Prerequisite question

[francefrys]

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Hey everyone,

At my undergrad the prerequisites for biochem are organic I and II. I did well in organic chem I and have been approved to take biochem without organic II. I'm wondering if I apply to schools that allow biochem to be taken in place of a second semester of organic chemistry, will it be frowned upon if they see I took biochem without fulfill my university's prerequisites for the class?

 

[wut?]

The amount of medical schools that allow you to replace Orgo 2 with Biochem is small. I would reccommend taking both semesters of organic and one semester of biochem, this way you won't be limited in the amount of schools you can apply to.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

I agree. The process is already competitive enough. Why limit yourself to only schools that take biochem in place of orgo2.

On top of that, at least for me, orgo2 helped a lot in biochem because I could better understand the mechanisms, most of which were based off of one's we'd learned in orgo2.

To answer your question: I don't see how med schools would know what the prereqs are at your specific school for that course. And even if they did, you said you got approval, so I don't see what the issue is.

 

[Catalystik]

At my undergrad the prerequisites for biochem are organic I and II. I did well in organic chem I and have been approved to take biochem without organic II. I'm wondering if I apply to schools that allow biochem to be taken in place of a second semester of organic chemistry, will it be frowned upon if they see I took biochem without fulfill my university's prerequisites for the class?

No.

 

[francefrys]

Thanks for the responses so far, the main reason I'm paranoid about this being a problem is from what I read under the MD prerequisite page for Oregon Health Sciences University. This is listed under the chemistry section:
"One course each of general chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry. Laboratories are recommended. (Since undergraduate curricula vary from school to school, in fulfilling this requirement it is implied that the required prerequisite sequences in general and organic chemistry will have been completed in order to take the biochemistry course.)"

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks for the responses so far, the main reason I'm paranoid about this being a problem is from what I read under the MD prerequisite page for Oregon Health Sciences University. This is listed under the chemistry section:
"One course each of general chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry. Laboratories are recommended. (Since undergraduate curricula vary from school to school, in fulfilling this requirement it is implied that the required prerequisite sequences in general and organic chemistry will have been completed in order to take the biochemistry course.)"

Are you from OR (or are you in a "mission" group)?

 

[Dox4lyfe]

Thanks for the responses so far, the main reason I'm paranoid about this being a problem is from what I read under the MD prerequisite page for Oregon Health Sciences University. This is listed under the chemistry section:
"One course each of general chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemistry. Laboratories are recommended. (Since undergraduate curricula vary from school to school, in fulfilling this requirement it is implied that the required prerequisite sequences in general and organic chemistry will have been completed in order to take the biochemistry course.)"

If you were given approval, orgo2 is no longer a pre-requisite for you.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

While that is technically correct, it would be impossible that the medical school would know that and may just presume the applicant skipped the course.

While that's also correct, the only reasonable time for any school to verify that every students' prerequisite courses were met is post-matriculation. At that point, I'm sure the school would ask the accepted student before presuming that the prerequisite course was skipped.

For smaller programs, transcripts might be examined pre-II, and in that case, it would be best to mention that approval was given on the secondary.

So to be safe OP, you should just call the school and ask what they want you to do, which may very well be to just mention the approval on the secondary.

Because you're choosing not to take orgo2, you'll have to spend the time making sure you meet every school's very specific criteria.

 

[francefrys]

Are you from OR (or are you in a "mission" group)?

No, and I was not even specifically planning to apply to this school. I have just been going through most of the U.S medical schools to get a relative idea of how many did not require a second semester of organic.

 

[gyngyn]

No, and I was not even specifically planning to apply to this school. I have just been going through most of the U.S medical schools to get a relative idea of how many did not require a second semester of organic.

If one of your target schools requires it, ask if Biochem would be an acceptable substitute.