Schedule Advice

[Katatonic]

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So since the end of Fall term (I'm on a Quarter system) I've been questioning how much I really want to go into medicine. I've only ever wanted to do Pathology so I started considering other lab-heavy careers. However, whenever I start entertaining ideas of following a new career path I always end up thinking about medicine again. Nothing intrigues me like the way disease affects the human body.

Anyway, the point of this is that I cant' decide whether I should stop taking the Pre-Med reqs and start working on just my bio reqs or not. I'm afraid that I'll become sure that medicine is the way I want to go later on and wish that I had taken the classes necessary for the MCAT along the way. It comes down to whether I take Physics III next term or Genetics. I could take both but I'm also taking Chemistry III and another elective so it would be 19 credits w/2 labs a week. I'm not sure if I could handle that at this point, especially since I had to skip Physics II this term.

This post may be way too long but if anyone has any advice, thank you!

 

[Ambrosha]

Hello,

I'm not familiar with the different levels of Physics so I'm not sure why you would need PHysics III for anything if you're considering mainly medicine or lab-heavy careers (unless you're talking about physics labs). My school had only Phys I & Phys II for premeds- others were more advanced & specialized.
But it definitely seems like you shouldn't take physics III next year w/o having taken Phys II already, unless you want to take it this summer.

Generally the idea is to take what you are interested in, which will hopefully lead you to a decision, but I'm guessing you're around a Sophomore, and I definitely didn't decide for sure until Senior year. So take what you like, and also take all the premed stuff b/c that is the easiest thing to do if you eventually decide on medicine. Which seems like a pretty good chance for you.

So since the end of Fall term (I'm on a Quarter system) I've been questioning how much I really want to go into medicine. I've only ever wanted to do Pathology so I started considering other lab-heavy careers. However, whenever I start entertaining ideas of following a new career path I always end up thinking about medicine again. Nothing intrigues me like the way disease affects the human body.

Anyway, the point of this is that I cant' decide whether I should stop taking the Pre-Med reqs and start working on just my bio reqs or not. I'm afraid that I'll become sure that medicine is the way I want to go later on and wish that I had taken the classes necessary for the MCAT along the way. It comes down to whether I take Physics III next term or Genetics. I could take both but I'm also taking Chemistry III and another elective so it would be 19 credits w/2 labs a week. I'm not sure if I could handle that at this point, especially since I had to skip Physics II this term.

This post may be way too long but if anyone has any advice, thank you!

 

[Cegar]

The pre-med prereqs are useful for any major. Might as well take all of them so that you have the med-school option open.

 

[Katatonic]

Hello,

I'm not familiar with the different levels of Physics so I'm not sure why you would need PHysics III for anything if you're considering mainly medicine or lab-heavy careers (unless you're talking about physics labs). My school had only Phys I & Phys II for premeds- others were more advanced & specialized.
But it definitely seems like you shouldn't take physics III next year w/o having taken Phys II already, unless you want to take it this summer.

Generally the idea is to take what you are interested in, which will hopefully lead you to a decision, but I'm guessing you're around a Sophomore, and I definitely didn't decide for sure until Senior year. So take what you like, and also take all the premed stuff b/c that is the easiest thing to do if you eventually decide on medicine. Which seems like a pretty good chance for you.

Yes, I'm a sophomore this year. Here, 3 terms of Physics is the year-long requirement for Pre-Med, so the 3rd term isn't more advanced than the med school pre-reqs, it's optics/waves/quantum. I've heard taking III is possible w/o taking II, but I'm just not sure whether I should wait and take II first.

Thanks Cegar, I tend to agree with both of your statements to just take the pre-reqs along the way, but I suppose I could take Genetics next term and Physics over the summer if I still feel like I should. 19 credits with 3 science classes + 2 labs each week seems like a lot at this point.

 

[iA-MD2013]

Why do you need to take the genetics now? Is it a prereq for another class?

 

[bodonid]

The III is because he/she is on the quarter system.

If you are a sophomore and you have already gotten that far, I would say that you would probably have time to do all of them, if you want. You don't have to have all of the reqs done by next fall. You don't even have to have them a year from now. Just do whatever would open the most doors. You don't need to be closing any as a sophomore, especially if you aren't sure.

Also, yay pathology!

 

[Katatonic]

The III is because he/she is on the quarter system.

If you are a sophomore and you have already gotten that far, I would say that you would probably have time to do all of them, if you want. You don't have to have all of the reqs done by next fall. You don't even have to have them a year from now. Just do whatever would open the most doors. You don't need to be closing any as a sophomore, especially if you aren't sure.

Also, yay pathology!

Haha, thanks. I won't be done with the pre-reqs until the next summer anyway as I haven't taken Ochem yet. In response to the person above this, Genetics is a requirement for my major (Micro/Molecular Bio). I'm simply having a hard time deciding whether to wait to take genetics, or wait to take physics since I'm not 100% dedicated to pursuing medical school (more like...90%, probably just the normal doubts everyone has).