<p>One semester of biochem ought to be enough.</p>
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<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/</a></p>
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<p>Med schools will look at your ECs. If you have a nice complement of medically related ECs, you should be fine.</p>
<p>My older D (a MS3) was a physics and math double major. No one questioned her commitment to medicine. Nor did anyone question her med school roomie–she was forestry major.</p>
<p>kal who posts in this forum–his son is a CS major who already has a couple of med school acceptances this cycle and has had a ton of interviews. So simply having a CS major won’t hinder you so long as the rest of your CV has an emphasis on medicine. (FYI, kal’s son did surgical robotics research at his undergrad.)</p>
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<p>I can’t answer this for you. It depends on your math skills/ability, coding experience and time management skills, and the programmatic expectations at your college. Programming can be a huge time-suck, but if you’re good at managing your time it should be manageable.</p>
<p>I have a question about how MS admission calculates GPA. </p>
<p>My college has A+, A-, B+, B- system. A- is not even 4.0. I know some colleges only have A, B, C system, no +/-. So how AMCAS calculate the GPA? Convert my A+/A/A- to A?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>AMCAS official grade conversion chart here:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/</a></p>
<p>A+ and A = 4.0
A- = 3.7</p>
<p>FWIW, at no colleges does A- = 4.0</p>
<p>WOWM, thank you for the link. Very helpful!</p>
<p>If the college only gives A, B, no +/-. Does that college have advantage then? Since their grades will all be 4.0. But my A- will get only 3.7. </p>
<p>I cannot change the college. It’s just for my understanding.</p>
<p>except then their B+ is 3.0 while yours is 3.3</p>
<p>Ooh. Forgot that part. Thanks IWBB!</p>
<p>Happy 2014 to everyone!</p>
<p>I have a question about volunteer and tutoring. </p>
<p>In HS, I needed to get a time-spend certificate/doc from the school or organization which I did volunteer and tutoring, then I turned that in to my HS to record my volunteering time. </p>
<p>Is it the same thing while I do volunteering at Hospital or tutoring K-12 kids in college? I still need to get docs to show it to MS during the MS application?</p>
<p>Same for the physician shadowing? The physician office gives me a paper saying how many days I have been doing shadowing?</p>
<p>It’s the honor system for ECs. </p>
<p>On AMCAS, you will be asked to provide the name of the activity, the location, the dates you started and stopped the activity, the total number of hours, experience description and provide the name, address & email of a contact person for each activity. </p>
<p>Med schools don’t check every single EC you list, but med school adcomms do do random spot checks.</p>
<p>I saw 97kid2014 posted that AP bio counts 2 intro-bio at JHU and WOWM mentioned that one year lab. At my school, I can only use AP to place out one intro-bio course which has lab. Can I take another upper bio course with lab to meet this one year lab requirement? Or I have to take another upper bio with lab even I used AP to meet one year lab? </p>
<p>There is another intro-bio with lab course, but I don’t have to take it in order to take upper bio. Since upper course is better, so I am thinking to skip one and take upper course with lab.</p>
<p>if your school only awards one semester of bio with lab for it you probably have to take another semester of biology with lab but it can be any biology class with lab, it does not have to be “intro”</p>
<p>Got it, IWBB. Thanks. So I can use AP for one lab, then an upper bio with lab for another lab. </p>
<p>I made a mistake in my post. what I wanted to say is if needs to take 2 upper bio with lab to fullfill the one yr lab requirement even with AP to place out intro-bio with lab. But I think I got the answer. </p>
<p>Is it common though if I skip two intro-bio? Will the MS think I do not want to take weeder classes to improve my GPA?</p>
<p>For the most part, medical school adcomms won’t care. They are only concerned that you have fulfilled the admission requirements. </p>
<p>BTW, it’s probably fallacious to assume that upper level non-weeder classes will automatically be easier to get an A in.</p>
<p>I actually do not get that it might be easier to get A in upper level classes than weeder classes. </p>
<p>I thought weeder class in low level, the contents should be easier. The class size is big, so there are all kinds of students. I might have better chance to stand out. With upper level classes, all the students are very good already, the contents are much harder, so I have less chance to get A considering the same efforts.</p>
<p>But it seems people like to avoid weeder class. I just do not quite follow. Maybe it’s because the professors in the weeder classes are more strict than upper level classes, in general case?</p>
<p>The difference is that in an upper level class, a professor is less likely to curve the course. In other words, yes, there is more material and the professor expects more of the students, but you don’t have to out do the students around you to get an A. Your grade is more heavily based on your own abilities rather than whether you are outperforming the people around you.</p>
<p>In a weeder class, the material might be easier, and the students more varied, but if an A is only being given to the top 15% of the class regardless of what that means, then you may know 99% of the stuff covered in class, but if 15% of people know 100%, then you’re not getting an A. It therefore means that doing well in the class is not only about mastering the material, but also about making sure you are mastering it more than the people around you.</p>
<p>So while it might not be easier to get an A, it’s a very different environment in terms of what it feels like you have to do to get an A and so for some people, it can be easier to get an A when you no longer have to outdo your classmates.</p>
<p>Also, this is a much more personal thing, but I’m far more likely to slack off in a class if I feel like I’m repeating things. So for me, skipping intro bio with AP credit was a no brainer since I wouldn’t have worked as hard in intro bio. Now not only am I not learning new things (the reason I went to college) but I’m hurting my GPA in the process. Literally no point to doing that.</p>
<p>Skipping an intro class is also going to depend on the culture & expectations of your college. At some schools, it’s fairly common to skip intro bio with a good AP score; at others, intro bio goes beyond the material that’s taught in AP bio and skipping intro bio will leave you with holes in the material you’re expected to have mastered when you get to your upper level courses.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the info. They are very helpful! I will try to skip those two into bio if it’s possible. Upper grade student told me that one is kind of repeating the bio AP with very bad curving system. Another one is not useful. </p>
<p>I took Statistic at Community College in my HS Junior year summer. I got A. Even I asked CC to send my transcripts to my college, looks like my college is giving my credits on APs, not two CC courses I took. It means that Statistic will not show on my college transcript. </p>
<p>I know some MSs require one semester Statistic. Will MS count my CC’s Statistic even it’s not on my official college transcript? I read in other threads that MS counts all college courses no matter where we took it. </p>
<p>Since AMCAS requires that you submit official transcripts from every college you’ve ever attended (including for co-enrolled courses taken at a CC during high school), your stats class will be recorded on your application regardless of whether or not your undergrad accepts it for credit.</p>
<p>As to whether a specific med school will accept the class as meeting its admission requirements-- that depends on the individual policies of the school. (A small number of med schools specifically say they won’t accept any pre-reqs done at a CC.) If you have any doubts about whether the course will meet admission requirements, you should contact the admissions office at a school and ask.</p>
<p>I try to find some info about medical physics Prog. I do not know what is the best way to find out which school has this prog. I googled, saw Duke and Vanderbuilt. Duke accepts non physics major with certain physics courses. Vanderbuilt requires physics or engineering major.</p>
<p>Like other students, I am trying to decide the major. I do not want to do physics or engineering major, but I can take those required physics courses. I want to do bio or biochem or cs major.</p>
<p>Thank you for your advices and help!</p>
<p>Medical physics is professional degree program that requires MS or a PhD. The therapeutic track of the PhD program will also require a clinical internship.</p>
<p>The accrediting body for medical physics is CAMPEP. A list of accredited degree-granting programs can be found here:</p>
<p><a href=“CAMPEP Accredited Graduate Programs in Medical Physics”>www.campep.org/campeplstgrad.asp</a></p>
<p>Pre-reqs will vary by school, but most will required a physics major or strong minor with some upper level physics coursework and advanced math classes.</p>
<p>WOWM, what will MS do differently with PhD? </p>
<p>My aunt is a physicist at a big hospital. She said they only accept PhDs. She had PhD in Physics and did residence at UCSF. She said she has to do research besides the clinical. Maybe MS only do clinical?</p>
<p>Can MS also find job and in demand?</p>
<p>She told me that the beauty of this job is that she does not have to deal with patient face to face as doctors. She works in the back ground. Many patients complained about doctors even the docs are good, then the docs get bad reviews.</p>