Can you take a look at my schedule and tell me if it looks okay?

[MaryWrathers]

2006

Spring
Chem I
Bio I
Phys I
Spanish 2

Summer
Chem II
Bio II
Spanish 3
Study for MCAT

Fall
O Chem I
Phys II
Anatomy
Spanish 4
Study for MCAT

2007

Spring
O Chem II
Cellular Bio
Study for MCAT

How does my schedule look? I will be volunteering, doing side research, and working part-time. Married, mortgage, etc. Is it possible to make A's?

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[ShyRem]

A lot of whether you can handle the schedule depends on you. I did chem I, phys I, calc II and a few other courses at once, then ochem, pchem, adv. calc, bio, gen phys all together. I did allright... but most folks thought I was insane. And yes, I have a husband, two kids, mortgage, etc. But I wasn't working.

I suppose if it's too much you can always drop a course .. but whether you can handle it depends on what kind of student you are.

 

[blee]

Only you can really answer this question, since you know yourself and your limits better than anyone else.

That said, you asked for free advice, so I'll give you some. I think you're going to have a tough time. You're planning to take three lab courses, a language class, a part-time job, research, and a volunteer position, in addition to being a mother and spouse with home responsibilities. It sounds like way too much in my opinion, and I would not expect to get As. But that's me; I know I couldn't handle that at my school.

A postbac friend of mine took orgo alone, no job. She's a mother of two or three and didn't volunteer or do research on the side, although she did study for the MCAT during the spring. She worked as hard as she could, but still couldn't get an A. I also knew someone taking two classes and working full time who managed to do quite well. Every situation is different, and you might be able to pull this off, but I'd be concerned that you're going to be spread too thin.

 

[MollyMalone]

As the other posters said, it obviously depends very much on you and your abilities.

That said, the semester you list that troubles me is the summer semester. I'm not sure how things work at your school, but at my school that would be quick death if you were even able to schedule it all in, which you might not be. I was never able to manage taking more than one lab class over a summer because of scheduling conflicts... but of course your mileage may vary (maybe your school offers more summer sections than mine does).

If it were me, I would shift bio II to the fall semester and anatomy to the spring semester and skip cell bio. OChem is a lot of memorization until you get used to the mechanisms, and anatomy is almost pure memorization -- I'm not sure I'd want to take them together.

I guess my ultimate advice would be: don't make this any harder on yourself than you need to.

 

[jules0328]

I agree with the other posters, this completely depends on you and how you are able to manage stress and time. I know that for me, I took bio I with lab, chem I with lab and physics I with lab in the fall and their sequences in the spring and got married while doing it. I dont handle stress well, but I do know how to manage my time very well. However, the stress of it all definitely didnt help. I was able to pull pretty good grades. Nevertheless, I am sort of a slow learner and takes longer for me to memorize certain concepts and ideas. If you consider yourself a fairly smart person that only needs a couple of times per week of study then you should be fine.

Do you need to take Spanish? Is that a must? My post bacc gpa so far is a 3.45 and wish I would have taken my time and done things a bit slower, but, what can you do. Good luck.

 

[gary5]

Well, you'll learn quickly if you're cut out for med school. If you don't have a science background, then you should be ready for this to be challenging, possibly. In which case, you need to adjust. In other words, be ready for the possibility of dropping the side research and the part-time job if needed. Hit the books hard and early for these classes. You can't afford to fall behind.