Should I take orgo II

[Paracelsus23]

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Non trad, DIYS post bac here.

I've been trying to figure out:
1.) If I have to take the second semester of orgo
2.) Even if its not required, should I take it anyways

I've already taken the first semester of orgo with lab and biochemistry. After looking around at admissions websites, it seems like nearly all schools accept biochem in place of the second semester of orgo. At the school where I'm taking my prereqs, the health advising website says the following: "we are confident that our pre-med students will be well prepared" for med school applications if they take chem 1 and 2, orgo 1 (and not the second semester), and biochem. For the post-bac program here they don't even include the second semester on the list of courses to take.

On the other hand, I've read numerous threads here where posters claim that most schools still require the second semester, and that even if they don't it still is a good idea to take it (without saying why).

The reason it's important to me is that I only have room in my schedule for one more science class next semester and I would much rather take upper level genetics or cell bio next semester. I took my intro bio sequence many years ago, and my impression is that it's important to show success in recent biology coursework if that is the case.

Apologies for the long post, any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Mwooster]

Non trad, DIYS post bac here.

I've been trying to figure out:
1.) If I have to take the second semester of orgo
2.) Even if its not required, should I take it anyways

I've already taken the first semester of orgo with lab and biochemistry. After looking around at admissions websites, it seems like nearly all schools accept biochem in place of the second semester of orgo. At the school where I'm taking my prereqs, the health advising website says the following: "we are confident that our pre-med students will be well prepared" for med school applications if they take chem 1 and 2, orgo 1 (and not the second semester), and biochem. For the post-bac program here they don't even include the second semester on the list of courses to take.

On the other hand, I've read numerous threads here where posters claim that most schools still require the second semester, and that even if they don't it still is a good idea to take it (without saying why).

The reason it's important to me is that I only have room in my schedule for one more science class next semester and I would much rather take upper level genetics or cell bio next semester. I took my intro bio sequence many years ago, and my impression is that it's important to show success in recent biology coursework if that is the case.

Apologies for the long post, any advice would be much appreciated.

At many institutions, Orgo II is a pre-req for biochem. Obviously that is not the case at your DIY Post-Bac
You are right in that many med schools no longer require 2 semesters of orgo and those that do many of them accept biochem as a substitute. If I were you I'd be tempted to take Orgo II just to be able to apply to as many schools as possible

I felt Orgo II was quite helpful when I took biochem and the MCAT. Could I still have gotten the 130 on the bio section without it? Maybe not. Could I have done well still? Probably.

It's up to you. I like Cell Bio a lot as well, perhaps more than orgo II

 

[bwc]

I do think it is in your best interest to take orgo II, even if it is not explicitly required. It gives you many more options, plus some of the MCAT material is learned in orgo II.

 

[Necr0sis713]

I second that. My TA for Orgo chem lab said that the Orgo on the MCAT is mostly from Orgo 2, which builds a lot of Orgo 1. Orgo 1 doesn't really go into much detail for the MCAT, but instead sets you up for Orgo 2 where all the beef is. You learn all the important reactions in Orgo 2 like aldol condensation, esterfication, etc.

Orgo 1 is just the fundamentals like "what is a nucleophile, electrophile, resonance, etc." but you don't really get to apply those concepts in great detail like in Orgo 2. Orgo I was easy for us: We just had to memorize reagents and what they did...and carry out some basic resonance like on nitro compounds and crap.

 

[Paracelsus23]

Thanks for the replies. I'll keep up on which schools require orgo and take that into account. They recently retooled the orgo curriculum at my school so that all the organic chemistry that is required to take biochem is taught in the first semester (eg. aldol condensation, nucleophilic acyl substitutions, synthesis) so I suspect the issue of missing out on MCAT material will be less applicable to me than it might be at other schools.