courseload ideas when double majoring w/ a minor

[Adonis4.0]

Whats up guys....

I need some advice, im a second year college student but classified as a junior. I am planning on getting a double major in pre-med bio and chem with a minor in eng. Currently i am enrolled in organic 1 w/ lab, a&p 1 w/ lab, cal 2, lit, poli sci 2 and a bio problems course....thats right 20 hrs. I really want to finsh my degree plans in 4 yrs...excluding summers because i will get an internship. So for the upcoming spring i was planning on taking 25 hrs...

Organic 2 w/ lab
instrumental chem w/ lab
lit
spanish
kinesiology
invertabrate zoology w/ lab (if offered, if not a&p 2 w/ lab)
Genetics

and then for the following fall i was planning on taking....

stats
biochem w/ lab
analytical chem
art apprec
amer. heritage
microbiology w/ lab
physics w/ lab
maybe a lit thrown in here...or i may push it back a sem.

Do you think this is adivsable...lol...i am not an overachiever...i have taken 17, 18, and now 20 hrs respectively and done well..i understand it is a lot of work...but i dont really see another way of doing it...

My friends tell me that 4 sciences is tough for one sem...but how hard can it be? And moreover, what would medical schools think if they saw these type of courseloads on my transcript?

I am open to any and all advice....thanx

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[Gleevec]

I can tell you from experience that its definitely possible. Just remember, labs kill and are huge time sucks. Also, make sure that taking such a courseload doesnt detract from doing the ECs you care about and are committed to.

What the heck is pre-med bio and chem anyway? Do you just mean bio and chem?

Also, dont do this to impress adcoms. It seems they are more impressed with people who have a variety of coursework (science, liberal arts mix) as opposed to the all-technical curriculum that you propose. So if youre doing this for yourself, great! Hope you enjoy it. If youre doing it for adcoms, they probably wont care, since your majors are all within the fields of science/engineering.

Good luck.

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by Adonis4.0
Whats up guys....

I need some advice, im a second year college student but classified as a junior. I am planning on getting a double major in pre-med bio and chem with a minor in eng. Currently i am enrolled in organic 1 w/ lab, a&p 1 w/ lab, cal 2, lit, poli sci 2 and a bio problems course....thats right 20 hrs. I really want to finsh my degree plans in 4 yrs...excluding summers because i will get an internship. So for the upcoming spring i was planning on taking 25 hrs...

Organic 2 w/ lab
instrumental chem w/ lab
lit
spanish
kinesiology
invertabrate zoology w/ lab (if offered, if not a&p 2 w/ lab)
Genetics

and then for the following fall i was planning on taking....

stats
biochem w/ lab
analytical chem
art apprec
amer. heritage
microbiology w/ lab
physics w/ lab
maybe a lit thrown in here...or i may push it back a sem.

Do you think this is adivsable...lol...i am not an overachiever...i have taken 17, 18, and now 20 hrs respectively and done well..i understand it is a lot of work...but i dont really see another way of doing it...

My friends tell me that 4 sciences is tough for one sem...but how hard can it be? And moreover, what would medical schools think if they saw these type of courseloads on my transcript?

I am open to any and all advice....thanx

ive taken up to 22 hours in a semester and have taken your type of courseload for most of my time at college....

ill tell you it is for sure possible....but dont be surprised if grades somewhere suffer a bit.....its a marathon to keep up this type of work........but if you are driven then you should do relatively fine...

its basically one of the few times we are exposed to such a wide breadth of classes so i always felt it was good to take advantage of it....cause you might regret it later if you didnt....

but yeah 4 sciences im sure will be tough....but make sure you organize yourself and manage your time well. and sacrifice some sleep...

 

[chaeymaey]

Your science majors seem to have a lot of requirements. Are you pursuing BS degrees in both? Maybe if you got BAs in both or a BA in one instead, you wouldn't have to take on such heavy courseloads.

 

[Nutmeg]

Originally posted by chaeymaey
Your science majors seem to have a lot of requirements. Are you pursuing BS degrees in both? Maybe if you got BAs in both or a BA in one instead, you wouldn't have to take on such heavy courseloads.

As a person getting both a BA and a BS, I can say that doing both takes more time than 2 BA's or 2 BS's, because you need all the depth of math and science for the BS, plus the breadth of humanities, philosophy, art, foriegn language, history, and behavioral science for the BA.

I think there's no problem with taking a heavy courseload, as long as you know your personal limits. However, I would advise against setting this goal of getting out of school in no more than 4 years, unless you are worried about finances. You shouldn't be in any hurry, and if you really want to take all of these classes, it should be worth your while to maybe take an extra semester. Besides, if you do take an extra semester, you won't have to juggle a heavy courseload while going to interviews during you senior yaer, and you can have some time to work in the spring to help balance out your transcript (which will likely suffer in volunteer/EC's if you take such a heavy courseload). Don't be in a hurry.

Good luck

 

[PrincetonRocks]

A double in Bio and Chem would not be too bad because some chem classes like quant, biochem, o-chem, or p-chem would also fulfill some bio requirements right?

Word of advice: Do this double major if you like both of these fields...don't do it because you're trying to impress a medical school because they will not be impressed.....A double major in chem, bio, or biochem is not rare.

 

[Adonis4.0]

Thanks everyone for your input...

The main reason for my double majoring is just to be more competetive. I plan on becoming a neurosurgeon: that is 4 yrs med school plus another 7-8 years of residency depending on where i go, that's 16 years before i can become a licensed neurosurgeon and start on my own ( if everthing goes to plan)...hence me wanting to finish college in four years.

I thought that when applying to med schools and residencies, having a degree in both chem and bio woud make me that much more competetive? But if it wont really matter then i dont see the point in killng myself with all these sciences.

What do you all think?

 

[DD214_DOC]

It doesn't matter. If you want to do some crazy double major just to impress, do something like a Physics/Philosophy or Chemistry/Psychology double major. In the end, however, it doesn't matter, and once you get into medical school everything you did in undergrad becomes completely irrelevant.

Whether or not you get into Neurosurgey depends on your USLME/COMLEX scores, your GPA in pre-clinical, LORs, essay, and how you did in clinicals, and any research.

 

[Nutmeg]

I agree with JKDMed. It would be more impressive to add a non-science to your science degree, and in general, double majors tend to seem unimpressive unless they cross disciplines. If you want to be more impressive, increase your EC's and volunteer experience, and just focus on great grades/MCAT scores with a single major. I wouldn't recommend picking up a humanities major unless there's something that you're really passionate about--otherwise, it probably isn't worth it.

 

[bella_dottoressa]

Yup, exactly what JKDMed said. The chem/bio double isn't gonna pay off dividends...that schedule looks hellish, and I'm a double major myself, bio and psych...although I'm on quarters so I can't relate quarters to semesters. Just relax, honestly...I'm a second year too with a third year rank...don't major in bio and chem unless you are deeply interested in bio and chem. Good luck

 

[Adonis4.0]

thanks to everyone, you have really helped a lot.

I was planning on gettin a minor in eng along with the double major in chem and bio..but in reading how it isnt all that impressive, there is no point.

In being honest with myself, I would much rather pursue the second degree in english and take a chem minor...i like english more and the chem major is really hard...lol

However, i have already started cal 2, took my first exam two weeks ago and got a 58. Im gonna stick it out, i will get an A.

Once again thanks to all.

 

[basupran]

Hmmm...I did Anthro/Bio majors and a Biomed Eng minor so I have an idea of where you are coming from. The best advice was already given to you....
if you love your subjects as I did, you will get by with relative ease. If you are doing it to impress adcoms/be more competitive, you will probably dread your coursework... It wont hurt your chances to do a double major unless you screw up your grades

As far as managing time: don't miss lectures and keep up to date on reading...that way you wont have to worry much come exam time...I didn't and I payed for it the night before and the day of the exams.
Good luck.

 

[Squat n Squeeze]

Whether or not you get into Neurosurgey depends on your USLME/COMLEX scores

 

[Squat n Squeeze]

I'm a biochemistry and physics major with a minor in anthropology and I'm finishing in four years. There is no reason why you can't double major with a minor, participate in many ECs, and achieve a high gpa if you study productively.

 

[sacrament]

I don't mind SnS trolling amongst the pre-meds, but when he starts to give advice to people who may not know better, there is a serious problem.

 

[Squat n Squeeze]

Originally posted by sacrament
I don't mind SnS trolling amongst the pre-meds, but when he starts to give advice to people who may not know better, there is a serious problem.

Why shouldn't I share my valuable advice?

The OP is very fortunate that someone of my superior intellect decided to take time out of his evening to respond to his/her question.

 

[AlternateSome1]

Originally posted by Squat n Squeeze
Why shouldn't I share my valuable advice?

The OP is very fortunate that someone of my superior intellect decided to take time out of his evening to respond to his/her question.

I am not religious, but you have me praying that you are just joking around.

~AS1~

 

[An Yong]

Have you considered extending your undergrad to 5 years? I mean, in the grand scheme of things, whats one more year? I'm also double majoriong, and decided I would extend my undergrad to a total of 5 years, and it has dramatically reduced the amount of workload per semester.

Your schedule is really tough, I counted 7 classes, some of which have labs (and labs eat tons of time, especially organic II). I would never sign up for this kind of schedule, because I know there's a huge risk that my GPA would drop like a rock. In the pre-med game, GPA is the single most important thing you want to keep up, killing your GPA could also mean killing your medical career before it even started. If I were you, I'd say to myself "why risk it?... the benefits are little and risk is enormous"

-Good Luck in whatever decision you choose to pursue.

P.S. I've had many friends who for some inconceivable reason, decided to rush through undergrad as quickly as possible. This mean overloading many times, but at the same time they're GPA's progressively got worse and worse (mainly because they got burnt-out fairly quickly). Don't make the same mistake!!!

 

[R_C_Hutchinson]

dont stress, im biochem, MIMG (fancy for immunology) and a minor in women's studies, it can certainly be done
my advice: plan your classes for your bio and chem majors and then sprinkle your english classes on top. english and humanities (IMHO) are very easy compared to science, so they'll be almost fun
just my two sense