<p>So I have something of an oddball question regarding the writing requirement...</p>
<p>I have already taken one semester of a writing seminar and did well in the class. However, in planning my final 2 years of college, I can't seem to find a good place to fit in a second writing course, what with the additional minors and research for credit I'm pursuing.</p>
<p>I HAVE taken a course on French literature that involved a lot of analytical writing and comparative analysis. The only issue is, all of the essays were written in French, which let me tell you, is a good deal more difficult for me than writing in my native English. Does anyone know if this would fly with med schools? I know it's a stretch, but come on, if I can make an argument in French, doesn't that demonstrate I can write?</p>
<p>You need a year , so your semester alone would not do. The requirements are:</p>
<p>"Expository Writing: one year. Writing skills are important for the study and practice of medicine. This requirement may be met with English courses, writing courses, or non-science courses that involve substantial experience in expository writing. Advanced placement credits cannot be used to satisfy this requirement."</p>
<p>I think doing this in French may be a stretch...</p>
<p>Here's the thing, med schools have thousands of applicants, many of whom are extremely well-qualified. They must sort out these applicants as quickly and easily as possible. The simplest, least painful means is to make sure you've fulfilled all the requirements. They are not going to spend any time to figure out if your philosophy or french class was writing intensive or not. They are going to see the lack of 2 semesters of english and be done with you.</p>
<p>I'm willing to bet that even a 3.8, 39 applicant is more times than not going to get rejected if they haven't met the schools' requirements. Being at one of the few schools that requires Biochem and genetics in addition to the standard courses, I know that the requirements are one of the first things they look for.</p>
<p>on the topic of philosophy in lieu of a writing class...</p>
<p>My school basically draws up 4-year plans for every major.. and if you're pre-med, there are separate 4-year plans that include all the pre-med classes as well as the classes you need to graduate from your major (yeah, very very convenient since there's no doubt about what classes you need to take), but I'm a bit skeptical about the writing requirement...</p>
<p>The first two quarters of writing are fulfilled by writing courses, but the third quarter is fulfilled by a writing-intensive philosophy course. Since this is what is on the 4-year plan (which takes into account my pre-med concentration), I just figured that this would work for pre-med requirements (I'm assuming that my school, which sends several students to med school each year, would know what works and what doesn't). But on this thread said that philosophy courses wouldn't fly with the adcoms, so is my school's situation just different? or should I inquire?</p>
<p>Most of the secondaries list it as an ENGLISH requirement, not a WRITING requirement. So, to be safe, you should take a couple of courses in the English department.</p>
<p>Again, as has been already explained, philosophy or any other non-English writing intensive courses MIGHT suffice at SOME medical schools but not at others.</p>
<p>It's not gonna kill ya to read some Hemingway or Faulkner. Although, I pretty much wanted to poke my eyes out after reading Faulkner...(4th chapter of "The Bear"...)</p>
<p>Faulkner's a mess because his sentences just carry on and on. Shakespeare is much easier. (Shakespeare's actually not very subtle. The only hard part is the old English. Same with Chaucer. I'm sure they weren't critically appreciated back in their day.)</p>
<p>I also didn't like the fact that I took 3 English courses at Cornell and in none of them did we read Steinbeck. A little less Morrison (although she's a Cornell alumus) and a little more Steinbeck would be nice.</p>