Question: Intermed. Calc. or Stats?

[docshepherd]

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I'm taking courses this summer in an attempt to yank my GPA up a little bit before submitting AMCAS. I want your opinion - which course would strengthen my application most (assuming a grade of A):

Statistics (with its medical relevance); or
Intermediate Calculus (with its higher difficulty) ??

Also, if you get good grades during the second half of the summer (after AMCAS submission) or after the fall semester, are these results ever taken into account by adcomms?? I ask because I have what I consider to be a borderline GPA.

Thanks in advance! SDN is a great resource.

 

[DrBowtie]

Stats for its ease.

 

[SpeakLittleB]

did you do well in "beginning" calc? i found all calc levels to be quite similar... just extending to multidimensions.

stat is cool (i'm a stat major) but you won't find it that medically relevant unless this is an upper level stat that follows from the basics. i think most people get really confused and bored when they just take the first stat course.

 

[e_phn]

I'm taking courses this summer in an attempt to yank my GPA up a little bit before submitting AMCAS. I want your opinion - which course would strengthen my application most (assuming a grade of A):

Statistics (with its medical relevance); or
Intermediate Calculus (with its higher difficulty) ??

Also, if you get good grades during the second half of the summer (after AMCAS submission) or after the fall semester, are these results ever taken into account by adcomms?? I ask because I have what I consider to be a borderline GPA.

Thanks in advance! SDN is a great resource.

if you're a math expert take int. cal.
if you're not a math expert take statistics.

statistics, in my opinion, is not really "math."
why? because it doesn't have manipulation.

but i think int. cal is easier than statistics.

in general, statistics is okay. it's not super difficult for me nor super easy for me.

 

[docshepherd]

let's assume I could get an A with equal effort in both classes. Is an adcomm more likely to be impressed by the calculus or the stats? I'm guessing you guys are suggesting calc would be better on an application?

also, what about the post-submission grades?

 

[DrBowtie]

let's assume I could get an A with equal effort in both classes. Is an adcomm more likely to be impressed by the calculus or the stats? I'm guessing you guys are suggesting calc would be better on an application?

also, what about the post-submission grades?

They won't be more impressed by any class. Just get an A.

 

[SpeakLittleB]

statistics, in my opinion, is not really "math."
why? because it doesn't have manipulation.

I agree. I don't think statistics is math either. At our school it's listed under the school of engineering. It's weird because it's such an applied science but with a ton of theory behind it.

So I don't agree. Stat has a ton of manipulation--there's a whole field of of mathematical statistics. It's just that it's so hard to grasp that the introductory level usually just reduces all the theory to the simple tests you can do on data. So watch out for beginning stat classes.. it'll either be really hard or really easy.

 

[ShyRem]

Stats.

 

[vtucci]

Neither will wow them. However, stats will be more useful in the long run- esp. with research articles.

 

[masterMood]

aren't there many med. schools that require stats?

 

[MossPoh]

I'd personally go with stats...but I have a personal disdain towards calculus and didn't even have to think in stat.

 

[willthatsall]

If you have a full year of calc, you can apply to any med school in the US. Check the med schools that require both semesters and see if you are interested in them. If not, it doesn't really matter.

 

[austinap]

It really depends. The post above me is a huge consideration. Otherise, have you had any stats before? Have you at least used it in labs, done your own calculations from time to time, etc? A good understanding of stats comes in handy, but I dont think one really needs a whole semester of the class. Personally, I found ours to be a waste of time. I could have learned the various tests and distributions on my own in about a week. If you're a self learner, just learn some basic stats, such as the t-test, z-test, q-test, and anova, and you'll be pretty well set.

I personally would choose calc, but I'm also a math minor so I'm a little biased. Calc seems to teach students a slightly different way of looking at things, rather than just learning to solve some equations. It might not apply directly to med-school, but I think calc applies to pretty much everything. If you did fine in calc 1, you'll probably do pretty well in calc-2 as well.

I'd really recommend taking (or auditing) differential equations if you're at all interested in math. I'd probably have to say its the best course I've ever taken, and it'll definately be useful if you're considering anything like anesthesiology, etc. It's like calc, but 100 times more useful.