Which upper level biologies to take?

[FCMike11]

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Im essentially a post bac student. I am an RN and I am taking the finals of the last of my pre med reqs this week.

From here out im finishing my bachelors in nursing (32 hours to completion) and taking a upper level biology per semester. Im already registered human physiology in the fall, and then ill take biochem in the spring.

Was going to take genetics this fall but its not possible with my work and class times.

Whichadditional upper level biologies would you guys suggest? Btw my mcat is in august.....so not necessarily classes to prepare for that, just ones that would look "best" to have taken. Thanks for the responses.

 

[medic86]

Some classes like virology, immunology, cancer biology, embryology, endocrinology, etc. would be good, I'd think.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Classes that upper-level students at your school say are easier-than-average to get A's in.

 

[mavric1298]

Classes that you actually find interesting I think is one of the most important things. You will do better in any class that you actually like the material for the most part. Also, a good thing to keep in mind is some of those classes might really help you once you get into med school having some background in the area's covered. I think have to agree with Medics list. Personally, mine is: Behavioral Genetics, Molecular evolution, cell and molecular bio of human disease, biochem 1/2, medical bacteriology, medical virology, gen anatomy, and foundations of physiology

 

[NuttyEngDude]

If it's not for the MCAT, definitely what previous posters have said, easy A if you need the grade boost otherwise something you are genuinely interested in. If there were any available at my school, I would have taken cosmology classes, astrobiology classes or cooking classes.

 

[DocWinter]

It's probably not upper level, but you'll study like it is...
Anatomy & Physiology is a very useful course for pre-med/MCAT purposes.

 

[popopopop]

Are you planning to pass your HESI+NCLEX, but apply to medschool? Wouldn't that look strange?

Honestly for upper level courses, take what you're interested in. I'm trying to get into neuropharmacology, but you couldn't pay me an A+ to cruise through a 4000 level Plant Science class.

 

[FCMike11]

Are you planning to pass your HESI+NCLEX, but apply to medschool? Wouldn't that look strange?

Honestly for upper level courses, take what you're interested in. I'm trying to get into neuropharmacology, but you couldn't pay me an A+ to cruise through a 4000 level Plant Science class.

Im actually an ICU rn of 3 years now, will be 5 years at time of application.

I think ill talk to some faculty and students, my university does offer a virology class as well.

 

[FCMike11]

Thanks for all the responses guys. Going to take human physiology, the biochem, cancer biology in the summer and then possibly virology.

 

[popopopop]

Im actually an ICU rn of 3 years now, will be 5 years at time of application.

I think ill talk to some faculty and students, my university does offer a virology class as well.

Ahh, I totally missed your first sentence. You're lucky to get into human physiology.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Also, a good thing to keep in mind is some of those classes might really help you once you get into med school having some background in the area's covered.

Gotta disagree with that. I thought the same thing, and took classes that I thought would help you once in med school, but that's not how it goes down. Take a class like virology. You learn a lot over the 15 weeks or so of that class. However, 10 of those weeks are details that are not clinically important and won't be covered in medical school. The 5 useful weeks will be covered in 3 or 4 hour-long lectures. You won't know which of those 15 weeks are the important ones, so you'll forget 95% of all of it. Which means that you have earned yourself about a 10 minute headstart on your classmates towards learning virology. As a premed, your goal is to get acceptance into the best medical school you can, not to pay too much attention to trying to anticipate and pre-learn things that will be taught to you with vastly more efficiency than you can learn them as a pre-med (or summer before M1.)

 

[FCMike11]

Ahh, I totally missed your first sentence. You're lucky to get into human physiology.

Does your school fill up pretty fast?

Ive actually taken human A&P 1 and 2 6 years ago. Of course that was for health majors.

 

[popopopop]

^You aren't at my school because they teach one course of Human Anatomy in the fall and one course of Human Physiology in the fall lol. I missed the registration for the Anatomy class for fall, only 48 seats. I would have gotten in too, but I misread the registration date :/. The Bio advisor said Human Anatomy filled up in 18 minutes, but that to me is still plenty of time to beat the competition.