I'm a biochem major?

[La Presse]

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Today I went to the advisor and received an updated copy of my degree plan. Unfortunately, the school amped up the requirements for the degree (BS in biochem) which included cal 3 and some other stuff in there.

I will enter as a soph next year getting all this research and aux. ecs done and I am starting to wonder if biochem is truly right for me. My goal is an md phd program, but am starting to think that these upper level requirements are a waste of my time (pchem). Is anyone a biochem major that can give me a little insight??

 

[235788]

just stick it out.


99% of college classes are a waste of time. Just jump through the hoops, accel at research and you should be fine.


A lot of people start out wanting a md/phd and realize its too long or that they are not competitive. You have plenty of time.

 

[maybemed2013]

The requirements for you to graduate with a certain degree go for the year you enter, so you probably dont have to take Cal 3.
Example, if you enter the uni in Fall 2010, whatever was required for you to graduate with a biochem degree Fall 2010 is what you have to do. ..... if that was not the case schools would keep changes requirements and no one would graduate.

 

[t0ny]

I'm currently a Biochem major and doing a minor in psychology ending my 3rd year. I have pchem requirement doing it next year, and while doing my next year's schedule i realized how many of these classes are pointless. Overall i suggest just tough it out and keep going.

 

[La Presse]

I may decide to major in something softer with similar requirements. I don't want gpa to be a bad factor in the future.

 

[235788]

I may decide to major in something softer with similar requirements. I don't want gpa to be a bad factor in the future.

like what?


You can probably kiss the md/phd goodbye if your not a hardscience guy. Few schools offer the humanties md/phd

 

[CeeEstee0]

If you don't enjoy difficult science courses, why is MD/PhD the goal anyway?
Whatever though, major in what you want to, and can excel in.

 

[JESSFALLING]

I may decide to major in something softer with similar requirements. I don't want gpa to be a bad factor in the future.

Microbiology would be a good, related major - if your school offers it.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Today I went to the advisor and received an updated copy of my degree plan. Unfortunately, the school amped up the requirements for the degree (BS in biochem) which included cal 3 and some other stuff in there.

Wrong, they didn't if you are a registered biochemistry major. In every university I know you are required to do the requirements they set forth the moment you registered for their major, so you can force them into letting you graduate under the old plan.

 

[Alejandro]

I agree with Triage here-at my school they made some adjustments to the biochem degree, but we were still allowed to graduate with our old requirements (if you already registered for the major).

That being said...if you want to do MD/PHD, I agree with the others-I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to want to depart from the hard sciences since that's what a lot of MSTPers usually focus in anyway. It'll be frankly difficult to convince anyone that you're ready for a research career when you're not taking a hard science major like biochem. (unless you happen to work in some nbio lab or something with pubs all over the map) Clinical research is often done by MDs (not always but more often than not), while mdphds do the hard sciences with the whole "bench to bedside" adage. Where do you see doing your research? What research are you interested in?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

like what?


You can probably kiss the md/phd goodbye if your not a hardscience guy. Few schools offer the humanties md/phd

Not really, a phd program won't care that you didn't major in biochem, they will care if you took enough biochem classes to suffice the basic requirements so he could cut out a lot of the fillet and just take the absolute requirements for entering a Biochem PhD program ( if that is even his goal). Furthermore there are many non-science phd programs such as medical anthropology and public health.

 

[kpcrew]

the first semester of p chem isn't that bad. if i remember it correctly, it was similar to a repeat of general chemistry covering topics such as thermodynamics except with a physics flair accompanying the chemistry. it's once you start getting into quantum mechanics where you learn about the wavefunction and all the fun things that go along with it that it gets to be somewhat overwhelming.

 

[yellowbird12]

.

 

[La Presse]

Thanks everyone. I just don't want to sacrifice my gpa for this.

Additionally, it is not the science concepts I fear, but the calculus concepts that are recurrent in almost every class.

 

[Uspchef]

I agree with what everyone said on here. Most college courses are pointless and you'll probably never use it again. I took pchem and was the worse class ever. Just had to tough it out and survive until you get the med school acceptance letter 🙂