Taking Med School classes in undergrad?

[jonpalnile]

Would it be a bad idea to take med school classes at a reduced undergrad pace? I have the option to take classes that are identical to those at the local med school but they are taken at a severely reduced pace and not as many classes are taken at once. So for example I can study biochem, anatomy, and physiology (and I think histology) and the classes use the EXACT same ppt slides as the ones for the med students but the lectures are far more spaced out so much less material is covered in the end. For example, at the med school the anatomy slides cover Moore's Clinically Orientated Anatomy in 1 academic year. If I were to take the class it would go at about ~1/2 pace so I'd cover a quarter of the content in a semester.

Would this hurt me in med school, since I'd be use to studying the material at a slow and relaxed pace? Would I be better of taking other classes that I'm not as interested in (i.e upper level chem or physics) since I won't have to worry about how studying those subjects "slowly" will affect me in med school?

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[WedgeDawg]

What do you think the benefit of doing this would be?

 

[jonpalnile]

What do you think the benefit of doing this would be?

Well I just needed a certain number of credits to graduate. Also I'd hope that it would kinda help in med school.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Well I just needed a certain number of credits to graduate.

If you can take them and maintain your GPA, then go for it, but if there's no real need to take them, it might be better to take other classes. Of course, if your GPA is already hurting, I would stay away from med school type classes.

In terms of hurting you in med school, as long as you treat them as an upper level undergraduate level class and not a med school class, it probably won't "hurt" you in the way that you're thinking. Just don't think you can necessarily rely on the same study techniques in med school that you used in undergrad and you'll be good to go.

 

[gyngyn]

I recommend against taking classes with names that sound like medical school classes unless you have a strong independent reason for doing so. Anatomy, in particular is not time well spent in undergrad. We will teach you more than you possibly need in due course.

Stats is still worth taking. It seems two or three iterations is barely enough...

 

[GinnyWeasley]

At my interviews so far, the med students that give a tour always ask "Okay so did anyone take Anatomy?" and a like half the group would raise their hands. And then they would say " Well good, you should be all set for about the first week of class". Literally it doesn't help at all, because regardless of the pace it's just very different.

 

[Cara Delevingne]

Would I be better of taking other classes that I'm not as interested in

You should take classes you're interested in, and classes that are necessary to graduate. I wish I took more art/music courses. Now I'm stuck with science for the rest of my days.

You, and everyone else in your class, will learn everything you need in school. If you took these classes, you'll be ahead of them, sure, but in the end you'll all have a similar level of knowledge, so in essence that semester in college was wasted.

 

[DNC127]

I respect @gyngyn's advice but I have to disagree about not taking Anatomy. I took cadaver anatomy in undergrad and excelled there, and it has translated in ways I never even realized at the time. For example: we were just tested on the back, shoulder, and neck. Because of the Anatomy I took (and retained) in undergrad, I only had to briefly run over the muscles, bony landmarks, insertions, origins, actions, ect. I was foggy on the nerves and arteries so I spent some time learning that, and then applied all of that knowledge to the clinical lecture side of class. Our first test had hundreds of structures for lab, and then a very difficult clinical lecture portion. I spent about a 1/4th of the time my classmates with no anatomy background did in the lab, used that time to study for lecture, and what do ya know? Scored near 100% on both lab and lecture (average was in the 78 I believe so its not like we have an easy anatomy class). Without taking anatomy in undergrad I wouldn't have had such an easy time, and definitely wouldn't have scored as high as I did. This also helps in my other classes because I can prioritize them over anatomy because I feel most stuff is familiar and I just need to brush up/learn the clinical aspects. Taking Anatomy in undergrad for me turned our to be a great decision. (I have no clue how anatomy looks to adcoms, and I am not saying they will like/dislike it, but I do believe it REALLY helps in medical school)

 

[akuko2]

I agree wholeheartedly with @DNC127, I am an MS1 who has 2 weeks of anatomy left. I took anatomy my senior year because I had completed my core classes and was not worried about the class affecting my GPA as I took it pass/fail. My university offered a cadaver lab dissection as well and I felt I had a big advantage from the get go, as I not only had a knowledge base, but already had some skills to make dissection more productive. Bear in mind I still have to study for anatomy because the medical curricula is more in depth and at a quicker pace, along with additional clinical coorelates and embryology, but I have consistently scored well above the class average on my block exams. I don't want to say this to brag, but I feel it gave me a distinct advantage which kind of flies in the face of many people's advice that nothing you can do in undergrad will give you a leg up once you get into medschool. But I totally respect @gyngyn 's point and think that if there are other interesting classes that you are itching to try, don't squander the oppertunity! On the other hand if you have the time and need the credits, I'd say go for it!

 

[Catalystik]

if your GPA is already hurting, I would stay away from med school type classes.

If your GPA is hurting, getting straight As in med school-like coursework (and other upper upper-level Bio and Biochem) might be what convinces adcomms that you have what it takes.

 

[WedgeDawg]

If your GPA is hurting, getting straight As in med school-like coursework (and other upper upper-level Bio and Biochem) might be what convinces adcomms that you have what it takes.

True, but if you're not sure you can handle them given past performance, it might be best to avoid them until you're more confident that you're ready. It's better to take longer to dig out of a shallow hole than to jump right in and end up making it deeper.

High risk, medium reward I would say

 

[Lawpy]

I respect @gyngyn's advice but I have to disagree about not taking Anatomy. I took cadaver anatomy in undergrad and excelled there, and it has translated in ways I never even realized at the time. For example: we were just tested on the back, shoulder, and neck. Because of the Anatomy I took (and retained) in undergrad, I only had to briefly run over the muscles, bony landmarks, insertions, origins, actions, ect. I was foggy on the nerves and arteries so I spent some time learning that, and then applied all of that knowledge to the clinical lecture side of class. Our first test had hundreds of structures for lab, and then a very difficult clinical lecture portion. I spent about a 1/4th of the time my classmates with no anatomy background did in the lab, used that time to study for lecture, and what do ya know? Scored near 100% on both lab and lecture (average was in the 78 I believe so its not like we have an easy anatomy class). Without taking anatomy in undergrad I wouldn't have had such an easy time, and definitely wouldn't have scored as high as I did. This also helps in my other classes because I can prioritize them over anatomy because I feel most stuff is familiar and I just need to brush up/learn the clinical aspects. Taking Anatomy in undergrad for me turned our to be a great decision. (I have no clue how anatomy looks to adcoms, and I am not saying they will like/dislike it, but I do believe it REALLY helps in medical school)

I agree wholeheartedly with @DNC127, I am an MS1 who has 2 weeks of anatomy left. I took anatomy my senior year because I had completed my core classes and was not worried about the class affecting my GPA as I took it pass/fail. My university offered a cadaver lab dissection as well and I felt I had a big advantage from the get go, as I not only had a knowledge base, but already had some skills to make dissection more productive. Bear in mind I still have to study for anatomy because the medical curricula is more in depth and at a quicker pace, along with additional clinical coorelates and embryology, but I have consistently scored well above the class average on my block exams. I don't want to say this to brag, but I feel it gave me a distinct advantage which kind of flies in the face of many people's advice that nothing you can do in undergrad will give you a leg up once you get into medschool. But I totally respect @gyngyn 's point and think that if there are other interesting classes that you are itching to try, don't squander the oppertunity! On the other hand if you have the time and need the credits, I'd say go for it!

You guys benefitted from prior knowledge and familiarity though. This is no different from taking any med school course in undergrad and benefitting in that course in med school.

I don't think it's worth the time and effort. Could be useful if taken in last semester before going to med school (this requires having an acceptance in hand).

 

[QuizzicalApe]

You want college classes that'll help medical school?

Learn about statistics, namely in a context geared toward research. That'll help both in med school and in a medical career. It's literally the only thing I did in college that made med school easier; I basically was able to coast through that portion of 1st year based solely on my undergrad knowledge base

 

[jonpalnile]

I respect @gyngyn's advice but I have to disagree about not taking Anatomy. I took cadaver anatomy in undergrad and excelled there, and it has translated in ways I never even realized at the time. For example: we were just tested on the back, shoulder, and neck. Because of the Anatomy I took (and retained) in undergrad, I only had to briefly run over the muscles, bony landmarks, insertions, origins, actions, ect. I was foggy on the nerves and arteries so I spent some time learning that, and then applied all of that knowledge to the clinical lecture side of class. Our first test had hundreds of structures for lab, and then a very difficult clinical lecture portion. I spent about a 1/4th of the time my classmates with no anatomy background did in the lab, used that time to study for lecture, and what do ya know? Scored near 100% on both lab and lecture (average was in the 78 I believe so its not like we have an easy anatomy class). Without taking anatomy in undergrad I wouldn't have had such an easy time, and definitely wouldn't have scored as high as I did. This also helps in my other classes because I can prioritize them over anatomy because I feel most stuff is familiar and I just need to brush up/learn the clinical aspects. Taking Anatomy in undergrad for me turned our to be a great decision. (I have no clue how anatomy looks to adcoms, and I am not saying they will like/dislike it, but I do believe it REALLY helps in medical school)

I agree wholeheartedly with @DNC127, I am an MS1 who has 2 weeks of anatomy left. I took anatomy my senior year because I had completed my core classes and was not worried about the class affecting my GPA as I took it pass/fail. My university offered a cadaver lab dissection as well and I felt I had a big advantage from the get go, as I not only had a knowledge base, but already had some skills to make dissection more productive. Bear in mind I still have to study for anatomy because the medical curricula is more in depth and at a quicker pace, along with additional clinical coorelates and embryology, but I have consistently scored well above the class average on my block exams. I don't want to say this to brag, but I feel it gave me a distinct advantage which kind of flies in the face of many people's advice that nothing you can do in undergrad will give you a leg up once you get into medschool. But I totally respect @gyngyn 's point and think that if there are other interesting classes that you are itching to try, don't squander the oppertunity! On the other hand if you have the time and need the credits, I'd say go for it!

Thanks all. I definitely plan to do anatomy. Would biochem, histo and phyiso also help?

 

[Dr. Jan Itor]

Thanks all. I definitely plan to do anatomy. Would biochem, histo and phyiso also help?

Have you taken the MCAT yet? I'd definitely take biochem.


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[jonpalnile]

Have you taken the MCAT yet? I'd definitely take biochem.


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Ya already took it.

 

[libertyyne]

Would it be a bad idea to take med school classes at a reduced undergrad pace? I have the option to take classes that are identical to those at the local med school but they are taken at a severely reduced pace and not as many classes are taken at once. So for example I can study biochem, anatomy, and physiology (and I think histology) and the classes use the EXACT same ppt slides as the ones for the med students but the lectures are far more spaced out so much less material is covered in the end. For example, at the med school the anatomy slides cover Moore's Clinically Orientated Anatomy in 1 academic year. If I were to take the class it would go at about ~1/2 pace so I'd cover a quarter of the content in a semester.

Would this hurt me in med school, since I'd be use to studying the material at a slow and relaxed pace? Would I be better of taking other classes that I'm not as interested in (i.e upper level chem or physics) since I won't have to worry about how studying those subjects "slowly" will affect me in med school?

You are going to get them in medical school, wont help you get into medical school, neutral in GPA, then the question is you can take these classes but

 

[Toutie]

There are some schools that prefer you do NOT take overlapping medschool classes such as anatomy. See link for UCLA/Geffen SOM

http://medschool.ucla.edu/apply-prerequisites