UCLA premed questions!

Hi guys. I am a transfer student who will go to UCLA this fall. My major is Art History and I am planning to do PreMed at UCLA. I am wondering if I didn’t finish lower division courses at my CC, will I need to take the lower divs in order to take the upper div classes for the premed? Thank you!

What Medical school pre-req courses have you taken?

I just took 1 bio and 1 chem at my CC and thats it.

Depending upon where you plan to apply for Medical school, yes you need to take more lower division courses to fulfill the requirements.

General Biology – 2 semesters, with labs (8 credit hours)

General Chemistry – 2 semesters, with labs (8 credit hours)

Organic Chemistry – 1 semester, with lab (4-5 credit hours)

Biochemistry – 1 semester survey course, upper-division, content and level appropriate to a biology or chemistry curriculum (3 or 4 credit hours)**

Physics – 2 semesters, with labs (8 credit hours)

Along with some other courses needed for the MCAT and specific Medical schools:

Calculus/Biostats
English
Sociology
Psychology
Genetics

@ssenke0 . . .

Love to see artsy majors doing things like prehealth and prelaw. There are even more than a few dance majors who are doing premed and prehealth. A lot of Sociology majors at UCLA are doing pre-dent.

Here are the typical courses for premed:

One year of Biology with lab
One year of General Chemistry with lab
One year of Organic Chemistry with lab
One semester of Biochemistry
One year of Physics with lab
One year of English

And here’s a link to a video that you might like:

https://lifesciences.ucla.edu/undergraduate/pre-health/

All the best!

@ssenke0 . . . here’s also a sample coursework at UCLA that you can take per link:

https://www.aap.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Pre-Health-Requirements-092017.pdf

Not too many upper-division courses, just the one biochem course. I believe it said that Art History will require 11 upper-div courses, and thankfully they’re all 4.0 units, which is 44 units. Sounds doable to fit in the premed curriculum.

Thank you love!

So how many units I will need to take for premed approx?? Sorry for many questions! I know that I need 180 to graduate and I already did 84 at CC tho! Thank you for help!!

@ssenke0: It’s not the # of units but making sure you take the required classes. As I stated above in the other posts, different Medical schools might have different requirements. The basic science courses such as Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chem, Biochem and Physics are standard. Genetics, Stats, Psychology, Sociology may be Medical school dependent so you will have to figure out your application targets to make sure you complete these courses.

Here is the required and recommended. UCLA Medical school courses:

** Although a bachelor’s degree generally is required, students who have completed three years of undergraduate school sometimes are considered. While coursework in both humanities and Spanish are “highly recommended,” the school requires completion of one year each in English, college physics, biology and mathematics, including calculus and statistics. Two years of college chemistry — quantitative analysis and both organic and inorganic chemistry — also are required.

@gumbymom . . . When I said it was doable, I meant that OP would be able to take the classes and be under a proposed unit cap, not to try to get up to 180. OP has and needs:

84 Quarter Units (From CC, Hopefully English is done)
44 Units for Art History Upper Div
XX Number for Psych, Soc, English, etc. (Because this is tested on MCAT)
62 Approx Pre-med perhaps 64 with 2 unit labs

These total to 190 units, w/o the XX part. The physics and life science courses turn out to to be 5 units each, with labs built into the the life science courses. Probably have to add a lab for physics. I was thinking that they would be 4 with one lab for each, so I was trying to keep class units down.

I think though when he/she (sorry @ssenke0 ) talks to his/her counselor/advisor – maybe she/he can talk to the gentleman in the video, then things will be straightened out. Probably still doable because unit caps would probably be over 200.

@firmament2x Thank you for the clarification and breaking out the units for OP. I am sure this gives them idea of what they need to accomplish.

@gumbymom . . . you’re welcome.

@ssenke0 . . . all the best to you; hope we helped at least a little. Are you by any chance from England?

Thank you for help love!

Your the best love. It was so helpful. Yes I am from nearby Dunstan Hill!

Send our love to the people of England, UK, and Europe who are also suffering from Covid’s effects, love.