My Turn: Can you look at my schedule and tell me if I should add or drop some?

[Beau Geste]

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[blee]

I'm guessing that you've got things going on other than just school. It sounds like a good schedule, except for the calc part. Are you taking it because you haven't taken college calculus yet? That's fine, of course, but most pre-med level physics courses are going to require a little bit of rudimentary calculus. You could probably get through those parts just through memorization, but I don't know how easy or hard that would be.

 

[Elmer]

Premed level Physics should not require calculus just trigonometry unless you need calc-based physics for your degree plan. Have you already taken Gen Chem?

You probably should take physics II the semester before the MCAT Fall 06. You could wait and take genetics the semester of the MCAT or after MCAT.

If you have other full time responsibilities, you should only take one course the semester of the MCAT and take Kaplan/Examkrackers/Princeton MCAT course.

 

[blee]

I guess it depends on where you go. The only physics course appropriate for premeds at my univeristy required knowledge of basic integrals and derivatives, including a couple that aren't formulaic (eg cos/sin, ln). Nothing crazy, though, and probably survivable with enough memorization.

As for timing wrt the MCAT, I took the April MCAT while enrolled in second-semester phys/bio/orgo. Not the best idea if you have to work at the same time, but by the time of the test we had covered just about everything that was on the MCAT. Taking physics II the same semester as the MCAT should not be a significant problem.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

You might want to run this by your pre-med advisor. Mine told me it was important to take "competitive semesters", i.e., full-time enrollment. She said that part-time undergrad doesn't give the ADCOMs a good feel for if you can handle the rigors of full-time medical education -- even if you're working. Lots of students work part-time while they're in school full-time. So I would pass that advice along and suggest you take an additional course each semester and bump your credits up to the minimum to be full-time. I'm not saying take anymore science courses. Take something fun and easy.

 

[gaki]

I agree with what the folks said about calc. i took it because it was the level I got placed into, but if i knew I could get away without having to take calc 2, i would have gladly just not taken it, or taken statistics instead (easier, and sometimes preferable, if you are interested in research).
calc 1 wasnt so bad but it wasnt a walk in the park (for me at least).

Hi guys,

Here's my tentative schedule for the next few years - please tell me if it looks ok, or if I should be taking any other classes as well. THANKS!

Fall '05: Orgo I, Genetics
Spring '06: Orgo II/Lab, Cell Bio
Summer '06: Human Phys
Fall '06: Physics I/Lab, Biochem/Lab
Spring '07: Physics II, Endocrinology MCAT
Summer '07: Neurobiology, Calc I
Fall '07: Micro/Lab, Cell Phys?
Spring '08: Path. Micro, Histology?, Immunology? Graduate w/ 2nd B.S.
Summer '08: Calc II? (If I need it)

THANKS AGAIN!