Pre-Req Question: Human Anatomy vs Organismal Bio

[coconutts]

Hello! I am currently planning my schedule for next semester. I know that a lot of medical schools require one full year of biology with lab. I am currently taking cellular and molecular biology with lab so I have one more semester with lab left to satisfy the biology requirement.

Our HPAO indicates organismal biology with lab as the second semester we should take after cell/molecular, but I was wondering if I could take human anatomy biology with lab instead? I cannot find specifics regarding the biology requirement beyond "include cellular and molecular aspects" which my current biology class already does. Human anatomy seems much more interesting than organismal and the professor is infamously bad for organismal so I would like to avoid it if possible. I feel like since organismal biology is required for biology/chemistry majors, HPAO put it as the second biology class for the sake of convenience to limit the classes pre-med students at my school need to take, but I am not a science major so I am not required to take any of the biology classes theoretically, so I would rather take anatomy with lab for pre-med rather than organismal. Would this be okay, or is there a reason why organismal bio with lab is shown as "required" for med school? They are both the same level class (biology 212 vs 204) and they both have a lab.

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[coconutts]

So to be clear, my year of biology would be a semester of cell/molecular bio and a semester of human anatomy, both with lab.

 

[deleted966164]

So to be clear, my year of biology would be a semester of cell/molecular bio and a semester of human anatomy, both with lab.

Double check that with medical schools of your choice. Chances are, what they mean by one year of biology with lab is BIOL 101 and BIOL 102.

 

[Isoval]

Check with your medical schools.

Commonly, schools explicitly require the prerequisite biology classes to be introductory-level 1/2.

 

[coconutts]

Yes I have tried. They all say something along the lines of "Biology: One academic year with laboratory (Applicants who received AP credit in Biology are required to take advanced science coursework )" (That is Icahn, for example). I have no clue if that means 203&204, or a full year of advanced college biology with lab, regardless of the subject matter (e.g. cell/molecular, anatomy, genetics, etc).

 

[coconutts]

"Satisfactory completion of the following courses, including laboratory work:

• General Biology or Zoology (2 semesters)"

Yale, for example. None have specific courses.

 

[deleted966164]

Ok. Let’s not make it an issue here. It really is as simple as this: when medical schools say “One year of biology with lab,” they mean “Take the basic biology courses that every pre-med freshman takes.”

Calculus of variations does not take care of a calculus pre-req.

 

[coconutts]

How is organismal biology any more basic than human anatomy?? Human anatomy seems way more applicable.

 

[deleted966164]

Ok. I’ll try to be more clear. What medical schools mean is for you to take courses like, for instance, BIOL 1114 and BIOL 1604 from this catalog:

Biology (BIOL) < Oklahoma State University

catalog.okstate.edu

What courses in biology have you taken so far?

 

[coconutts]

Ok. I’ll try to be more clear. What medical schools mean is for you to take courses like, for instance, BIOL 1114 and BIOL 1604 from this catalog:

Biology (BIOL) < Oklahoma State University

catalog.okstate.edu

What courses in biology have you taken so far?

I have taken biology 203 and 203L (cellular and molecular biology with lab; I attached course descriptions below).

Our HPAO course sheet indicates 204 and 204L (organismal biology with lab) as the second half to the year of biology with lab. I am wondering if I could take Biology 212 (human anatomy with lab; requires biology 203 completed prior so it is still a sequence) instead. I am a humanities major so I am not required degree-wise to enroll in 204/204L like most of my science major peers.

 

[deleted966164]

This all is so different. Can you contact the pre-med advisor at your institution and see what the “natural” path is?

 

[coconutts]

She randomly quit and I am moving to Russia for next year so I am screwed

 

[deleted966164]

Ok. So I am going to help you. Here is something that I found on your institutions website:

Health Professions Advising Office – Medicine

I’d just stick to that as the pre-med advising most of the time thinks things through and matches courses to the MCAT requirements.

Btw, some schools (like UCLA) don’t like it if you take undergrad anatomy.

 

[coconutts]

Ok good point I'll play it safe and get through the class. Thank you! Also, I took calc 1 and 2 at community college during high school. They say one semester of calc and they do not like pre-reqs at CCs so should I go ahead and enroll in Calc 3? Or is that not necessary?

 

[deleted966164]

Ok good point I'll play it safe and get through the class. Thank you! Also, I took calc 1 and 2 at community college during high school. They say one semester of calc and they do not like pre-reqs at CCs so should I go ahead and enroll in Calc 3? Or is that not necessary?

Calc 3, from what I understand, is multi variable calc. It comes useful in physics II (electromagnetism), but I don’t think you need to take it.

Please though, take everything I say with a grain of salt as I don’t know the reality of your school that well.

 

[coconutts]

Thanks! I will look more into it.