<p>hello, I have some questions about pre-med requirements.</p>
<p>I'm a 3rd year physics major, but i'm considering going into medical school. If you include this semester I've done the needed year of gen chem, year of orgo and year of general bio, and I might do another year of upper div bio because some medical schools like USC seem to require biochem and cell bio. So far I've done 3 math/science classes per semester and i'll keep going at that rate or somewhat slower like 2 per term through the remainder of college. My concern is my math and physics. </p>
<p>You see, by a combo of AP credits and creative petitioning, I only took one semester each of lower div physics and math. I took the third term of physics which was mainly about light and quantum, and a semester of math which was linalg/diffeq. I omitted a lot of lower div math and physics because i had AP credits for the more basic lower div stuff and already knew a lot of the more advanced lower div stuff. My deal with the college was that I would substitute the skipped classes with extra classes in the upper div math and physics. </p>
<p>Math looks like this: a semester of linalg/diffeq, and a year of upper div math for physicists/engineers/applied-math types. This course isn't for math majors. It was about fourier, laplace, diffeq, linear systems, tensors, that kind of stuff: the kind of math you use a lot in physics. I also might take upper div semester courses in linear algebra/numerical analysis/math modeling, and/or maybe a year of upper division stat, and/or maybe a year of real and cmplex analysis for math majors, or maybe i'll just stop with math for the time being. None of my math classes says "calculus" in its name, but they definitely build on calculus.</p>
<p>Physics looks like this: one semester of general physics with a bunch of upper division physics classes. By the time i graduate, I'll have a full physics major plus some physics electives, with upper division coursework in most fields of physics. So even though i won't have a year of "general physics" in my program by the time i graduate i'll have covered every topic in a lower division general physics course in the upper division. </p>
<p>Friends who have been pre-med all this time tell me that when medical schools say they want a year of calculus and a year of general physics, they mean they want a year of calculus and a year of general physics, which i assume must mean mechanics and EM. They say that i might have to take intro to calculus and intro to physics, which seems pretty stupid because I'm a physics major with good grades so it seems like i should know enough math and physics to get by in med school.</p>
<p>My question is do I seriously need to (re-)take intro to calc and intro to physics if I am to meet med school requirements? Keep in mind that i'm not sure about going to med school and retaking stuff I already know is not appetizing.</p>
<p>I should try to find the premed advisors at my college and ask them about this, but first I think i'll ask you all. If you wonder about my grades, know that they are in the range to be competitive for most schools (maybe not johns hopkins but they're pretty good). </p>
<p>Help requested please, and excuse the grammar/spelling. I'm in a bit of a hurry to do something else.</p>
<p>Thanks and happy turkey day.</p>