science courses?

[jenny1114]

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What are some science courses besides the normal prerequisites needed for pharmacy school? I would like to boost my cumulative and science gpa. Also, when calculating your science gpa, do u include all science course that you have ever taken or just the prerequisites that are sciences?

 

[Farmercyst]

What are some science courses besides the normal prerequisites needed for pharmacy school? I would like to boost my cumulative and science gpa. Also, when calculating your science gpa, do u include all science course that you have ever taken or just the prerequisites that are sciences?

You can guarantee all pharm schools require General and Organic Chemistry and Biology (depending on school the number varies, but it's usually the first biology requirement for a bio major Cell & Molecular Biology and Population and Organismal Biology)

From there there is some variation, but the majority require microbiology, statistics and physics (usually calc based, but not always)

Then some start to get picky.

Some want Biochem, anatomy and physiology, or anatomy only, or physiology only (more common if one or the other but not both) Usually a Calculus class sometimes a full year. There are more but this should tide you over for oh say two years )
[laugh because most say prereqs take two years to complete]

 

[GreyFox2002]

You can guarantee all pharm schools require General and Organic Chemistry and Biology (depending on school the number varies, but it's usually the first biology requirement for a bio major Cell & Molecular Biology and Population and Organismal Biology)

From there there is some variation, but the majority require microbiology, statistics and physics (usually calc based, but not always)

Then some start to get picky.

Some want Biochem, anatomy and physiology, or anatomy only, or physiology only (more common if one or the other but not both) Usually a Calculus class sometimes a full year. There are more but this should tide you over for oh say two years )
[laugh because most say prereqs take two years to complete]

U of M requires medical microbiology, such as Immunology, as well. They also require genetics.

Its nearly impossible to satisfy these prereqs in 2 years.

Year 1
GChem I
GChem 2
Physics 1
Physics 2
GBio1
GBio2

Year 2
Orgo 1
Orgo 2
Micro
Genetics
A&P 1
A&P 2
Medical Micro

Just crazy, and that doesn't include comp, gen studies, econ, etc.

 

[jenny1114]

I am sorry if I wasn't clear on my question, I meant that I have already taken all the prereqs for pharmacy school. How is it possible to boost your science gpa after you have taken all the courses? other than repeating the same courses?

 

[ADN1226]

Pharmcas calculates all science grades into your science gpa so essentially you can take like others have said, genetics, microbio, mol bio, biochem, immunology, but then you could take other bio / chem classes if you're interested like cell bio / neurosci, analytical chem... etc.

 

[PolarBear21]

Take a look at Western University's requirements.. crruzay. Good thing I ended up doing most of them for my major. The only thing that bugs me is the Anatomy lab requirement.

 

[Seles3]

Take a look at Western University's requirements.. crruzay. Good thing I ended up doing most of them for my major. The only thing that bugs me is the Anatomy lab requirement.

No, look at USC requirements! They want EVERYTHING!

 

[PolarBear21]

Really i think Western is worse... USC at least doesn't require anatomy lab.. maybe its just a pain in the A&$ for me because anatomy lab is REALLY hard to get into at my university.

The only thing thats irritating for me is the communications requirement for USC is totally different than ALL the schools in CA. Whatever though.. that was an easy class so I'm not complaining too much.

Oh and also, Western doesn't accept AP credit.. bah. 👎

 

[eddie269]

You can definitely boost your science GPA by taking other non-required science courses. After all, each school has different requirements.

Here's a secret I discovered that really works. Go check out your top 2-3 school choices and look at their 1st year curriculum. Those science courses you see are the ones you want to take (and ACE!) if you want to REALLY impress the adcom's. The following classes for P1 are/but not limited to:

-biochemistry
-immunology
-human physiology

By getting A's (especially at a 4 yr univ), you're showing the adcom you are not only serious about school now, but you can most likely handle THEIR own curriculum also. I have taken 2 out of 3 and aced them. Biochemistry was actually kinda fun, but what's more important is when I start school as a P1, it will all be review.

Other classes I suggest are anatomy, genetics, and molecular biology.

Good luck!

 

[Farmercyst]

If that's the question, what I'd suggest is look at some of the classes PharmCAS uses as examples for each category.
It looks though if you can classify it as any kind of science, Biological/Life, Chemistry, Other Sciences then it goes in the Science GPA category. This means you could take Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Any kind of Bio class: genetics, bioinformatics, neurobiology, immunology, parisitology; and they would all go into science GPA.
If you need to boost your cumulative GPA but don't want your transcript to look like you were taking menial classes you could go back and take lower division classes Maths/Physics.😴 Or if you're in for torture you could do upper-division unrequireds like linear algebra, differential equations, combinatorics (sp?) Or switch fields entirely like Accounting, Health Sciences/Public Health type stuff. I'd say community health management might look pretty spiffy on a transcript. Of course I don't know if your school has all of these classes.👍 👎 😕

 

[Bauhinia]

I'm very confused by some schools' inorganic chem requirement. I always thought that general chem = inorganic chem, I don't see why we are required to take inorganic chem if we aren't chem majors....will call the schools after the break to find out.

 

[Farmercyst]

I'm very confused by some schools' inorganic chem requirement. I always thought that general chem = inorganic chem, I don't see why we are required to take inorganic chem if we aren't chem majors....will call the schools after the break to find out.

If you don't see general chemistry on the list, then I'd assume that inorganic=general chemistry. If both are listed then I feel for you. My school does have upper division "Advanced Inorganic" or BioInorganic chemistry.

I agree with you though, you'd think they were wanting chem/biochem majors if they required more than standard ochem/gchem/1 sem biochem