Officially Committing to this Process!

[proclus]

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I registered for the summer 2011 session at my big state university today. 🙂

I'm taking General Chem 1&2 first and planning to use the experience as a kind of test.

If I can ace it, which I believe I can (considering I aced the AP course in high school ... 12 years ago), then I will move forward.

If not, I'll have to seriously re-evaluate this plan.

I currently own my own business & live in China, so I will live with my brother during the summer sesssion and during the semesters when I need to be in the States for post-bacc coursework; fortunately we're both still bachelors so he is looking forward to having an extended house guest!

I'm staggering things a bit because I still need to occasionally return to China to take care of an on-going project, and because it seems better to me to have completed orgo, physics, & bio 2 in the fall before preparing to take the MCAT over Christmas & with a comparatively light schedule in the spring semester.

Tentative plan as it stands:

SUMMER 2011: general chem 1&2
FALL 2011: (china)
SPRING 2012: orgo, physics, bio 1
SUMMER 2012: (china)
FALL 2012: orgo, physics, bio 2
SPRING 2013: biochem; MCAT & apply
SUMMER 2013: (china?? not sure if I need to be in the States this early for interviews/secondary??)
FALL 2013: interviews, secondary, etc.
SPRING & SUMMER 2014: (china)
FALL 2014: matriculate

Very excited about this, I will be 33 when I finally matriculate, god-willing, 37 when I graduate, and 40 minimum when I finish residency. It's been a bit of a windy road to get here.

I'm a big fan of advice, solicited or otherwise, so if you've got any words of wisdom, encouragement, or caution, let's have them! 😉

 

[FrkyBgStok]

assuming the classes are all offered at the best times for you, the only concern i see is taking orgo, physics, and bio all in the same semester. orgo is pretty brutal, and depending on your math skills, physics is pretty brutal. many colleges use bio 1 and 2 as their weed out classes. however only you will be able to judge if you can do this. many take one science class and are overwhelmed while others take 3 and feel like they could add more.

 

[proclus]

assuming the classes are all offered at the best times for you, the only concern i see is taking orgo, physics, and bio all in the same semester. orgo is pretty brutal, and depending on your math skills, physics is pretty brutal. many colleges use bio 1 and 2 as their weed out classes. however only you will be able to judge if you can do this. many take one science class and are overwhelmed while others take 3 and feel like they could add more.

Hello there. 🙂

My understanding was that practically all of the "formal" pre-med post-bacc programs adhered to the following schedule.

SUMMER #1: chem 1 &2
FALL #1: orgo, bio, & physics 1
SPRING #1: orgo, bio, & physics 2
SUMMER #2: (possibly higher bio classes, many don't have a summer #2)

I based my own informal post-bacc plan on this; is it inaccurate?

 

[ejw5075]

Hello there. 🙂

My understanding was that practically all of the "formal" pre-med post-bacc programs adhered to the following schedule.

SUMMER #1: chem 1 &2
FALL #1: orgo, bio, & physics 1
SPRING #1: orgo, bio, & physics 2
SUMMER #2: (possibly higher bio classes, many don't have a summer #2)

I based my own informal post-bacc plan on this; is it inaccurate?

Depends on your university. My school offers the prereqs EVERY semester, including summer sessions. Some schools only offer them in a sequential order (smaller schools, with less demand-- my old campus).

Your plan looks good though, and taking ochem with physics isn't that bad. I'm terrible at physics and managed ochem 2 and physics 3 + cell bio in one semester. Good luck 🙂

 

[proclus]

Depends on your university. My school offers the prereqs EVERY semester, including summer sessions. Some schools only offer them in a sequential order (smaller schools, with less demand-- my old campus).

Your plan looks good though, and taking ochem with physics isn't that bad. I'm terrible at physics and managed ochem 2 and physics 3 + cell bio in one semester. Good luck 🙂

Hey there, perhaps I failed to express myself clearly; I'm not planning on taking the prereqs in this sequence because that is when my uni offers them, I was planning on taking them that way because it mirrored the way that the formal post-bacc programs I've investigated structure their coursework.

I assumed there was some underlying logic to take general chem first during the summer and then the others all together over the course of a year culminating in the MCAT & applications process.

 

[Bru]

Hello there. 🙂

My understanding was that practically all of the "formal" pre-med post-bacc programs adhered to the following schedule.

SUMMER #1: chem 1 &2
FALL #1: orgo, bio, & physics 1
SPRING #1: orgo, bio, & physics 2
SUMMER #2: (possibly higher bio classes, many don't have a summer #2)

I based my own informal post-bacc plan on this; is it inaccurate?

I would say most formal pre-med postbacc programs do not have this schedule. This is probably accurate for the 1 year ones but those are not the majority.

I am sure what you proposed is possible but in the absence of a formal program I'm not sure what ramming it all through in a year gets you (besides done earlier).

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Hello there. 🙂

My understanding was that practically all of the "formal" pre-med post-bacc programs adhered to the following schedule.

SUMMER #1: chem 1 &2
FALL #1: orgo, bio, & physics 1
SPRING #1: orgo, bio, & physics 2
SUMMER #2: (possibly higher bio classes, many don't have a summer #2)

I based my own informal post-bacc plan on this; is it inaccurate?

you are right. many formal programs are set up similar to this, however in your first post you say that you will start orgo, bio, and physics, in the spring, with the second semesters being in the fall, which most programs are definitely NOT set up like that. some colleges offer premed classes all the time, some offer one specific sequences (physics 1 offered ONLY in fall and physics 2 offered ONLY in spring).

 

[proclus]

I would say most formal pre-med postbacc programs do not have this schedule. This is probably accurate for the 1 year ones but those are not the majority.

I am sure what you proposed is possible but in the absence of a formal program I'm not sure what ramming it all through in a year gets you (besides done earlier).

Hm ... ok.

At first glance it seemed like the 2-semesters-1-summer and 2-semesters-2-summers programs were in the majority.

I'll take a closer look and see if my schedule appears to need revision.

Thanks.

 

[proclus]

you are right. many formal programs are set up similar to this, however in your first post you say that you will start orgo, bio, and physics, in the spring, with the second semesters being in the fall, which most programs are definitely NOT set up like that. some colleges offer premed classes all the time, some offer one specific sequences (physics 1 offered ONLY in fall and physics 2 offered ONLY in spring).

Exactly right.

I double-checked with my big state school and the offer the all the 1-level classes I need in the spring as well as fall, so thankfully I'm covered there.

 

[CaptainObvious]

Your plan looks good though, and taking ochem with physics isn't that bad. I'm terrible at physics and managed ochem 2 and physics 3 + cell bio in one semester. Good luck 🙂

Not to derail this thread, but when I see quotes like this, I feel like I don't deserve to be breathing the same air as students like this and I should just start kicking my lunch box down the road.

Good Lord, man...😱

Sorry for the interruption. Carry on...

 

[Generici]

I'm not very knowledgeable about class schedules so I won't comment on that specifically. With the way you have your time divided between school and work, you should have plenty of time to get a head start going into any difficult semester. So if you have to take Orgo, Physics and Bio at the same time, take those text books with you to China and start working through them.

From my experience:
Bio=stamp collecting; make lots of flash cards, memorize and regurgitate

Gen Chem=Math, mostly, a lot of equations and some conceptual stuff. I don't know about doing chem 1 and 2 simultaneously over the summer. Sounds like a LOT of work and not much time to synthesize the information. I did it over a full academic year.

Physics=math; do a lot of problem sets until you see how the equations relate to each other

Orgo=Orgo; ???, this thing is its own beast, but it's doable if you take the time to understand the reactions and the fundamental properties of the chemicals

In general, keep your eye on the ball throughout this process. If you nail these courses and do well on the mcat, combined with living in China and running your own business, you're going to have an awesome app!

Best of luck.