Classes you wish you took before Medical School?

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Don't think many people are going to be able to do that in terms of motivation. Even if someone doesn't remember much anatomy, I would definitely say it's a benefit to have exposure to it at a lower level first than straight away thrown into the big leagues.
I guess if you need a class to motivate you then yes. The thing is that unless the class uses the same books (I could see this for Biochem, for example), the coverage will likely be cursory, esp. for Gross Anatomy. You'd be better off using the Netter's app to get the lingo down.

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Glad I took: clinical research methods, biochem, genetics, immunology

Wish I took: histology
 
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Honestly, everything is pretty much really doable if you have no experience in it. The only thing I would advise is biochem. I think a lot of my classmates were kind of like wtf when we covered glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycolysis, PDC, TCA, ETC, AA metab, FA synth, lipolysis, and beta oxidation in one week of our 4.5 week module of biochem/genetics. It definitely helped having taken biochem where I was introduced to glycolysis, ETC, and krebs so I didn't have to start from scratch. Granted, you don't have to know every single proton transfer in these cycles because it is more clinical but if you hadn't studied it before, you had to go back and teach yourself the basics before learning about allosteric regulators. I looked back and apparently learned p53 and pRB in my biochem undergrad class also but don't remember it. Make those 2 your best friends if you learn it also. Other than those few things, take it easy and don't kill yourself. You'll be studying a lot when you get to med school and it will be nice going in fresh and ready to study.
 
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As I look back, this is what I had taken in college prior to medical school.

Economics
American history derivatives
European history derivatives
German
Astronomy
Political science

I basically wish I had a non-science degree.
 
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Honestly, everything is pretty much really doable if you have no experience in it. The only thing I would advise is biochem. I think a lot of my classmates were kind of like wtf when we covered glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycolysis, PDC, TCA, ETC, AA metab, FA synth, lipolysis, and beta oxidation in one week of our 4.5 week module of biochem/genetics. It definitely helped having taken biochem where I was introduced to glycolysis, ETC, and krebs so I didn't have to start from scratch. Granted, you don't have to know every single proton transfer in these cycles because it is more clinical but if you hadn't studied it before, you had to go back and teach yourself the basics before learning about allosteric regulators. I looked back and apparently learned p53 and pRB in my biochem undergrad class also but don't remember it. Make those 2 your best friends if you learn it also. Other than those few things, take it easy and don't kill yourself. You'll be studying a lot when you get to med school and it will be nice going in fresh and ready to study.

All the more reason, taking the class in undergrad doesn't assure you'll do well on the same subject in med school. You can be taught it and still not remember.
 
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Anyone know of any online biochem courses or self-study guidelines? I have nine months before matriculating and would rather spend it traveling then in a classroom that meets 2x a week for the entire spring semester but a lot of my peers have suggested taking the class. Wish I had the foresight to have enrolled this fall smh
 
I would spend as much time NOT studying as much as possible for several reasons:

1) this time next year, you will miss not having the free time that you used to have. As an MSI, I do have free time, but not nearly to the extent that I had in undergrad

2) different teachers have different expectations. What one teacher demands may be completely different than what your professors in medical school demand

3) the argument of being "exposed" to something, in my opinion, is not the strongest argument because it's not like you're not going to study the material given to you in medical school. It's going to be another lecture in the stack of lectures to study, and I spend the same amount of time relearning things I have forgotten from undergrad as I do studying new material
 
I would have wanted to take some kind of human anatomy course. Even a community college course in anatomy would have been super helpful, if just to know the muscles.
 
Ahhhhh. Take anything but the sciences you will have in med school! (Unless you think they are fun.) This is your last chance to have a real life and actually have time for hobbies and other interests!!!!!

(I guess I would say biochem helped me with med school biochem, but that's only because I absolutely suck at chemistry and the more I see that stuff, the better chance I have of understanding it. But I honestly think we covered a lot of the basics in my gen chemistry class, too, so it was more of the "more chemistry review" thing for me that helped, not sure if it was any specific biochem concepts. Would I have taken that if one of the med schools I applied to hadn't required it? No, I would have run far, far away. See: sucks at chemistry ;) )
 
Hello all!

I start medical school in August, and plenty of my medical school friends have told me to start studying now to prepare for medical school. I'm getting a lot of "study anatomy" and "study embryology" and now I want to hear your opinions. If you had to choose one class that you wish you knew more about before medical school, what would it be?


People who say study anatomy and embryo (I just finished those two as well) strike me as being short sighted at the moment. The reason being that having just transitioned to Biochem/Physio, (the classes are a 180 degree turn from Anatomy and I'm loving it). I really despised Anatomy (embryo was cool and histology was ok)...anyways, the point is studying anatomy in undergrad won't change anything. I was an Anatomy TA in undergrad and was just average overall (terrible at practicals) in Anatomy. I'd even argue that it's a minute disadvantage because having learnt something and then expecting it again but then having it delivered to you in a new format can be disorienting. I wish I would have done the following:


1. Majored in Applied Mathematics or Computer Science:

Any sheep can learn basic medical science. Learning the aforementioned allows you to be a leader/innovator in the field of medicine. Many research positions are looking for people with skills like programming and mathematics is cool because it gives you the deepest understanding about any quantative stuff you learn in biochem or physio plus it goes hand in hand with discovery in science. I did take a Intro to Programming Course during my senior year of college on top of my Human Biology major, but didn't really take it seriously.

2. On top of the aforementioned majors, I would have taken Spanish:

Communicating with patients, etc.


Some biology decisions I am happy with:

I learnt physiology/biochemistry/genetics at quite an nice level in undergrad and am happy about that. It gave me a context which I'm taking to medical school and I know somethings will stick better now.

Some decisions I am unhappy with:

Cell Biology/Immunology/Clinical Chemistry/ANATOMY/Neuroscience

I didn't even realize what anatomy was in undergrad and thought I liked it. What I liked about it was the dumbed down physiology taught as a component as well as the clinical correlate. All the pointless minutae I was glad we didn't have to know for undergrad anatomy turned out to be what's taught in med school. Undergrad anatomy is pointless. Ya, you might know the names of the cranial nerves a few weeks before everyone else does, but once you are done with the 20 minutes of lecture, that advantage will be neutralized.

As for cell biology, it was memorization for the sake of it. Who cares which proteins are O-linked, N-linked, in undergrad. Wait until your first lecture of Biochem to get that.

Neuroscience sounds cool and conceptual, but we know so little about the brain that the only definitive thing you'll probably learn (if you didn't have it repeated in a 100 other classes) was membrane potentials, nernst equations, chemical synapses, etc. Touch/Taste/Hearing are interesting, but then you'll likely start learning about various things like memory/learning/etc. but will realize that a lot of the stuff is not conclusive and you'll find yourself asking yourself what exactly the amygdala/PFC/etc. do. The stuff is just so up in the air at this point...You know when people say that in 5-10 years textbooks become irrelevant...right now in neuroscience it's more like 2-3 years.


Tl;Dr:

Biochemistry, Physiology (make sure it covers cellular aspects likes channels-that's what is taught in med school), and Genetics are good undergrad classes to take along with your standard BCPM. If you can squeeze these in along with a major in something like engineering/computer science/mathematics, DO IT!
 
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Maybe Biostats. Additionally, Neurology, MORE Biochemistry, and Endo.

I will say that I'm glad I took Immunology, Physiology, Anatomy, and Embryology/Human Development.
 
I think the consensus is that there is no consensus on this. My guess is that the people who had introductions to some of the medical school topics have no way to quantify any sort of advantage they gained vs. not having taken it and the people who did not have the introduction have no way to know if having it would have actually helped.

Personally, I struggle with vocabulary in general so I think having had anatomy prior to medical school would have helped me. However my undergrad cell bio and my med school cell bio literally couldn't be any more different, so that one was a total waste. Eh....
 
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Yeah you all make awesome points! Thanks everyone! But the whole cooking situation... I've never cooked a day in my life... I'm in for a rude awakening. Crock pots seem like a good idea. I could basically just cook once a week and have the same meal every day for that week haha
 
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On the same token of biochemistry... what is the difference between taking an Intro to Biochemistry course and a Medical Biochemistry course? If given the option, which would current students suggest taking before matriculating?
 
Courses I wish I had taken: Microbiology. Human Genetics. Virology. A bonafide neuroscience course.
 
Yeah you all make awesome points! Thanks everyone! But the whole cooking situation... I've never cooked a day in my life... I'm in for a rude awakening. Crock pots seem like a good idea. I could basically just cook once a week and have the same meal every day for that week haha
It gets sickening after a while. Learn to cook different meals that are also quick.
 
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It gets sickening after a while. Learn to cook different meals that are also quick.

After four days or so of eating the same thing, I'd rather just study until falling asleep. Dinner just isn't worth the effort it takes to hold it down.
 
If you absolutely have to do something before medical school, watching all 40 hours of pathoma could never be a waste of time. If nothing else you would recognize what's high yield and you would also understand what depth of understanding is appropriate. The best thing you can do to prep is just figure out how to study efficiently.
 
If you absolutely have to do something before medical school, watching all 40 hours of pathoma could never be a waste of time. If nothing else you would recognize what's high yield and you would also understand what depth of understanding is appropriate. The best thing you can do to prep is just figure out how to study efficiently.
Yes, actually it would be a waste of time. And no you wouldn't recognize what's high yield and no you wouldn't understand the depth of understanding that is appropriate.
 
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Yes, actually it would be a waste of time. And no you wouldn't recognize what's high yield and no you wouldn't understand the depth of understanding that is appropriate.

Pathoma teaches the basics of every disease, from the ground up. No prior understanding is necessary to benefit. Everything said is high yield. I use it to preview for modules before I even start them.

My professors disguise the buzz words needed to answer questions correctly. Pathoma doesn't. If I'm sitting in class and a professor is talking, I'm constantly thinking... Yes pathoma mentioned this... No pathoma didn't, screw it. I do very well on NBMEs.

Medicine is a language and is learned with multiple passes. If someone wants to make an early pass, fine. You'll burn out sooner, and I wouldn't do it... But if you HAVE to.. Use something like pathoma that actually teaches you rather than a review book like first aid that just lists details.
 
A premed doesn't know the first thing about the language of medicine. I doubt that many first years could even tell me what a sarcoma is. And you're sitting here telling us that a premed would benefit from listening to pathoma. That's pretty funny
 
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Pathoma teaches the basics of every disease, from the ground up. No prior understanding is necessary to benefit. Everything said is high yield. I use it to preview for modules before I even start them.

My professors disguise the buzz words needed to answer questions correctly. Pathoma doesn't. If I'm sitting in class and a professor is talking, I'm constantly thinking... Yes pathoma mentioned this... No pathoma didn't, screw it. I do very well on NBMEs.

Medicine is a language and is learned with multiple passes. If someone wants to make an early pass, fine. You'll burn out sooner, and I wouldn't do it... But if you HAVE to.. Use something like pathoma that actually teaches you rather than a review book like first aid that just lists details.
No it doesn't bc premeds don't have the medical vocabulary to even understand Pathology audios. When you get to Pathology a lot of understanding comes from prior basic science coursework. You can listen to them all you want, but it will be jibberish.
 
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I remember having a question on one of my first tests that basically asked what "paraneoplastic" means. I had no idea and got it wrong. Now I can tell you all about things like pthrp and ectopic acth. It's very easy to forget about the journey but if you look back, you'll notice how much experience you've gained the sheer volume of knowledge you obtained. Just have a conversation with someone a year below you. You don't notice it as you're going through it but you'll be amazed at how far you came.
 
My undergrad histo and anatomy were harder than med school stuff for both. I think it really depends on the place. Physio and Histo helped me the most. I wish I wouldve take embryo. Biochem would be mildly helpful except you go through the entire biochem 1 and 2 sequence in like 1-2 weeks.

ive honestly never heard of a school having biochem 1 and 2... but thats awesome if they do lmfao. my uni taught us everything in 16 weeks from krebs to protein degradation/buildup
 
The chemistry department at my undergrad had a two semester sequence of biochem where the first semester dealt metabolic pathways and the second semester was molecular biology based.
 
No it doesn't bc premeds don't have the medical vocabulary to even understand Pathology audios. When you get to Pathology a lot of understanding comes from prior basic science coursework. You can listen to them all you want, but it will be jibberish.

Last word
 
Classes I wish I had taken:

-More stats. Can't ever have enough stats it seems.
-Finance, specifically any classes that teach practical/personal finance.

I was going to say this as well, especially finance. I know premeds love to rag on business majors because of "easy" course work, but I wish I had taken finance classes or some business classes. Debt, asset management, investing and even basic monetary skills are vital for any adult and yet most premeds and med students never set foot in finance 101.
 
I was going to say this as well, especially finance. I know premeds love to rag on business majors because of "easy" course work, but I wish I had taken finance classes or some business classes. Debt, asset management, investing and even basic monetary skills are vital for any adult and yet most premeds and med students never set foot in finance 101.
The ones that do are fools. You can' t live in a financially impervious bubble.
 
The ones that do are fools. You can' t live in a financially impervious bubble.

my brother graduated in accounting from USC with a Big 4 job offer (the Stanford/Harvard of accounting jobs, at least kind of). In a couple of years he'll be living a better lifestyle than me, there are other jobs besides healthcare that have lifestyle and pay too, contrary to popular belief on SDN

also knowing finance and accounting is a reason why many psychiatrists and dentists have a balanced lifestyle with good pay for the hours involved. However, those days may be at an end in the future.
 
my brother graduated in accounting from USC with a Big 4 job offer (the Stanford/Harvard of accounting jobs, at least kind of). In a couple of years he'll be living a better lifestyle than me, there are other jobs besides healthcare that have lifestyle and pay too, contrary to popular belief on SDN

also knowing finance and accounting is a reason why many psychiatrists and dentists have a balanced lifestyle with good pay for the hours involved. However, those days may be at an end in the future.
The closed bubble mentality of pre-allos tends to be magnified on SDN. There are definitely careers that pay well if not better than medicine in terms of dollars per hour.
Makes sense since medicine is paid thru third party payers whose job is to get the best deal for their customers. Good lifestyle in other careers is harder to predict. In medicine, lifestyle is a lot due to the specialty area in question.
 
The closed bubble mentality of pre-allos tends to be magnified on SDN. There are definitely careers that pay well if not better than medicine in terms of dollars per hour.
Makes sense since medicine is paid thru third party payers whose job is to get the best deal for their customers. Good lifestyle in other careers is harder to predict. In medicine, lifestyle is a lot due to the specialty area in question.

yeah I should have been more specific about other career's lifestyles, its varies and can be just as bad as some medical school residents hours (mad respect for y'all) but there are still happy people in other careers. I think pre-allos, pre-dents, pre-etc. think healthcare is a golden ticket. Any job that is in demand and that pays upper middle class requires alot of human interaction, many pre-(insert blank) dont understand how difficult this can be. I've had my share of facing difficult patients at a corporate office.


are you in Derm? if so, you lucky person, though personally I cant stand some stuff in dermatology
 
yeah I should have been more specific about other career's lifestyles, its varies and can be just as bad as some medical school residents hours (mad respect for y'all) but there are still happy people in other careers. I think pre-allos, pre-dents, pre-etc. think healthcare is a golden ticket. Any job that is in demand and that pays upper middle class requires alot of human interaction, many pre-(insert blank) dont understand how difficult this can be. I've had my share of facing difficult patients at a corporate office.

are you in Derm? if so, you lucky person, though personally I cant stand some stuff in dermatology
Yeah, healthcare being a golden ticket is relatively over now that the govt. is taking an active role (and heavy hand) in lowering overall healthcare expenditures. The attendings who got to fully squeeze fee-for-service reimbursement for all its worth in their entire lifetime, with very little student loan debt, won the game. I agree, I don't think med students realize how much of a "service" profession fields like medicine and dentistry are. You can't just be science or medicine/dentistry knowledgeable and be successful. Patients aren't "fair" in their dealings with providers. Although dentistry is lucky in that the field revolves around private practice and dentists calling the shots. Much different than medicine in which private practice is disappearing and doctors are joining large health systems (outside of certain specialties that are outpatient based- Derm, Ophtho, Psych, PM&R) and becoming employees. @fancymylotus is also a dentist.

And yes. Luckily, I love the field - esp. Pedi Derm. Derm tends to be a field students either love or hate 100% (in terms of liking the content), very few in the middle.
 
Yeah, healthcare being a golden ticket is relatively over now that the govt. is taking an active role (and heavy hand) in lowering overall healthcare expenditures. The attendings who got to fully squeeze fee-for-service reimbursement for all its worth in their entire lifetime, with very little student loan debt, won the game. I agree, I don't think med students realize how much of a "service" profession fields like medicine and dentistry are. You can't just be science or medicine/dentistry knowledgeable and be successful. Patients aren't "fair" in their dealings with providers. Although dentistry is lucky in that the field revolves around private practice and dentists calling the shots. Much different than medicine in which private practice is disappearing and doctors are joining large health systems (outside of certain specialties that are outpatient based- Derm, Ophtho, Psych, PM&R) and becoming employees. @fancymylotus is also a dentist.

And yes. Luckily, I love the field - esp. Pedi Derm. Derm tends to be a field students either love or hate 100% (in terms of liking the content), very few in the middle.

while private practice is indeed awesome, its success in dentistry is mostly noted through baby boomer dentists who faced almost zero loans. To put into perspective, I have about 400k in loans and I have to get another 500k loan to buy a practice. At least, in Phoenix, AZ, many banks are hesistant about loaning about that much money considering there are a plethora of dentists here.

But dental private practice in the upper mountain west (SD, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming) is booming. Only problem people like myself and others are too stubborn to move there. Whereas in accounting where my brother is, if he is laid off, he can just look somewhere else with ease since they're constantly hiring (assuming he doesnt screw up the interview)
 
while private practice is indeed awesome, its success in dentistry is mostly noted through baby boomer dentists who faced almost zero loans. To put into perspective, I have about 400k in loans and I have to get another 500k loan to buy a practice. At least, in Phoenix, AZ, many banks are hesistant about loaning about that much money considering there are a plethora of dentists here.

But dental private practice in the upper mountain west (SD, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming) is booming. Only problem people like myself and others are too stubborn to move there. Whereas in accounting where my brother is, if he is laid off, he can just look somewhere else with ease since they're constantly hiring (assuming he doesnt screw up the interview)
Can't you join an already existing private practice? You don't have to create your own.
 
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Can't you join an already existing private practice? You don't have to create your own.

thats what I'm trying to do right now, I'm currently looking for private practices hiring associates with a buy-in but its difficult as many private practices have been cutting down on hiring associates. I would do corporate dentistry to pay the bills but I had a terrible experience with the last one so im out on that.

Another note to all pre-health ppl reading this, there will be numerous kissing ass (in the form of patients and professors) and politics in healthcare too, dont think the corporate engineering, finance, and others are the only ones that face this.

to make sure this thread doesnt go off topic: my thoughts
human anatomy (duh)
histology (1 class was enough for me to hate it, and I'm a dentist not a physician)
advanced biochemistry (biochem isnt hard per say but its really bland and goes real fast, a horrible combination)
cell biology
 
thats what I'm trying to do right now, I'm currently looking for private practices hiring associates with a buy-in but its difficult as many private practices have been cutting down on hiring associates. I would do corporate dentistry to pay the bills but I had a terrible experience with the last one so im out on that.

Another note to all pre-health ppl reading this, there will be numerous kissing ass (in the form of patients and professors) and politics in healthcare too, dont think the corporate engineering, finance, and others are the only ones that face this.
Didn't realize how true this really was. Quite naive of me to think this wasn't true in medicine vs. other fields as I thought doctors called all the shots.
 
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Didn't realize how true this really was. Quite naive of me to think this wasn't true in medicine vs. other fields as I thought doctors called all the shots.

there are still dentists that call the shots and doing well (I know one is grossing $350k in Idaho) but in the current scheme this is not the norm, similar to how a pre-med student will think he/she will roll into ENT, ophtho, or derm with ease.

just for the record, I still love dentistry but I am somewhat pissed that dental school instills in people's brains that "dont do it for the money." Lets say if I do that, Uncle Sam might come on the door asking "your monthly payments will not be enough to pay it off in 30 years." I graduated dental school in 2013 and I thought my loan balance was insane, I looked up MWU-AZ and it about 500k by the time you graduate if they were to start in the fall. Mathematically that means students will be paying for their loans while paying their children's loans (assuming they had children).

Dental school professors are in many ways an Old Boys club. No wonder there are few donations to dental schools because all the alums are pissed at them.
 
there are still dentists that call the shots and doing well (I know one is grossing $350k in Idaho) but in the current scheme this is not the norm, similar to how a pre-med student will think he/she will roll into ENT, ophtho, or derm with ease.

just for the record, I still love dentistry but I am somewhat pissed that dental school instills in people's brains that "dont do it for the money." Lets say if I do that, Uncle Sam might come on the door asking "your monthly payments will not be enough to pay it off in 30 years." I graduated dental school in 2013 and I thought my loan balance was insane, I looked up MWU-AZ and it about 500k by the time you graduate if they were to start in the fall. Mathematically that means students will be paying for their loans while paying their children's loans (assuming they had children).

Dental school professors are in many ways an Old Boys club. No wonder there are few donations to dental schools because all the alums are pissed at them.
I think one thing that dental school offers is at the end of 4 years you're done. You can practice. No indentured servitude in residency required necessarily (varies by state). Dental schools are different though in that most of the class become general dentists, not specialists. Completely the opposite in medicine. Dentistry offers a relatively well paying job, good sleep (this is a valuable commodity in my opinion). You could just go to a public dental school as well. NYU I've heard is the easiest to get in but most expensive.

Academics in medicine are the same way - don't do it for the money mantra and old boys club -- didn't know dental schools had those as well. There are many med students who won't be donating squat to their med school and tell them to go f themselves, based on how they were treated.
 
Immuno
An intense biochem course
Histology
Embryology
Neuro anatomy

All the classes basically. It really would have been nice if I wasn't seeing almost all of this for the first time.

I did have anatomy and phys tho and I'm happy for that
 
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Academics in medicine are the same way - don't do it for the money mantra and old boys club -- didn't know dental schools had those as well. There are many med students who won't be donating squat to their med school and tell them to go f themselves, based on how they were treated.


Honestly, I think just about every high-skill profession is an old boys club. That was certainly true of my last job, and I definitely get that vibe in the Allo forums on SDN as well. I guess it boils down to humans having a pack/tribe mentality.
 
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Honestly, I think just about every high-skill profession is an old boys club. That was certainly true of my last job, and I definitely get that vibe in the Allo forums on SDN as well. I guess it boils down to humans having a pack/tribe mentality.
There can be a huge disconnect between those who graduated earlier and those who graduated recently. Realize even competitiveness of specialties has changed drastically in that time. Unlike Pre-Allo people listen to the older people who've been thru the system and give the truth.
 
Anatomy!!!! Take it and KNOW it or your first year will NOT end well....
 
Anatomy!!!! Take it and KNOW it or your first year will NOT end well....

Speaking from experience?
And this is a ridiculous statement as a rule.

Edit: I just saw your bad news in another post. Sorry to hear it.
 
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Lol I did take anatomy in undergrad and I don't think it's making that big of a difference (it's helpful to know the basics and to kind of recognize stuff I've seen before, but it's not like I remember the insertions I learned 4 years ago or anything). I really wish I would have had anatomy lab tho just because those first few labs of wtf am I doing were rough
 
Probably 90% of my class didn't take anatomy in undergrad and first year ended pretty well.
At Ross we learn the entire body in 3 months versus traditional medical schools that allot more time
 
Lol I did take anatomy in undergrad and I don't think it's making that big of a difference (it's helpful to know the basics and to kind of recognize stuff I've seen before, but it's not like I remember the insertions I learned 4 years ago or anything). I really wish I would have had anatomy lab tho just because those first few labs of wtf am I doing were rough
At Ross we learn the entire body in 3 months versus traditional medical schools that allot more time
 
Speaking from experience?
And this is a ridiculous statement as a rule.

Edit: I just saw your bad news in another post. Sorry to hear it.
Thanks, yeah at Ross we learn the entire body in 3 months versus traditional medical schools that allot more time
 
At Ross we learn the entire body in 3 months versus traditional medical schools that allot more time

We do anatomy in 7 weeks at my school. Not trying to get into a pissing contest, but telling people to take anatomy in undergrad or else their first year won't end well is not good advice. Yes some people struggle with anatomy, but people who put the adequate time and effort in do fine.
 
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Hello all!

I start medical school in August, and plenty of my medical school friends have told me to start studying now to prepare for medical school. I'm getting a lot of "study anatomy" and "study embryology" and now I want to hear your opinions. If you had to choose one class that you wish you knew more about before medical school, what would it be?

Don't study at all. If you want to do something productive to help you in the long run (increase your chances of matching into competitive specialties/programs) then maybe do some research and get publications. A bunch of competitive residency programs love research and you can put your undergrad publications in your resume. You have an entire year! Do some productive research and enjoy life. Other things that will help you are learning the Spanish language and medical spanish. It's always great to be bilingual that will be a huge boost in your medical career. If you got $ idk go to Spain, take a vacation and learn Spanish lol.

Congratulations on getting into medical school!
 
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