How many pre-med classes per semester is too much?

chairs said:

I'm starting pre-med kind of late (will be a junior in the fall), so I kind of have to catch up a little (although I've already decided to apply a year later).

Now, how many is too much? For example, would signing up for Bio 1, Gen. Chem. 1 and Physics 1 (and the respective labs) be stupid? Yes, we all have different capabilities and institutions, but there must a general trend among people who did this. So, has anyone done it? Share!

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It will be hard work, but definitely doable.

I think
Bio + chem

Ochem + Phy may work out better..

But its totally subjective..as you have already acknolwedged.

I am sure there a ppl out there who did the whole thing in 1 year and there are those who took 1 pre req a year.

It depends on your skill set, but if you have a good background in high school and know you are more capable than most people at your school you will be fine. You might not be able to have quite as much fun during that semester, but it is definitely doable.

Make sure that you study during the entire day rather than slacking off on facebook and sdn.

I really try not to take 3 lab courses at a time. If you've never taken college level science, it might be a little risky... I know it took me time to adjust to the workload when I switched from social studies to a science major. I almost think it'd be better to do (like someone suggested above) bio + chem, then organic + physics.

But, I have friends who have done similar courseloads and have managed. You might be able to handle it, but definitely be ready for a lot of school work.

It depends a lot on your skill level and the difficulty of your school. I'm the type of person who can just sit in lecture and get the information without much studying, so I could take lots of science lecture courses, and I think I took 3 per semester my last couple years.

Labs tend to be a little more intense, especially the upper division labs, so I wouldn't recommend taking a whole bunch of those in one semester. I would also recommend taking a non-science class to balance everything out. At my alma mater, bio, chem and physics in one semester would be full time (at 14 credit hours), and rather difficult.