Lab Prerequisite Question

[Bluemirage]

Got a question for all of you. For some reason the Organic Chemestry Lab 1 here at UTSA is worth 2 credit hours and requires over 5 hours of lab time a week. The science department advisor is insisting that I need to do Organic Chem Lab I and Organic Chem Lab II in order to be considered for medical school (I'm not sure if I really trust this advisor....she seems to give false information at times eg. she told me that I must finish all prerequisites before I can even turn in my application to medical schools. She claims that if I have a few classes missing when I apply they will toss my application aside and give priority to others who have finished all their prereqs by the time they apply). However, on nearly all prerequisite lists of each school, they are looking for only 2 credit hours of organic chemistry lab. Should I take 4 credit hours of organic chemistry lab? I really do not want to take too much more than I have to since I work full-time and I am getting old (28 years old)....I need to be as efficient with each semester as possible. Thanks for any advice!!

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[flighterdoc]

Got a question for all of you. For some reason the Organic Chemestry Lab 1 here at UTSA is worth 2 credit hours and requires over 5 hours of lab time a week. The science department advisor is insisting that I need to do Organic Chem Lab I and Organic Chem Lab II in order to be considered for medical school (I'm not sure if I really trust this advisor....she seems to give false information at times eg. she told me that I must finish all prerequisites before I can even turn in my application to medical schools. She claims that if I have a few classes missing when I apply they will toss my application aside and give priority to others who have finished all their prereqs by the time they apply). However, on nearly all prerequisite lists of each school, they are looking for only 2 credit hours of organic chemistry lab. Should I take 4 credit hours of organic chemistry lab? I really do not want to take too much more than I have to since I work full-time and I am getting old (28 years old)....I need to be as efficient with each semester as possible. Thanks for any advice!!

The general requirements are a year (two semesters/three quarters) of Organic Chemistry WITH LAB. The schools don't seem to care how many credits a school gives the lab (and most schools have a lecture for 3 units, a lab for 1 unit, and a recitation/discussion for 1 unit for a total of 5).

 

[skiz knot]

not every school has the requirement for 2 years of lab.

not every school cares* (initially) if you took the second semester of lab.

I didn't have the second semester of lab and still received interviews and acceptences at schools that "required" it.

*I now have the second lab credit finished, but schools don't know this at this point (I have not updated them yet, i figure i am already accepted...). I took the lab because I was worried about schools finding out that I did not meet the requirements and dropping me or something.

Contact individual schools to see if requirements can be waived.

 

[Bluemirage]

Anymore comments or suggestions?

 

[liverotcod]

I would agree that the general requirement is two semesters of organic lecture and lab, with credit requirements being rare. Plus, taking the lab at the same time as the lecture was, for me, a big help in understanding the material.

Edited: also, spectroscopy was a lab-only topic at my school, so I needed it to help prepare for the mcat.