Course selection that would help most for med school curriculum

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fogo

fogo

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Hey y'all, so for my major I am required to take biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. I am trying to find a bio elective that would help me the most for the med school curriculum. So far, the ones I find interesting are Bacterial Pathogenesis, Immunology, Developmental Biology, and Neurobiology. I would be taking one of these along with genetics. Of these 4 courses, easiness (i.e. potential to get an A) goes from bacterial pathogenesis > immuno > dev bio > neurobio. But, I feel like relevance to how the course would prep me for med school would be immuno = dev bio = neurobio > bacterial pathogenesis, so I'm a bit torn. Any advices? Should I just get the A requiring the least of effort or should I hustle knowing that I might not get an A at the end of the day? Thanks.
 
fogo said:
Hey y'all, so for my major I am required to take biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. I am trying to find a bio elective that would help me the most for the med school curriculum. So far, the ones I find interesting are Bacterial Pathogenesis, Immunology, Developmental Biology, and Neurobiology. I would be taking one of these along with genetics. Of these 4 courses, easiness (i.e. potential to get an A) goes from bacterial pathogenesis > immuno > dev bio > neurobio. But, I feel like relevance to how the course would prep me for med school would be immuno = dev bio = neurobio > bacterial pathogenesis, so I'm a bit torn. Any advices? Should I just get the A requiring the least of effort or should I hustle knowing that I might not get an A at the end of the day? Thanks.
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Immunology is the course I'd have suggested.
 
fogo said:
Hey y'all, so for my major I am required to take biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. I am trying to find a bio elective that would help me the most for the med school curriculum. So far, the ones I find interesting are Bacterial Pathogenesis, Immunology, Developmental Biology, and Neurobiology. I would be taking one of these along with genetics. Of these 4 courses, easiness (i.e. potential to get an A) goes from bacterial pathogenesis > immuno > dev bio > neurobio. But, I feel like relevance to how the course would prep me for med school would be immuno = dev bio = neurobio > bacterial pathogenesis, so I'm a bit torn. Any advices? Should I just get the A requiring the least of effort or should I hustle knowing that I might not get an A at the end of the day? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter. Just take what's most interesting to you. Most UG coursework is covered in a few days in med school.
 
If you have to take one (otherwise I’d say take some interesting electives, like music, religion, etc.), I liked neurobio. It helped a little with familiarity in med school (like goro said, each course assumes only prerequisite knowledge and reviews what little you do learn in just a few classes anyway), but more important is it was really interesting.

In the end, I’d assume none will help for the MCAT or med school and take what you find the most interesting/whichever has the best teacher (teachers make all the difference). If they’re all equally interesting, take what will be the easiest.
 
Ok then, bacteria it is. I am still interested in immunobiology stuff though, so I think I'll take it Pass Fail at some point.
 
GenSurgONLY said:
Immunology it is. I heard some schools would “like” you to take BioStats. Why if doesn’t matter anyways. I am more of a Calc over Stats kinda gal. Lol
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So, less schools these days have defined pre-requisites, and even more are just recommendations. But there has also been a shift toward stats>>>>>>calc. Which I personally was happy about. I am the opposite of you. Biostats will help you infinitely— MCAT, Medical school, primary research interpretation, research conduction, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Board certification.... forever.
 
I have had conversations with our science faculty about our students needing courses X, Y, or Z as pre requisites. I personally dont care much about taking certain courses as pre requisites.I believe a candidate must show they can excel at science in undergrad. It's our job as faculty to teach them what they need to know. Nearly everyone smart enough to get into med school is certainly smart enough to graduate. It's just a matter of how hard they are willing to work. If they don't graduate, it usually because they find medicine is not a good fit or they have behavioral issues
 
sunshinefl said:
So, less schools these days have defined pre-requisites, and even more are just recommendations. But there has also been a shift toward stats>>>>>>calc. Which I personally was happy about. I am the opposite of you. Biostats will help you infinitely— MCAT, Medical school, primary research interpretation, research conduction, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Board certification.... forever.
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Noooooooooooooo! 🙂
 
Just pitching in my 2c

Spanish/Chinese - It's always nice to know common languages.
Written/Oral Communication - Pretty important for all majors.
Biostatistics - Very useful
Sociology - Helps you understand inequalities, etc
Differential equations + Linear algebra - General mathematics; many applications
Computer programming/algorithms - May become useful in the future
Thermodynamics/Thermal Physics -> Statistical Mechanics - Learning these will make you not fear any of the physics and mathematics relevant to biology, but beware it's difficult
 
My sociology class was straight propaganda. Wasn't really any real science aspect to it.
 
I don't know if this will necessarily help in medical school but taking a biomedical ethics class will help you prepare for the CARS section of the MCAT. It furthermore helps you build a framework for how to answer difficult interview questions that pertain to ethical scenarios. Also, I simply enjoyed the class and I encourage you to take it for the sake of well-roundedness.

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile
 
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PickleRickelus said:
I don't know if this will necessarily help in medical school but taking a biomedical ethics class will help you prepare for the CARS section of the MCAT. It furthermore helps you build a framework for how to answer difficult interview questions that pertain to ethical scenarios. Also, I simply enjoyed the class and I encourage you to take it for the sake of well-roundedness.

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile
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It helps. Shows up on Step 1
 
@ OP, out of the 4 things you listed, dev bio is probably the lowest yield IMO, you will probably forget it by the time you get to med school.

As for the other 3, pick one that you know the least about.

With that being said, make sure you pick a course that will boost your GPA.
 
RangerBob said:
If you have to take one (otherwise I’d say take some interesting electives, like music, religion, etc.), I liked neurobio. It helped a little with familiarity in med school (like goro said, each course assumes only prerequisite knowledge and reviews what little you do learn in just a few classes anyway), but more important is it was really interesting.

In the end, I’d assume none will help for the MCAT or med school and take what you find the most interesting/whichever has the best teacher (teachers make all the difference). If they’re all equally interesting, take what will be the easiest.
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What if they’re both super easy?
 
Bacterial pathogenesis is going to become one of the most important concepts in medicine imo. It puts a whole lot of pathology in perspective. That's my recommendation followed by immunology.
 
RangerBob said:
Take the one that’s more interesting. Or at the better time of day. Or with the better teacher. Or with the co-ed you have a crush on...

Lots of ways to decide!
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Haha kind of in the middle of two classes. Offered at the same time, both easy and both with great professors and both are interesting haha
 
RangerBob said:
Flip a coin and then take the other one the next time it’s offered?
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Yeah that’s what I’m looking at. Both are only offered in the spring so I’ll have to wait a year haha.
 
Best thing you can do for medical school in terms of coursework at this point is to self-study anatomy from time to time.
 
RNtoMD87 said:
My sociology class was straight propaganda. Wasn't really any real science aspect to it.
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Too bad you feel that way. May I know what topics were included in your intro sociology class?

My background training is in social work, we were once considered as applied sociology back in our early days. I also took several sociology courses in my grad school, and published together with other sociologists over the past decade. I wonder what topics were included in your intro class and how they were conveyed so that you felt it was a "straight propaganda. Wasn't really any real science aspect to it." Do you know what other sociologists are doing, in particular medical sociologists?
 
Its been about four years so I'll try to remember. It was taught by a morbidly obese white man who would argue with everyone but especially with black students who disagreed with him about how "oppressed" they were. One was an Army buddy I served with who would debate him in class. We read mostly communist works by people such as Marx, Weber, etc. The entire class was about: "Oppressed" groups, how horrible wealth inequality is, etc. It was basically a political opinion piece on how capitalism bad, socialism good. And at this particular college, all sociology instructors are along these lines. A different instructor than mine was a huge Fidel Castro fan, and his office was decorated in his memorabilia.

Neither had anything good to say about the likes of Ludwig von Mises, Frédéric Bastiat, etc.

I could see sociology being very interesting if it were taught by an unbiased instructor. I enjoy psychology and anthropology.
 
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