Would having gone to a university with a quarter system prepare me well for med school?

[Ancient_Eldritch]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Med school is really challenging and accelerated like beyond belief, but would any of this really prepare me for the pace of med school?:

I took classes at a university on the quarter system like 13-17 units per quarter of hard science. I also took heavily accelerated biology and organic chemistry courses during the school's six week accelerated summer sessions and got As in those. How comparable is that to the rigors of medical school? Would you say it's good prep?

 

[Lannister]

I really don't think that anything in undergrad can truly prepare you for med school, from what I've heard.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Quarter system vs semester system won't make any difference. People here went to quarter system schools and people went to semester schools and everyone is doing just fine. Med school is still going to be more material than at a quarter system school.

 

[22031 Alum]

Med school is really challenging and accelerated like beyond belief, but would any of this really prepare me for the pace of med school?:

I took classes at a university on the quarter system like 13-17 units per quarter of hard science. I also took heavily accelerated biology and organic chemistry courses during the school's six week accelerated summer sessions and got As in those. How comparable is that to the rigors of medical school? Would you say it's good prep?

People come to med school from quarter-system undergrads every year. The ones I know all took very rigorous course loads. None had any more of a "leg up" than anybody else. You should certainly challenge yourself* but I don't recommend counting on any kind of advantage. Med school is a different beast.

*Caveat: don't screw up your GPA by trying to take on more than you can handle.

 

[WedgeDawg]

@22031 Alum, then do you recommend taking fewer classes and getting better GPA (in comparison to taking many classes and doing somewhat mediocre)?

GPA trumps how hard your courseload is

 

[AlteredScale]

Med school is really challenging and accelerated like beyond belief, but would any of this really prepare me for the pace of med school?:

I took classes at a university on the quarter system like 13-17 units per quarter of hard science. I also took heavily accelerated biology and organic chemistry courses during the school's six week accelerated summer sessions and got As in those. How comparable is that to the rigors of medical school? Would you say it's good prep?

I went to a quarter system university (UCSD). The load is not comparable unfortunately.

A 10 week biochemistry course becomes a one week biochemistry course in medical school with an exam the following Monday. We have lecture from 8-12 or 8-1pm for the entire week as well so we get around 20 contact/lecture hours, which is actually about the same as our 10 week biochem course in undergrad (50min course time 2x a week).

We have other courses on top of our main course including doctoring, bioethics, and janitor skills (DO).

If you're getting As then that is awesome. Keep it up!