Advanced Coursework Helpful?

[Sol Rosenberg]

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Anyone have any opinions about whether the following courses would be helpful for preparing for Medical School, even though I have already satisfied all of my prerequisites. All of the courses will be interesting to me, but I am wondering if I will just be wasting my time -- i.e. I'll get all of the info. in Medical School anyway:

Microbiology I (With Associated Lab)
Microbiology II (Host-Microbe Interactions)
Immunology

Neurobiology

Positives that I can see:
- Interesting (to me) classes
- Might be a good intro for these types of classes in Med. School
- If I don't get into Medical School this Application Cycle, I can say that I took these extra upper-division courses to try to improve my application

Negatives:
- I will (hopefully) be involved in the Med. School Applications process while some of these classes are going on.
- I will probably get all of the relevant info. about these topics in Medical School, so they will just be a waste of time and money.

Any opinions?

Thanks,

Jota

 

[Scottish Chap]

Each medical school emphasizes different aspects of every subject and there's no real way to prepare so I would encourage you to relax while you're able. However, if you still have credits to fulfill before graduating, the single most helpful course, I feel, is an upper-level biochemistry class. Biochemistry in medical school is unbelievably detailed and it comes at you fast! I would have been totally lost if I hadn't been familiar with the subject before starting. One friend in my class was an art major, he's very bright, but he had zero background in biology other than the prereqs. He said this about our biochemistry course: "I studied like a bear for that subject day and night and, still, I almost failed it"....

Most schools don't teach micro (in detail) until MSII, so there's an excellent chance that you'll forget it if you take a class right now. As for neuro.....I had undergraduate and graduate level training in neurobiology, neurophysiology, electrophysiology etc. and I honestly felt I had no advantage this year because my previous classes were more esoteric and did not really teach me anything worthwhile clinically. At our school neuroanatomy and neurophysiology were taught concomitantly and they were taught very well, so it worked out splendidly for people who had never studied either subject before.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Each medical school emphasizes different aspects of every subject and there's no real way to prepare so I would encourage you to relax while you're able. However, if you still have credits to fulfill before graduating, the single most helpful course, I feel, is an upper-level biochemistry class. Biochemistry in medical school is unbelievably detailed and it comes at you fast! I would have been totally lost if I hadn't been familiar with the subject before starting. One friend in my class was an art major, he's very bright, but he had zero background in biology other than the prereqs. He said this about our biochemistry course: "I studied like a bear for that subject day and night and, still, I almost failed it"....

Most schools don't teach micro (in detail) until MSII, so there's an excellent chance that you'll forget it if you take a class right now. As for neuro.....I had undergraduate and graduate level training in neurobiology, neurophysiology, electrophysiology etc. and I honestly felt I had no advantage this year because my previous classes were more esoteric and did not really teach me anything worwhile clinically. At our school neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and taught concomitantly and it worked out very well for people who had never studied either before.

Thanks. I already took Biochem.

Your reasoning is similar to mine, except I keep going back-and-forth about taking "extra" courses.

Thanks a lot,

Jota