Has anyone taken Medical Parasitology?

[Belfagor]

So now that I'm no longer a hard science major, I have room in my schedule for an upper level science course. Unfortunately, biochem is only offered at a crazy evening time when I can't get back to campus, and genetics isn't offered at all next term. So one of my options is Medical Parasitology. I've always found virology interesting when we touch on it in other science classes, but I'm wondering what the workload will be like in a class devoted to it.

From the schedule of classes:
"Parasitic diseases of humans, including life cycle events and clinical manifestations. "


Sounds cool, but it will probably not give me a boost for the MCAT or anthing of that nature. Any thoughts from someone who's taken it?

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[Yalie05]

I'm taking a class on parasites right now, and i would highly recommend them...they're really fascinating and complex creatures that produce very interesting clinical manifestations...def. one of my favorite classes in college. as far as helping you with the MCAT, probably not, but it could give you something interesting to talk about at an interview. i really recommend it!

So now that I'm no longer a hard science major, I have room in my schedule for an upper level science course. Unfortunately, biochem is only offered at a crazy evening time when I can't get back to campus, and genetics isn't offered at all next term. So one of my options is Medical Parasitology. I've always found virology interesting when we touch on it in other science classes, but I'm wondering what the workload will be like in a class devoted to it.

From the schedule of classes:
"Parasitic diseases of humans, including life cycle events and clinical manifestations. "


Sounds cool, but it will probably not give me a boost for the MCAT or anthing of that nature. Any thoughts from someone who's taken it?

 

[fpr85]

Wow, that sounds awesome. Take it! Who cares whether it will help you on the MCATs or not, it'll be interesting and broaden your knowledge.

I recommend you take it only if you are truly interested, not whether it'll look good on your transcript or not. Trust me, I took some courses in the past that my father wanted me to take and I absolutely despised them, ending up withdrawing.

Also, if you feel that it will be too much on your course load, it's probably a good idea not to take it.

 

[Belfagor]

Wow, that sounds awesome. Take it! Who cares whether it will help you on the MCATs or not, it'll be interesting and broaden your knowledge.

I recommend you take it only if you are truly interested, not whether it'll look good on your transcript or not. Trust me, I took some courses in the past that my father wanted me to take and I absolutely despised them, ending up withdrawing.

Also, if you feel that it will be too much on your course load, it's probably a good idea not to take it.

Thanks for the help. I want to take it because it sounds like fun, and because I need some good grades in some upper level classes. It should be my only real (beside math) science class next semester, so I'm looking forward to devoting some time to it.

 

[rbfiji13]

So now that I'm no longer a hard science major, I have room in my schedule for an upper level science course. Unfortunately, biochem is only offered at a crazy evening time when I can't get back to campus, and genetics isn't offered at all next term. So one of my options is Medical Parasitology. I've always found virology interesting when we touch on it in other science classes, but I'm wondering what the workload will be like in a class devoted to it.

From the schedule of classes:
"Parasitic diseases of humans, including life cycle events and clinical manifestations. "


Sounds cool, but it will probably not give me a boost for the MCAT or anthing of that nature. Any thoughts from someone who's taken it?

Parasitology is a great class for pre-med students. Just make sure to learn those life cycles and to eat lunch or breakfast, depending on what time the class is offered, beforehand. Some of those illustration of parasites, like the one that causes elephantitis, will ruin your appetite. Also, you will look twice at any meat products before eating them. But I highly recommend it (the class)!!!

 

[AStudent]

I was signed up for a parasitology class for this semester, but it's my last and I deserve to take it easy...so I dropped it.

 

[FutureDocDO]

I took it using an actual textbook that medical schools use. It was a tough class. You have to be able to identify the organism by it's proper name, its life cycle, how it infects humans and animals, what its intermediate host is, what kind of drugs you can use to treat the particular infection. Also, you have to be able to recognize the organism by the shape of their eggs. The class I took was four credits, including lab. We had to look at slides for our practical. Maybe it was hard because the prof that taught us was the department chair of biology. It requires a lot of memorization, even more than Immunology. I got an A in Immunology, but a B in Medical Parasitology.

So now that I'm no longer a hard science major, I have room in my schedule for an upper level science course. Unfortunately, biochem is only offered at a crazy evening time when I can't get back to campus, and genetics isn't offered at all next term. So one of my options is Medical Parasitology. I've always found virology interesting when we touch on it in other science classes, but I'm wondering what the workload will be like in a class devoted to it.

From the schedule of classes:
"Parasitic diseases of humans, including life cycle events and clinical manifestations. "


Sounds cool, but it will probably not give me a boost for the MCAT or anthing of that nature. Any thoughts from someone who's taken it?

 

[LabMonster]

Also, you have to be able to recognize the organism by the shape of their eggs. The class I took was four credits, including lab. We had to look at slides for our practical. Maybe it was hard because the prof that taught us was the department chair of biology. It requires a lot of memorization, even more than Immunology.

Memorization is the key here - lots of it. Being a Med-Tech I've been grilled on this stuff and it is fascinating. I'm not ruling out tropical medicine as a result. I think the class is worthwhile because it will give you a base of knowledge you can apply later in practice.

Most docs have no idea what they're dealing with when they run across a patient with a parasite. Last month I spent 30 minutes on the phone discussing mosquito life cycles, quinine resistance etc regarding a patient with malaria. They really had no idea what to do with the patient...

Go for it - but it will be time consuming. Learn to love photo-flashcards!

 

[bmcgilligan]

I took medical micro (it was parasitology and contagious bacteria, etc)

It was taught by a woman who used to be a med tech and the entire time was spent bashing physicians: how stupid doctors are that they get the lab specimens wrong, etc. I hated it.

 

[acidhouse303]

i took medical parasitology at cornell and also general parasitology. the courses are not that hard (memorization mostly) but they were tons of fun. i had a really great time and had an awesomne prof. surprisingly, i learned an enormous amount from the class, and its always really great dinner conversation- i'm like hey ya gonna eat that sushi, watch out for anisakis pseudoterranova. you get to look at awesome photos of prolapsed rectums and watch videos of people pulling out dracunculis mediensis (the fiery serpetn!) out of peoples feet by wrapping it around a stick! i just thought it was cool bc we may not see alot of it in this country but there are so many crazy parasitic diseases around the world and its interesting to see how much of a difference clean water/air can make and how we can help other people eliminate parasites by these and medical means. for example, dranculis is gone in asia and alsmot completely gone in africa thanks to a nylon mesh screen made by dupont that you put over as a filter to pour water through. it catches the infected copepods (intermediate hosts of drancunculis) so that people dont get infected! Whoa, thats way more info than you wanted to know- but take the class, its awesome fun! wooo!!!

 

[LabMonster]

I took medical micro (it was parasitology and contagious bacteria, etc)

It was taught by a woman who used to be a med tech and the entire time was spent bashing physicians: how stupid doctors are that they get the lab specimens wrong, etc. I hated it.

Who else would teach it? Anyway - not to hijack the thread, but as a rubuttal, we lab folk are regularly yelled (hence the attitude that it's always our fault)and some lab folk get bitter. I have a great working relationship with the physicians I work with - and that is the way it should be.

And I'm with ACID - after taking the class, certain foods become, questionable. Parasites are great evolutionary survivors, and much can be learned of physiology in general by studying them. In addition, many diseases, so many diseases in developing countries are directly caused by, or indirectly caused by parasites.

Take the class - very interesting, esp if you love biology and pathophysiology.

 

[DPS319]

take it. one word; histology. im guessing the class is most likely graduate level? if so the material should be comparable to the module you'll see in med school. therapeutics?

 

[Perrin]

I took Pathogenic Microbiology. It won't help much on the MCAT, but it was an awsome class. We learned the pathogenesis, symptoms, and treatments for a lot of diseases in lecture. In lab, we cultured these organisms and learned how to deduce the offending organism using lab tests.

On a side note, you start to look at the world a little different....did that guy wash his hands after he went to the bathroom....how long has that ham been sitting out...is she coughing b/c she choked on some water or is it secondary TB.

 

[acidhouse303]

omfg i <3 pathogenic microbiology. i was a microbio major. microbes are hte most awesome things ever. i loved path bacteriology class. it wont help that much on MCAT (but more than parasitology id assume) but there are some microbio type questions (like ames test his - stuff). its super interesting and informative though
and if u love microbes as mucha s mme check out:
www.giantmicrobes.com
soo cute

 

[Learfan]

I took a graduate class in general parasitology for undergrad credit many years ago. The class went into the life cycle of parasites infesting both man and domesticated animals ranging from cattle to fish to honey bees. It was a lot of work given the need to memorize all of the information from the text as well as learning to identify a wide variety of ova, unicellular organisms and individual structures within a variety of nematodes and cestodes using the microscope. I came out of the class with a high A grade thinking it was fun. To this day I still remember there is a unicellular parasite that constitutes a true venereal disease of heteracis gallinarum, an intestinal worm that infests poulty. Where else can you get such cool information.

 

[stoic]

I took a graduate class in general parasitology for undergrad credit many years ago. The class went into the life cycle of parasites infesting both man and domesticated animals ranging from cattle to fish to honey bees. It was a lot of work given the need to memorize all of the information from the text as well as learning to identify a wide variety of ova, unicellular organisms and individual structures within a variety of nematodes and cestodes using the microscope. I came out of the class with a high A grade thinking it was fun. To this day I still remember there is a unicellular parasite that constitutes a true venereal disease of heteracis gallinarum, an intestinal worm that infests poulty. Where else can you get such cool information.

i took this same sort of class and hated it so much i got my first C