What? What damage do they do? I don't understand. Learning something is damaging? Again, getting a bad grade or sucking at a subject is not a valid reason to exclude it. We are talking about general math and physics here - have you even taken an advanced course in math or physics? They make the requirements you're whining about seem like a joke. No, these courses aren't worthless, they make you a well-rounded applicant like you mentioned in your last sentence. Convince me that the prerequisites you think should be required REALLY make you a better applicant. Does all the stuff you learned about ecology in gen bio really contribute to anything in medical school? How about stoichiometry in gen chem? Like I said, you can learn all the foundation material by just studying something like a comprehensive MCAT guide, so why is this not the only prerequisite for preparation? I don't know what you're talking about when it comes to interest, I found my physical chemistry class really interesting, for example. I hate genetics. I hate anatomy.
Medical schools and AAMC were initially stressing calculus and physics because they view medicine as a physical system. That's fine, and I partially agree with that. However, by requiring watered-down, garbage classes like algebra-based physics, they are defeating their objective. The simplest and most effective route is to require both calculus
and calculus-based physics, but that didn't happen. Instead, medical schools are being flexible with premeds taking the easy way out, and that actually worsened the problem. They didn't learn many important concepts in physics, which engineers/physicists/chemists and even business majors have to learn, so they struggle. Such a system allows university administrators to foolishly authorize a separate algebra-based physics class (as well as watered down calculus classes), which enrage professors who are forced to teach them. Hence, such requirements and inconsistency prove to be utterly damaging.
Additionally, physics and math don't make premeds well-rounded. Rather, they waste the premeds' time when they aren't interested, they waste professors' time teaching watered down courses for no reason, they waste time for medical schools who don't even use these concepts in their curriculum etc. What makes premeds well rounded are the social sciences and humanities courses. Such courses show premeds about the society they are part of and their important duties to the population. Such knowledge and skills are very valuable in caring for the diverse population.
Courses like ecology actually play a very powerful role in understanding cancer biology, especially the tumor microenvironment. Even talking at a macroscopic scale, ecology is tied very closely to sociology and anthropology in understanding population dynamics in certain areas, which is very helpful for those interested in primary care and rural medicine.
Stoichiometry is important as well in measuring various chemical properties of drugs, but the key asset of general chemistry is understanding equilibrium reactions, which is absolutely critical for understanding physiology and homeostasis. Other general chemistry principles are useful in assessing pharmacology. Physical chemistry is an excellent class, and I am happy you enjoyed it. Of course, for me, it just generalizes whatever general chemistry says so superficially, it's redundant for an average premed/career-changer who just wants to go to medical school.
However, physics and calculus come no where close to being important in medicine. They don't make anyone well-rounded but waste time. AAMC can't be blamed here because the MCAT assesses necessary physical principles through passage analysis, and as mentioned previously, self-learning physics (or even through a prep course) is an easily learnable skill.
And yeah, I took advanced courses in physics and math, but such university tracks demand me to take challenging introductory classes (with a crap ton of calculus, linear algebra and differential equations). It was certainly meaningful of course, but the biology/premed-route take the easy way out. Some top universities saw through the crap and decided it was of best interest to mandate difficult (calculus-based) introductory physics classes for premeds/biology majors. These universities receive my utmost respect and admiration.
It also prevented me from snagging summa cum laude
. I think at one point this summer, there was talk of removing physics but never executed. If they remove it now, I am going to be frustrated cause I had to lose my income making room for it.
How many people are choosing the physics option?
