Advanced Biology Courses

[cyberchicken001]

I just wanted to know which advanced bio courses med schools like to see if you're not a bio major and placed out of freshman bio with ap credit.
I heard genetics is a good one. Can anybody tell me what the pre-reqs are on that one? Will I be fine in Genetics with ap bio knowledge?
I was also planning on taking biochem because I am a chem major and that would be like killing two birds with one stone ( a chem elective that is also an adv bio course).
If anyone has any other advice it would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks! 🙂

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[CodeBlu]

Most schools are moving to or have a biochem requirement. So take biochem, take physiology, take genetics and you should be just fine. Good luck!

 

[necoli]

Genetics can be taken after an intro to biology class. Biochem is definately recommended (if not required).
After those two, I think that the relevance/ benfits kinda go down. Pathophysiology would be nice, as would Cell and Molecular biology, and so would Microbiology.

 

[Morsetlis]

All I can say is, you don't want your first engagement with Glycolysis and the Krebs cycle to be in medical school.

 

[HolySmokes]

Past the prereqs that you're obviously required to take, admissions committees don't really care what courses you've had on top of that. I only took one biology class above what I had to (Cell Bio, only a sophomore level course) and no one brought it up in any of my interviews.

Take classes that you'll enjoy and will do well in. At least from what I observed, admissions committees not appreciating applicants who "cherry pick" courses is bull. Unless you're interviewing at the same school where you went to undergrad, how would they even know which courses are considered the hardest at your school?

 

[Healer of Ills]

OP, my best advice to you would be to take bio courses that are actually difficult. It is not too hard for a student to get in A in a general biology 101 course, that is just a joke.

Some suggested courses:

1. Biochem
2. Genetics
3. Immunology
4. Endocrin
5. Cell Bio

Taking these courses and getting an A actually has some value. This would show the schools that you can handle difficult, upper level biology coursework

 

[cer26]

I would strongly recommend taking human physiology and biochem. They WILL be on the MCAT and will certainly help you there. If nothing else, you'll certainly see these things again obviously later on down the road.
I had to take a few semesters of biochem (because it was my major) and a question I had on my test was a question almost identical to a question I had on a test in that semester of biochem. So if you can, definitely take it.

 

[Morsetlis]

Biochem, Genetics, and Physio will be most helpful on the MCAT. However, these are all covered in any comprehensive MCAT prep book/course. There's not much background knowledge you actually have to know. To put so much thought into just one section and neglecting the Physical Sciences is big mistake (Physics / GChem).

 

[zwitterion34]

I thought they only cover the pedigree type question from genetics and the single and the double crosses. I guess they also cover DNA replication.. DNA pol and RNA pol, etc. But there isn't much information strictly from the genetics class because you also cover DNA replication in your other Bio classes. 😎

 

[JESSFALLING]

I've thought about this a lot (because I'm not a bio major either) and here's what I've concluded:

1.) Biochemistry I
2.) Human Physiology or Vertebrate Physiology
3.) Neuroscience or Neurophysiology or Biopsychology (if the other two aren't offered)
4.) Microbiology or Immunology or Hematology

This assumes that you've covered cell biology and genetics adequately in your general biology series. If not, take a course in them!

 

[Morsetlis]

We used a frog and human urine in our Mammalian Physiology Lab. Lab reports were expected to have computer-generated graphs and be 20 pages long. We had to do a skit for our final project.

That class was so wrong 🙁

 

[orthomyxo]

I thought they only cover the pedigree type question from genetics and the single and the double crosses. I guess they also cover DNA replication.. DNA pol and RNA pol, etc. But there isn't much information strictly from the genetics class because you also cover DNA replication in your other Bio classes. 😎

DNA replication isn't covered in Genetics. At least not in my class. We reviewed mitosis and meiosis briefly, but it's pretty much expected that you already know that stuff from Bio 1.

Anyways,

OP should take Physio, Biochem, Genetics, and possibly Immuno. If you can take them without lab, go for it. But if your school offers a recitation that goes along with genetics that involves problem sets, statistical calculations, etc, I would take it. Microbio is boring IMO and probably won't help you at all in terms of the MCAT. But it's pretty much a blow-off class, so if you could use an easy A, be my guest.

We used a frog and human urine in our Mammalian Physiology Lab. Lab reports were expected to have computer-generated graphs and be 20 pages long. We had to do a skit for our final project.

That class was so wrong 🙁

My physio lab was absolute hell. Massive lab reports. Damn you inventor of the chi square test. DAMN YOU!

 

[JESSFALLING]

Why neuroscience? I'm interested and may take a course anyway, but how does that really help in the scheme of things?

It might help on the MCAT, but more importantly, I think that it will be helpful to have some background in neuro prior to med school.....as it's covered pretty heavily during MS1 (and actually, MS 3/4, depending on electives.)

 

[Morsetlis]

Neuroanatomy is MS1, second semester or something like that.

Microbio is usually MS2, taught before/along with Path. Neither are easy.

 

[UnclePhil]

Take upper levels with cellular and molecular bases.

I'm not sure if I would consider genetics, cell bio or anatomy and physiology upper level courses, they were sophomore level courses at my undergrad, but there were several more advanced genetics courses as well, several of which had more emphasis on human function.