Advice (Mainly on Course Requirements)

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Clairea11

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Hi,

I'm seriously considering switching from pre-med to pre-vet, and I'm not sure what to do about my course requirements. I looked at a bunch of school websites, and these seem to be the basic prereqs:
Calc: 3
Stats: 3
Physics:8
GenChem: 8
Orgo: 8
Bio: 8
English: 6
Biochem: 3 or 4
Microbiology: 4
Genetics: 3
Cell Biology: 3
Nutrition: 3
Physiology: 3 or 4

Right now, I'm a freshman and have completed 1 semester of calculus. I decided to be pre-med late, so I have not taken any science courses so far. It appears that I do not need to take another calc course. Should I switch out of the second semester of the series and take stats instead? Also, next semester I have been planning to take a course on "Evolution and Society," basically a science course for non-science majors. Should I try to switch from that into a course that fulfills one of my university's requirements?

Thanks
 
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I don't think any vet school requires calc II, so if you are fairly sure about wanting to switch, I suppose I wouldn't waste my time taking that. As for the evolution course, it might be interesting... but you should decide how you want to spend your time. The pre-reqs are designed to be completed in ~3 years, so you might want to get started with them and see how it goes. You can always take the "for fun" course later on. 🙂
 
Thank you for your reply!

I guess the main question is whether or not I should just major in biology. To major in biology, I do need to take the second semester of math.
 
Is there some other subject that interests you that you would enjoy studying? You are going to get lots of science -- especially cell bio, micro, and anatomy/physiology -- in vet school, so if you have an interest in something like history, music or philosophy you should get that out of your system now.

IMO, being an evolutionary biology geek, you would get more out of your biology courses by following the traditional sequence of intro bio, which gives you a broad overview of a bunch of different areas of biology, and then taking an evolution course. This also gives you more flexibility later on -- if you decide that you want to take this particular course because of the course content/professor/focus on societal issues, you can take it at the same time as taking genetics or physics or whatever, but you can't move on to other science major-type biology courses without the introductory sequence first.

P.S. If you haven't already, go to the AAVMC site and poke around. It's a good place to find condensed information on all of the schools at once.
 
Your major matters not, as long as you finish all the pre-requisites.

So if you can knock out the pre-requisites while earning credit towards your major, do that, even if you need to take Calc II. Kill two birds with one stone.

But if there's a similar major with maybe one or two missing pre-reqs from the curriculum for the major, and you can avoid Calc II, then that's what I'd do and just take the other pre-reqs as additional classes.



As for the evolution class, sure why not? I took at least one 'fun' class a semester (AKA not a science, or a science that wasn't a pre-req). No need to kill yourself, you have four years.
 
I won't be able to take the intro biology course until next year, and most of the bio prereqs require me to take intro bio first. So that means that I will be taking Physics, Chem, and most of my prereqs junior year. Do you think I should try and get ahead by taking bio somewhere during the summer?

As for majoring in something else, I would like to, but taking into account my university's ridiculous course requirements AND all of the bio courses, I don't think I would be able to major in anything but biology.
 
Also, a lot of the vet schools on the AAVMC website (thanks for the link!) say that they require a course in Nutrition, and my school does not offer that. What should I do about that requirement?
 
Lots of schools offer an online version of animal nutrition - KSU, Oklahoma State, Purdue... North Carolina? You'll be able to find one when you are sure you need it for wherever you'd like to apply, no problem.
 
Clairea11 said:
I won't be able to take the intro biology course until next year, and most of the bio prereqs require me to take intro bio first. So that means that I will be taking Physics, Chem, and most of my prereqs junior year. Do you think I should try and get ahead by taking bio somewhere during the summer?
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I don't undertand why you can't take Physics + Chem without biology first 😕. If you can't get into intro bio until sophomore year, I would take gen chem 1 and physics 1 or stats next semester if you can, along with an english/writing course if you haven't done so already. Don't forget about your humanities requirements too (I almost didn't fulfill my pre-reqs because I skimped on the social science courses).

It's all totally doable though, so don't worry too much about it, but be meticulous. It really helped me to organize everything on an excel sheet. Pick the vet schools you definitely want to apply to, figure out the pre-reqs for those, and list them on excel. Then Pick a major you want to do (if you like bio, just go ahead and do it, but if you don't pick something else), and for any courses that aren't already on the pre-vet prereqs list, tack those onto the list. THEN add any courses that are graduation requirements for your school, and stick them on your list. Now the fun part, for each of those courses on the list, go to your course catalogue and write down the course number for each requirement along with the semesters they are offered. Once that's been done, bust out a 4-year plan and start filling in the courses for each semester! If you have space left over, then you can add in additional pre-reqs for other vet schools to expand your selection, or just simply add amazing/cool classes you'll never have the chance again to take!

I know I felt MUCH more relaxed after I made my plan that way during my sophomore year. I also didn't start my biology courses until late, but by being organized with my schedule, I was able to complete all of my pre-reqs + 5-7 additional upper level science courses depending on the vet school I was applying to, take a semester off entirely (0 credits), and still graduate on time! I even had to drop Orgo one semester and take it again another semester. PM me if you want to see a sample 4 year plan. I'm not sure how helpful it'll be since different universities schedule things differently... but it might at least show you that everything's very doable?

Good luck! It's definitely a huge commitment, but it's totally worth it in the end (or so I hear)!
 
Clairea11 said:
I won't be able to take the intro biology course until next year, and most of the bio prereqs require me to take intro bio first. So that means that I will be taking Physics, Chem, and most of my prereqs junior year. Do you think I should try and get ahead by taking bio somewhere during the summer?
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Speaking from experience, I took physics I and II, orgo I and II, and a couple other prereqs my junior year like animal feeding and nutrition and biology of mammals. It was rough, but do able, you just have to be prepared to really know how to manage your time. I think the best for you is to talk to a counselor and see first if you can take any classes over the summer, i.e that your school offers them/will accept the credit if you take them at another university. If yes, then you have options, if no be ready to load up on those books and become really friendly with the library 🙂 I think the stress of balancing so many hard classes at once was good for me in the long run though because before I had never really taken multiple hard science classes back to back and now I know I can, good practice for vet school.. and I learned how to really manage my time and did the best I have ever done in a college semester! good luck!
 
this semester i took phys I w/ lab, micro w/ lab, and biochem. it was a rough semester, but i am anal about time management and i think that's what helped me through this semester. it's doable, if that's how you want to do it, just be prepared to work.
 
I did not decide to become a biology major until I was a sophomore. So you can still do it and it really wasn't THAT much of a big deal except that I went to a very small school with courses only being offered as one class once a year. Sometimes i had to take courses I wasn't very interested in (hello freshwater ecology), just because it fit my schedule.

To offset the set back a little I took Chem I & II over the summer between my freshman and soph years. I started bio in the fall and took orgo my junior year (since you need bio first before you can take orgo).

I also had taken calculus my freshman year.

I could have taken chem concurrently with bio but I didn't want to overwhelm myself too much.

It really is very doable. like others said, you just have to be prepared to put the time in and realize your afternoons are often going to be eaten up by labs.
 
Some schools require cell biology (can't remember which) and I know Tennessee requires 4 hours of biochemistry excluding the lab (so basically you have to take biochem I and II)
 
Tennessee requires Cell Bio. I couldn't apply there because of it.
 
You sound a lot like me. I didn't start doing general chem until my sophomore year. I did a biology major and did 3 summer classes and one quarter of a super-senior year. I thought it was well worth it. Biology majors tend to line up quite well with most of the pre-med/vet/etc. requirements, at my school at least, so it was nice not to have to worry about fulfilling those requirements and the classes I would need for a major in a different subject.
Evolutionary biology was one of my favorite classes that I took, I thought it was super interesting (and I probably only understood a fraction of the material since I took it in Italian) so I would say to go ahead with it if you can fit it in. Or if your school offers and evo bio class for science majors, you could count that as an elective towards your major.

I don't think it would be a bad thing to finish out the calc sequence unless you're somebody who just doesn't jive well with math. I just thought it was a good thing to take while I still remembered calculus so that just in case I ever needed it, I would have it covered.

I didn't take a nutrition class (my school doesn't have it) so I just applied to places that don't require it. If a school you really are interested in needs it, then take it. Otherwise, there are plenty of schools that don't require it (I applied to 9).
 
Clairea11 said:
Do you think I should try and get ahead by taking bio somewhere during the summer?
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If the logistics and financial aspects of it are feasible I personally would. And if not Bio then see about doing your gen chem or physics series. At this point you basically have 3 years left to complete 4 major class series and doing any of them over the summer will give you a whole lot more scheduling flexibility.
 
Well technically I could take physics next year as well, but I would prefer not to take 3 lab sciences at once, if at all possible. Right now, the only prereq I could take for next semester would be stats, if it is ok for me to take just the first semester of a two-semester stats course. Would that be acceptable, or should I wait until next fall and take the one-semester course "Statistics for Life Sciences?"

Do you guys know if any of the schools require specifically biostats? Most of them just said statistics, and I wasn't sure if they meant just any stats class.

Also, does it matter where you take summer classes? My university is around 14 hours away.

Thank you SO much for your help so far!!
 
Clairea11 said:
Also, does it matter where you take summer classes? My university is around 14 hours away.
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Yes and no. You need to make sure that the summer classes are transferable to your undergrad school, cuz if not then a) whats the point? and b) if your undergrad won't take them, vet school most probably won't either.

Just make sure it is an accredited two or four year university. Any community college or local college should do.
 
Minnerbelle said:
any stats class will do. i took psych stats... 👎thumbdown👎 no one seems to care.
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Ok, thanks! Would it be better to take the one-semester course instead of half of the two-semester course, or does it not matter?
 
lalzi22 said:
Yes and no. You need to make sure that the summer classes are transferable to your undergrad school, cuz if not then a) whats the point? and b) if your undergrad won't take them, vet school most probably won't either.

Just make sure it is an accredited two or four year university. Any community college or local college should do.
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Thank you. I just wasn't sure if it mattered, because in the premed forums, they were saying the schools looked down on you if you took the courses at a college that has a lower rank than yours. If I stayed local, I'd either take them at a university with a much higher rank or a university or college with much lower ranks.
 
Meh, that's pre-med. The pre-med and pre-vet outlooks, both in the applicants and the schools themselves, seem to be very different. I think, for the most part, as long as the majority of your classes are at a 4 year (vs community college) institute, the vet school doesn't care. Now, if you did all your traditionally hard classes (micro, biochem, ochem, etc) at a CC, that might raise flags, but if you do physics or bio or genchem and it's obvious you did it in the summer to progress for the fall (and they can tell with transcripts), then you'll be alright.
 
Clairea11 said:
Right now, the only prereq I could take for next semester would be stats, if it is ok for me to take just the first semester of a two-semester stats course. Would that be acceptable, or should I wait until next fall and take the one-semester course "Statistics for Life Sciences?"
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I can't speak with 100% certainty, but it seems to me that vet schools generally prefer for you to have taken the complete course that your college has created for a subject, since the vet school does not know how the college splits up the material and therefore does not know if you covered the topics that they want covered. I.e., take the Stats for Life Sciences or suck it up and do both semesters of stats (if you're a glutton for punishment 😉 ). For example, I took an abbreviated "Biochemistry of Physiology" instead of part of the two-semester Biochem sequence because there was at least one vet school that specifically said on their website that the first half of a two-semester course sequence would NOT suffice for their biochem requirement.
 
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