Recommend a year or just a semester?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I have AP credit for BC...but i'm thinking of just retaking Calc simply because my school offers Calc in two different versions (Math10 series and Math20 series). Math10 and Math20 each covers Calc I & II in a year, but one of them is easier, while the other is more advanced - designed for engineering/chem majors....so it would seem logical to take the easy series and get easy grades.</p>

<p>Anyways, do you guys suggest ignoring my AP credit and taking one year of calculus + one semester of stats..... or do you guys suggest using the ap credit and doing one semester of calc + one semester of stats. </p>

<p>Thanks for the help!</p>

2

<p>Most medical schools don't accept AP credits. so I would say retake it. You should call ask your adviser.</p>

3

<p>Well, as my post says, if I would use the AP credit, then I'd still take a semester of calc and a semester of stats (so thats one yr of math)....so my ap credit is irrelevant to the med schools. Just wondering if its a good choice to do this and save a semester.</p>

4

<p>I checked once and between the few schools that require a year of calculus and a couple of schools accepting AP Credit, there's only a handful of relatively obscure programs for which one semester of calc and one semester of stats would not work.</p>

<p>Quite a few schools require a year of math; very few require a year specifically of calculus. Of those that do, a few of them accept AP Credit.</p>

<p>Provided that it's Calc II or III, not I, you should be okay.</p>

5

<p>correct me if i'm wrong, but from waht i've seen from the rankings, the only schools that need calc at all is</p>

<p>harvard
jhu
wustl
duke</p>

<p>duke and harvard are both fine with ap credits, which means that your calc bc credit covers it.</p>

<p>wustl was unclear so i do not know whether they accept ap credits.</p>

<p>jhu: Mathematics-Calculus or Statistics, one year (6 to 8 semester hours) Advanced Placement credit for calculus, acceptable to the student's undergraduate college, may be used in fulfillment of one semester of the Hopkins' math requirement.</p>

<p>so imo, there's pretty much just one/two schools that makes you take a year of math. where the hell did the common conception of "most med schools need math" and "most med schools dont accept ap credits" come from?</p>

6

<p>Tons of schools want a year of math. Very few schools specifically require that it be calculus.</p>

<p>Generally the philosophy we've tried to advocate here is that medical school admissions requires so much diversification that you want to use your courses to buy you options.</p>

<p>So you should look to fulfill your course requirements in such a way that you can apply to any school you want to apply to. That's why we say that even though some schools do accept AP Credits, you should behave as if none of them do.</p>

7

<p>I'm pretty sure that, after having filled out 25 secondaries, there are more than just those schools that want a year of math (with most only accepting calc or stats credit).</p>

8

<p>ya. i know.</p>

<p>i just dont see them on the websites. can you like ... tell me the schools that needs them, other than the ones ive listed</p>

9

<p>What about just retaking the whole year of calc. Like I said, the series i'm taking is really easy, despite it being I & II. I looked at the course's midterms/finals and they looked like a joke.</p>

<p>It would help my gpa, wouldnt it?</p>

10

<p>I really don't remember the specific ones that required math but I can tell you that some schools have fairly esoteric requirements. For example, USC requires a semester of molecular bio and 30 (THIRTY) social sciences/humanities credits (tough for a science major). WashU for some reason requires calc through differential equations. </p>

<p>My coursework is extremely versatile so I rarely have to stress about course requirements. In 4 years, I had:</p>

<p>Calc AP credit
1 sem Calc III w/ differential equations (multivariable)
1 sem linear algebra
1 sem stats
1 sem Spanish
3 sem English
Molecular bio (I'm a MCB major)
1 sem genetics
Lots of upper div bio courses
2 sem biochem (w/ 1 sem biochem lab)
30+ credits of nonscience courses (social sciences and humanities)</p>

<p>It's pretty much enough for satisfy any school's course requirements.</p>

11

<p>i've looked at the academic requirements for the top 30 schools on their websites, and i seriously did not find them needing math that cannot be satisfied through calc bc credit. perhaps wustl, jhu for sure, but really, what else?</p>

<hr>

<p>I skipped my first year of bio last year, but in retrospect, it was sort of a mistake. I'm retaking first year biology in my second year, along with a lab portion. I'm doing this because, like you said earlier, AP credits do not satisfy the requirement of introductory biology for med school. I recall mentioning to you what an admissions officer from Berkeley informed me about a PhD student who was rejected from 95% of the schools he applied to, simply because he didnt have first year biology. The admin. officer told me that med schools are looking for every reason to reject applicants and weed them out. Do you know if you need a whole year of lab? You need to look into which med schools you are keen on applying to. Keep in mind that the PhD student probably did also take a ton of other upper level biology courses, along with labs, but the fact that he didnt take introductory biology did hurt him. However, that situation was also about 5 years ago. I'm unsure about the situation now. </p>

<p>a friend just messaged that to me. does that apply for bio (i'm assuming that genetics with lab satisfies the 1 year lab requirement? if not then what else can i take to satisfy it)? math?</p>

12

<p>You definitely need a whole year of lab. You can't pick medical schools you're interested in this early; you have to fulfill a broad set of requirements. Upper level classes should suffice. Whatever WUSTL's official rules might say, they don't actually require differential equations.</p>

<p>UCLA requires statistics. Good luck fulfilling that one with BC Calc credit.</p>

13

<p>I don't recall a school that forces you to take intro bio. 1 year of upper div bio along with lab should cover bio requirements. Although some schools (like UC Davis) require 1.5 years of bio w/ 1 year of lab. The problem is that many upper div bio courses do not include a lab component and that can get you in trouble if you choose to skip out of intro bio. If your genetics class is a full year, then it's fine. If not, then you'll have to find another bio class with a lab component. UC Davis, for example, will only accept biochem, genetics, and molecular bio to satisfy its upper div bio requirement. So, to be safe, it's better to choose bio courses along those lines.</p>

14

<p>What about just retaking the whole year of calc. Like I said, the series i'm taking is really easy, despite it being I & II. I looked at the course's midterms/finals and they looked like a joke.</p>

<p>It would help my gpa, wouldnt it?</p>

15

<p>
[quote]
You definitely need a whole year of lab. You can't pick medical schools you're interested in this early; you have to fulfill a broad set of requirements.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm not picking medical schools, I am assessing the repercussions of not taking mathematics in college when having the credit. So far, from what I can see, the repercussions - not being able to apply to 1-2 schools - is minimal and can be ignored. I hate to retake stuff when I could be learning things that are much more useful. </p>

<p>Can you guys please provide me with more med schools that require mathematics that is not satisfied by calc bc? That is what you are saying right?</p>

16

<p>Not taking any math is definitely a bad idea.</p>

<p>MD2: If you want to retake the classes, it sounds like a good idea to me. Better math skills are always a plus.</p>

17

<p>is your only objection against not taking any math of personal opinion? because, well, ucla/ucs are pretty much impossible to get in if you're out of state (or so that's what i've heard), and there's only jhu (needing stats). i'm not even sure if wustl needs it. i neeeeeeeeed to hear your reasoning!</p>

18

<p>No, it's because there are some schools which require math and don't accept AP Credit. Stanford, Pritzker, Hopkins, Harvard, WUSTL, Penn all require calculus specifically, and that's just from a ten second flipthrough of the MSAR. Whether they accept AP Credit is not clear to me -- but I'd bet a lot that not all of them do.</p>

<p>If you don't want to retake stuff you've already learned, take Calc III. That's what I did.</p>

<p>I mean, if you really hate math that much, then do what you want. But you're talking to a group that includes a lot of medical students and late-stage premeds, and our advice has been pretty unanimous.</p>

19

<p>Actually, UCLA and UCSF are reasonable for out of staters. UCLA's in state acceptance rate is 5.4%. Out of state is 3.0%. Roughly 25% of acceptees are from out of state.</p>

20

<p>I don't hate math. I like it a lot actually. It's just that my schedule is so full I do not think I have time to take multivariable or advanced math. I would still like to self-study it though just for my capacity for problem-solving. Don't take my inquiries as self-denial or anything, I am actually confused. Is there a discrepancy between the MSAR and the websites? You say they all require math but the sites differ.</p>

<p>Stanford: <a href="http://med.stanford.edu/md/admissions/preparation.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://med.stanford.edu/md/admissions/preparation.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Biological sciences (one full academic year)</p>

<p>Chemistry (one full year of organic chemistry; one full year of inorganic chemistry)</p>

<p>Physics (the equivalent of one full academic year).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Pritzker: <a href="http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/admissions/requirements/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/admissions/requirements/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Pritzker has a standard entrance requirement for a total of 32 semester credit hours (using AMCAS methodology) of undergraduate science comprised of an 8-credit, academic year each of General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, General Physics, and Introductory Biology, all with accompanying laboratory.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Hopkins: Mathematics-Calculus or Statistics, one year (6 to 8 semester hours) Advanced Placement credit for calculus, acceptable to the student's undergraduate college, may be used in fulfillment of one semester of the Hopkins' math requirement.</p>

<p>Harvard: 4. Mathematics: one year of calculus. Advanced placement credits may satisfy this requirement (Calculus AB - 1 semester, Calculus BC - 2 semesters). A course in statistics does not meet this requirement. </p>

<p>WUSTL:
[quote]
Required course work includes a minimum of one year in biological science, general or inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and mathematics through calculus, including integral equations and differential equations.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>this is the one I am not clear on.</p>

<p>PENN:
[quote]
Physics and Mathematics </p>

<p>Mathematics is the common language of all quantitative science. Physics provides the conceptual framework for quantitative biology and biomedical sciences. Students should have a firm foundation in mathematics and physical science on which the medical science taught in medical school can be based.
Students should have facility with algebra and be able to develop equations from known physical and geometrical relationships. They should also be able to construct and interpret graphic representations of data and functions.
Students should be familiar with the constants or units of physical measurement.
Students should be familiar with basic Newtonian mechanics and the physical properties of the various matter states that are of biological relevance.
Students should have basic knowledge of the principles of electricity and magnetism, particularly circuit diagrams and wave motion.
Students should have firm grounding in basic statistics and probability—particularly in the testing of hypotheses. </p>

<p>Basic computer literacy is also strongly recommended because of the importance of computer science in many areas of medicine.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>it seems to me that given the generalized nature of what PENN requires, AP credits suffice.</p>

<hr>

<p>So far, PENN + Wustl = unclear. The rest = does not need math/calc bc satisfies req according to their websites. Hopkins = need stats. The general trend is that the lower the rankings, the less requirements there are - especially for math and english. Which part is wrong?</p>