If you must take some math course, take the probabilities and statistics course. The other courses recommended are generally designed for specific majors (discrete math is primarily designed for CS majors; analysis for applied mathematicians and physical scientists; and abstract algebra for pure mathematicians and physicists).
@INJParent Thank you for the recommendation, and equally so for the constructive criticism! It made me think about what I said from a different angle.
The UCB CS 70 and MIT 18.05 courses linked above would be for fun and are free. There is no credit. If you want credit, you need to register for a course at a college. Note: calculus-based statistics courses are very rare at community colleges; most community college statistics courses are non-calculus-based and cover material similar to high school AP statistics.
Among pre-med extracurriculars, the higher priority for MD programs is experience in a clinical setting and helping underserved / underprivileged people. Research may be more important for MD/PhD programs. Also, the pre-med courses are basically the lower level biology major courses plus some upper level biology courses (e.g. biochemistry, genetics), so you would not be that far “behind” a biology major in what you know that can help do undergraduate research, until perhaps senior year in college.
Chances are the only math course suitable left that you could take at most decent community colleges would be a discrete math class.
Discrete math courses may contain more instruction and practice with mathematical proofs than some other lower level math courses. If you find a discrete math course with such instruction and practice with mathematical proofs, that can give you a preview of what upper level math courses are like, which can help you decide if you want to major in math.
@ucbalumnus After given other majors some thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe an “Applied Mathematics-Biology” major might be best for me. I’ll have the opportunity to do several pre-med prerequisites and to attain a higher GPA with the math all within my major. Given my math background, I may get higher placement, which may allow me to hit the ground running with my applied concentration in biology. I’ll be able to potentially use the skills I’ve learned as a programmer on my schools FRC team as well. To top it all, I believe I’d have better job security than a pure math or bio major.
@ucbalumnus @ProfessorPlum168 I found a course at my local community college titled “Probability and Statistics For Life Sciences” that studies probability and statistics with applications in medical and biological sciences. Since it has calculus prerequisites, I assume that it’s calc-based.