English Prerequisite Confusion!

[Ibn Rushd]

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So I graduated in 2008. I have a decent GPA and my MCAT is in the high twenties. I submitted my application in early July, was verified early August, and have even submitted quite a few secondaries. I'm also working on more secondaries at the moment.

Just today I realized that I may not even meet the one year of English prerequisite! I took the first semester of English, so that's cool. For the second semester, however, I took a philosophy class. At my school, that philosophy class is equivalent to a second semester of English. So all this time I thought I was done with English, but now I'm beginning to think that med schools might not accept that philosophy class to meet their one year requirements.

What should I do? Should I contact schools individually and explain my situation? I don't want to get rejected just because I completed a year of English in a somewhat unorthodox way.

Help or insight is appreciated!

 

[Ibn Rushd]

Also, when I was inputting my grades to AMCAS, I categorized the philosophy class under "Philosophy/Religion." Should I have put it under "English Language & Literature" instead? It's too late to change that, huh?

 

[lstone13]

From my understanding, schools request that your second semester of English be either strictly an English course or sometimes they allow a literature course as a substitute. I would contact the schools you're applying to and ask about your situation.

 

[lstone13]

Also, when I was inputting my grades to AMCAS, I categorized the philosophy class under "Philosophy/Religion." Should I have put it under "English Language & Literature" instead? It's too late to change that, huh?

And yeah, pretty sure it's too late to change that one.

 

[sustentacular]

It depends on the school. So far I've been able to use a gen ed humanities/philosophy course (that I listed on AMCAS as English) and an upper level foreign language translation class as my second semester.

Also, I don't think it's too late to change a course designation. Look it up on the AMCAS website if there's a time requirement for when you have to submit changes.

 

[chman]

Philosophy does fall under the "humanities" category, so that should help. Otherwise check to see if any of your other courses fall under writing intensive. At my school these are marked by a "W" on the transcript.

As a last effort, if you have an interview or acceptance, ask if you can take the class before matriculating. This is not unheard of for some schools, although most let it be known before hand.

Good Luck

 

[zayka]

From my understanding, schools request that your second semester of English be either strictly an English course or sometimes they allow a literature course as a substitute.

How would you take an English course that isn't a literature one? We all already speak English. There's rhetoric, but what else can you take from the English dept that is not about a certain literary genre/author/poet?

 

[lstone13]

How would you take an English course that isn't a literature one? We all already speak English. There's rhetoric, but what else can you take from the English dept that is not about a certain literary genre/author/poet?

Uhhhh.... pretty easily actually considering that the two semester requirement typically indicates composition not literature. I took ENGL 1101 and 1102 at my school, i.e., Composition I and Composition II. Then, in addition to those, I took ENGL 2302, English Literature after 1700.

 

[zayka]

Uhhhh.... pretty easily actually considering that the two semester requirement typically indicates composition not literature. I took ENGL 1101 and 1102 at my school, i.e., Composition I and Composition II. Then, in addition to those, I took ENGL 2302, English Literature after 1700.

Okay, I guess that's different in Canada... There's only a requirement to take English in grade 12 HS where you do composition and what-not. In my school the only things the Eng dept offers are English classes like "Shakespeare", "Milton", "21st Century Lit", or "Short Stories", "Fantasy", and even weird ones like "Graphic Novel" and "Science Fiction", etc. So, all I have is different literary genres/topics to choose from for my pre-reqs.

 

[panthera]

my school is the same way. they have a philosophy course in the same category to fulfill the second english requirement. They also had argumentative speech, which I took.

I hope this doesn't screw me

 

[Ibn Rushd]

Otherwise check to see if any of your other courses fall under writing intensive. At my school these are marked by a "W" on the transcript.

Hmm, I did take an upper division writing class. It was in sociology. I didn't categorize it as "English Language & Literature," though. My school also includes the "W" to designate such classes.

I'll look into changing the categories tomorrow. I think I'll also give schools a call or at the least draft an email that I can send out to them all. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

 

[WaterBird]

I do not think any school would accept/reject you based on this. You might have to explain it to the registrar when you fill out your pre-req form (which a lot of schools have, but it's hard to imagine it being the determining factor in admissions. You should prob still call to see if they will take it so you can plan to take an extra english class if they won't.