At least for the schools in California, they don't require calculus, only a year of math, however statistics only fullfills a portion of this requirement (at least at UC Davis).
At my school, UC Davis, the science majors have to take at least year of calculus, and a quarter of statistics. We don't even offer any graded math courses below calc (e.g.: trig, algebra, etc). In addition to the year of calc, and quarter of stats, I also did linear algebra and differential equations to fullfill bioengineering course requirements. More recently, as a grad student, I did 2 quarters of medical statistics at the med school.
In all honesty, math is my weakest subject. I would prefer not to take it, but i sucked it up and survived. In retrospect, I found my background in calculus gave me a better appreciation of basic concepts in science. Like the concept of work in physics, which is applicable to chemistry and physiology too. Of course people can do just as well on the MCAT, and med school without any calculus.
I think the most important math course for every pre-med would be upper division statistics (or higher). As a physician, you will read lots of journals regarding clinical/lab studies which will have p-values. To be able to interpret these results and study designs is a lot more useful in the long run than solving differential equations. So what do i think? I think if you like you can suck it up and take more math classes. If you do well, it only adds to your GPA, and your knowledge. Why would that be bad?
😉 But you don't HAVe to take it
