Premed Freshman Year Help!!! Please

<p>How is the usual premed class schedule? I need to know the units involved as well because I'm considering the summer freshman writing seminar.</p>

<p>If it is Intro bio w/ lab, chemistry w/ lab, calculus, and PE, then would the credits be around 15?</p>

<p>When do premeds usually take PE because I want to take it as a freshman so I can do EMT for the other years. If I don't do EMT then are there other extracurriculars with the same "appeal" to medical admissions?</p>

<p>Please help. Thanks.</p>

<p>No, that's not 15 credits. Intro bio is 4 cr, chem is 4 cr, and your math class will be 3-4 cr. You should add another academic class (PE doesn't count for *****). </p>

<p>Everyone does PE their freshman year. Cornell offers an EMT class (which I will be taking) that's counted as PE so you can actually kill two birds w/ one stone if you take EMT your freshman year.</p>

<p>I was checking the median scores on the registrar and it seems like honors chem has a higher median score than intro chem. Does that mean honors chem is easier than regular intro chem?</p>

<p>The typical premed schedule is:</p>

<p>Bio 101 Lec/Lab
Chem 207
Math (Either calc or stats)
a Freshman Writing Seminar (you were missing this one)</p>

<p>and it's best to get a gym class out of the way, plus, at least for me, it was great to actually have an obligation do something physical. I took tennis, and I don't think I would have gotten out to play if I hadn't signed up.</p>

<p>The only reason I know, is because that was my first semester schedule.</p>

<p>Honors chem is not easier. It's graded on a curve and everyone has had AP chem before. It would be very unfair for them not to have a higher median. Even if I had taken AP, I probably would have taken the regular intro chem anyway. Especially if Prof. Chirik is teaching next semester :)</p>

<p>Hell no. Chem 215-216 is full of chem majors who recieved 5's on their Chem AP tests. I had a few friends drop from Chem 216 down to Chem 208. They were just students who struggled in Chem 216 (and thus had to drop down to Chem 208). They all received A's in Chem 208 relatively easily.</p>

<p>Well, you can take Chem 215/216 as a major in chemistry and go pre-med right...or would this not be smart? Or is it just up to your interests?</p>

<p>Don't be a whimp. If you're a chem major and did well on your chem AP tests, you should take Chem 215/216. Chem 207-208 is for premeds who are non-chem majors.</p>

<p>is being a chem major okay for premed?</p>

<p>What is EMT?</p>

<p>On the website <a href="http://www.pe.cornell.edu/physed/firstaid-s06.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pe.cornell.edu/physed/firstaid-s06.html&lt;/a> it says that it can either count for 6 academic credits or 2 physical education credits. Would this imply that it is more rigorous than other PE classes? Are PE classes based on pass/fail?</p>

<p>The reason I ask these questions is because I want to know if I should do the summer freshman writing seminar to make room for my schedule.</p>

<p>Without the freshman summer writing seminar my schedule would look as follows:</p>

<p>Bio 101 Lec/Lab
Chem 207
Math (Either calc or stats)
a Freshman Writing Seminar
PE - EMT</p>

<p>I want to have a light courseload freshman year but this seems like too many classes (about 17 credits?). Is the only way I can do EMT freshman year while having a lighter courseload obtainable by taking writing over the summer?</p>

<p>I have another really important question that I will need answering in order for me to officially decide if I want to take this path during the summer.</p>

<p>If I finish the EMT course freshman year, will I be able to get a volunteer position at a hospital right after I am done? Or do people sometimes finish the course and do not find any application to their new knowledge? And how favorable is EMT for medical school admissions?</p>

<p>Holy crap! We can get 6 academic credits for it? I guess I will be switching from the 2 PE credit option to the 6 academic credits option (not that I really need the credits). </p>

<p>Yea, I forgot to mention that the EMT class meets for 6 hours a week. Genetics (which is a 5 credit course) didn't even have that much class time. If you take EMT, you should take only 3 other courses (probably intro bio, gen chem, and a cupcake class; I would suggest forgoing math until later semesters). If you take some other PE, you should take 4 other courses. </p>

<p>You can get a volunteer position without EMT certification. I currently volunteer at Cayuga Med and you don't do anything of significance but volunteer hours is volunteer hours :/ EMT certification alone is not worth much in med school admissions. You need to actually work as an EMT. Cornell has an EMS service run by students so you can apply to work there once you get your EMT certificate.</p>

<p>PE classes are pass/fail. While I will be selecting the 6 credit option, you should take the 2 PE credits. If you don't you will still have to take another 2 PE classes.</p>

<p>Thanks norcalguy. Do you know how common it is for premeds to take this EMT class as freshmen?</p>

<p>If you were me would you take the freshman writing seminar over the summer and then take bio, chem, cupcake class, and EMT during the year?</p>

<p>Sorry if I misunderstood you, but does applying for the EMT position mean that not everyone who applies gets to volunteer as an EMT? That would mean that if I were to follow this plan about the summer I still have the possibility of not getting an EMT position.</p>

<p>Ugh... I'm so stressed right now because I don't know what to do this summer. What was your freshman schedule norcalguy?</p>

<p>Keep in mind that taking pre-med courses in the recommended lock-step way is the harshest, most competitive way to do it. Give yourself a bit of a break first semester; take the classes in a little different way and you'll have a better chance of remaining pre-med.</p>

<p>If you take the AP Lit test and opt out of freshmen writin seminars do you still need to take that one year of english for the premed track?</p>

<p>and if i wanted to do a double major (bio & hist) but still do premed how would that work out? should I take gen chem, a hist class, PE (emt maybe?), and bio? or is that too much? are history classes very hard at Cornell?</p>

<p>Oh and for bio I was thinking of taking an upper level bio cause I have a 5 on the AP Bio test and I heard that Bio 101 is really hard</p>

<p>is it dumb to take only general chemistry (and perhaps calc 1) for a first semester and no other premed courses? i know its recomended to take bio as well , but first semester is usually a big transition from high school to college.</p>

<p>slowclap-If it's going to cost a significant amount of time/money, I wouldn't take the writing seminar over the summer. </p>

<p>Keep in mind that being an EMT is serious business. On a college campus, there's going to be many emergencies, alcohol-related or otherwise. Just as you have to interview for jobs (and you may not get the position), you have to apply to work on Cornell's EMS service. You won't get an EMT position just because you have a certificate just as a company won't hire you just because you have a degree. There's an application/interview process as with anything else. This is especially critical for a position like EMT that carries so much responsibility.</p>

<p>My freshman year schedule:
1st semester:
Math 213
Bio 101
Bio 102
Spanish 209
Chem 215
PE</p>

<p>2nd semester:
Math 221
Bio 103
Bio 104
Chem 216
Writing Seminar
PE</p>

<p>Amaranthine27-Most med schools don't care about what you placed out of, only what you took in college. So, yes, you'll have to replace that writing seminar with another English class. Upper level English classes are much better than writing seminars in my opinion so no loss there.</p>

<p>I've only taken two history classes at Cornell (both 100-level) and found them to be very easy.</p>

<p>There are two schools of thought with regards to skipping intro bio:
1. First, what I did: I had a 5 on the AP test as well and ended up retaking the class b/c I felt that it went more in depth than my HS class. I ended up with decent grades in Bio 101-104 (A-, A-, A, A+ respectively) and did well on the bio section of the MCAT.</p>

<ol>
<li>It is a tough class and not really an important class for upper level bio courses so you could potentially place out of intro bio. If you do, you will generally not have too many options for freshman year. I feel Bio278 is really the only bio-major required class that's appropriate for freshman. You could take Bio281 (genetics) but you will probably end up gouging your eyes out. So I guess you can forgo taking any bio at all freshman year. However, many med schools require intro bio lab so you might need to take Bio102/104 (the lab components of intro bio) whether you place out of the lecture components or not.</li>
</ol>

<p>norcalguy, how did you do in chem 215/216?</p>