Premed Bio Question

[medoc117]

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Hello everybody. I need some help. I am a chemistry major trying to get into med school. I only have enough time to take Biochemistry and one other upperlevel biology elective before appyling. I can choose from physiology, molecular/cellular biology, genetics, virology, and chemical and biological neuroscience. Which of those listed above would help me most on the MCAT as well as show med school that I can indeed do serious bio even though I am a chemist??? Thanks for your time!

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

physiology or mol/cell bio would help you on the mcat.

As for showing a med school that you can do serious bio, aside from meeting the prereq and having the chance to pre-MCAT study, there's no added perk from taking a certain bio class. According to my premed advisor (JHU), most med schools don't even consider what we take as "real mol bio" or "real physiology" (which makes sense cuz credits for stuff like that don't transfer from undergrad to med school, you retake no matter what).

 

[Jccripe]

physiology, Definetly

 

[GoodDoctor]

physiology or mol/cell bio would help you on the mcat.

Hands down physiology, then cell bio for the MCAT. I TA'd physiology and was delited to have 3 topics based directly on things I had just taught in the previous months.

Take a look at the Bio topics: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/studentmanual/biologicalsciences/biology.pdf.

Pages 1-4 are largely covered in Cell Bio (except Genetics on pg 2).
Pages 5-10 are largely Physiology.
There is some overlap in these areas as well.
There's about a page total of some basic genetics and basic intro bio stuff.

 

[63768]

i'd say molecular cell and physio are you best bets. technically, you're not supposed to need those upper level classes, and really you don't. these classes will benefit you more by putting you in that mode of thinking so when you read the passages you know what to look for. the knowledge really isn't tested in depth. most of what you need to know is in the passage itself; you just need to know how to get it out.

 

[enigma85]

As for helping most on the MCAT...you typed them in order or decreasing importance: "physiology, molecular/cellular biology, genetics, virology, and chemical and biological neuroscience." You could also take a practice MCAT like the free ones from TPR or Kaplan to see if you are weak in an area.

 

[MaiPenRai]

PHYSIOLOGY. My university didn't offer it, but I read my sister's Physiology textbook cover to cover before the MCAT. It helped me more than 4 years of college and the Kaplan class.

 

[future_dr_house]

Honestly, anything you need to know is in the kaplan or tpr books, consider if that extra class is really worth it/necessary for your mcat studying period. i managed to take 12 hours of class the semester i took mine as well as research and an engr design project and basically killed myself trying to make it all fit. Oh and i pulled 2 B's that could have easily been A's, but I had to do all this to graduate on time...give and take to everything right?

that being said, physiology was the most helpful of all the classes and it wasn't that intense of a class

 

[mvenus929]

Just out of curiosity, have you looked into the requirements for a bio/chem double major at your school? I don't know what year you are, so I don't know if it would be much of an option for you, but it might free up a couple hours to take some more bio classes if you wanted to. At my school, only 3-4 classes separate a bio major from a bio/chem double major, so most people go that route.

No idea what would help you the most though. I'd recommend anatomy, just so you have some foundation for it when you get to med school. That's what works best for me, anyway.