Preparation Courses/Majors for USMLE

[The Phlebotomist]

Hello Doctor!

I will immensely appreciate a moment of your time here.

I wanted to know which major will make your first year in medical school easier and not necessarily (the major that will be easier to help you get in) These are very two different question as I'm sure you know.

Such as (a 4.0 in arts and pre reqs will get u in med school with a very high chance assuming good mcat.)

UCLA has a major called physiological Science (B.S) this is not an easy major by any means and is challenging to get impressive grades.

It includes studying: Cerebrum & Cerebellum, Spinal Cord, Peripheral Nervous System, and Brainstem, Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems, Nervous, Cardiovascular, and Respiratory Systems, Comparative Anatomy, Muscles of the Upper Extremity, Back, and Abdomen (cadaver), Bones of the Skull and Lower Extremity, Muscles of the Lower Extremity and Skull (cadaver), Structures of the Skeletal, Articular, and Muscular systems. This course also includes CELLULAR NEUROPHYSIOLOGY, SYNAPTIC PHARMACOLOGY/SENSORY PHYSIOLOGY.


I find that this major is more interesting compared to MCB (Molecular Cell Biology) at Berkeley or UCLA because you really don't get to work with cadavers and Berkeley doesn't have this major because it does not have the medical school to support such program. Berkeley has Integrative Biology which includes much less specialization in anatomy.

I'm a transfer student and I have taken Molecular Cell Biology + Lab at my college, I got an A in the class and did enjoy ligating DNA/ making bacteria glow and calculating unknown concentrations using assay's and doing DNA/Protein electrophoresis.

I was able to dissect worms/pigs/sharks/clams/lobsters etc. and did enjoy learning about the anatomy of it all. I got an A+ in the class! I was one of two students out of 90 in my community college to get an A+ in that course. So, yes I find this really interesting.

Any suggestions? Should I go for it? Should I choose UCLA over CAL because of this great program I like? I would love to hear from your experience!

The picture below (one of five core courses that must be taken) will show this clearer.

2/5 core courses

3/5 core courses

4/5 of core courses

and the fifth core course is Biochemistry

20+ units of electives have to be taken also.

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[eteshoe]

Didn't you already make a similar thread to this?

 

[The Phlebotomist]

Didn't you already make a similar thread to this?

Yeah But I'm investigating further.

 

[ortnakas]

Mods, can this be in the premed forum instead of the boards forum?

 

[lymphocyte]

I got an A in the class and did enjoy ligating DNA/ making bacteria glow and calculating unknown concentrations using assay's and doing DNA/Protein electrophoresis.

I got an A+ in the class! I was one of two students out of 90 in my community college to get an A+ in that course.

Great. But that means very little to us. We're anonymous internet strangers and don't particularly care. You should focus on what's best for you, where you can surround yourself with the best support system possible. Because university is stressful. And 75% of the battle is managing stress. Just go where feels most comfortable.

If you get into an American medical school, you will get through just fine. Almost everybody does, no matter what their background (beyond the prerequisites). Graduation rate is 97%+ and Match rate is 95%+. Focus on the MCAT, earning good grades, becoming an interesting person, and getting into medical school and the rest will come naturally.

And the title of your post suggests that you're trying to take courses to prepare for an exam you might be taking in 4 years. This isn't the South Korean high school exam bro. To put it in perspective, it's like high school Junior asking how to prepare for the MCATs. Or a 7th grader asking about how to prepare for the SATs. Just think about how preposterous that is.

I mean this in the most gentle way possible: how much of what you're doing (making detailed posts like this) is a distracting way to cope with the stress of transferring from a community college into a university, where nobody knows you and you might not be getting As or A+s anymore? You're hitting the reset button on a successful college career. That's tough, but that's also life. You constantly have to prove yourself anew.

Focus on what's best right now, not what might be useful 2-3 years from now. Life is all about making one good decision after another. And sometimes just going for a run (and staying off SDN) is the best thing you can do right now...

On a more general point, college will probably be the last time in your life where you can study anything and meet intellectually diverse people. Take poetry, philosophy, literature, logic, political science, Sanskrit--whatever the hell you want beyond the pre-medical requirements. Life will be a lot more interesting 10, 20, 3o years from now if you do. I majored in philosophy, took graduate classes in statistics, learned to program, lived in a hippy commune, got to know a physics professor really well, met my wife in environmental sciences, etc. My life is much better for it. And I ended up scoring just fine on Step 1 (~90th percentile).

I wish you all the best. Good luck. Also, Go Bears.

 

[The Phlebotomist]

Great. But that means very little to us. We're anonymous internet strangers and don't particularly care. You should focus on what's best for you, where you can surround yourself with the best support system possible. Because university is stressful. And 75% of the battle is managing stress. Just go where feels most comfortable.

If you get into an American medical school, you will get through just fine. Almost everybody does, no matter what their background (beyond the prerequisites). Graduation rate is 97%+ and Match rate is 95%+. Focus on the MCAT, earning good grades, becoming an interesting person, and getting into medical school and the rest will come naturally.

And the title of your post suggests that you're trying to take courses to prepare for an exam you might be taking in 4 years. This isn't the South Korean high school exam bro. To put it in perspective, it's like high school Junior asking how to prepare for the MCATs. Or a 7th grader asking about how to prepare for the SATs. Just think about how preposterous that is.

I mean this in the most gentle way possible: how much of what you're doing (making detailed posts like this) is a distracting way to cope with the stress of transferring from a community college into a university, where nobody knows you and you might not be getting As or A+s anymore? You're hitting the reset button on a successful college career. That's tough, but that's also life. You constantly have to prove yourself anew.

Focus on what's best right now, not what might be useful 2-3 years from now. Life is all about making one good decision after another. And sometimes just going for a run (and staying off SDN) is the best thing you can do right now...

On a more general point, college will probably be the last time in your life where you can study anything and meet intellectually diverse people. Take poetry, philosophy, literature, logic, political science, Sanskrit--whatever the hell you want beyond the pre-medical requirements. Life will be a lot more interesting 10, 20, 3o years from now if you do. I majored in philosophy, took graduate classes in statistics, learned to program, lived in a hippy commune, got to know a physics professor really well, met my wife in environmental sciences, etc. My life is much better for it. And I ended up scoring just fine on Step 1 (~90th percentile).

I wish you all the best. Good luck. Also, Go Bears.

Your post was amazing until the last sentence "Go Bears" you just gave your self away .