Best class to take?

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MortellarPreMed

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Hey everyone I have to take one of these classes (below) to fill one of my degree requirements, which do you think would be the best for med school prep too? Immunology sounds like it would be cool but I want something that will definitely be helpful too. Pre-Meds and Med students welcome to post. Thanks
  • BIOL 3611, General Cell Biology
  • BIOL 3621, Introduction to Immunology
  • BIOL 3654, General Microbiology
  • BIOL 3832, General Genetics
  • BIOL 4134, Human Genetics
  • BIOL 4165, Neurobiology
 
No I know, I was just curious about what some others thought, maybe if anyone found any of these courses in particular really interesting? Like I said Immunology sounds interesting, anyone have any firsthand knowledge about it they would like to share?
 
Human genetics was one of the most interesting classes I ever took. I would highly recommend it.

Whether it will get you ready for med school is a different subject.
 
My human genetics class focuses solely on diseases, and that's neat. Take what you want. All that stuff should eventually be covered in med school.
 
Personally, I am a huge fan of neurobiology. During one of the med school interviews last semester I got to briefly visit a second-year neuro lecture, and was able to understand what the lecturer was talking about because of my basic knowledge acquired through neurobiology. Med school websites often suggest taking cell bio or genetics also. I took both, and it does seem like they will come in handy. My friends majoring in bio were blown away by immunology, and considering how every med school does have an immunology component in their curriculum, it should be a great class to take as well. Then again, I am only starting med school in the fall, so what do I know? 😀.
 
Personally, I am a huge fan of neurobiology. During one of the med school interviews last semester I got to briefly visit a second-year neuro lecture, and was able to understand what the lecturer was talking about because of my basic knowledge acquired through neurobiology. Med school websites often suggest taking cell bio or genetics also. I took both, and it does seem like they will come in handy. My friends majoring in bio were blown away by immunology, and considering how every med school does have an immunology component in their curriculum, it should be a great class to take as well. Then again, I am only starting med school in the fall, so what do I know? 😀.
Congrats on your acceptance! When you say blown away did you mean "interesting" or "flat out difficult" lol? While I like being challenged, I dont want to dig myself into a hole with a really hard class that I don't HAVE to take right now.
 
Run away from genetics! I took a genetics class and literally spent all my time calculating conditional probabilities. *shudder shudder
 
Hey everyone I have to take one of these classes (below) to fill one of my degree requirements, which do you think would be the best for med school prep too? Immunology sounds like it would be cool but I want something that will definitely be helpful too. Pre-Meds and Med students welcome to post. Thanks
  • BIOL 3611, General Cell Biology
  • BIOL 3621, Introduction to Immunology
  • BIOL 3654, General Microbiology
  • BIOL 3832, General Genetics
  • BIOL 4134, Human Genetics
  • BIOL 4165, Neurobiology

I'd recommend human genetics. The genetics class I took was bland but the required project I had to do was very clinically relevant and it was a fun (though difficult) class. Plus it also dealt with few stats (like chi-squared, p values etc.) so it'll be useful if your course focuses on it.
 
Hey everyone I have to take one of these classes (below) to fill one of my degree requirements, which do you think would be the best for med school prep too? Immunology sounds like it would be cool but I want something that will definitely be helpful too. Pre-Meds and Med students welcome to post. Thanks
  • BIOL 3611, General Cell Biology
  • BIOL 3621, Introduction to Immunology
  • BIOL 3654, General Microbiology
  • BIOL 3832, General Genetics
  • BIOL 4134, Human Genetics
  • BIOL 4165, Neurobiology

I think all of them would be extremely helpful. If you could only take one, I would say genetics and then maybe cell to help prepare you for the MCAT.
 
I think all of them would be extremely helpful. If you could only take one, I would say genetics and then maybe cell to help prepare you for the MCAT.


+1
 
Congrats on your acceptance! When you say blown away did you mean "interesting" or "flat out difficult" lol? While I like being challenged, I dont want to dig myself into a hole with a really hard class that I don't HAVE to take right now.
Haha, I wasn't too clear, apparently. I was blown away in a good way, it was one of my favorite classes 🙂. The difficulty depends on the professor, however. There is certainly a lot of memorization involved, but also understanding of the pathways and neural mechanisms. You will have to memorize these things in med school anyway, so you may as well start during undergrad. And thanks! 🙂
 
All things being equal (i.e., you're equally interested/disinterested in all), micro will be most helpful for med school. I'm a big neurobio fan, but that will come in handy only for neuro during 1st or 2nd year and maybe neuro rotation (but let's face it, you'll have forgotten it all by then), genetics you can learn easily along with the course in med school and once you get beyond that all you'll need to know is the bare essentials (likely far less than what you'd learn in this course), however I enjoyed genetics in UG. Cell bio you got plenty of in your pre reqs and you'll get plenty more in first year. Immuno you'll take a course in and and keep up fine--it's another one you'll just need the basics from once you move forward. Micro, however, is a bit of a beast--I'm a third year and it's still one of my weakest areas--and it comes up again and again and again. It's pure memorization. I find it rather boring, which is why I refuse to cram it in, and it haunts me almost daily. If you're interested in it and don't mind some good old fashioned rote memorization, then go for it, might lay a nice foundation for med school.

That said, of course, do what interests you. You can learn everything in med school from scratch, no problem. Of the ones you listed, I would go with neurobio, human genetics, or immunology, but that's just personal interests...
 
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