does taking summer classes look bad?

[reese07]

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I started to take my science prerequisites (Gen. Bio I and Gen. Chem I) my second semester as a freshman. They said i need to take Gen Bio II and Gen Chem II during the summer so that I wont be behind one semester and can graduate in 4 years. Im kind of confused of how the med school prerequisites state that you need one year of bio and one year of chem, since my chem and bio classes are only one semester. Does this mean that Bio II and Chem II is the second half you need to complete to satisfy one year of each subject? Will taking the second half in the summer look bad to medical schools? What about taking them at a CC?

 

[Mandek]

No.

 

[ca863335]

You need both semesters of biology and gen chem (and physics and O. chem) in order to fulfill the 1 year requirements.

No, taking them over the summer doesn't look bad at all. Just do well.

 

[aemed724]

I started to take my science prerequisites (Gen. Bio I and Gen. Chem I) my second semester as a freshman. They said i need to take Gen Bio II and Gen Chem II during the summer so that I wont be behind one semester and can graduate in 4 years. Im kind of confused of how the med school prerequisites state that you need one year of bio and one year of chem, since my chem and bio classes are only one semester. Does this mean that Bio II and Chem II is the second half you need to complete to satisfy one year of each subject? Will taking the second half in the summer look bad to medical schools?

gen chem I + gen chem II = one full year of chem and the same for bio

and I dont think it will look bad to take them during the summer

 

[RySerr21]

gen chem I + gen chem II = one full year of chem and the same for bio

and I dont think it will look bad to take them during the summer

gen chem I and II isn't necessarily the same as bio I and II. the gen chem series builds on itself and the classes are related. to satisfy the one year of biology you could take a course in zoology and a course in intro to cell biology, or physiology, or anatomy, or whatever....... you just need to have two semesters.

 

[mfrizzo3]

Not if you smoke the MCAT.😀

 

[aemed724]

gen chem I and II isn't necessarily the same as bio I and II. the gen chem series builds on itself and the classes are related. to satisfy the one year of biology you could take a course in zoology and a course in intro to cell biology, or physiology, or anatomy, or whatever....... you just need to have two semesters.

oh I thought it had to be bio I and bio II 😳 lol that will make life a lot easier for me 👍

 

[hopefullkid]

what everyone else said...but do not take them at a cc.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

oh I thought it had to be bio I and bio II 😳 lol that will make life a lot easier for me 👍

Be careful. All schools accept Bio I and Bio II. In place of one of them, I think just about all schools accept Cell Biology or Molecular Biology. Only SOME schools will substitute courses like Zoology, A&P, etc.

 

[RySerr21]

Be careful. All schools accept Bio I and Bio II. In place of one of them, I think just about all schools accept Cell Biology or Molecular Biology. Only SOME schools will substitute courses like Zoology, A&P, etc.

zoology is a general biology course. ive never heard of a school not accepting zoology.

 

[RySerr21]

oh I thought it had to be bio I and bio II 😳 lol that will make life a lot easier for me 👍

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasinstructionsrvs.pdf

pg. 44 starts a list of all courses and what categories they will fall into. the thing you have to check with each individua school is whether they require one year of "general biology" or just one year of "biology."

if its one year of biology, then any of the courses that fall under the aamcas category of "biology" will fulfill your one year requirement. For example, here are requirements for UCSD

You must complete the following lecture courses with a grade of "C" or better to be eligible to apply to the UCSD School of Medicine. Typically, each of these required courses must be completed at an accredited U.S. institution.

• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Biology (excluding botany & biochemistry)
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level General Chemistry (including biochemistry)
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Organic Chemistry
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Physics
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Math (only calculus, statistics, or computer science will be considered)

if its one year of general biology, courses such as anatomy and physiology might not count, although they will still be calculated in your BCPM. Here is UCLA's requirements, which specify general biology

ENGLISH One year of college English to include the study of English composition PHYSICS One year of college Physics (with lab) CHEMISTRY Two years of college chemistry to include the study of inorganic chemistry, quantitative analysis and organic chemistry (with lab)BIOLOGY One year of general biology (with lab) MATHEMATICS One year of college mathematics to include the study of introductory calculus and statisticsSPANISHHighly recommended HUMANITIESHighly recommended COMPUTER SKILLS Highly recommended

 

[RySerr21]

what everyone else said...but do not take them at a cc.

taking one course at a CC isn't going to kill your application.

 

[Cegar]

what everyone else said...but do not take them at a cc.

Yeah, no kidding. Most CC's don't have very generous curves.

 

[RySerr21]

Yeah, no kidding. Most CC's don't have very generous curves.

for some reason i dont think thats why the poster was reccommending not to take courses at a CC. i could be wrong though.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008amcasinstructionsrvs.pdf

pg. 44 starts a list of all courses and what categories they will fall into. the thing you have to check with each individua school is whether they require one year of "general biology" or just one year of "biology."

if its one year of biology, then any of the courses that fall under the aamcas category of "biology" will fulfill your one year requirement. For example, here are requirements for UCSD

You must complete the following lecture courses with a grade of "C" or better to be eligible to apply to the UCSD School of Medicine. Typically, each of these required courses must be completed at an accredited U.S. institution.

• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Biology (excluding botany & biochemistry)
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level General Chemistry (including biochemistry)
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Organic Chemistry
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Physics
• One year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) of college-level Math (only calculus, statistics, or computer science will be considered)

if its one year of general biology, courses such as anatomy and physiology might not count, although they will still be calculated in your BCPM. Here is UCLA's requirements, which specify general biology

ENGLISH One year of college English to include the study of English composition PHYSICS One year of college Physics (with lab) CHEMISTRY Two years of college chemistry to include the study of inorganic chemistry, quantitative analysis and organic chemistry (with lab)BIOLOGY One year of general biology (with lab) MATHEMATICS One year of college mathematics to include the study of introductory calculus and statisticsSPANISHHighly recommended HUMANITIESHighly recommended COMPUTER SKILLS Highly recommended

All I can tell you is what I was told because I took a year of A&P and two schools I talked to (which I won't mention because I'm afraid I'll get them wrong -- I called about 10 schools and two of them told me this) said that my best bet is to take Gen Bio I and II rather anything else unless it was Cell Biology or Molecular Biology.

 

[RySerr21]

All I can tell you is what I was told because I took a year of A&P and two schools I talked to (which I won't mention because I'm afraid I'll get them wrong -- I called about 10 schools and two of them told me this) said that my best bet is to take Gen Bio I and II rather anything else unless it was Cell Biology or Molecular Biology.

i'm confused as to what Bio I and Bio II actually are, since my school doesn't label the courses like that for bio. we have gen chem I and gen chem II, and ochem I and ochem II, physics I and physics II....but bio I and bio II??? my school just offers a bunch of bio courses.

i'm guessing bio I is along the lines of intro to cell/molec bio?

i think the bottom line is that you have to check with each individual school you are applying to so that you can make sure you satisfy whatever it is that they want to see.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

i'm confused as to what Bio I and Bio II actually are, since my school doesn't label the courses like that for bio. we have gen chem I and gen chem II, and ochem I and ochem II, physics I and physics II....but bio I and bio II??? my school just offers a bunch of bio courses.

i'm guessing bio I is along the lines of intro to cell/molec bio?

i think the bottom line is that you have to check with each individual school you are applying to so that you can make sure you satisfy whatever it is that they want to see.

My school has Gen Bio I and Gen Bio II. Bio I is cellular biology and Bio II is organisms and physiology. I know the university across the way has non-science major basic Bio and science major Bio I and science major Bio II. I thought that was the norm.

 

[RySerr21]

My school has Gen Bio I and Gen Bio II. Bio I is cellular biology and Bio II is organisms and physiology. I know the university across the way has non-science major basic Bio and science major Bio I and science major Bio II. I thought that was the norm.

interesting. i go to a small (1800 students) liberal arts college...... maybe thats why? i dunno. regardless, since not all schools will have Bio I and Bio II as the way you described, med schools can't say ( at least they shoudlnt) that those are the only acceptable courses, or the most acceptable.

 

[Cegar]

for some reason i dont think thats why the poster was reccommending not to take courses at a CC. i could be wrong though.

I was being witty.

 

[GatorMD60]

If your school offers it, then I would take Bio I and Bio II for the sole reason that they are heavily tested on the MCAT. Also, you should take more bio classes than just that and most of the bio classes have a Bio I and/or Bio II prereq.
I'm just saying that Bio I and Bio II are the stronger classes when it comes to applying.

 

[NJDIF]

i took gen chem II and lab over the summer at my undergrad institution and things worked out fine. has not been brought up at one single interview.

 

[CK0112]

I was given the impression that summer classes taken at a community college, to avoid taking the class at your regular undergrad institution, usually raises a couple questions?

 

[husky10501]

did i miss something here? I never heard of the thought that summer classes would look bad. Is it true at some schools or all? I thought that a class is a class at a certain school no matter what time you took it as long as you took it and did well. I'm on the quarter system and summer is about the same length as our other quarters and covers the same content.

 

[LizzyM]

Sometimes, it looks as if someone opted for a summer class at a community college or at a low level undergrad school (the kind that accepts 80% of its applicants) in order to avoid a major "weed-out" course at their own university. I've even see a pre-med committee point out that they can't comment on an applicant's performance in a specific pre-req because it was taken elsewhere which is a further tip off to the adcom that this doesn't smell good.

You don't want to be that someone. Taking the course at your own school in the summer is OK. Matriculating at a community college & then transferring is OK. Graduating with a degree in basketweaving and then doing some post-bac work at a community college is OK. Taking the summer off from Ivydukemory to take a science course at Southern Connecthedots Community College is not OK.