Inorganic Chemistry Course Requirements

[sim2024]

Hi all,

I go to Northeastern University, and they combine general chemistry 1 and 2 into one 4-credit semester for life-science majors (I am a biology major). I know that most medical schools require 8 credit hours of inorganic chemistry, so I need to find a higher level course to fulfill the last 4 credits. Does anyone know if analytical chemistry is classified as inorganic chemistry by AMCAS?

I would appreciate any help, thank you!

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[AJS59]

I also did a combined gen chem 1 and 2 (with AP credit coming in allowing me to do that) and I think it worked out okay? You may want to chat with your school's pre-health advising team to confirm that you need to do an additional chem course.

Regardless, analytical should count as "inorganic" - the main differentiating point is that it is not Orgo (or some Orgo-related advanced class) and it is not Biochem.

 

[pablo213]

Hi all,

I go to Northeastern University, and they combine general chemistry 1 and 2 into one 4-credit semester for life-science majors (I am a biology major). I know that most medical schools require 8 credit hours of inorganic chemistry, so I need to find a higher level course to fulfill the last 4 credits. Does anyone know if analytical chemistry is classified as inorganic chemistry by AMCAS?

I would appreciate any help, thank you!

I think AJ hit the nail on the head. I also had to take a 4 credit 1/2 Gen chem course for engineering and just took another semester of Gen chem after lmao. Analytical should count, thermodynamics if you take it for whatever reason should count as well (I think AMCAS took it as chemistry).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hi all,

I go to Northeastern University...

I would appreciate any help, thank you!

Did you meet your prehealth advisors? Have your set up your MAP?

Medical Applicant Portal | PreMed and PreHealth Advising Program

undergraduate.northeastern.edu

What have they told you? They should have the answer and are responsible to know how medical schools view the course sequence.

 

[sim2024]

I also did a combined gen chem 1 and 2 (with AP credit coming in allowing me to do that) and I think it worked out okay? You may want to chat with your school's pre-health advising team to confirm that you need to do an additional chem course.

Regardless, analytical should count as "inorganic" - the main differentiating point is that it is not Orgo (or some Orgo-related advanced class) and it is not Biochem.

Gotcha, thank you AJ! I didn't have an AP credit coming in for AP Chem, so I think I will be needing at least one more semester of a higher-level chem class.

 

[sim2024]

I think AJ hit the nail on the head. I also had to take a 4 credit 1/2 Gen chem course for engineering and just took another semester of Gen chem after lmao. Analytical should count, thermodynamics if you take it for whatever reason should count as well (I think AMCAS took it as chemistry).

Thank you! I'll probably end up taking analytical.

 

[sim2024]

Did you meet your prehealth advisors? Have your set up your MAP?

Medical Applicant Portal | PreMed and PreHealth Advising Program

undergraduate.northeastern.edu

What have they told you? They should have the answer and are responsible to know how medical schools view the course sequence.

Hi, thank you for your suggestion, yes I have! This may not be the experience of others, and NEU is a great school, but I found that my advisor accidently misled me in this case. I was told that the combined course would fulfill an 8-credit requirement for med schools. Upon doing some of my own research, I discovered that in most cases, this is not true.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hi, thank you for your suggestion, yes I have! This may not be the experience of others, and NEU is a great school, but I found that my advisor accidently misled me in this case. I was told that the combined course would fulfill an 8-credit requirement for med schools. Upon doing some of my own research, I discovered that in most cases, this is not true.

When you say you did your own research, which schools' admissions professionals told you?

(P-Chem/Quant should be fine as inorganic chemistry.)

 

[sim2024]

When you say you did your own research, which schools' admissions professionals told you?

(P-Chem/Quant should be fine as inorganic chemistry.)

Some schools' admissions offices like Rutgers informed me that I could probably try to explain in my secondaries that the course was meant to encompass both gen chem I and gen chem II, but that I might want to take a higher level chem/science course to fully meet the requirements. It sounds like it is pretty dependent on the school. And thank you for the advice! I will definitely consider taking P-chem

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Some schools' admissions offices like Rutgers informed me that I could probably try to explain in my secondaries that the course was meant to encompass both gen chem I and gen chem II, but that I might want to take a higher level chem/science course to fully meet the requirements. It sounds like it is pretty dependent on the school. And thank you for the advice! I will definitely consider taking P-chem

When the MCAT was modified to include more biochemistry topics in 2015, many chemistry programs (likely also along with the ACS) re-organized their typical chemistry sequences to fit the chemistry content appropriately for MCAT prep. Having a committee letter or proactive prehealth advising team is a benefit so that applicants wouldn't need to figure out where to talk about their chemistry sequencing in the application. (Because that's not what I look for when asking, "Is there anything else you would like us to know?".) Every year I would get a MAILED letter from a department chair or a prehealth advising office explaining the new chemistry sequence or similar novel offerings at the university.

There are plenty of chem majors who are premed, and a few of my undergrad friends and many of my advisees were.

 

[eigen]

Your schools advisors are the best bet here, but I've worked several places where students use Analytical chemistry as a "second" semester of general chemistry.

Most of the time, what they're trying to distinguish is "not organic or biochemistry". You could also use an actual inorganic chemistry class, or physical chemistry!