anyone from UCBerkeley? G-chem question

[DoubleOSeven]

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If theres anyone out there from uc berkeley, i have a question about the second semester of general chem? is it true that mcb 102 (biochem) can substitue for the second semester of g chem required to apply to med schools? is there some sort of letter you have to get from the career center to justify this? did anyone take the second semester of g chem at a community college? if so, did you take it with or without lab?

 

[bigmuny]

I'm not from UCB, but I don't think you can sub. a semester gchem for biochem. Some schools will allow you to sub. a semester of ochem though.

 

[bigmuny]

Also, I took gchem at a comm. college(CC) and the lab was integrated into the course, unlike at the university where labs are offered as a separate class. As an aside, I went to UCLA and also took classes at a CC, and I found the teaching at the CC to be far superior(and acually harder) to UCLA. This I'm sure though is school dependent.

 

[luckystar]

Hey DoubleOSeven,

I graduated from Berkeley last year. You can go to the Career Center and get a letter that explains the chem sequence here. Basically, Chem 1A and Chem 3A are considered our G-Chem year, and Chem 3B and MCB 102 or 100/110 are considered our O-Chem year. Or, you can go to the website, career.berkeley.edu, and email them about this. They'll email you a copy of the letter, and you can print it out and give it to the schools you interview at. Supposedly, most of the med schools are already familiar with Berkeley's chem sequence, but not all.

Good luck!

 

[DoubleOSeven]

Excellent! Thanks for the info luckystar!

 

[ma-bas]

You sure? That's weird considering Chem 3A is organic. I had to take Chem 5 anyway, so it isn't an issue for me, but it's better to have all bases covered just in case. Lucky, Did you get a letter like this?

Nice to see UCB folks out here. Good luck!

 

[luckystar]

Originally posted by ma-bas
You sure? That's weird considering Chem 3A is organic. I had to take Chem 5 anyway, so it isn't an issue for me, but it's better to have all bases covered just in case. Lucky, Did you get a letter like this?

Nice to see UCB folks out here. Good luck!

Yeah, that's exactly what my letter says (that 3A is to be considered as one G-chem class). After I talked to somebody at the Career Center, they had me convinced that 3A had a lot of G-chem material, and MCB 102 had a lot of O-chem. Whatever. It worked!

You nutri-sci people had to take lots of chem, didn't ya?

 

[luckystar]

I cut and paste the body of the letter here. Since it's available to the public anyway, I didn't bother to edit out any names or numbers:

August 1, 2002

Memo to Dean/Directors of Admission at Health Professions Schools:

Since 1991, most of our biology majors including pre-health students have been taking the following sequence of chemistry/biochemistry classes:

One semester of general chemistry (1A, four semester units),
A semester course that includes general AND organic chemistry (3A)
One semester of organic chemistry (3B, 3A-3B equals nine semester units),

And one of the following:

One semester of biochemistry and molecular biology
(Molecular and Cell Biology 102, four semester units)

-OR-

One semester of general biochemistry
(Molecular and Cell Biology 100, four semester units)

This pattern was developed to get students into organic chemistry more rapidly. For those applying to schools which require two years of chemistry we insist that the student take a full four semesters which usually includes MCB 102 or 100 as the fourth semester.

Peter Van Houten wrote to admissions officers back in 1991 to alert everyone to this pattern and to request comments. At that time, he pointed out that Berkeley students score very well on the science and/or chemistry portions of the national tests such as the DAT, MCAT, etc. This is still the case. For example, our students taking the MCAT average better than 10 on the science portions of the examination.

If you have any questions concerning this pattern of courses and your requirements, I hope you will let me know. Please call me at (510) 642-0716 or e-mail: [email protected].


Sincerely,
Isabel I. Ferrales
Pre Health Professions/Career Counselor

 

[ma-bas]

You an NS major too?

Yes we nutri-sci people did have a lot of chem. I believe they have since taken Chem 5 out of the curriculum after so many of us did so poorly, and it wasn't really necessary. A lot of the NS classes have a lot of chem b/c nutrition is based on biochem.

Thanks for the letter lucky, don't think I'll need it, but just in case, I'll know what to do.

 

[luckystar]

I was IB. A few of my friends were NS and I remember how much more chem they had to take. It's understandable, I guess.

Anyway, good luck in all of your endeavors! See you around.