<p>First, can someone confirm that you need ONE YEAR of LAB? Or can it be one quarter/semester? I've been assuming they require you to take a lab throughout the whole year. Correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Second, do you generally need to take with lab for all of the science subjects? So you need a lab with bio, chem, ochem, physics? I know it may vary from school to school, but what is the general consensus with labs?</p>
<p>Bluedevilmike's thread said lab with only bio.</p>
<p>For the majority of schools, especially the public schools, the answer is yes. But for a minority of schools, the answer is yes for some classes but no for some other classes.</p>
<p>Yes, you need a lab with bio, chem, ochem, and physics.</p>
<p>Although the premed adviser at your school should know the answer specific to your school’s situation, you could use the ratio of the number of credits of the lab and that of the lecture to make an educated guess, using the ratio you would find at a public school as the minimum requirement.</p>
<p>For example, you need 6 lecture credits for organic chemistry at a public school and 2 lab credits for organic chemistry lab. So the ratio between the lab credits and the lecture credits is 2/6 or one third.</p>
<p>If your school adopts a different kind of credit system, your lab credits need to be at least one third of the corresponding lecture credits.</p>
<p>I do not know much, except that all science classes were with labs in D’s UG, graded separately also. Why question that? just take them all to make surel. the pupose of lab is greater understanding of material, improving you writing skills, experience working in groups,etc…all are very good for Med. School (might be the most applicable)</p>
<p>It’s not consensus, but a fact for the premed prereqs.</p>
<p>Some colleges combining labs into a double block. One college has taken its Gen Bio lab up a notch. It went from two 1-unit courses taught over two semesters to one 3-unit course taught over one semester. The college’s PreHealth Committee certifies that this new one-semester lab meets the one-year lab bio requirement for all pre-health programs, and its bio major.</p>
<p>fwiw: the bio lecture is still three units, so the ratio went from 3/1 per semester to 6/3 over the year. (A small gpa plus if you are a lab geek and quickly learn how to write them up.)</p>
<p>So if D has 12 quarter units of Honors General Chemistry and 4 quarter units of General Chemistry Lab is that sufficient to meet the “one year with lab” requirement?</p>
<p>I think that is how the UCSD system works. She’ll be doing the same for Physics and O Chem.</p>
<p>I have the same kind of question as TatinG.</p>
<p>So you need a lab for all. I understand that now, thank you.</p>
<p>What constitutes as “a year of lab”? If I’m going by UCSD’s quarter system, I need a lab every quarter I take the class? Or do I only need one quarter of lab and a year of that class?</p>
<p>The UCSD pre-med course manual says that the Chem series of three lectures and one lab for inorganic and organic is sufficient. But the Physics series has a lab for each quarter. </p>
<p>Then the chem lab is likely a single 3 credit lab that covers material from the entire chem series, rather than a 1 credit lab that you co-enroll in each quarter. A few schools do their labs this way. The important thing is the credit ration of lab to lecture should be 1 to 3 or 1 to 4.</p>
<p>Your best best to follow the advice of the pre-med advisor at UCSD.</p>
<p>The chem series at UCSD has three quarters of 4 quarter units each and one 4 quarter unit lab class. Same for organic chem.</p>
<p>The Physics series has three quarters of three quarter units with one 2 unit class each quarter. </p>
<p>I’ve read several brochures on pdf files through the UCSD website and it says that one year of Chem with lab means these three quarters of lecture with one quarter of lab (which is a separate class). Same for O Chem and same for Bio. </p>
<p>We are going to make a spread sheet with all the varied requirements for the various med schools and check off the boxes as the prerequisites are completed. Good thing we started this when D is a sophomore. </p>
<p>Really, the med schools could be more specific as to exactly how many lab classes they want. “One year with lab” isn’t very clear.</p>
<p>I read the requirement as one year of academic class and the corresponding labs for those classes. Whatever your school thinks are the corresponding labs for that year of academic classes, that’s what you take.</p>
<p>Exactly. But since every undergrad has different curricular offerings, it’s not fair to blame the med schools for not being clear. Instead, look to the undergraduate advisors, which at UCSD is difficult because of its college system. But again, that is SD’s design (and one of the aspects that I personally don’t like about UCSD).</p>