Math for Med School?

[phatsebz]

hey for all you pre-meds out there....are you taking any math courses? and if so which ones? i know some med schools require it and some dont....but should i take math courses? is calculus reallllllllly neccassary? 🙄 if anyone has any input or could share their experience that'd be awesome...THANKS

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[wolferman]

According to the 2003-2004 MSAR, of the 119 schools responding to the AAMC's survey, only 23 required Caclulus. So, unless you're applying to one of these schools, you may be able to dodge this requirement.

 

[Apparition]

I've taken calc I & II and two upper level math courses because my major requires all four. I would not have taken anything beyond calc I if I didn't have to.

 

[uniqueseraph]

Check the schools that you are going to apply to. Although most require two semesters of mathematics in general, some medical schools do strong suggest taking calculus and statistics. Also, check to see if your school offers Life Sciences Calculus. The course focuses on applications to science and medicine.

 

[ClaireBear]

Hi phatsebz! I've taken calculus 1 and 2 and would definetly reccomend that you think about taking at least Calc 1. The main application of calc is physics and will overall increase your performance in it, which is a big plus cause physics is a pre-req. Math also helps improve your critical thinking skills!


ClaireBear😍

 

[Mike59]

The above posters have touched on courses that are required/non-required (calc etc.)

From a functional standpoint (what really matters), I think its a good idea if med students have a good understanding of statistics. Whether we're involved in research or not, we will spend time throughout our careers studying publications and research papers that we have to evaluate for ourselves. Many will involve correlation studies or cases that discuss risk factors. Having an understanding of p values, distributions, probability and various statistical measures is a useful tool.

If one has the time, a business math course would be helpful in terms of managing your own personal finance (annuities, compound interest etc. that's some good stuff!) and also useful if you want to have your hands dirty in the management of a private practice down the road.

Relating to statistics:
If more premeds understood how curves actually worked, maybe the world (especially after exams are handed back) would be a happier place😛 😀

 

[badger03]

Follow up on the recommendations from previous posters on this thread and check into the specific requirements of each school. These will vary between med schools, but most traditional MD programs ask only for one semester of calculus. Several top med schools (Harvard, WashU, Duke, etc) require two semesters of calc, some without any form of exemption (except for AP coursework). Others want at least one semester of calc supplemented by a course in statistics.

If you have the time and don't mind the workload, I would suggest that you enroll for two semesters of calculus to prevent prior math coursework from limiting your application options. Also, be sure to explore the possibility of bio-stats as it will be useful for your future career.

 

[IrishOarsman]

This probably won't help anyone in the thread, but I thought I'd put it out here... never know when someone will go searching for the specific information.

University of Chicago is the only school that I have talked to that requires some math even if your home university accepts your AP credit. I got credit for 2 sems of calc so I haven't taken any math in college. Might slip in a stats class my last semester (especially if U of C tells me later this year that they'd like that), but as it is I need to get a requirement waiver from them.

Just a 2c addition...

 

[UCLAstudent]

You'll probably need math to take physics, so you should probably just take it to be on the safe side.

 

[agent]

I've only taken Pre-Calc and Statistics. Most of the time you can get by with that.

 

[neofight]

I know adcoms really like applicants who take science courses, but what about math? Is it usually a good idea to take more math?

 

[lady bug]

Its interesting that schools have these calculus requirements, cuz I heard that in a survey taken by medical students, when they were asked abt the one undergrad class that they thought was the most useless in preparing for medical school, most said it was calculus.

 

[Adcadet]

I would definitely take stats. If your school offers a biostats course, that might be even better. See if you can avoid getting a lot of probability - probability, while important to understand the basics of, is not important enough to spend weeks on, as my undergrad stats class did. My grad biostats class (first semester) spent a week on probability, which I thought was the right amount.

 

[FutureM.D.]

by the time I graduate, I will have taken precalc, statistics 1 and 2, and calculus1. i hate math, but my major requires the stats, and a couple schools I"m applying to require calc.
🙁 poor me

 

[Brewster]

I took multivariable calc, statistics, discrete math, and differential equations in college. Stats definitely helped the most for med school, although calc is useful if you want more than a cursory understanding of the statistics.

I would take the conservative route and take two math classes (I recommend calc and stats) in order to cover your bases for all med schools.

Don't stress too much though. Remember, everything you need to know to be a resident you will learn in medical school, this includes any math (mainly a little statistics and arithmetic). As long as you remember how to add/subtract/multiply/divide you will be ok.

 

[premedi-kid]

I recommend taking more advanced math classes in addition to statistics and calculus. Some say that the more math you know the better your analytical skills become. So abstract algebra should be a plus.
😛

 

[Lebesgue]

Originally posted by premedi-kid
I recommend taking more advanced math classes in addition to statistics and calculus. Some say that the more math you know the better your analytical skills become. So abstract algebra should be a plus.
😛

Take as much math as you can handle. Calculus I and II at a bare minimum. First off, a lot of competetive schools require it and it will also improve your analytical skills. 🙂

Just check out the combined April/August 2002 MCAT summary data on the AMCAS web site:

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/pubs.htm

Here is the date broken down by major and MCAT score.

Undergraduate Major (VR / PS / BS / WS)
. Math & Statistics 8.3 / 9.1 / 8.6 / O
. Specialized Health Services 6.9 / 7.1 / 7.4 / O
. Biological Sciences 7.6 / 7.9 / 8.3 / O
. Humanities 8.9 / 8.4 / 8.6 / P
. Physical Sciences 8.0 / 8.9 / 8.6 / O
. Social Sciences 8.2 / 7.9 / 8.1 / P
. Other 7.9 / 7.9 / 8.2 / O

I had feedback during an interview that most students unfortunately lack math skills. Don't take more math so you can apply PDE's to pharmacology. Take it so you can think more logically and abstractly in any discipline you choose.

In short, take some additional math and choose your major wisely.

😉

MATH RULES!!!

 

[LeslieKay]

I am finishing up my first year of med school, and can tell you that you really don't need calculus (unless the school requires it). I never took it, and there has been absolutely nothing so far that I couldn't understand because I never had calculus. Stats is useful. However, as far as loading up on math goes, I think you would be better served to take some liberal arts classes, something non-science, because you will get almost nothing but science once you start school. Part of the purpose of college is to create well-rounded individuals--I wish I'd taken a few literature or history classes in college. Being a well rounded person will help you more as a doctor than anything else. Don't waste your time on math classes you will never use again (unless you plan on going into nuclear medicine or something).

 

[zzeyfzz]

i don't think that med schools would really notice that you were missing calculus from your transcript, but i think that it would be a good class to take. it would help you understand physics better, and that's a prereq for med school. and yeah, calculus teaches you how to think analytically, and that's always useful for the mcat.

 

[neofight]

Originally posted by LeslieKay
I am finishing up my first year of med school, and can tell you that you really don't need calculus (unless the school requires it). I never took it, and there has been absolutely nothing so far that I couldn't understand because I never had calculus. Stats is useful. However, as far as loading up on math goes, I think you would be better served to take some liberal arts classes, something non-science, because you will get almost nothing but science once you start school. Part of the purpose of college is to create well-rounded individuals--I wish I'd taken a few literature or history classes in college. Being a well rounded person will help you more as a doctor than anything else. Don't waste your time on math classes you will never use again (unless you plan on going into nuclear medicine or something).

How could taking math classes be a waste of time if they help develop your analytical skills? I mean, I know that you don't need to know much math for the first two years of medical school since its all memorization. But once you're in your clinical years, having strong problem solving skills will be extremely helpful. I agree that being well-rounded will be helpful when becoming a doctor but I believe this also applies to all professions.

 

[darkdude]

First year calculus should be enough to meet the requirements for just about all medical schools.

 

[JlazyMD]

At least at my school Calc I and II were required if you wanted to go through the Pre-Med Committee. Also, we needed Calc I for Phyics classes. Then again my school didnt have any watered down pre-med science classes.

I would take Calc I in any case, med schools might like to see you can handle it even if they dont require it.

 

[rebaj]

Neofight,

Math classes aren't the only ones that help with problem solving skills - you get a lot of that kind of work out in physics and chem, or at least I did. And if you are talking about kids in college, with a limited amount of time and options to fit in various courses, it can be much more valuable to take other kinds of classes (languages, writing, sociology, psychology, arts) to round themselves out as people and learn other skills that might be just as relevant to the practicing physician.

Myself, I went through Calc I. I think it is useful, both for physics (which I did first, and then spent the calc semester kicking myself for not having had all the shortcuts) and because it gives this kind of cool perspective on how you look at a graph and trends and understand/interpret what a data set on a page can mean. I flipped ahead in the book and concluded that Calc II was going to be mostly more of the flipping shapes around axes and finding volumes and the like, and decided to skip it. I took stat instead, and that seems like it'll be pretty useful.

 

[Pythagoras]

Math is cool 😛

 

[Nuel]

While calculus may seem rather an unnecessary thing to do, I would suggest you take Calculus I, if you can. And if you intend to go into research, I would recommend taking both Calc I and II. Anything outside of research, dump the whole caboodle in the trash bag.

 

[Reality Check4u]

Originally posted by ClaireBear
Hi phatsebz! I've taken calculus 1 and 2 and would definetly reccomend that you think about taking at least Calc 1. The main application of calc is physics and will overall increase your performance in it, which is a big plus cause physics is a pre-req. Math also helps improve your critical thinking skills!


ClaireBear😍

u need a good understanding of physics to so well in your physio class, m1 year

 

[darkdude]

Taking math would really help in taking any physical science course. Plus, it is cool!

 

[CharlesCA]

Calculus 1 was a very eye opening experience for me. It takes everything you learned about math in your entire life and combines it all into something useful.

Calculus 2 isn't really anything interesting. More of the same stuff you do in the end of Calc 1, just harder and more things to memorize.

 

[lil pook]

Originally posted by Pythagoras
Math is cool 😛

NO, math is the COOLEST.

 

[youngin]

What type of stats would u need to take the non-based calc one or the one wit calc? I can take either one. Would taking the calc based one have significant advantages like on the MCAT?

 

[MoosePilot]

What type of stats would u need to take the non-based calc one or the one wit calc? I can take either one. Would taking the calc based one have significant advantages like on the MCAT?

The MCAT doesn't require Calculus.

I can vaguely remember the words, "derivative" and "integral", and I remember that acceleration is a derivative of speed, which means something like if you plot speed as a line, then acceleration is the slope of the line at a given point (or is that backward?). Basically I remember nothing and I spanked the MCAT and made it call me daddy.

 

[PhysicsDoc]

Pre/Med students should be forced to take linear algebra, not calc. It's *infinitely* more useful, and has direct applications to statistics.

 

[willthatsall]

A few schools require Calc I and II. I would at least take Calc I just to keep your options open, unless you already know where you want to go and it doesn't require Calc.

 

[BubbleBobble]

Pre/Med students should be forced to take linear algebra, not calc. It's *infinitely* more useful, and has direct applications to statistics.

I'm trying to wrap my head around how knowing about null-spaces and eigenvalues helps at all when it comes to stats.

I'd say that calculus is much more useful for statistics, since you'll pick up things like standard deviation curves more easily.

 

[BubbleBobble]

True story: I was asked to do a derivative at my Northwestern interview.

But the real story was that Northwestern's group interview was getting pretty silly and laid back, so one of the interviewers had us answer a derivative just so that we could say that we had to do calculus at our med school interviews. 😀

 

[g3pro]

Don't poo-poo calculus!! I was absolutely shocked when I first heard my echocardiology fellows comparing integrals for the volumes of blood in each chamber of the heart! Calculus is used more in medicine than you think.

 

[10minutes]

I love math.

I'm pretty sure Probability and Statistics will help one in medical career. If you want to understand how they work in detail, Calculus is a "must".

 

[youngin]

I may have worded my question before a bit strangely but what i wanted to know is whether or not i should take intro stats or stats I because at my school i can take either or since i have already taken up to calc II which are the req. for stats I (calc based). Any one have this situation? I assume most pre-meds would only need intro stats but would taking the stats I be valuable?

Math is a strong point for me and I am considering doing a double major with bio/econ.

 

[papertiger]

I took Calc I, II, & III and it helped a lot in physics (if you take physics for engineers). I would recommend you take at least Calc I to be on the safe side and it will help with statistics.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

I will sum-up all of what you need of Calculus for medical school into two sentences:

1) Derivative is the slope of a curve.

2) Take the area under a curve for an integral.

Both are useful for Pharmacokinetics which will biztch slap you during your MS-2 year. Or if you decide to do a little research.

Stats is good for a general understanding of mathematical significance of results.

 

[rgporter]

You'll probably need math to take physics, so you should probably just take it to be on the safe side.

Not to mention that the calculus based physics course is usually much easier than the trig based courses. I hated doing 1-2 pages of work to solve something easily done with a derivative or integral.
How about just taking calc and stats just to understand more things? That what college is for after all. Do you really want the bare minimum you can get out of your ecucation? 😀


(yes I took both forms of physics, trig based when I was a bio major, calc based when I switch to cs)

 

[BubbleBobble]

How about just taking calc and stats just to understand more things? That what college is for after all. Do you really want the bare minimum you can get out of your ecucation? 😀

Totally agree. 👍