when to take premed prereqs?

[johndoe3344]

I started a thread a while back regarding... me not having completed my prereqs since I'm a engineering major, and there was a whole about misclassification.

In any case, I was wondering whether it would affect my chances significantly if I simply told them that I was to take another semester of chem during my senior year to satisfy their prereqs.

Alternatively, would it work if I mentioned in the secondaries that "Class X can also be classified as chemistry to satisfy the prerequirements" (and get a professor's letter/signature or something like that?")

I'm just trying to think of ways out.

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[Zoom-Zoom]

It totally depends on the applicant...and the specific courses.

For example, for someone who struggles in science courses and conveniently schedules both o-chems for second semester and summer following senior year, it'll look a little suspicious. An engineering major who hasn't gotten around to taking one semester of o-chem yet but aced p-chem and advanced calc would not arouse the same suspicion. It's hard to give you a straight answer without more specifics.

That said, I got in somewhere without taking one of their pre-req's, and many others have done the same. So as far as admissions goes, it's variable. I've come to find out that they are quite strict about making you satisfy them before matriculation, if for no other reason than to check off a couple boxes, so I wouldn't expect them to let it slide...although it's worth a shot to give them a call and ask.

 

[johndoe3344]

Well, of course I'll satisfy them before matriculation.

It's just that I'm an engineer -- and well, my typical program curricula includes a ton of upper level engineering courses (transport phenomena, control systems, biomaterials, kinetic processes, etc etc.), many of which can be considered both as engineering and as chemistry. Just not the standard pre-med requirements.

I went out of my way to satisfy everything -- and in fact, if I had remembered to count one of my upper level engineering (ULE) classes as a chemistry class, I'd be fine. Also, I have AP Chem -- which is why I was able to avoid taking it in the first place, despite that many of these ULE's have gen chem as a prereq.

Do you think that if I told them that I would take an additional chem class before matriculation, then my chances won't be significantly affected?