University of Arizona Physiology major?

[musicalmedicine]

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering if any of you are doing the physiology major at U of A. If so, please leave some feed back on how you are enjoying it. What parts you enjoy the most and any parts that you don't really enjoy. Also, being that most of the people in the physiology major are probably pre-meds as well; how often do you run into gunners or people who are extremely up tight? Thanks for you help in advance!

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[Ashers]

I didn't do that major, but I took some of the classes through my major (Gen Bio). From what I've heard, it's tough. The phys classes I took were fun, but hard. Don't take it just because you want to be premed. I know people who went to med school who majored in MCB (4-5 people went to med school), physiology & anatomy (I knew 1), EEB/Gen bio (myself and a few others).

 

[Slack3r]

You get uptight kids in all the sciences. PSIO so far, through the 2 intro pre-reqs, is really easy. The upper-divisions are interesting (seemingly) and I've been told they get more challenging, though not ridiculously.

I find it more interesting than, say, microbio or biochem regardless of whether or not it will prepare me for med school. I enjoy being able to pull A's in the classes without going to class often. Which is good, since most of the classes are 8am MWF.

 

[knuck000]

I'm a senior psio major applying to med school right now and I thought the major went alright. I can't speak about how easy or difficult it is compared to other majors, because I obviously haven't done them myself, but I didn't think physiology was impossibly hard. I think it helped with the MCAT because it gave some background knowledge on the anatomy in the BIO section. Also, I've heard that med students who majored in psio may have a (small) head start in the anatomy block.

Something I've realized is that you should really pick the major that you're interested in learning about, though. People told me when I was a freshman that med schools don't like boring psio majors, and are interested in more diverse majors, but I wanted to learn about physiology, so I chose it. As long as you take the science pre-reqs and take some difficult upper division courses, any major is fine. Study whatever you're interested in, because once you're in med school you won't have the time to learn about history, art, politics, etc.

So personally, I thought physiology was a great choice for me. But I don't think my major was as important as my MCAT, GPA, extracurrics, LORs, essays, or interview, so study whatever you think you will enjoy and do the best in. Another option is a physiology minor. Schools seems to really like a science major with an arts minor or vice/versa. Good luck!

 

[Hyperstudyosis]

I'm an MCB major, but I'm thinking about declaring a second major in physiology. I would only need 6 additional classes to get the PSIO major in addition to the MCB major. Plus, I'm really interested in some of the PSIO classes, like endocrine physiology, cardiovascular physiology, neurophysiology, etc. A lot of my friends are physiology majors. In fact more of my friends are physio majors than mcb majors.

 

[musicalmedicine]

Thanks you guys!!!

I don't plan on switching from microbiology to physiology but was just wondering what the program is like because I just recently found out that UA even had that major. I don't know how I didn't see it on the majors list when I applied, but thats alright because I think I would prefer microbiology over physio anyways since I'm going to get plenty of it in med school.

 

[Ashers]

I'm an MCB major, but I'm thinking about declaring a second major in physiology. I would only need 6 additional classes to get the PSIO major in addition to the MCB major. Plus, I'm really interested in some of the PSIO classes, like endocrine physiology, cardiovascular physiology, neurophysiology, etc. A lot of my friends are physiology majors. In fact more of my friends are physio majors than mcb majors.

I loved that class, and it helped during the endocrine block of phys in med school.

The first time seeing endocrine is tough, and it gets easier every time, so by the time I saw it in med school, I didn't have to study for that block.

 

[Hyperstudyosis]

I loved that class, and it helped during the endocrine block of phys in med school.

The first time seeing endocrine is tough, and it gets easier every time, so by the time I saw it in med school, I didn't have to study for that block.

Sweet! When I took anatomy and physiology, the endocrine system was one of my favorite parts. That and the immune system...

 

[Ashers]

Sweet! When I took anatomy and physiology, the endocrine system was one of my favorite parts. That and the immune system...

I loved both of those in college. I took endocrine phys as an elective and the honors Intro to Immunology class (it was my writing intensive class requirement).

Immuno is another class that was helpful to have in college because of all those acronyms and stuff (and the stuff we did in med school wasn't nearly as detailed as it was in that class). I also did my honors thesis with a PI over in the Micro/Immuno dept at the med school (who has since died).

Anyway, I don't know what the classes/majors are like now. I was in the 1999 catalog and had to take the UDWPE... I think they got rid of that for the 2000 or 2001 catalog.

PS. I'm so excited for homecoming this weekend! I love being an M4. I actually get to fly out for it! GO CATS!