Pre-med advice

[addisonda]

Sorry if this thread is long, its just I need some advice on how I should go about my undergraduate career and apply to med school. I am currently a high school senior who takes college classes at a community college in Oklahoma City. After high school I plan on attending the oklahoma city community college for a year and half, and after that attending Oklahoma University. I have a plan laid out that I hope to follow, any advice on this plan would be helpful. Plan on taking MCAT During Soph II Semester and Applying to OU Med School With 102 hours. The minimum is 90 hours and I would have taken all the requirements. My question is would they admit me with most of my classes at a community college, but on track to graduate with a Bachelors in Zoology at OU. I know ALL the classes transfer to OU. Questions:
Is this courseload too hard? I know I can handle alot, should I take more hours in a semester? Would a med school admit me if i took a lot of classes at a community college and made straight A's or like a 3.9, and did well on the MCAT? Should I wiat to apply to med school? When is the best time to apply? Any suggestions or criticism made on this would be extremely helpful. Also any revised plans would be really good, thank you


Plan

High school: intro to psych.-3hours, Geography-3hours, Eng I-3hours Chem I- 5 hours

Freshman I: Chem II-5 hours, Eng II- 3 hours, College Alg-3 hours, Biology- 4 hours

Winter Intersession: Humanities- 3 hours

Freshman II: Organic Chem I- 5 hours, Calculus I- 3 hours, Physics-4 hours Advanced Eng- 3 hours

Summer: Organic Chem II - 5 hours, Am Fed Gov't - 3 hours

Soph I: physics II-4 hours, Microbiology- 5hours,Humanities-3 hours, Genetics- 3 hours(take at OU), Cell Bio- 3 hours(take at OU)

Intersession: Humanities-3hours


Soph II:All AT OU, Intro to BioCHem- 3 hours, Zoology - 4 hours, Critic eval of Biol. Research -1 hour, Found. in biomedical research - 2 hours, Prin of physiology- 3 hours, Humanities -3 hours.

Summer: Humanities-3 hours

APPLY TO MED SCHOOL!

Junior I: Health sports science req.- 4 hours, Astronomy -3 hours, Mammology -4 hours, Ecology -3 hours

Junior II: Herpetology - 3 hours, Senior Capstone-3 hours,Hist of Science -3 hours. Free elec- 3 hours, free elec -3 hours.

Graduate wit Bachelors in Zoology. ** Ou doesnt offer a bachelors in Biology or I would do that**

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[addisonda]

I forgot to add that I will have many volunteer hours, and some shadowing experiance. Thanks

 

[Docta "O"]

i really don't think that people here want to analyze your entire undergraduate plan

 

[virilep]

well, most people on here won't tell u if this is a good plan or not. I mean honestly, what we have to say about this is that you should talk to the pre-med advisor at your school or contact a person at the adcom of OU. and that's probably the most reliable source.

 

[PineappleGirl]

I find the problem with these kinds of plans is that sometimes the courses you have planned to take in one semester end up not even being offered and it throws off the entire plan.
While planning is good to a certain extent, you have to be prepared for the unexplected, and usually, things turn out totally different from what you had planned.

Just my $0.02

 

[chan]

Dude, Chill out... You are only in high school. I would suggest that you actually do an undergrad major besides pre-med or Bio. Look into all avenues of education before you take the leap into medicine.

 

[Uegis]

One important thing is to do well on your JC classes right now. They are required to be listed on your AMCAS, so don't think its just for fun right now. I had a friend who took a web design/html class junior year of high school, then found out he needed to report it on his AMCAS. Took a big hit for that.

 

[daysleeprx]

This looks ridiculous to me. What's your rush anyway? Have you actually even looked at this plan? All your vacations and summers are going to be spent taking classes! You know, college is supposed to be some of the best times of your life, but I can promise you it won't be if you take a courseload like that. Enjoy your time in college. The only thing taking classes like that is going to do is burn you out. And honestly, I don't see how you plan to even have time for ECs with that much studying.

 

[2112_rush]

This looks ridiculous to me. What's your rush anyway? Have you actually even looked at this plan? All your vacations and summers are going to be spent taking classes! You know, college is supposed to be some of the best times of your life, but I can promise you it won't be if you take a courseload like that. Enjoy your time in college. The only thing taking classes like that is going to do is burn you out. And honestly, I don't see how you plan to even have time for ECs with that much studying.

There's nothing wrong with working hard if that's what you really want to do with your undergrad summer. I agree with this poster's advide though. You won't get many summers off in med school/residency. Take advantage of your undergrad summers to do things you've always wanted to do.

 

[addisonda]

Ok thank you for the advice. The reason I posted is because I thought all of you all were in pre-med or out of it, so i thought i could get some really good advice. I know about the college is the best years of your life blah blah blah stuff , but there is nothing wrong with wanting to work hard is there? thanks

 

[Siggy]

Take 4 years of college to begin with. Take classes that you want to outside of the science courses. I want to minor in Poli-Sci because I like it. I also like bio.

Get some ECs. I know you scheduled some research, but do something medically. Volunteer at a hospital or become an EMT. EMT isn't that hard to get, but finding a job might be (EMT is worthless unless you work as something that requires it).

Med schools, unlike undergraduate, do not care about what your schedule is or how hard your classes are (within reason, i.e. don't take 8 units). They care about grades and there is no easy way to determin if a class is honors or not. At UC Irvine (my school), G Chem is taken either as Chem 1 ABC (UCI is on the quarter system of 3 10 week quarters) and Honors G Chem is H2ABC. Another college could be chem 101-102 for basic chem and Chem 103-104 for honors G-chem. Closer med schools might know about how classes are set up.

 

[mwhou]

1. I agree with the other posters - plans like this can be upset easilly by courses not being offered etc. It would really hurt when you find out due to scheduling problems you cant graduate for another year, and you only lack 6 hrs or something...it happens.

2. Medical schools don't care if you finish in 3 years. If anything, they probably dislike it, thinking you missed out on some personal growth during college.

3. The only way to know how many courses you can handle at a school is to try. The safest route is to take a safe number (lowish) the 1st semester at a new school. It would really hurt if you made straight A's in CC, but found the initial adjustment to university hard (many do, many for non-accademic reasons as well) and you permently ruined your record with bad grades. Once you get the bad grades, you have to take multiple extra semesters to bring your GPA back up - its a tough situation. However, taking a lighter load and finding out you can add an extra class or two next semester doesn't subject you to those risks.

4. Spend time exploring college and life. The schools really will be MUCH MORE IMPRESSED by someone that has figured out what they enjoy personally & academically, than someone that graduated in 3 years.

***Although you do need good #'s for med school, there are a LOT of people with good #'s, the schools have their choice among these people. When deciding, it really is important to them that you have experienced life enough to know this is what you want to do. They do not want to admit people that quit. A 3yr plan means you will have a harder time convincing them.

Good Luck!

 

[mwhou]

And to answer your actual questions..

Your Soph. I & II look like VERY hard semesters. Especially considering you will have your first semester at university for II & will be taking the MCAT

I would look for ways to ease that portion of your schedule, even if you ignore the rest of our advice. Talk to some pre-med students at the university, you should find some pre-professional groups there for pre-meds. They can give you some direct info on classes at that school and the difficulty level. Just show them your Soph II and Jr I schedule, and tell them your MCAT date. Ask them how hard from 1-10 the schedule is, and 1-10 how many people they know that have SUCCESSFULLY taken that number of courses. They will give you the most relevant info.

 

[slickb12]

Sorry if this thread is long, its just I need some advice on how I should go about my undergraduate career and apply to med school. I am currently a high school senior who takes college classes at a community college in Oklahoma City. After high school I plan on attending the oklahoma city community college for a year and half, and after that attending Oklahoma University. I have a plan laid out that I hope to follow, any advice on this plan would be helpful. Plan on taking MCAT During Soph II Semester and Applying to OU Med School With 102 hours. The minimum is 90 hours and I would have taken all the requirements. My question is would they admit me with most of my classes at a community college, but on track to graduate with a Bachelors in Zoology at OU. I know ALL the classes transfer to OU. Questions:
Is this courseload too hard? I know I can handle alot, should I take more hours in a semester? Would a med school admit me if i took a lot of classes at a community college and made straight A's or like a 3.9, and did well on the MCAT? Should I wiat to apply to med school? When is the best time to apply? Any suggestions or criticism made on this would be extremely helpful. Also any revised plans would be really good, thank you


Plan

High school: intro to psych.-3hours, Geography-3hours, Eng I-3hours Chem I- 5 hours

Freshman I: Chem II-5 hours, Eng II- 3 hours, College Alg-3 hours, Biology- 4 hours

Winter Intersession: Humanities- 3 hours

Freshman II: Organic Chem I- 5 hours, Calculus I- 3 hours, Physics-4 hours Advanced Eng- 3 hours

Summer: Organic Chem II - 5 hours, Am Fed Gov't - 3 hours

Soph I: physics II-4 hours, Microbiology- 5hours,Humanities-3 hours, Genetics- 3 hours(take at OU), Cell Bio- 3 hours(take at OU)

Intersession: Humanities-3hours


Soph II:All AT OU, Intro to BioCHem- 3 hours, Zoology - 4 hours, Critic eval of Biol. Research -1 hour, Found. in biomedical research - 2 hours, Prin of physiology- 3 hours, Humanities -3 hours.

Summer: Humanities-3 hours

APPLY TO MED SCHOOL!

Junior I: Health sports science req.- 4 hours, Astronomy -3 hours, Mammology -4 hours, Ecology -3 hours

Junior II: Herpetology - 3 hours, Senior Capstone-3 hours,Hist of Science -3 hours. Free elec- 3 hours, free elec -3 hours.

Graduate wit Bachelors in Zoology. ** Ou doesnt offer a bachelors in Biology or I would do that**

Something to consider: I do know of some medical schools who will NOT grant credit for courses taken in high school at a community college (2 year schools). Example: Vanderbilt. They told me that they will not grant credit for the English I took at a community college in high school. So the thing to do would be to see if the medical schools you're interested will accept credits from a JC while in high school, or from a JC outright (although, I don't think this will a problem). Finally, why in the world take all that science?!? Good grief! Undergrad is a time to explore interests. You're setting yourself up for a miserable, intellectually stagnant schooling. Med schools also look down upon not branching out.

Good luck!

 

[tacrum43]

I think it's great that you're planning ahead, but it is very likely that your plan will change. I would advise against taking so many of your medical school pre-reqs at JC, med schools don't like that. Take them at the four year school. Also, I see you're planning on graduating a year early. I would not do this. I know it seems like it's gonna take forever before you're really a doctor, but trying to cram so much in so quickly can lead to poor academic performance and burnout (I know a very smart and hard working person this happened to who graduated in 3 years and went to vet school). Actually, I think his grades were fine, but he definitely said he felt burnt out...well anyhow, take the full four years. However, taking the MCAT in August of your sophomore year might be a good idea, so long as you have had all of the core classes for it (including genetics, that's a BIG part of the bio section). Taking it early like that will allow you to have more study time over the summer and you can also retake it in April if need be without falling behind in the application process. Also, you may not want to major in bio or zoology. Just from a numbers standpoint, undergrads majoring in biological sciences have some of the lowest acceptance rates of any major. Maybe you should try something else you enjoy like English, Political Science or Philosophy. Of course you may want to stick with the hard core science if you plan on applying for one of the MD/PhD type programs. I also agree with one of the previous posters that it is sometimes hard to get classes at the time you need them and that can be difficult to deal with. You have a very ambitious plan, but I think you should pace yourself a little. College is much harder than high school (especially once you get to the upper division classes), so don't over extend yourself.

In summary, apply to medical after your Junior year of College. Take the MCAT the August before if you are ready or else that April. Have your application ready to go in June and your letter of recommendation rounded up. Continue your volunteer activities and do research if you want (you probably should even if you don't want). Buy a copy of the AAMC's Medical School Admissions Requirements (the new one come out each April and it costs $25).

And keep in mind that even if you get to the finish line a year earlier than other people your age, there are still all those other applicants from the year ahead of you that are not as exhausted from trying to cram 4 years into 3. It's not a race; take your time and you'll probably accomplish more that way and will have time for the "intellectual maturation afforded by a well-rounded liberal arts education" that many schools look for.

Good luck to you, Oklahoma!

Sorry if this thread is long, its just I need some advice on how I should go about my undergraduate career and apply to med school. I am currently a high school senior who takes college classes at a community college in Oklahoma City. After high school I plan on attending the oklahoma city community college for a year and half, and after that attending Oklahoma University. I have a plan laid out that I hope to follow, any advice on this plan would be helpful. Plan on taking MCAT During Soph II Semester and Applying to OU Med School With 102 hours. The minimum is 90 hours and I would have taken all the requirements. My question is would they admit me with most of my classes at a community college, but on track to graduate with a Bachelors in Zoology at OU. I know ALL the classes transfer to OU. Questions:
Is this courseload too hard? I know I can handle alot, should I take more hours in a semester? Would a med school admit me if i took a lot of classes at a community college and made straight A's or like a 3.9, and did well on the MCAT? Should I wiat to apply to med school? When is the best time to apply? Any suggestions or criticism made on this would be extremely helpful. Also any revised plans would be really good, thank you

 

[Sancho]

I can't resist giving the J.Lennon quote-
"Life is what happens when you are making other plans"
However, its good to try and plan some things, and your conscientious attention to detail and organization will serve you well in the pre (med) curric. we all have to have some of that in this field. Just don't drive yourself nuts-give yourself the freedom to change plans a bit as you go-and even if you don't, the flux and chaos of nature will most certainly change them for you

( Also, I never had any problems with JC course credit "counting")
luck

 

[Kazema]

I think it's great that you're going into college all fired up with a plan and ready to go. BUT I'm throwing my voice in with everyone who says you should plan to graduate in 4, not 3 years. Not only do you miss out on summer vacations, but you might want to get an internship or do research during one of those summers. And medical schools apparently are uncomfortable admitting younger students - you'd have to really show your maturity in interviews.

I'd recommend widening your educational experience during your senior year. Maybe take some upper level humanities in the field of your choice. Maybe take calc II as well.