Scared to take chemistry

[priorities2]

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Hello all,

I'll be a sophomore in college next year. I'm two years ahead credit-wise because of a dual-enrollment program during HS so I will likely save myself a year and graduate in spring 2014. I had never really thought about premed before this summer. I'm a psych major, I was always interested in going into some sort of psych grad program. Then I got to thinking that maybe psych NP would be a more lucrative path, a more solid career if I want to be a clinician. Now I'm thinking... if I go and get my psych NP degree after college without even having TRIED premed classes, will I regret it?

I do prefer the biopsychosocial model of nursing compared with the medical model in psychiatry. But once I'm done with school, I can use whatever model I want. So I'm not sure how much of my educational choices should be based on my personal philosophy vs. the eventual opportunity differences between psychiatry and psych nursing.

So I'm thinking about *trying* premed. It scares me a lot. I never really paid attention in HS science classes (didn't have to). I took astronomy as a senior in HS at this university... it was the first time I had to study for a science class. I failed and got a D on the first two exams, figured out how to study, and got an A on the final. I took human biology online at a CC last summer and got an A, but it was a joke class. I also didn't find it very interesting. So I'm not sure if I can handle 2 semesters of physics, 2 of ochem, 2 of chem, 2 of calc... oyy. Should I try? How hard is premed... what sacrifices have you had to make?

 

[BABSstudent]

Well, I assume it is like any other college pathway. You go to class, study, take lots of labs and do well in the classes (you have to get an A or close to it in every class).

However, you also have to volunteer, shadow, do research, etc. to be competive for medical school. There is no point in doing pre-med without actually wanting to be a physician, so if you want to do that then do it.

 

[currentlypremed]

To be honest, chemistry should be the last thing your worried about judging from the fact that you will have to take Organic chemistry, physics and upper leveled Bio classes. My best advice is to begin with one bio class and see if you do well. One mistake many people make is they jump into pre-med taking 3 hard science courses at once not having a clue on whether they can handle it. Also, learn from trial and error. Many people study different way for different classes. The way I studied for ecology was wayy different than the way I studied for cell biology.

 

[Hemorrage]

Hello all,

I'll be a sophomore in college next year. I'm two years ahead credit-wise because of a dual-enrollment program during HS so I will likely save myself a year and graduate in spring 2014. I had never really thought about premed before this summer. I'm a psych major, I was always interested in going into some sort of psych grad program. Then I got to thinking that maybe psych NP would be a more lucrative path, a more solid career if I want to be a clinician. Now I'm thinking... if I go and get my psych NP degree after college without even having TRIED premed classes, will I regret it?

I do prefer the biopsychosocial model of nursing compared with the medical model in psychiatry. But once I'm done with school, I can use whatever model I want. So I'm not sure how much of my educational choices should be based on my personal philosophy vs. the eventual opportunity differences between psychiatry and psych nursing.

So I'm thinking about *trying* premed. It scares me a lot. I never really paid attention in HS science classes (didn't have to). I took astronomy as a senior in HS at this university... it was the first time I had to study for a science class. I failed and got a D on the first two exams, figured out how to study, and got an A on the final. I took human biology online at a CC last summer and got an A, but it was a joke class. I also didn't find it very interesting. So I'm not sure if I can handle 2 semesters of physics, 2 of ochem, 2 of chem, 2 of calc... oyy. Should I try? How hard is premed... what sacrifices have you had to make?

don't "try" pre-med. Take the summer time to shadow doctors- psychiatrists if your into that thing and evaluate your future prospects. Pre-med is not something you want to "try", believe me theres way too many people that do that and fail miserably. You need to go in headstrong and tell yourself you'll become a doctor no matter what the cause. Additionally, you'll be glad to know that psychiatry is fairly uncompetitive in both the M.D (NRMP) residency match and the D.O (AOA) match so you have both schools to choose from.

 

[priorities2]

Okay. That's helpful. It looks like the average DO school science GPA is a 3.41, which might be realistic for me.

Can anyone draw a comparison between the difficulty of Spanish linguistics and the difficulty of ochem or chem?

 

[BABSstudent]

Okay. That's helpful. It looks like the average DO school science GPA is a 3.41, which might be realistic for me.

Can anyone draw a comparison between the difficulty of Spanish linguistics and the difficulty of ochem or chem?

Really? You want a comparison between two completely unrelated classes? Personally, I didn't think Spanish linguistics was a difficult class but I had troubles in ochem. But every person is different. One class may be easy for you and another may be killer, but someone else may have it the complete opposite than you.

 

[priorities2]

Sorry I wasn't clear, I meant in terms of intensity of concepts and facts to memorize. Time required. OChem is probably harder than Spanish linguistics. I only ask because it's one of the hardest classes I've taken so far besides my astronomy class, which was mostly hard for personal reasons.

 

[priorities2]

Another stupid question: what do they mean by one year of biology? My school only offers one pure general bio class, which is a semester long. I've already taken human bio. Would that count as my other semester? Or are they looking for something specific to be the second semester of bio, like biochem?

 

[Lexicon0]

Another stupid question: what do they mean by one year of biology? My school only offers one pure general bio class, which is a semester long. I've already taken human bio. Would that count as my other semester? Or are they looking for something specific to be the second semester of bio, like biochem?

Most schools offer one full year (2 semesters) of general bio. Normally this would include topics such as ecology, molec bio, physiology, etc. You could satisfy the 1 year pre-req with upper level bio courses (not sure if human bio would fall into that category in this case).

 

[Hemorrage]

One year of bio basically means two bio classes with labs that's all

 

[deleted357625]

Man I jumped in taking 20 credits all neuro courses with chem and physics. No biggie man 👍

 

[TheMightySmiter]

The biopsychosocial model was developed at a medical school, was it not? I don't know why you think it's exclusive to nursing.

 

[priorities2]

The biopsychosocial model was developed at a medical school, was it not? I don't know why you think it's exclusive to nursing.

Though you might be right that med school can also be based on the biopsychosocial model, I've decided that a PMHNP fits better with my life goals. And it looks like I'll need a basic chem class as a prereq to bio for nursing school anyways. We'll see how that goes. Thank you all for your feedback!

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Though you might be right that med school can also be based on the biopsychosocial model, I've decided that a PMHNP fits better with my life goals. And it looks like I'll need a basic chem class as a prereq to bio for nursing school anyways. We'll see how that goes. Thank you all for your feedback!

Best of luck! If you're interested, the biopsychosocial model was developed by a psychiatrist at University of Rochester School of Medicine in the 70s. 🙂