Which general education classes to take in undergrad?

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kapil_MD

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Hello everyone,

I'm a traditional indian american student and will be starting my sophomore year on route to recieve my BA in biology, and will be attending medical school upon graduation.

I was wondering what general education courses you guys took, and which you'd recommend, and those which you don't recommend during undergrad

Because to be honest I'm quite confused as to what to take - what do the med schools like to see?

This semester I'm taking ethics (thought that was an obvious choice), and can't decide between nonwestern fine arts or intro to theater. I don't really care for theater, but it's an easy A which would be nice because of the science classes I'm taking. Do med schools looks down upon certain classes (such as theater?).

Which class would you recommend, what classes did you take and how should I look at the whole general education requirements overall in regards increasing my chances for admission to med school.

I've read these forums for a long time, please share your wisdom with a confused pre-med. :)

Thank you.

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Take what you want to take. Have an interest in English? Take a Chaucer class. Always wanted to find out what was up in Prague when it was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire? Take the history of Eastern Europe. Always wanted to read the signs at Chinese restaurants? Take a Chinese language course.

In my opinion, college is supposed to be about broadening your horizons... not simply a drudgery to be plodded through on the way to medical school. Please, please, enjoy it, instead of sacrificing a great opportunity for personal growth to the med school adcoms. You can be a successful premed and still have a wonderfully enriching undergrad experience.

Sorry. Okay, rant over.
 
TarHeelBorn said:
Take what you want to take. Have an interest in English? Take a Chaucer class. Always wanted to find out what was up in Prague when it was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire? Take the history of Eastern Europe. Always wanted to read the signs at Chinese restaurants? Take a Chinese language course.

In my opinion, college is supposed to be about broadening your horizons... not simply a drudgery to be plodded through on the way to medical school. Please, please, enjoy it, instead of sacrificing a great opportunity for personal growth to the med school adcoms. You can be a successful premed and still have a wonderfully enriching undergrad experience.

Sorry. Okay, rant over.

that helped me out a lot, thanks. I'm thinking of taking sociology now, sounds like a good class.
 
kapil_MD said:
that helped me out a lot, thanks. I'm thinking of taking sociology now, sounds like a good class.

Sociology was the biggest waste of a class ever. I did crossword puzzles in this required attendance class, and studied the day before the exam and made an easy A. I learned absolutely nothing. The department of sociology is well-known for its "blow-off" classes.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
Sociology was the biggest waste of a class ever. I did crossword puzzles in this required attendance class, and studied the day before the exam and made an easy A. I learned absolutely nothing. The department of sociology is well-known for its "blow-off" classes.

right......well I guess it's nonwestern fine arts for me...for now.

On a sidenote, have any of you taken genetics, if so - how was it?
 
OSUdoc08 said:
Sociology was the biggest waste of a class ever. I did crossword puzzles in this required attendance class, and studied the day before the exam and made an easy A. I learned absolutely nothing. The department of sociology is well-known for its "blow-off" classes.

I agree, same with "Health Promotion" classes. Nothing like learning a bunch of useless, boring crap only to forget it half an hour after the final. I've taken a lot of fun Psych classes though. Religion and Phil. classes are cool too.
 
I've taken genetics, it was pretty easy, sometimes fun (for me). Take all of this advice with a grain of salt - personal experiences very greatly with the individual 's tastes and preferences, the school, the professor, etc. You're better off asking around on your campus than on here. See if your school has a course review system and check that out. That might help you find a class that is both interesting and known for its easy grading system (let's face it - keeping the GPA up is always a good idea; no one wants to get a C in an elective).
 
Art history is fun but that class was hard for me. History classes are always fun and easy.
 
Take what you will find interesting. I am sure there is something to be learned in sociology, if you're interested in it. Just because it is easy doesn't mean you "can't" learn in the class.

Also the difficulty of specific classes like genetics will vary greatly depending on where you go. At my school it is a writing reinforcement class and along with all the genetics crap you do, you have to write scientific papers about your fake experiments as well. It was probably the toughest biology course I've taken to this point.
 
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