Computer Science Major Schedule. Need advise

[Princeton Medical Student]

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Hello friends and family.

I will be going into my freshman year of college this upcoming september and I needed some reassurance on the schedule that I set up for myself in terms of completing pre-reqs for medical school. Since all my years I imagine will be pretty intense this is sorta designed to split things up as much as possible to avoid stress.

Freshman Year - No Prereqs, focus on GPA and hopefully research
Freshman Summer - General Chemistry and lab (unsure if I can actually do this over the summer)

Sophomore Year - Organic Chemistry.

Junior Year - Biology
Junior Summer - Biochemistry (Unsure if in what order, or if biochem is even doable during summer)

Senior Year - Physics

(Sociology and Psychology to be crammed into somewhere. Calculus is part of my major).​

Thank you for your responses!

 

[anonymoose1640]

I can't comment on being a computer science major, but I'd recommend on keeping your summers more open and leaving the classes for the school year. I say this because 1. summer classes are sped up and condensed and more difficult to do well in and 2. this opens up your summer to do something meaningful with your time that will be a bigger boost to your application (research in a lab on campus/do a cool internship/volunteer/get involved in your community/etc.)

My computer science major friends that went on to medical school made it a goal to take at least 1 pre-req course per semester and 2+ on the semesters that they felt were more lax for their major requirements. This type of schedule is entirely school dependent, however, and you would be better off making some upperclassmen friends in the same situation as you. I also recommend getting in touch with the pre-health department/a pre-med club so that you can set up with an upperclassmen or an alum that's a current medical student who can act as your mentor throughout college.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Right. Thank you very much. I'll try to see if I can fit this all better into my schedule, and try to get at least one summer off. Potentially could maybe take a class during the internship. I'll speak with advisors though as you suggested, thank you 🙂.

I can't comment on being a computer science major, but I'd recommend on keeping your summers more open and leaving the classes for the school year. I say this because 1. summer classes are sped up and condensed and more difficult to do well in and 2. this opens up your summer to do something meaningful with your time that will be a bigger boost to your application (research in a lab on campus/do a cool internship/volunteer/get involved in your community/etc.)

My computer science major friends that went on to medical school made it a goal to take at least 1 pre-req course per semester and 2+ on the semesters that they felt were more lax for their major requirements. This type of schedule is entirely school dependent, however, and you would be better off making some upperclassmen friends in the same situation as you. I also recommend getting in touch with the pre-health department/a pre-med club so that you can set up with an upperclassmen or an alum that's a current medical student who can act as your mentor throughout college.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Advice*

 

[avgn]

Why are you wasting a whole year doing no basic science? That's silly

Plan one year at a time. Things happen and you never know when time conflicts or other life things are going to pop up. Have a general guideline but don't prescribe yourself something this early and feel pressured to stick to it just because you made a plan.

 

[PreMedicallyBlonde]

I didn't do a single pre-req my freshman year and I regret it so much. Do yourself a favor and start taking pre-reqs. If you have to do summer classes, do one or two then, but start your med school pre reqs if that is your ultimate end goal.


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[lostpremed123]

You don't have to take pre reqs your first year as long as you make them up eventually. I think you're doing the right thing by spacing out the courses and giving yourself and opportunity to adjust and attain the highest gpa possible.

 

[avgn]

If you need "time to adjust" in order to take general chemistry, you're gonna be in for a bad time in this thing we call premed and medicine

 

[deleted482591]

That name and profile photo...lmao

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Why are you wasting a whole year doing no basic science? That's silly

Plan one year at a time. Things happen and you never know when time conflicts or other life things are going to pop up. Have a general guideline but don't prescribe yourself something this early and feel pressured to stick to it just because you made a plan.

My justification for it is being concerned with the workload I will have as a freshman, and that I may simply be unable to fit it into my schedule. Ill contact my premed advisor about it though. I appriciate the advice (fixed myself on spelling now) of planning a bit at a time, and I am certain that things will change, but I just wanted to figure out if I can even fit all this in and graduate on time, and just to have a rough idea of what to do.

Thank you all 🙂

 

[avgn]

If you can't take the workload of some math, intro CS, and gen chem as a freshman, it's not looking to be a bright road for this thing called premed

 

[lostpremed123]

If you can't take the workload of some math, intro CS, and gen chem as a freshman, it's not looking to be a bright road for this thing called premed

That's pretty harsh. Assuming OP is a student at Princeton undergrad (I know they don't have a med school), (s)he is probably very competent. Sometimes it is just a little difficult to adjust to the rigor of college and OP is doing the right thing by adjusting to college first before really getting the ball rolling.

 

[avgn]

That's pretty harsh. Assuming OP is a student at Princeton undergrad (I know they don't have a med school), (s)he is probably very competent. Sometimes it is just a little difficult to adjust to the rigor of college and OP is doing the right thing by adjusting to college first before really getting the ball rolling.

Exactly. Idk about the Princeton assumption, but of course s/he's competent. And no one who is competent should be wary of taking GENERAL CHEMISTRY (srsly) during freshman year. By skipping out on prereqs for the entire first year of college, s/he will always always be behind and trying to catch up to fulfill all the course requirements, and that doesn't even include the time needed to prepare and study for the MCAT before application. Unless this 17-year-old is dead set on taking 2 gap years, his current plan puts him behind for no reason at all. Don't baby this freshman by giving bad advice like "OP is doing the right thing." S/he is not.

 

[lowkey_md]

Also, if you want to do research in chemistry, biology, or related fields, it can be difficult to find a position in a lab before you take an intro course with a lab component, depending on the school