Calc a pre-req?

[sistermike]

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I always had the intentions that most medical schools required calculus as a pre-req. Well I was visiting a med school site today and just happened to glance at pre-req's and calc was not on there. Then I looked at a few others and calc wasn't on theirs either. Do most schools not require calc as a pre-req?

 

[efex101]

Most medical schools (with the exception of the ones in Texas) do not require calculus. Some of the top tier med schools do, like Harvard, Wash U, and maybe Duke?

 

[Tezzie]

I thought that for most colleges you need to take a couple of math courses to finish your undergrad (college algebra - calculus).

Hmmmm i was wrong i guess.

Oh and yes i also thought that most schools had calculus as a pre-req. But now i am finding out that i was wrong about that also 🙂

 

[CharlesCA]

Just doing a quick search I found that UCLA and UCI /require/ them but in order to take any calculus based physics you will need to take calculus *duh*.

Just take the classes. It is a pretty eye opening experience.


UCLA (http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/admiss/admreq.htm): MATHEMATICS
One year of college mathematics to include the study of introductory calculus and statistics


UCI (http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/admissions/index.html?top.html&menu.html&home.html): Calculus 1 Quarter or 1 Semester

 

[usmaple]

MSAR says only 23/120 schools require calculus and 17/120 require "college mathematics", whatever that means.

 

[Hethera]

I'd definitely recommend taking calculus. It will give you a wider range of options if you haven't yet decided where you will be applying, and it never hurts to have a firm foundation in mathematics. Plus, as CharlesCA said, you can't avoid it if you will be taking calc-based physics.

 

[Super Rob]

An advisor at an undergraduate institution that gets several of its students into medical schools told me this:

These pre-reqs work at MOST schools

1 year bio w/ lab
1 year chem w/ lab
1 year phys w/ lab
1 year orgo w/ lab

But
But
But

Almost H A L F of the schools I'm applying to require some of these:

1 sem calc
1 year calc
1 sem biochem
1 sem statistics
1 year of expos writing
4 sem social sciences or humanities

First, mention your list of schools to the premed advisor and see what she says. Second, take a look at the Admissions webpage for at least your top ten choices and all of the schools that are in your state. Make sure you take what is required.

More and more schools are stacking the prerequisites. Find out what you need to take asap!

 

[CoverMe]

Just for the sake of clarity (since this topic seems to come up quite often), could someone with the most current MSAR provide the names of the (23?) schools that *DO* require calculus??

I would do it myself, but apparently my school library does not carry ANY MSAR, much less a current edition.

Thanks in advance.

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

I highly recommend taking Statistics. It's very applicable to lots of things (biology, economics, etc) and it really helps in analyzing lots of scientific journal articles. Anyone who's ever used PubMed, Medline, or Biosis probably knows what I'm talking about. Also, you'll need statistics to understand epidemiology courses. As for calculus, I'm glad I got it out of the way and you certainly do need it for derivations in physics...but it's pretty worthless beyond that. Just my 2 cents...

 

[DW]

Originally posted by BerkeleyPremed
I highly recommend taking Statistics. It's very applicable to lots of things (biology, economics, etc) and it really helps in analyzing lots of scientific journal articles. Anyone who's ever used PubMed, Medline, or Biosis probably knows what I'm talking about. Also, you'll need statistics to understand epidemiology courses.

word

 

[XT777]

Originally posted by CharlesCA
Just doing a quick search I found that UCLA and UCI /require/ them but in order to take any calculus based physics you will need to take calculus *duh*.

Just take the classes. It is a pretty eye opening experience.


UCLA (http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/admiss/admreq.htm): MATHEMATICS
One year of college mathematics to include the study of introductory calculus and statistics


UCI (http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/admissions/index.html?top.html&menu.html&home.html): Calculus 1 Quarter or 1 Semester

But do you need to take calc-based physics?

 

[Hethera]

XT, as far as I know, medical physics classes will do fine, if you are lucky enough to attend a school that offers them. Problem is, a lot of universities only offer calc-based physics. To my unending sorrow. 😛