How important is genetics in undergrad for med school?

[LBJ2Chicago]

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Hi everyone,

The title says it all. I only took genetics to meet a specific requirement for a school. Now, I've been accepted to a school higher on my list and I've decided not to attend the school requiring genetics. Should I continue with the class? It requires a lot of work (more than any other class and I want to know if I'm wasting my time)

Let me know what you current med students think.

Thanks

 

[surfer4life722]

Hi everyone,

The title says it all. I only took genetics to meet a specific requirement for a school. Now, I've been accepted to a school higher on my list and I've decided not to attend the school requiring genetics. Should I continue with the class? It requires a lot of work (more than any other class and I want to know if I'm wasting my time)

Let me know what you current med students think.

Thanks

My undergrad genetics class is nothing similar to the genetics in medical school from my experience. So i would say not to bother with it. If you wanted to prepare, id study some immunology or something. That's what kicked my butt.

 

[dancingdoctor13]

I agree-probably THE hardest class I have ever attempted to take-you can't bs your way through this bio class if you can't do the problems I would say drop it if your secure! I am considering the same thing at this very moment- Good luck!

 

[Slane]

Unless a school you're applying to requires it, I wouldn't waste your time, especially if you think you're going to struggle with it (Better to not take it than take it and hurt your GPA.)

 

[adam91385]

The quality of your genetics class should play a role in your decision. I took both molecular genetics and general genetics in undergrad and it paid off big for me. It was one of the better decisions I made. The class was very difficult, but I didnt have to kill myself the first month of MFM in medical school because it was all review. I say take genetics and biochemistry. You will thank yourself in the long run. Just my Take on it.

 

[LBJ2Chicago]

Thanks everyone for the information. It seems the genetics I'm learning are focused on genetic mapping and finding probabilities of a progeny receiving some genotype....These don't sound like high yield med school genetics. Can someone tell me how genetics is applied in med school?

 

[Phlame217]

Genetics, Molecular Cell Physiology, and Cell Biology have all saved my butt so far in my first semester. Our medicinal biochem course encompasses certain things from all these courses plus the core component, biochem itself.

It has been my savior because I don't have to study biochem much at all to pull and A on tests.

 

[tndoc12]

Hi everyone,

The title says it all. I only took genetics to meet a specific requirement for a school. Now, I've been accepted to a school higher on my list and I've decided not to attend the school requiring genetics. Should I continue with the class? It requires a lot of work (more than any other class and I want to know if I'm wasting my time)

Let me know what you current med students think.

Thanks

I've heard that genetics at my school is very similar to genetics in med school. The professor is pretty hard core though...

 

[Daedra22]

My genetics teacher was awesome in undergrad, and I don't know what I would have done in our cell science block without that background. I felt really bad for some of my classmates who decided against taking genetics. I guess it depends on what school you are in and what school you plan to go to, but in my experience it's a good "investment."

 

[Luv2Cut]

Your not going to see genetics much in your routine med school classes. However, it is definately a good class and a good background to have as the exposure you've had to classes like these will always help you in the future. For example, I took micro, genetics, embryology, biochemistry and histology as an undergraduate and these all helped during 1st year. I would say histology helped me the most because I had a great but difficult undergrad professor (I made a B in his class, but an A in med school and even skipped the final). Embryology was definately a plus and my favorite undergrad class. We didn't see it a whole lot during med school but while everybody else was lost, I was eating it up.

The truth is you are exposed to so many topics and reading to absorb, that ANY EXPOSURE you've had to a subject will always help you in med school.

If your trying to manage your time and you have a choice, go for classes like biochemistry or histology.

 

[kopitar]

Genetics will give make biochem a little easier, but I dont think its worth it. I only took it because it was an option for elective- required for my degree. I would drop it; focus on your other classes.

Hi everyone,

The title says it all. I only took genetics to meet a specific requirement for a school. Now, I've been accepted to a school higher on my list and I've decided not to attend the school requiring genetics. Should I continue with the class? It requires a lot of work (more than any other class and I want to know if I'm wasting my time)

Let me know what you current med students think.

Thanks

 

[avatarftw]

I would actually recommend taking as many science classes as possible in undergrad to prepare for medical school, especially anatomy.

Hi everyone,

The title says it all. I only took genetics to meet a specific requirement for a school. Now, I've been accepted to a school higher on my list and I've decided not to attend the school requiring genetics. Should I continue with the class? It requires a lot of work (more than any other class and I want to know if I'm wasting my time)

Let me know what you current med students think.

Thanks

 

[willdaniel76]

Fill your electives with science classes. You may have to push yourself to get through them at times because lets face it, 3 years of straight science can get tedious to say the least but it will only help in the end. In the case of genetics I can't say that having taken the class has helped me much 1st year but your experience might vary.

So my advice would be to continue. If only to prepare yourself in learning things you may find difficult.

 

[chiapete]

Eh, I feel like everything I learned in undergrad was covered in med school in a matter of weeks (not all continuous) but you will have to relearn everything you learned to a (usually) more detailed level. On the level of material, I don't think its worth your time. But as the previous poster commented, it is important to be able to learn things you find difficult, in respect that its more important to have good study skills and learning habits than to having previous exposure going in. Personally, after first, year I feel as though I should have spent time learning something I found interesting (foreign language, musical instrument etc...) instead of spending a semester learning a week of material in med school. Everything you need for med school you will learn in med school.... you certainly won't have time to take up a language or anything else you find cool and interesting.
...So to make a long story short. I would have rather taken more spanish or something instead of most of my higher level sciences.

 

[Rollo]

Thanks everyone for the information. It seems the genetics I'm learning are focused on genetic mapping and finding probabilities of a progeny receiving some genotype....These don't sound like high yield med school genetics. Can someone tell me how genetics is applied in med school?

You're correct. Those are not high-yield medical school genetics topics.

I say forget it mainly because of the above information.

 

[Tekar]

Eh, I feel like everything I learned in undergrad was covered in med school in a matter of weeks (not all continuous) but you will have to relearn everything you learned to a (usually) more detailed level. On the level of material, I don't think its worth your time. ..
...So to make a long story short. I would have rather taken more spanish or something instead of most of my higher level sciences.

I wish I had taken it, if only to have familiarity with the volume of information they cover in a day in medical school. There was so little for the new information to grasp in my brain in the way of prior knowledge, it was, and still is a challenge. It's doable, but awareness would have been helpful. Just sayin...

Also, what will be most important from that class is the genetic abnormality diseases, family genologies for the various types of chromosomal abnormalities. They'll show up again on quizzes and stuff here.....at least they did for us. The detail stuff is pretty useless.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Drop it like it's hot. Genetics is one of the lowest yield classes for med school, at least it was for me.

Generally for med school prep I'd rate it like this: Physio > Biochem > Micro = Immuno > Anatomy = Neuro > Genetics. If I could go back in time micro would have been really nice. Just in terms of saving me time and getting out of my required lab. Immuno is probably just as useful but it might be too painful to endure just for prep. You can do fine in anatomy, neuro or genetics in med school with no past exposure, whereas in physio and biochem I think I actually benefitted significantly in my performance due to a past exposure. Those two subjects (and immuno) are huge, show up a lot in second year classes, and can be poorly taught in med school to boot. The stronger your background the better.

 

[Instatewaiter]

unimportant