LABS??? are they necessary?

[MedicineMike]

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Im going back to take 8-10 science courses to qualify for pre-reqs. I was wondering if it is necessary to take a lab with every single one of the pre-reqs. If not, which labs are recommended for which courses, etc?!

Thanks!

 

[soldier2surgeon]

The requirement is usually a year of physics, biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry labs along with their corresponding lectures. I have not seen any school requiring additional lab work. Any research projects that you involve yourself with might bring about additional laboratory experience.

 

[MrReno]

pretty much necessary. you have to take the labs that go along with the requirements that soldier2surgeon has said.

 

[bellakk]

Im going back to take 8-10 science courses to qualify for pre-reqs. I was wondering if it is necessary to take a lab with every single one of the pre-reqs. If not, which labs are recommended for which courses, etc?!

Thanks!

I'm pretty much just repeating what the others have said but with a little more detail 😉

For gen chem 1 and 2, the labs are included in the class anywhere you take them so you have no choice, thats why they're each 5 (usually) hours credit. (although double check at your school, it might be different!)

Most med schools require introductory biology/zoology lab along with the course. At some places the lab in included, at some it is a seperate course. As for the upper division sciences (most med schools require at least one course and suggest 3 or more. stuff like physiology, histology, cell biology, comparative anatomy, etc), the lab totally depends on the school. At my school Cell Biology didnt offer a lab at all. Genetics and Physiology both offered labs, but they were seperate from the lecture and could be taken a totally different times. Histology and Anatomy both included a lab. At a neighboring university, each of these courses included a required lab.

Physics 1 and 2 both require labs, at some schools they are included, at some they are seperate.

For Organic 1 and 2, at some schools they both have a lab included, but at my school there was just a 2 credit hour organic lab to be taken concurrently or after organic 2.

Although many medical schools might not say in their requirements that labs are necessary, if you look at the required number of credit hours, taking a lab may be the only way to meet the prereq requirements. For example, at OSU-COM, it requires 8 hours of Organic Chem, well Organic 1 and Organic 2 are only 3 hours each, so you have to take the 2 hour lab to get up to the required 8 hours (and substituting biochem for the ochem lab doesnt count!). Its kind of the opposite with biology, 8 hours are required, well at my school, intro zoo was 4 hours, the intro zoo lab was 1 hour and then an upper division science was 3 hours. So technically, my bio hours were knocked out, but i've heard straight from the horses mouth that the more upper division sciences you take (not just lecture courses, but labs too) the better prepared you will be and the more you set yourself apart from the pack.

So the short answer is: yes, pretty much all the pre-reqs require a lab!

My biggest tip for you is to learn all that material very will when you take those prereqs! Those prereqs are pretty much all that is on the MCAT, so if you learn it all well when you take the courses, you wont have to review as much while studying for the MCAT! (this is coming from someone who didnt do that; I took those prereqs during my freshman year in like 04 and am now having to relearn it all!)

best of luck!