<p>my school has some amazing study abroad programs and i'm really considering applying to one, probably to Paris where i'll study French. it'll be a wonderful experience but if i go, i won't be able to take genetics before the MCAT, which i'm planning to take May of my junior year (i'm a sophomore now).</p>
<p>would the abroad program be a resume booster, or should i just take genetics and have another bio course under my belt before the MCAT? i'm not sure if it's worth it to go since the program doesn't have any medical relevance, and getting into med school is a much greater priority than a term in Paris.</p>
<p>Take the genetics & biology courses before taking the MCATs. MCATs are even more important than the LSAT is for law school admissions. If you go abroad, it may seriously harm your application to medical school.</p>
<p>First off, much of the material on the MCATs is self-learnable.</p>
<p>Second, genetics is a minor topic anyway. Introductory biology covers much of the genetics that you need to know.</p>
<p>Third, the MCAT is a test of reading comprehension anyway. Yes, background knowledge is needed and important -- but at the margins, the MCAT is a critical thinking test.</p>
<p>Fourth, going abroad is a good thing and a plus. It adds interest to your application, demonstrates a passion -- gives you something to talk about in essays and interviews.</p>
<p>Fifth... as tempted as I am, maybe I'll leave the LSAT comment alone.</p>
<p>As usual BDM has to have the last word on everything. I don't have a clue where you get your info. from, but, as hard as it may be for you to accept, other posters on CC also have insight & knowledge. eastcoast10: Please ask admissions folks at med schools. I have a relative who is a president of a med school and has authored a widely used textbook (he is a heart surgeon). "It's fine. Study on your own.", is silly advice likely to cost you an extra year before getting into medical school. Study abroad before MCATs may raise concerns about your dedication. Admission to medical school is tough.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Study abroad is great if you can fit it in. Med schools love the fact that you are learning a new language and culture. My friend went abroad, got interviews to Harvard and Penn. It is an advantage although not a big one and makes for great interview fodder.</p></li>
<li><p>Intro bio is enough for the MCAT. If you take one more bio course, let it be physiology. Genetics is about as useful as microbio, cell bio, biochem, immunology, neurobio, developmental bio. In other words, there's likely to be sprinklings of a lot of bio topics on the MCAT but nothing in depth enough to warrant taking an extra class just for the test.</p></li>
<li><p>um, law school admissions= LSAT. A great LSAT combined with a so-so GPA can get you into most Top 10 law schools (except the top 3). A great MCAT combined with a great GPA doesn't guarantee you anything since med school admissions is much tougher than law school admissions. </p></li>
<li><p>The MCAT is not a knowledge-based test. Taking extra courses is likely to help you very little since much of it is critical thinking. When we say gen chem, intro bio, orgo, and intro physics are enough, we mean it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>that seemed to me like a completely unnecessary attack.</p>
<p>I feel that most of the people on this board who have actually taken the MCAT would generally agree with BDMs assessment. I personally took genetics before I took the MCAT and found it quite useful, but primarily as a refresher of the intro bio topics that were all that the MCAT deals with. Anything particularly obscure that wouldn't have been covered in the intro classes can certainly be self-studied or will be covered in any prep course you take.</p>
<p>I further fail to see how studying abroad in any way calls your dedication into question, I've seen several med schools in fact explicitly describe it as a positive. My only concern with it would be affecting your timeline for prepping for the MCAT and it impeding on your ability to do research/volunteer/hold leadership positions etc, but these are things that can be worked around.</p>
<p>The MCAT is immensely important. No one will argue with this. It is certainly more important than your SATs were for undergrad and so should be taken much more seriously. I would balk at saying it's more important than the LSAT for law school however. Law schools pretty much only look at your LSAT and GPA and nothing else, med schools look at all of your additional activities and accomplishments and many place a great premium on the interview, as step nonexistent in the law school application process.</p>
<p>Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are probably a lot of kids who are pre-med (and even enter med school) who never took a genetics course. I'm a bio major, and so I had to take my school's genetics and molecular bio course, but at my school, genetics isn't even one of the two recommended bio courses for people who are pre-med but aren't bio majors. So, basically, everyone at my school who is pre-med and majoring in chem, physics, or anything else except biology doesn't ever take genetics beyond what they get in intro bio courses (unless they're a bio minor, in which case it's a required course).</p>
<p>I was able to take genetics before the MCAT, but I really don't think that the MCAT tested on any genetics that I didn't learn in AP Bio in high school. Genetics is NOT heavily influenced on the MCAT. I think that if you know the rest of your biology (and orgo) well, you'll still do fine on the BS section if you self-study genetics.</p>
<p>And as for going abroad, it absolutely, without doubt, has been the best experience I've had in undergrad. Personally, even if it had meant that I would've had to take a year off before medical school, I'm not sure that I still wouldn't have done it (and I know a number of people who were abroad with me who did make that decision).</p>
<p>To the OP: You've now heard from four of us who have taken (and done very well on) the MCAT. I believe, if memory serves, that all four of us have gone through the medical school admissions process successfully.</p>
<p>Genetics wouldn't be useless, but is hardly mandatory. Study abroad, far from being a detriment, is actually a good thing -- not to mention something you want to do.</p>
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i won't be able to take genetics before the MCAT
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<p>Unnecessary for the MCAT. The only biology course I took in college was Principles of Bio, and I did very well on the MCAT. Sounds like taking Genetics wouldn't hurt, but if you're a good student, I wouldn't expect it to make a lot of difference.</p>
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would the abroad program be a resume booster
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</p>
<p>It can help you stand out from the crowd. When I had an open-file interview, I got asked about my study abroad experience, in a general "Oh, so tell me about this," kind of way. It was a chance for me to talk about the volunteer experience I had there, as well cultural differences. If you go study abroad, pay attention to the way medicine is practiced over there. It can make for an interesting talking point in an interview.</p>
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MCATs are even more important than the LSAT is for law school admissions.
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<p>No. GPA and LSAT are paramount for law school admission - nothing else really matters. I had a roommate who worked in the Office of Admissions for NYU Law. If your GPA multiplied by your LSAT score multiplied by ten didn't hit a certain cut-off score, then your application went into the trash. Essays and ECs are required to make sure you speak English and aren't a psychopath. In contrast, you won't make it into medical school without strong essays and ECs - they are used to gauge your interest in medicine and are an essential part of admissions.</p>
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If you go abroad, it may seriously harm your application to medical school.</p>
<p>Study abroad before MCATs may raise concerns about your dedication.
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</p>
<p>Maybe if you go to a medical school so provincial that no faculty member has a passport and every student lives in the library to study. That kind of medical school, if it even exists in the US, is not worth going to. God forbid you should see something of the world before age 22.</p>
<p>thanks for the feedback. i didn't mention that i've already been overseas volunteering in a clinic, so would it be overkill to go abroad again instead of staying in the states to better prepare for the MCAT...</p>
<p>After reading the above posts, I contacted a friend of several decades who is the head of neurology at a very well respected hospital & he has taught at a major medical school for several years. His advice was even more emphatic than mine or my relative's advice,who is a heart surgeon & president of a medical school. Basically the advice is do not study abroad until you have done well on the MCAT exam. One only looks for MCAT score & GPA, while the other stressed MCAT, then, as a distant second, the interview, then GPA. As for the LSAT, I am well acquainted with admissions folks at three law schools which are all highly ranked, but not in the Top 14. They agree with me. Different schools, different guidelines maybe. I know the stats publicly released by Top 14 law schools to major publications support my advice. Getting back to med school, maybe the above posters are assuming that you will ace the MCATs; I think that any such assumption is foolish. eastcoast10: I don't know the ages or experiences of the other posters on this thread, but I have substantial experience with law schools, but not medical schools, and my contacts and experience support my earlier advice to you. But don't rely on anything on the internet, pick up the phone & talk with medical school admissions staff. Although my advice may not be what you want to read, and it may conflict with others advice, if you talk directly to the sources at medical schools, you will be well informed.</p>
<p>No offense but physicians have very little idea of what it takes to get into med school nowadays. Your friend might be head of neurology. Heck, he could be the surgeon general. It doesn't mean he knows anything about med school admissions. I've interviewed with current med school faculty this year who know nothing about the admissions process outside of the fact they're supposed to interview me. Honestly, 20 years from now, do you think BDM or I or BRM will care about whether exercise science can be listed as a BPCM course or whether one should do study abroad before taking the MCAT or which college one should attend if they want to get into med school. Of course not. We will be physicians. We will have bigger worries like saving lives or raising a family. </p>
<p>For current advice, listen to people who've been through the process most recently. Sure, MCAT and GPA are the two most important factors. But, in this day and age, they're not enough.</p>
<p>The OP has now heard from five students, all of whom have taken the MCAT, scored above the 95th percentile, and gained admission to medical school within the past four years.</p>
<p>The OP may or may not "ace" the MCAT. But a genetics course will certainly not be the make-or-break factor there.</p>
<p>norcalguy: Both of my sources are very actively involved with med school admissions. One is president of a med school & the other is an active trustee of another med school. I'll believe them anyday over a medical student or law student. I know the silliness of one poster's advice regarding law schools, & now he thinks he is a med school admissions expert because he took the MCAT. What a load of garbage! BDM: I hope your sources for legal briefs are more credible than your anonymous website for law school LSAT results. Call the law schools and you will learn differently. When I read one of my sources the medical school advice given by another poster on this thread, he broke out laughing and said "not if he wants to go to med school in the U.S.". BDM: I really don't know, but you may be a young adult in his early twenties; when I was that young, I spoke with absolute authority as well --but I am a lot older & wiser now.</p>
<p>Well, looks like you have a bone to pick with BDM over other posts that I can't comment on.</p>
<p>However, his first post was spot on and has been confirmed by numerous med students. Unlike you, I'd much rather listen to the advice of M1's than the president of a med school or the head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. The president has very little dealings with admissions. Even the dean of admissions at med schools has a detached role in the logistics of the process. When I have a question, I ask the DIRECTOR of admissions.</p>
<p>I've taken genetics. I've also taken over 10 practice MCAT's in the last two years. Genetics is not useful. The most genetics you'll see on the MCAT is maybe a passage about an operon or Mendelian genetics or a few pedigrees. What you'll learn in the course are double crossovers, translocations, transductions, and other stuff that will never be tested on the MCAT. </p>
<p>I took the MCAT in January, and I had 3 genetics passages-- no pedigrees or operons. (Apparently this is a much higher proportion of genetics than usual!) I did not have any passages over hormones or the standard cardiovascular, respiratory, and excretory systems. Even though my Kaplan course only touched on pedigrees and Mendelian genetics, all of the material was either covered in my first-year bio courses or was given in the passage.</p>
<p>If you finish your prereqs this year, it might be easiest to take the MCAT before you leave. I was planning to take the MCAT in May, but I pushed it up to January so I could study abroad during the spring semester.</p>