Ecology for medical school

[deleted421268]

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Deciding if I should take Human Anatomy and Physiology 1 lecture and Lab are separate course with biochemistry or ecology and lab where grade is combined with biochemistry in fall semester. Ecology may be less work and easier compared to A&P but idk how useful ecology is for medical school.

 

[Turkishking]

Deciding if I should take Human Anatomy and Physiology 1 lecture and Lab are separate course with biochemistry or ecology and lab where grade is combined with biochemistry in fall semester. Ecology may be less work and easier compared to A&P but idk how useful ecology is for medical school.

I don’t think Human Anatomy would be useful. However, choose whatever you find interesting.

 

[BigBoss]

Ecology is not useful for med school.


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[nezpas]

I took Human Anatomy and Physiology AND Ecology and the A&P was used to fulfill some science requirements of some schools I applied to. Ecology, not so much. Also, for me, A&P was a lot easier than Ecology. It could be just my school and the professors who taught them.

 

[21Rush12]

I learned more useful math from my Ecology professor than from Calculus.

That said, it’s really not useful. However any A+P you do will barely scratch the surface. If you’re into Ecology (it’s awesome!) you should take it. You won’t get a chance again for a long time.

 

[lemurcatta]

Ecology is useful in infectious disease modeling. So if you are interested in epidemiology of infectious disease and public health it may be useful. Also just helps improve your general biology background. It’s not super relevant for day to day clinical medicine for the overwhelming majority of docs.

 

[DameJulie]

Ecology may be less work and easier

Not entirely true. If you're a student without ecology background, it can be very hard.

I took ecology classes before, and it's a different kind of "hard" comparing to human anatomy. For my ecology class, we have little memorization but you need to be able to explain/calculate everything on paper. It is interesting if you like natural science.

 

[Microbug]

Ecology is useful in infectious disease modeling. So if you are interested in epidemiology of infectious disease and public health it may be useful. Also just helps improve your general biology background. It’s not super relevant for day to day clinical medicine for the overwhelming majority of docs.

ID researcher for 5 years now. If you want to study infectious disease modeling, do hard core statistics or computational bio/bioinformatics. If you want to study from biological side, take micro/Immuno/virology. If you’re interested in epidemiology and public health, then take those classes. I fail to see how ecology is more helpful than A&P.

 

[Robin-jay]

I personally think all biology courses can be self-taught.

 

[TheBiologist]

in my experience, your interest in a college level subject determines how "easy" it will be. take whatever you are interested in, just do well

 

[lemurcatta]

ID researcher for 5 years now. If you want to study infectious disease modeling, do hard core statistics or computational bio/bioinformatics. If you want to study from biological side, take micro/Immuno/virology. If you’re interested in epidemiology and public health, then take those classes. I fail to see how ecology is more helpful than A&P.

Lol. Do you even know what ecology is? Do you know how biologists attempt to explain the diversity of HPV or pneumococcus serotypes that persist as pathogens? What about modeling influenza evolution? I have no idea what kind of ID researcher you are, but you have an amazingly narrow view of your own field. I’m on the ecology side, but folks down the hall that do “bioinformatics/computation” collaborate with us and use our math all the time. In science, you’re really limiting yourself if you’re not willing to cross old disciplinary boundaries to solve problems. It’s actually the really “in” thing now in days...

 

[Microbug]

Lol. Do you even know what ecology is? Do you know how biologists attempt to explain the diversity of HPV or pneumococcus serotypes that persist as pathogens? What about modeling influenza evolution? I have no idea what kind of ID researcher you are, but you have an amazingly narrow view of your own field. I’m on the ecology side, but folks down the hall that do “bioinformatics/computation” collaborate with us and use our math all the time. In science, you’re really limiting yourself if you’re not willing to cross old disciplinary boundaries to solve problems. It’s actually the really “in” thing now in days...

There’s a term for those studies too, it’s called evolutionary biologist. Diversity studies are generally done through genetic studies, which requires fundamental knowledge about bioinformatics and statistics. I would call them more geneticist and bioinformaticist than ecologist, like your collaborators down the hall. And how are you suppose to come up with these models without a strong foundation in statistics. There’s a lot of things that’s more “in” than ecology like Neuro/microbiome/immunotherapy. Just go look at the HHMI list on your free time.
Oh and for your information, I did structural bio/pathway signaling and basics mechanism research.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

There’s a term for those studies too, it’s called evolutionary biologist. Diversity studies are generally done through genetic studies, which requires fundamental knowledge about bioinformatics and statistics. I would call them more geneticist and bioinformaticist than ecologist, like your collaborators down the hall. And how are you suppose to come up with these models without a strong foundation in statistics. There’s a lot of things that’s more “in” than ecology like Neuro/microbiome/immunotherapy. Just go look at the HHMI list on your free time.
Oh and for your information, I did structural bio/pathway signaling and basics mechanism research.

Most of my undergrad research centered around microbial/viral ecology, but it definitely wasn't evolutionary biology. There's a lot of research that's not easy to classify into one strict field - I think @lemurcatta was saying that this type of boundary-crossing, collaborative research is "in", not ecology specifically. I'm sure you're a great ID researcher, but I agree that you seem to have a pretty narrow view of your field, and where it overlaps with other disciplines. Also, that microbiome research you pointed out as being popular can have a LOT of ecology influence.

As far as the usefulness of ecology, I don't think it will directly help much for MCAT/med school, at least in comparison to other classes like micro or A/P or something. But its not useless, and can definitely have biomedical applications.