<p>I am currently a freshman engineering student that wants to switch majors. After half of this semester, I am really hating the engineering major. My classes are going great except for calculus. I hate it. I feel that I am not doing very well in it. I don't understand my homework, I failed my first test, I don't do well on short "pop" quizzes and trying to get help for other students always ends in me becoming more confused. I take my online quizzes and I'm just completely lost. I cannot use a calculator in Calculus and that is the only reason I am even getting part of my online quizzes correct. I was always good at math in high school and I did fairly well on my math SAT. There is just something about calculus that I am not getting. Due to this, I cannot see myself doing calculus for the rest of my life. If engineering requires me to do calculus that regularly, I won't succeed in it. Along with engineering, I am also a Pre-Med student. I mainly chose engineering so in case medical school failed, I would have a job to rely on. Since I am considering changing majors, what do you think the best majors would be for me to be a competitive applicant for med. school and have a promising job outlook after just 4 years of college? I was thinking Biological Sciences or Biology, but I don't want to have to study zoology or plant biology to earn a degree just to go to med. school. Any opinions on this matter are helpful.</p>
<p>If you can’t do calculus you’re probably not going to last long in med school, were you even to get in in the first place. Any major that can get you into med school is going to require Calculus.</p>
<p>You can get into med school with any degree, so go with your strengths. You’ll need at least a 3.5 GPA to get in. Go talk to the people at the career center, they can give you tons of info. There was a seminar at orientation about pre-health degrees that was very informative. You’ll also need to meet with the folks at the career center at least once a semester to make sure you’re on track for med school.</p>
<p>Pretty much every med school will require 1-2 semesters of calculus, regardless of major. Also, every science major will also require some calculus. If you are at all serious about med school, get some tutoring in calculus.</p>
<p>I know of at least one music major who was accepted into med school. (But she still HAD to successfully complete all the prerequisite math and science courses.)</p>
<p>It isn’t that I can’t do calculus. It is that I am struggling with online quizzes and I didn’t do well on my first test. Although really no one did that well on the first test. Also, I have looked up medical school prerequisites and most medical schools only require 1 semester of calculus and statistics or 2 semesters of calculus. I believe I can at least pull at C or C- in Calculus this semester as long as I keep doing well on my in-class quizzes and homework.</p>
<p>it’s a weed out class; step up and push through it. There will be plenty of stuff in med school or anything demanding that’s not going to have a format that facilitates easy transfer of knowledge.</p>
<p>Get to office hours and the free math empo tutoring lab, for starters.</p>
<p>Calculus is not a weed-out at Tech, sorry to say james. Calculus may not be your thing, but if medicine is in your eyes and you’re serious, then you gotta do something about it. Doing well is a function of effort more than it is a function of smarts. Know that your number 1 priority as a pre-med is your GPA and more importantly your science GPA as well as your MCAT. Medical schools don’t give a hoot about what you major in, so much to the extent that even if you major in engineering and pull out with 3.7 (OUTSTANDING!), they will like a Biology major with 3.8 better than your 3.7. They don’t account for differences in difficulty.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, shouldn’t the first test be the easiest? It’s just limits and all that basic trig stuff.</p>
<p>@ EngineerHead:</p>
<p>Actually the professors rate the first test as the hardest because it is pretty much a whole test on complex limits and like 20 limit and continuity theorems. The overall average for the math department was like a 50-60 with people scoring in the single digits on it. The 2nd covers only derivatives, which I seem to be pretty good at as long as it doesn’t involve knowing trig identity rules to simply the derivative completely. That was my problem on the online quizzes. I was getting the derivative correct, but I wasn’t simplifying enough to get an answer like theirs. I tried graphing but it was insanely time consuming typing in those long csc, sec, and cot functions and comparing to my answer. I honestly do believe that they are making calculus I and the engineering 1024 classes weed outs for the freshman engineering students since they are co-requisites. Or maybe I just suck at calculus and if that is the case, with all the tutoring in the world, i will not be a successful engineering student.</p>
<p>I see, I suppose the 1st could be the hardest in a relative sense - whatever you’re good/bad at. In the end, Calculus I & II aren’t weed-out courses at Tech. However, the two intro engineering courses DEFINITELY are. I’m sure by now you’ve recognized a huge imbalance between your calculus I and your intro engineering courses - this (ridiculous) variation defines the difference between a weed-out and one that isn’t. </p>
<p>And don’t say that! Effort effort effort. With the RIGHT studying + time, there’s no reason you couldn’t be successful. You don’t by any chance have Edgar Saenz, do you?</p>
<p>Hi , I’m a Sophomore in high school and going to graduate at the end of junior year(11th grade) . I didn’t take any Ap courses but I’m taking chemistry and next year i’m taking physics . I live in new York City. What is an affordable college for premed? Should i stay in school and take ap or graduate in 1 year and go to college ?</p>
<p>I was in the same situation as you - I was going to graduate my junior year and had the chance to. It’s completely up to you, I didn’t go through the application process in my junior year, however, so I can’t tell you about whether colleges look down upon early graduates. From research, I have found it varies so much from school to school, some schools look highly upon it while others look poorly upon it. </p>
<p>My advice to you would be to stay in school and take as much AP’s as you can. That is what I did. I took all AP’s in high school and learned all the intro courses (gen chem, gen bio, gen physics w/ calculus, calculus, etc.). When I entered college, I declined any AP credit that covered a pre-med requirement and retook the courses. I can say that when I took these prerequisites in college, they were complete jokes because I had already learned them in high school and therefore I could afford to spend all this extra time to get involved (research, volunteering, etc.). As well, they were easy A’s.</p>
<p>My second advice to you is that when you stack up on your AP’s (if you do stay for senior year), take as many liberal arts AP courses as you can (AP Psychology, Economics, History, etc.) and accept these credits. They don’t count for your pre-med requirements so it won’t hurt you and they will relieve a lot of the required general ed courses from your schedule.</p>