schools that dont take certain upper division bio classes!!!

[megaluna]

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im wondering if anyone else has had the experience where a med school will not accept your upper division biology classes.

as an undergrad i passed out of gen bio because of my ap scores. i took physiology with lab, microbiology with lab, and genetics no lab. im doing a post bacc now, but figured i was all set with biology, and my "advisor" said she wasnt sure if schools would take upper divison classes instead of gen bio. but i asked a bunch of schools, and they said they accpet upper div. classes.

this weekend i find out that a school i really want to go to doesnt take microbiology or physiology, and will only take genetics with lab. so basically ive got none of their biology requirements fulfilled, and i had no clue! i could have taken biology this year! arg!

 

[theraball]

I don't really see what there is to get worked up about here. There's nothing bizarre about UCSF requiring general biology; it's pretty fundamental to medicine, after all. Maybe they just want to have a baseline for comparing their applicants fairly.

It's worth checking with schools whenever you want to do something out of the ordinary such as skipping the general biology course requirement. If you have tested out of biology and have taken some upper level courses, it should be easy for you to ace biology over the summer and get on with your application.

 

[relentless11]

im wondering if anyone else has had the experience where a med school will not accept your upper division biology classes.

as an undergrad i passed out of gen bio because of my ap scores. i took physiology with lab, microbiology with lab, and genetics no lab. im doing a post bacc now, but figured i was all set with biology, and my "advisor" said she wasnt sure if schools would take upper divison classes instead of gen bio. but i asked a bunch of schools, and they said they accpet upper div. classes.

this weekend i find out that ucsf doesnt take microbiology or physiology, and will only take genetics with lab. so basically ive got none of their biology requirements fulfilled, and i had no clue! i could have taken biology this year!

do other schools have bizarre limits like this? im going to email every school i might apply to because this is some bull****.
arg!!!!

IMO, its up to the school to accept which and what classes. Clearly general biology does not equal microbiology or physiology. UCSF clearly stated this on their website:

Courses in vertebrate embryology, genetics, cell physiology, or comparative vertebrate anatomy, with laboratory, will satisfy the biology requirement for admission.

Advanced Placement credit will be accepted for the general chemistry and general physics requirements for admission if the credit is verified on your college transcript.

UC Davis is even more strict. They won't accept ANY AP credit.

AP/CLEP credit is not acceptable for prerequisite courses.

* Upper division biological science requirement can be satisfied by one semester or 2 quarters of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology or Genetics. Admission to medical school requires that the applicant will have an understanding of fundamental concepts of biomedical science. Although a biochemistry course is not absolutely required for admission, it is strongly recommended.

UCLA is on par with UCD, but without any caveat that you can substitute an upper division class for a lower division one.

Completion of Requirements: Students must complete all premedical requirements before beginning the first year of medical study, although these requirements need not be completed at the time application for admission is filed. AP credit will not be accepted for completion of required courses.

So essentially you can see that the whole UC system is like this in some form or another. Really, if memory serves me, the AP test, although difficult at the time and as "prestigious" as it was to do well in it, means little and does not compare to the actual rigors of being in a college class. The material might be the same, but you are also competing against other students (e.g., curved) in some for or another. I don't see how this is "BS", since many of the pre-meds here at UCD still go through the lower division courses. Besides, even if they AP'ed out of general bio, most of the biosci majors here take genetics anyway so that works too (in addition to biochemistry).

Maybe your school is different since if you took microbiology and physiology, you would've taken pre-reqs that should still qualify for UCSF.

 

[QofQuimica]

im wondering if anyone else has had the experience where a med school will not accept your upper division biology classes.

as an undergrad i passed out of gen bio because of my ap scores. i took physiology with lab, microbiology with lab, and genetics no lab. im doing a post bacc now, but figured i was all set with biology, and my "advisor" said she wasnt sure if schools would take upper divison classes instead of gen bio. but i asked a bunch of schools, and they said they accpet upper div. classes.

this weekend i find out that ucsf doesnt take microbiology or physiology, and will only take genetics with lab. so basically ive got none of their biology requirements fulfilled, and i had no clue! i could have taken biology this year!

do other schools have bizarre limits like this? im going to email every school i might apply to because this is some bull****.
arg!!!!

Contacting all the schools is an excellent idea. That's what I did last year. (In my case, I had taken a year of gen bio with lab, but it was all P/F, as were my other pre-reqs. 😛 ) Based on what they say, you can decide whether it's worth your while to retake the class. Best of luck to you. 🙂

 

[Inkabellous]

I agree with other posts. You should contact the schools of interest directly and get answers from them. General Biology is definitely not the same as Physiology or Microbiology. Most schools have the descriptions of the required courses. You should check those out as well.

 

[Adradr]

Megaluna, I think we attended the same UCSF Admissions workshop. I know exactly how you feel!

As an undergrad, I took 1 year of General Biology without lab.
As a post-bacc, I took a semester each of Microbiology and Physiology with lab.
I though this would, all told, fulfill the 1 year of General Biology with lab equivalent.

But whaddaya know, UCSF doesn't count Micro or Physio towards its biology requirement!

I'm tempted to just email them and see if they'll waive it on the basis that I've, well, fulfilled the spirit if not the letter of the requirement. Does anyone think this is remotely plausible? I can't see them rejecting someone out of hand on the basis of something like this... But than again, UCSF can do whatever the hell it wants, I guess.

Few schools in the Bay Area besides my (expensive, private, certainly does not enroll post-baccs) undergrad school offer a standalone 2-quarter General Biology lab, so taking just the lab isn't really an option.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Thanks! 🙁

 

[QofQuimica]

Megaluna, I think we attended the same UCSF Admissions workshop. I know exactly how you feel!

As an undergrad, I took 1 year of General Biology without lab.
As a post-bacc, I took a semester each of Microbiology and Physiology with lab.
I though this would, all told, fulfill the 1 year of General Biology with lab equivalent.

But whaddaya know, UCSF doesn't count Micro or Physio towards its biology requirement!

I'm tempted to just email them and see if they'll waive it on the basis that I've, well, fulfilled the spirit if not the letter of the requirement. Does anyone think this is remotely plausible? I can't see them rejecting someone out of hand on the basis of something like this... But than again, UCSF can do whatever the hell it wants, I guess.

Few schools in the Bay Area besides my (expensive, private, certainly does not enroll post-baccs) undergrad school offer a standalone 2-quarter General Biology lab, so taking just the lab isn't really an option.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Thanks! 🙁

Same advice: you need to ask the schools. If they say they'll waive the intro bio requirement, great. If not, you'll have to decide whether you'd rather retake the intro courses or avoid applying to those med schools that require them. There's no right or wrong answer here; find out what is required at each school, and either do what you have to in order to meet those requirements, or apply to other places where you already meet the requirements. to you.

 

[megaluna]

IMO, its up to the school to accept which and what classes. Clearly general biology does not equal microbiology or physiology. UCSF clearly stated this on their website

UC Davis is even more strict. They won't accept ANY AP credit.

UCLA is on par with UCD, but without any caveat that you can substitute an upper division class for a lower division one.

So essentially you can see that the whole UC system is like this in some form or another. Really, if memory serves me, the AP test, although difficult at the time and as "prestigious" as it was to do well in it, means little and does not compare to the actual rigors of being in a college class. The material might be the same, but you are also competing against other students (e.g., curved) in some for or another. I don't see how this is "BS", since many of the pre-meds here at UCD still go through the lower division courses. Besides, even if they AP'ed out of general bio, most of the biosci majors here take genetics anyway so that works too (in addition to biochemistry).

Maybe your school is different since if you took microbiology and physiology, you would've taken pre-reqs that should still qualify for UCSF.

its not like im trying to "get away with AP credit" or get out of taking classes. obviously, traditional students take general biology and have no problems with this stuff. however, i am not. ive taken 3 upper division biology classes. i didnt want to re-take something i had already taken, so i took more intereresting classes, before i decided to be premed. i took them for fun. had i realized in undergrad that i was going to apply to medical school i would have followed the traditional sequence.

its frustrating because ucsf is the only school of the a bunch of schools ive emailed that specifically limits which upper division classes you can take: ucsd and davis say they will accept my bio classes. and, had i known ucsf wasnt going to take my bio, i would have taken bio this year, during my formal post-bacc program. the fact that im finding out in march, when i plan to apply in june is just not the position i want to be in.