Take Calculus II

[mahalopele]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what your opinions were on taking Calculus II. I'm hoping to apply to some of the top medical schools, so would not taking Calculus II hurt my chances? Thanks for your honest opinions, everyone!

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[aldol16]

I don't think it would hurt your chances directly but you may want to eventually take some upper level physical science classes in which you would do better if you took Calc II. For example, it would benefit you to have taken Calc II before any sort of quantum mechanics or physical chemistry courses. Have people taken these courses and done well before who had not taken Calc II? Sure. But is it harder? Yeah. Integration is something quite elemental that I personally believe every scientist should know but then again, it's your choice.

 

[KitKat30]

I don't think it would hurt your chances directly but you may want to eventually take some upper level physical science classes in which you would do better if you took Calc II. For example, it would benefit you to have taken Calc II before any sort of quantum mechanics or physical chemistry courses. Have people taken these courses and done well before who had not taken Calc II? Sure. But is it harder? Yeah. Integration is something quite elemental that I personally believe every scientist should know but then again, it's your choice.

Just check to see whether the schools you're interested in require calc II. I don't think there are any med schools that expect you to take quantum mechanics or physical chemistry.

 

[aldol16]

Just check to see whether the schools you're interested in require calc II. I don't think there are any med schools that expect you to take quantum mechanics or physical chemistry.

I should clarify. These classes listed are only if you want to take them eventually in your undergraduate career. Not everything must be done for med school.

 

[eteshoe]

Use Paul Dawkin's Math Notes. Very helpful for the basic math up to diff eq and linear algebra. Once you go beyond that level, you better love math (except for PDEs if you're into mathematical modeling)

 

[aldol16]

Use Paul Dawkin's Math Notes. Very helpful for the basic math up to diff eq and linear algebra. Once you go beyond that level, you better love math (except for PDEs if you're into mathematical modeling)

And modeling is becoming such a big part of medicine nowadays! I went to a talk a while back with one researcher who was trying to model disease outbreak and spread and to use that to predict how to push a disease so that its growth rate becomes negative. Very interesting stuff.