Potential snag

[rgannon08]

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I'm not applying until the next cycle, but I may have found a potential problem with my classes that definitely needs to be addressed. I graduated in the Fall of 2011 but transferred my sophomore year from a state school to the current school I graduated from. In my freshmen year, I only took one Gen Chem class for whatever reason (most likely poor advising for letting that slip by) and even worse, the school I transferred to let it transfer and count for both their Gen Chem 1 and 2 because the class at the public university apparently had "aspects that substantially covered" enough of the curriculum for both classes. While I didn't question it at the time, I can see that as maybe being a big problem for med schools since in reality, I only took one 4 credit gen chem class with a lab. Can anyone relate to this? I am going to shoot my old adviser an email but honestly I feel like they have no clue half of the time as to what's going on. Or would it be best to contact individual schools that I plan on applying to, to see what they say? I mean, it's not the worst situation (and I caught it in time) but it does make me mad that I already graduated and might have to spend the money and time to take a class, and I already took the mcat! I seriously don't know how some advisers keep their jobs

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

College graduation requirements have nothing at all to do with med school admission requirements. You will need to take the second semester of chem at some point before matriculating at med school. Don't feel bad about taking classes after graduating; most of us on the nontrad forum have had to do the same thing. You could probably knock the class out in five or six weeks over the summer. There's also no point in getting mad at your adviser. They are there to give you advice, but ultimately it is your responsibility to plan for your future. Failing to inquire about med school admission requirements was your mistake, not theirs. As you said, you caught the problem in time, so now you need to correct it by taking the class, either at the same college or a different one.

 

[rgannon08]

Yeah, I figured I would end up having to take it. I'm not bitter or anything.. but it's not just this I am upset about, I have had numerous issues with one adviser in particular and this is just the icing on the cake. There's a public school 30 min from me that offers it as a 4-5 week course in the summer, but that would be OK for applications? The course starts in July and ends in August, so would I be OK applying in June and updating schools once I received my grade? Or would I have to wait to submit applications until after the course is finished?

 

[muddyduck7]

I am pretty sure that as long as you indicate on your AMCAS that the second Gen Chem class will be taken in the future and before matriculation (there is a designation for that), you should be fine. Then after you complete the class, you could send an update to the schools (which acknowledge said updates) that you completed the course and received __ grade. ADCOMs are typically okay with reviewing applications that are missing a class, but the onus is on you to complete it before matriculation.

I would still check with your academic advisor. If you need to take the class, I would submit the primary in June (with Gen Chem 2 designated as future class) so that it gets verified by July. Submit your secondaries / take the class. Then update the schools about the class.

There are some schools, like Penn, that don't have a rigid course requirement. Alternatively, any other advanced Chemistry class like biochem / physical chemistry / inorganic chemistry can replace Gen Chem 2. My school only had one semester of Gen Chem and we took Biochem after the Orgo series.

 

[SN12357]

Yeah, I figured I would end up having to take it. I'm not bitter or anything.. but it's not just this I am upset about, I have had numerous issues with one adviser in particular and this is just the icing on the cake. There's a public school 30 min from me that offers it as a 4-5 week course in the summer, but that would be OK for applications? The course starts in July and ends in August, so would I be OK applying in June and updating schools once I received my grade? Or would I have to wait to submit applications until after the course is finished?

Don't wait until after the class to apply. Apply with it listed as a future course and you should be fine.

 

[edgerock24]

Yeah you need an extra chem course. That's impressive that you took on Orgo with only 1 semester of Gen Chem. How'd you pull that off??

 

[rgannon08]

Yeah you need an extra chem course. That's impressive that you took on Orgo with only 1 semester of Gen Chem. How'd you pull that off??

The first few weeks were definitely tough but I got the hang of it. Orgo was one of my favorite classes throughout undergrad so I worked really hard and ended up getting an A. Our prof told us it was worthless to memorize mechanisms for our final and to emphasize general trends (which, for the most part, I agree with) but I ended up memorizing the entire years' worth of mechanisms for the final and got an A..I'm counting on that photographic memory to come in handy for med school 😀