upper division courses to prepare for medical school

[SmartBruh]

What upper division courses will prepare you best for medical school (outside of the required pre-reqs)? I'm looking to do some post bac work to improve my application and I need some advice on courses to take.

I've already completed upper division biochemistry, neuroscience and statistics.

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[jm192]

What upper division courses will prepare you best for medical school (outside of the required pre-reqs)? I'm looking to do some post bac work to improve my application and I need some advice on courses to take.

I've already completed upper division biochemistry, neuroscience and statistics.

Alot of universities have some variant of "Comparative Anatomy" which is half anatomy, half embryology. Find that.

You see Physio 500 times over in medical school, take a physio course and build a strong foundation in that.

I really really hate hate hate histology. Some people have had it and seem wayyyy less stressed than me. I'd go with that too.

Upper level Cell based courses would be good, as well as immunolgy.

If you're limited in spots for classes:

Those are in order from top down

 

[sideways]

A N A T O M Y

it's your first big "test" in medical school, and while your anatomy will be comparatively pathetic to med school anatomy, at least you'll come into medical school with some exposure to the lingo and the basics. otherwise you're trying to learn minutiae and basics all at once. not fun.

 

[BBender716]

As a non-science major who's just jumping into M1, I've found that I'd have been most helped (realistically) by exposure to immunology, histology, and biochem (but you're ahead of the game on that one!).

 

[willen101383]

A N A T O M Y

it's your first big "test" in medical school, and while your anatomy will be comparatively pathetic to med school anatomy, at least you'll come into medical school with some exposure to the lingo and the basics. otherwise you're trying to learn minutiae and basics all at once. not fun.

Definitely take anatomy. I took anatomy in grad school...and its been a huuuuge help in med school. Like sideways said...you will remember the "big stuff"...so all you really need to remember is specific BS. Just coming in remembering the skull bones, and foramen in the skull was a HUGE thing for head and neck...

 

[Green Grass]

Agree with anatomy. Maybe some biochem and embryo. Hell, even immunology if you have it around. Lastly (and this only applies if you are doing well, i.e. above med school acceptance averages), beer pong 101.

 

[SmartBruh]

Agree with anatomy. Maybe some biochem and embryo. Hell, even immunology if you have it around. Lastly (and this only applies if you are doing well, i.e. above med school acceptance averages), beer pong 101.

I passed beer pong 101 freshmen year.


Thanks everyone for the advise.

 

[Green Grass]

I passed beer pong 101 freshmen year.


Thanks everyone for the advise.

There's always 201 and 301

 

[DancingThruLife]

Agreed, Anatomy would be at the top of my list.

Cell Bio, Physiology, and Immunology would be next.

That being said, some schools (i.e. UCLA) actively discourage applicants from taking courses that will be presented in medical school (the example on their website is Anatomy).

I'm not sure if they discourage it because they don't want anyone to come with anatomy or if they just don't want you to worry about that until you get to med school and focus on other upper-level courses instead. 😕

I took Anatomy and I'm still applying to UCLA, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[TwoPaddles]

What upper division courses will prepare you best for medical school (outside of the required pre-reqs)? I'm looking to do some post bac work to improve my application and I need some advice on courses to take.

I've already completed upper division biochemistry, neuroscience and statistics.

genetics, anatomy

 

[metallica81788]

Histology and Embryology.

I don't take these until next semester, but I would think they help: Neuroscience, Biochem

 

[MilkmanAl]

I wouldn't take a damn thing with preparation for med school in mind. The effort/reward ratio is ridiculously small for even the most relevant courses. I know you're probably bound and determined to take some seemingly relevant courses, though, so take phys, and anatomy. Anything other than those will be a serious waste of time. I mean, taking those only because you want to get ready for med school is already a serious waste of time, but they're better than most.

If you really want to do your post-bacc the smart way, take the most difficult science classes that you can cruise to a 4.0 with. That probably means a bunch of mid-level courses (which phys would qualify as). With the med school admissions process set up as it is, it doesn't make any sense to take classes you're going to have to struggle for good grades in.

 

[Dr McSexy]

The histology course I took in college is pretty much the exact same thing as my medical school course. So I'm not having to put as much effort into the course. Cell biology is also helping as of now.

An embryology course in college would be helpful, but then again the college course would likely be way over detailed compared to medical school course.

I also took neurobiology, immunology, and endocrinology and I'll guess I'll see how those help me in the future if at all.

If you end up at a school that's dissection heavy, anatomy shouldn't be too bad. I had never taken anatomy until now and I'm doing fine.

Should Add that it's better to get an A in a mid tier science class than to get a B or C in a higher level course.

You don't HAVE to take anything. If anything extra courses familiarize you with terms and concepts and in histology's case, familirazation with looking at tissue. You are still going to have to study and know the nitty gritty.

 

[drdandelion]

specialized bio courses: molecular bio, microbio, physiology, neurosci, immunology, histology, anatomy, bio labs
specialized chem courses: biochem, biochem lab

 

[NutritionistRD]

Any med students, would really appreciate your input 🙂

I have a few upper level science courses to take this semester. At max, I can take 3. I work full time. What three do you think would be the most beneficial for medical school? (not for MCAT prep)

These are what is available this semester
Genetics, Immunology, Neurophysiology, Histology, Endocrinology

I was reading some former blog posts and was thinking of taking genetics and immunology, but am torn between the last three.

Thanks!

 

[Dr McSexy]

Any med students, would really appreciate your input 🙂

I have a few upper level science courses to take this semester. At max, I can take 3. I work full time. What three do you think would be the most beneficial for medical school? (not for MCAT prep)

These are what is available this semester
Genetics, Immunology, Neurophysiology, Histology, Endocrinology

I was reading some former blog posts and was thinking of taking genetics and immunology, but am torn between the last three.

Thanks!

I would take Neurophysiology, Histology, and then a toss-up/grab-bag between genetics, immuno, and endocrinology with a leaning towards immuno. And Fwiw, I have taken a course in each of those (or at least similar in regards to neurophys).

Disclaimer: Even after what I'm about to say, I still would recommend you take the courses you find MOST interesting, as opposed to what you gauge the relative usefulness that I class might be to medical school. All in all, courses are good for familiarizing with concepts and terms, but you'll still be reading everything again for the nitty gritty.

My take on each course:

Histology:I think Histology would be the most high yield as far as familiarizing yourself with tissue slides and basic cell biology within it.

Neurophysiology:
Neurophys will most likely only be a portion of the neuroscience you'll have in medical school. My assumption is that your course will focus a lot on the "neuron" as a unit, rather than the operation of the brain. If so, you'll be spending a lot of time going into detail about action potentials, conductivity, different types of receptors, stimulations, etc. etc. This stuff is decently useful as far as medical school goes. But you'll probably go far and beyond what medical school requires you to know.

Immuno: Useful. I would use it more than anything as a way to get familiar with the terminology. I think a lot of people struggle with immuno at first just because it takes a little to bit to get into.

Genetics: Useful. But again, you'll probably go into concepts far beyond what's required for medical. It varies from school to school I'm sure, but genetics at my school seems so far to be fairly basic and not a huge portion of the overall curriculum. But if you never had ANY exposure to genetics, it might be useful to take a course in it.

Endocrinology: I really liked this class a lot. It was really interesting, but I haven't really found anything about it that translated to medical school for me yet.

 

[emsdan]

Any med students, would really appreciate your input 🙂

I have a few upper level science courses to take this semester. At max, I can take 3. I work full time. What three do you think would be the most beneficial for medical school? (not for MCAT prep)

These are what is available this semester
Genetics, Immunology, Neurophysiology, Histology, Endocrinology

I was reading some former blog posts and was thinking of taking genetics and immunology, but am torn between the last three.

Thanks!

IMO, what makes for the best pre-med-school prep work would be 1) histo, 2) immuno, 3) not sure, probably endo would help most overall as far as what you will see in school. At least where I am at, genetics was a relatively small part of the curriculum, and neurophys would probably be too focused.

I personally took histo in undergrad and that is helping tremendously. Haven't started immunology, but I think my undergrad work in that will also be quite useful.

For those who are thinking of anatomy as prep - I think it is very helpful, if you are at a school that works with cadavers. My undergrad anatomy was model and image based, didn't find it helpful for med school in the least.

 

[gravitywave]

you're going to hear different things from everyone. I don't come from a science background and right now I would say stats, immunology and cell bio (in that order). but it really just depends on what each person in this thread has found most challenging. this depends on the individual, as well as how different subjects are taught at different med schools.

for my part, i wouldn't take genetics, the course i took was a waste. i can't understand the people who recommend ug anatomy, either - how long does it really take to memorize the bones in the head? because that's about all the benefit you're going to get, and then you still have a structure list 24 pages long. but anatomy didn't give me much trouble anyway, so maybe that's why i feel that way. see what i mean?

 

[mvenus929]

A N A T O M Y

it's your first big "test" in medical school, and while your anatomy will be comparatively pathetic to med school anatomy, at least you'll come into medical school with some exposure to the lingo and the basics. otherwise you're trying to learn minutiae and basics all at once. not fun.

Depends on what school you go to. We just started anatomy last week (though we are certainly not the norm). Our first big exam was mostly biochem.

OP, I would argue against taking anatomy. One of my dissection group members took osteology (she's an anthro major) and is doing better than a lot of people who did take anatomy. I didn't take it and I'm managing fine; it's just repetition, and understanding the relationships between things. Undergrad anatomy might help, but I doubt it'll help too much.

I'd go with immunology and physiology personally. Immunology seemed to be a topic most people in my class struggled with, and physiology can give you a nice big picture view, as well as integrate things you learned in biochem, etc.