U Pittsburgh Secondary

[Alexander99]

I was completing the U Pitt secondary and noticed this:

"Entrance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine requires an academic year each of Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics and English <b>(all sciences must include an academic year of laboratory).</b> "

A full academic year of lab?! That must be a mistake, right? Do they mean a full year of each science and a lab course for each science? I sure hope so or I'll spend another year just fulfilling this requirement if I end up going there.

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[DrBodacious]

Originally posted by Alexander99
I was completing the U Pitt secondary and noticed this:

"Entrance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine requires an academic year each of Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics and English <b>(all sciences must include an academic year of laboratory).</b> "

A full academic year of lab?! That must be a mistake, right? Do they mean a full year of each science and a lab course for each science? I sure hope so or I'll spend another year just fulfilling this requirement if I end up going there.

Umm, I think what you are saying is right... They just want you to have a lab component to all of your Bio, Chem and Physics courses. I don't know about your school but at my school all of these classes either have a complementary lab course (1 credit) or there is a lab component that is built in to the course. That's all they want!

 

[AverageMan]

No, they mean take a course in each of those that includes lab as a part of the course work. At most colleges, the default biology, chemistry, and physics courses have a lab component associated with them. If you remember doing expiraments in physics and then writing up reports about them, then that's pretty much the kind of course they've wanted you to take. The courses that typically don't have lab associated with them are the versions for non-majors who just want to dabble in the topic, and they'll usually have clear names like "Biology for Non-Majors". If you've taken Physics I+II, Chemistry I+II, and Biology I+II, then I would presume that you're all set. But as always, your pre-med advisor will tell you for sure. If you don't have one, talk to your regular academic advisor and he/she can direct you to someone who can tell you whether the courses you took meet these requirements (IE, the department chair, the professors, etc).

 

[Alexander99]

Thanks for the answer. I guess our school is somewhat backwards because all the science-major science courses have separate lecture and lab courses while the non-science major science courses have the labs integrated.

 

[DrBodacious]

Originally posted by AverageMan
But as always, your pre-med advisor will tell you for sure.

I've recently grown to loath my pre-med advisor. She is so patronizing. She talks my ear off about crap I already know. If I bring something up she usually turns it into an argument (somehow, I really don't know how she does this). For example she told me I was set with my gen ed requirements when I saw her last spring. I go back to see her last week and she says I have to take another course. Then she acts like I'm irresponsible for taking her word last time we met, not like it is even an issue because I will just have to take 16 credits instead of an easy 13, I will still graduate. The worst par is that Stritch asks for a letter of recommendtion from your pre-med advisor if you don't have a comittee...my advisor was NOT helpful there. I asked her as soon as I got my secondary and she said, "sure I'll be glad to write you a letter, I just won't be able to get to it until a month or two after the deadline." I don't want to sound full of myself here, but I go to a not-so-good state school and our medical school placement is pretty poor (my advisor wouldn't tell me how low, I'm guessing 5%). I am fairly confident I will be one of the 5% who will get in at least somewhere...so she should at least make a half-assed effort to help me out.

Just had to vent, consider yourself lucky if you have a helpful advisor.