Required Coursework (Labs)

[drXanthine]

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I know that required coursework has been brought up several times, but I couldn't find an old post that exactly answers my question.

The admission requirements vary from med school to med school, but they typically contain the generic line: "1 year of xxx with appropriate labwork." Does this mean that the university wants an entire year of lab work? What exactly constitutes "appropriate" labwork. I am also curious as to whether or not the "1 year" requirement is determined by credit hours. For instance, the organic chemistry I took consisted of two 3 credit hour lectures and one 2 credit hour lab. The lab wasn't a full year, but the majority of full year labs are split into two 1 credit hour courses. I would be curious as to whether or not this would count as a year of organic chemistry "with appropriate labwork." I understand this may certainly vary with each school, but I'm talking in the generic sense. I don't want to call up ~15 schools with such a seemingly obvious question. Thanks for any thoughts.

Also as an aside, has anyone had any experience with biochem labs counting as biology labs? Or are they typically considered chem labs?

 

[frosted_flake]

I always thought that as long as you took the lab with the course, you will be fine.
ex: general chemistry (3 credit hours) general chemistry lab (1 or 2 credit hours)

 

[Zelda840]

My school does the same thing for organic. We take a lab that is double in credits alongside organic II. I think it's fine unless you're skipping a lab....like you can't take Gen Chem 1 with the lab and then just decide not to take the lab with Gen Chem II if it's offered. If there's a lab offered with the class, you need to take it.

 

[487806]

I know that required coursework has been brought up several times, but I couldn't find an old post that exactly answers my question.

The admission requirements vary from med school to med school, but they typically contain the generic line: "1 year of xxx with appropriate labwork." Does this mean that the university wants an entire year of lab work? What exactly constitutes "appropriate" labwork. I am also curious as to whether or not the "1 year" requirement is determined by credit hours. For instance, the organic chemistry I took consisted of two 3 credit hour lectures and one 2 credit hour lab. The lab wasn't a full year, but the majority of full year labs are split into two 1 credit hour courses. I would be curious as to whether or not this would count as a year of organic chemistry "with appropriate labwork." I understand this may certainly vary with each school, but I'm talking in the generic sense. I don't want to call up ~15 schools with such a seemingly obvious question. Thanks for any thoughts.

Also as an aside, has anyone had any experience with biochem labs counting as biology labs? Or are they typically considered chem labs?

The "1 year" requirement doesn't apply to labs but rather the overall lecture-based prereqs (otherwise quarter system students are screwed). However, you need to take lab electives for each of your prereqs. So for example, if your college only has one ochem lab, just one lab is fine. If your lab was built-in to your course, then you struck twice the reqs easily. But for separated lab/lecture components, only take the bare minimum of labs (~1-2 is fine).

Biochem labs can be counted either as biology or chemistry.