or availability due to being lower on totem pole of registration. If AP credits can be used for anyrhing, being able to register early especially at larger schools is a huge plus.</p>
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<li><p>your major choices: the typically proffered advice is choose a major in an area you are interested in AND that you can excel in, and complete premed reqs AND excel in them also. A corollary to major selection is that if med school plans fall by wayside, your major may be looked at as your Plan B. S started as Bio area major and graduated in 4 years with BS. (As a note it’s my understanding that a BS degree tends to require a couple more courses to complete than does a BA degree, so maybe this is a consideration for you.) Most premeds are bio/chem majors often because these majors kill two birds with one stone (complete major in 4 years, satisfy premed reqs), but may offer limited post college options if premed plans fail. You have a big decision in front of you as to major. Choose an area with a strong interest which in theory you should do well in, but may lead to finishing college in 5 years to satisfy premed reqs v say a bio/chem major which may be a more direct pathway to degree in 4 years but is less interesting to you and may result in poor grades. And if you change majors, it’s just that much harder.</p></li>
<li><p>your college performance, your ability to manage/balance time both academically and socially: S dug himself a hole and ended up with GPAs below 3.2 at end of first year. He did climb out and make it to med school but he had to remain a full time student for next 3 years to raise GPAs to competitive level, and take a gap year. Premed Lesson Number 1: don’t dig yourself into a hole. Alternately, maybe to improve performance and ease your concerns, consider a plan to finish college in 4 years and then apply to med school upon graduating as opposed to trying to cram a lot of stuff into your first 3 years of college with a goal of entering med school after graduating from college. </p></li>
<li><p>MCAT: instead of usual 4 courses S took only took 3 courses (minimum to maintain full time status) during term he took MCAT as he was also taking an MCAT prep course. (Note so as not to give adcoms impression he was taking light schedule, S’s 3 courses were upper division bio courses). MCAT is considered a high stakes exam, doing well on it is very important. </p></li>
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<p>As a parent who has seen S go through this process, I can feel your pain. A big good luck to you.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your helpful replies! :)</p>
<p>My son was a Chem Engineering major and that included all or nearly all the premed prereqs. Instead of taking a couple of electives (Italian and some others) he would have taken psych and sociology to fulfill the new req’ts. </p>