Calculus III necessary?

[Gogogirl]

Will med schools look down on your application if you did not finish the calculus series (Cal I through Cal III)?
Calculus III is not in my degress requirement...I wonder if I should take statistics instead..Plus I am taking Biochemistry I, PChem I and Mechanisms of Disease along with Calculus III and need to study for the MCAT, I am thinking it's a bit too much...
Would you guys recommend take a smaller load and spend more time on MCAT? Or go ahead and finish the Calculus series....

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[Perth Domer]

Med schools don't care about calc III. However, if you're taking PChem won't you need calc 3 for that?

 

[schrizto]

Not taking Calc III won't hurt you for applying to med school. If you haven't signed up for Calc 3 yet, there is no expectation for you to finish the series by taking III after I and II. I think the most calc any med school requires is up to II.

edit: just saw you're taking pchem. I believe pchem might have calc 3 as a pre-req.

 

[justdoit31]

No they don't care- a few have a Calculus requirement and it is just Cal 1- that is all I did and no one asked why I didn't take more

Also at my undergrad you just needed Calc 2 for p-chem but I didn't take either of those.

 

[Electronegative]

Most medical school don't require calc at all and the ones that do only require up to calc 1

EDIT: wow you guys up there are fast typers.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

No need to finish the calculus series unless that is something you want to do. As a student, I've taken 5 semesters of calculus and you don't need any of it for medical school. As an admissions committee interviewer, I would not look down on your application because you didn't take calculus. Statistics is definitely more useful as a med student.

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student (9 days left)

 

[Gogogirl]

Med schools don't care about calc III. However, if you're taking PChem won't you need calc 3 for that?

Cal II is a prereq for Pchem at my school

 

[schrizto]

EDIT: wow you guys up there are fast typers.

lol yeah I refreshed and there were like 5 replies.

 

[Gogogirl]

thanks guys for those helpful comments...I think I will just take a smaller load and forget about cal III...haha...Best of luck to all of you!

 

[EpicBearMan]

It's the same at my school, PChem requires Calc II but not III. Very few pre-meds at my university are taking III that I know of.

I agree that dropping Calc III and spending the time studying for the MCAT would be best. Even one extra point on the MCAT will benefit you far more than taking Calc III, in my opinion.

 

[lorenzomicron]

5 Semesters of Calculus?

Calc I, II, III..... what comes after that?

 

[Vadoff]

5 Semesters of Calculus?

Calc I, II, III..... what comes after that?

Linear Algebra and Differential Equations probably.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Will med schools look down on your application if you did not finish the calculus series (Cal I through Cal III)?
Calculus III is not in my degress requirement...I wonder if I should take statistics instead..Plus I am taking Biochemistry I, PChem I and Mechanisms of Disease along with Calculus III and need to study for the MCAT, I am thinking it's a bit too much...
Would you guys recommend take a smaller load and spend more time on MCAT? Or go ahead and finish the Calculus series....

Take stats. It's more useful.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Absolutely take stats. Calc 3 is totally useless in med school, not to mention a hell of a lot harder than stats.

 

[HolySmokes]

Linear Algebra and Differential Equations probably.

Linear Algebra isn't calculus based. He may have taken Calculus of Variations, Stochastic Calculus, DE, PDE, or any number of courses that build on calculus.

To OP I'll echo everyone else, don't take it if it isn't required for your degree.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

5 Semesters of Calculus?

Calc I, II, III..... what comes after that?

Ha. I only needed one more class for a math minor, but I couldn't pull myself to do it.

Obviously, you are aware of 'calc 1,2, & 3', then I had a course on differential equations, which included regular differential equations as well as differential equations in matrices. My fifth semester was advanced vector analysis, which to me seemed to be the next logical class after 'calc 3' instead of the DE course I had to take as 'calc 4'.


If anyone is curious, it was my pursuit of a computer science degree that led to this torture (honestly, the differential equations course was the only one that was painful to take).

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Ha. I only needed one more class for a math minor, but I couldn't pull myself to do it.

Obviously, you are aware of 'calc 1,2, & 3', then I had a course on differential equations, which included regular differential equations as well as differential equations in matrices. My fifth semester was advanced vector analysis, which to me seemed to be the next logical class after 'calc 3' instead of the DE course I had to take as 'calc 4'.


If anyone is curious, it was my pursuit of a computer science degree that led to this torture (honestly, the differential equations course was the only one that was painful to take).

Yeah some schools have Vector analysis integrated into Calc III, my school does not. ODE and PDE are good classes to take for major, you can always go for something like Topology, Math Analysis, Abstract Algebra..

I usually hear mixed things about differential equations. Some say easier than Calc 3, others say much harder, Im taking it this summer.

 

[Cytotoxic]

The only program I know of that requires Calc III (and everything through Diff Eq.) is Harvard HST.

 

[snorlax]

I'm taking PChem I, Calc III, and Physics III right now (similar to your planned schedule) and like you, I am not required to take Calc III.

The workload isn't too bad and I'm on quarter system. So if you're on semester system it should be relatively easy.

But what I would say is: unless you really have a good reason to take it, don't take it because it is MUCH harder than single variable calculus. I'm only taking it because it is a prerequisite for an upper division math course I want to take (otherwise I probably wouldve dropped it since I had a realllly rough start).

 

[getright]

The only program I know of that requires Calc III (and everything through Diff Eq.) is Harvard HST.

According to their website, only Calc 1 and 2 are required. http://hms.harvard.edu/admissions/default.asp?page=requirements