I am thinking of taking General BIO I to determine if I should be a "pre-med"?

[anephew]

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A short while ago I was contemplating a career in medicine because I genuinely enjoy helping people. However, these past few weeks i've been thinking maybe i would rather stick with chemical engineering since i have a ball staying up till midnight on friday nights for homework deadlines (call me nerdy, sue me 😛). The thing is though, I don't want to take General Biology. Haven't taken it yet, and from what i have heard about it, i really don't want to take it. I'm a sophomore. Keep in mind i'm not a "pre-med", therefore i'm not taking the typical pre-med track. So my question is: If I do decide to take Biology I and find it god aweful boring, should I throw out the whole "i should be a doctor in the future" complex? I still plan on getting clinical experience to see how I like the healthcare aspect but still... Should I volunteer first, then take Bio? I should I just take Bio first?

Also, are there any med students here that hated the pre-med pre-reqs but thoroughly enjoy med school curricula?

 

[FluffyRabbit]

Taking pre-med classes is quite different from the actual practice of medicine. I don't really think something like this should be playing a big role in your decision.

If you really want to be a doctor, you'll find the motivation to get through the class even if you're not doing well.

If you don't want to be a doctor, you'll be miserable doing it even if you got an A in the class.

 

[boaz]

A short while ago I was contemplating a career in medicine because I genuinely enjoy helping people. However, these past few weeks i've been thinking maybe i would rather stick with chemical engineering since i have a ball staying up till midnight on friday nights for homework deadlines (call me nerdy, sue me 😛). The thing is though, I don't want to take General Biology. Haven't taken it yet, and from what i have heard about it, i really don't want to take it. I'm a sophomore. Keep in mind i'm not a "pre-med", therefore i'm not taking the typical pre-med track. So my question is: If I do decide to take Biology I and find it god aweful boring, should I throw out the whole "i should be a doctor in the future" complex? I still plan on getting clinical experience to see how I like the healthcare aspect but still... Should I volunteer first, then take Bio? I should I just take Bio first?

Also, are there any med students here that hated the pre-med pre-reqs but thoroughly enjoy med school curricula?

If you mean the rote memorization thing, then yes, there is a lot of rote memorization in the first 2 years of med school.

Also, I think a lack of a general appreciation for biological science would preclude an appreciation for the science of medicine. This is what's unique about this prereq as compared to the others. And that's one reason why there's such a high proportion of bio majors amongst premeds as compared to, say, pre-law. But, you still don't know whether or not you appreciate biological science since you have not yet taken any biology classes.

 

[BlitzSleep]

Biology 1 sucked. I performed better in Histology and enjoyed it a lot more.

 

[Mattabet]

Nobody 'likes' all the pre-med reqs, but if you really hate them all, it's probably not worth making yourself miserable for the next decade of your life with (and then maybe the next 30 years after that). If you're going the medicine route, it's something you have to do; if it makes you miserable it may not be worth it.

My recommendation would be to try the bio course. You'll be able to tell in one semester if the requirements are something you're going to be able to tolerate, or if you should stay with the engineering track (or something else altogether). You won't know until you try it.