Pre Req question

[deleted654432]

Hello everyone,

After doing hours of research on different medical schools and their pre-reqs, pretty much all the schools Ive looked at do NOT require a calculus course. But after reading different forums and posts, some people say the opposite, that if you have not taken a calculus or statistics your application becomes much weaker. I would just like to know if this is true or not. If so, which would be better to take, calculus or statistics?

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[Goro]

Stats

Hello everyone,

After doing hours of research on different medical schools and their pre-reqs, pretty much all the schools Ive looked at do NOT require a calculus course. But after reading different forums and posts, some people say the opposite, that if you have not taken a calculus or statistics your application becomes much weaker. I would just like to know if this is true or not. If so, which would be better to take, calculus or statistics?

 

[deleted654432]

Stats

1 semester worth or 2?

 

[Goro]

Two? It's possible to take TWO semesters of stats? Really? I can't imagine why. One will be fine.

Invest in MSAR and look to see what schools recommend, as well as require.

1 semester worth or 2?

 

[GoPens]

Agree with Goro on stats. I took two semesters in grad school of biostats just because it went into how exactly the equations work, but one semester should be sufficient. It's really just great in general to have a grasp of basic stats.

 

[Doug Underhill]

Stats is almost certainly more useful, but I found calculus to be easier than stats, and high grades are very important for med school. Some people find stats to be easier than calculus, but I'm really good at applying operations to numbers and less so at the sorts of problems you do in stats.

 

[NeuResurgens]

Almost all schools require a year (2 semesters) of math. One of stats and one of calculus usually does the trick. I also believe that Harvard requires two semesters of calculus. Heh.

 

[Dr. Death]

I don't know if you have taken the MCAT yet but I feel like stats has helped me prep for the MCAT much better than calculus

 

[deleted654432]

I don't know if you have taken the MCAT yet but I feel like stats has helped me prep for the MCAT much better than calculus

No Im only a freshman right now. Im not worried about getting a bad grade in either of the maths, All I want to know is which one will look better on an application, and thats the one I'll take.

 

[lifetothefullest]

Stats is definitely very useful for med school purposes. Bayesian statistics is something that every doctor should be well-versed in, in my opinion. But I also think that Calc (at least through Calc I) is a skill that everybody should have. Physics is a lot easier with it and it's definitely helpful in understanding concepts in many disciplines, from Physics and Chemistry all the way to Economics.

 

[deleted654432]

Would it be better to take 1 semester of Stats and 1 semester of Calc, or just 2 semesters of Stats?

 

[blackroses]

On a related note, how is "college math" defined (in regards to the schools who require x credits or x semesters of "college math")? Is this simply any college-level math class? Classes above the pre-calc level? I've always found this to be a very fuzzy definition.

 

[lifetothefullest]

Would it be better to take 1 semester of Stats and 1 semester of Calc, or just 2 semesters of Stats?

I really have no idea why you would have two semesters of Stats offered. Could you provide us insight as to what is taught in each semester? It may just be that the second semester is advanced statistics and you don't need it or maybe it's just stats taught at a very slow pace.

 

[deleted654432]

I really have no idea why you would have two semesters of Stats offered. Could you provide us insight as to what is taught in each semester? It may just be that the second semester is advanced statistics and you don't need it or maybe it's just stats taught at a very slow pace.

My school offers Intro to prob and stats and also Stats II.

 

[deleted654432]

Two? It's possible to take TWO semesters of stats? Really? I can't imagine why. One will be fine.

Invest in MSAR and look to see what schools recommend, as well as require.

If I take the route you are saying, does that mean I would take algebra based physics instead of calc based?

 

[medic86]

If I take the route you are saying, does that mean I would take algebra based physics instead of calc based?

Yes.

And most people do.

 

[deleted654432]

Yes.

And most people do.

Ok, thank you, I appreciate your response.

 

[lifetothefullest]

If you don't mind memorizing equations and accepting their bases, then you'll be fine with algebra-based physics. If you want to understand the derivations, you'll need at least elementary calculus.

Also, I did a little digging and it looks like two semesters of stats would be very useful. I guess they focus a lot more on probability the first semester and then delve into actual statistical techniques such as chi-square tests, logistic regression, ANOVA, etc. second semester. It's a strange way of doing it.

 

[Doug Underhill]

If you DO mind memorizing equations and accepting their bases, you're gonna hate the MCAT.

 

[lifetothefullest]

If you DO mind memorizing equations and accepting their bases, you're gonna hate the MCAT.

Not really. New MCAT is more about connecting concepts and understanding why things work as opposed to rote memorization and acceptance.

 

[medic86]

Not really. New MCAT is more about connecting concepts and understanding why things work as opposed to rote memorization and acceptance.

So they say.

But I can almost guarantee you that there will be random equations that you will need to memorize for the new MCAT, as well.

 

[lifetothefullest]

But I can almost guarantee you that there will be random equations that you will need to memorize for the new MCAT, as well.

Sure. But I find things a whole lot easier to memorize if I know how they work. If you can do basic calculus, you don't need to memorize four equations for kinematics, for instance - you just need one and you can easily figure out the rest. Helps you to remember them too. Memorize anything is just really not that great. You don't know how or why things work and in a year or two, you'll have forgotten. You can memorize that angina patients can be given nitroglycerin. But that's not that helpful unless you know that nitroglycerin works because it's a vasodilator - it increases the cross sectional area of your blood vessels. Based on that understanding, you would know that if you gave it to a patient with really low blood pressure, you're gonna kill him/her.