Would you take a class to meet a particular school's requirement?

[Paws]

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I was wondering if anyone else was taking a course just to meet the requirement of a particular school - like Calculus, or whatever.

I am signed up for a class and am kind of enjoying it, but it is hard work and expensive. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing this for 'nothing' and will just receive a rejection letter in a few weeks. A friend said: if you don't take the class, then you won't get in, but if you DO take the class, you might get in.

I loved my interview there and would love to go, but it sure seems like a big gamble. Any one else in this situation?

 

[TRUE]

I took Biochemistry simply because UF required it. It was hard, I wasn't particularly interested in it, but I got into UF and had I chosen to go there, I would have needed to take it.

However, note that at most schools you can apply, see if you get in or not and take the required class before matriculation. Most schools do not say you have required classes before application. I presume this really only applies to "extra" classes like Calc, biochem, etc... and not to the core pre-med classes like orgo, physics, etc...

 

[mlw03]

there are a handful of med schools in the country that require cacl2, as well as a 7 year BS/MD program i applied for but didn't get into. i was willing to take calc2 because i didn't want to start applying and then say, "crap, i can't apply to ___ because i didn't take calc2." so unless the class is something incredibly weird and unreasonable, i'd take it to go to a specific school.

 

[Paws]

I'm definitely taking it now and it's hard (biochem), but the admissions office told me I needed it and so here I am.

I guess I was just wondering because sometimes when I am really tired from studying I can't help but think that I am doing this with absolutely no idea of whether I'll actually get in. I know, no one ever knows that. At least I got an interview so that was a big step, but I just don't want to think about the time and $$ in case I don't get in. It's just a big gamble, I guess. I really like the school tho -

 

[CanIMakeIt]

I will be applying this coming cycle and I will wait till I get interview from duke to register for calculus.. no point in wasting time if I don't get interview.....

 

[roja]

Yup, took calc 1. but it was reqd for all the schools I applied to.

 

[meanderson]

It all depends on the med school in question. If you're targeting your state schools hard and one of them requires it, it's a no-brainer. Take the class. But if it's an out of state school and you aren't crazy about it and just plan on adding it to fill out your amcas primary, nah.....

 

[jlee9531]

hell yeah.

i took stats for ucla.

 

[Gleevec]

Definitely take the classes, especially if the requirement is biochem.

 

[Paws]

Yea, I totally love this school (ok, I'm going to leave that anonymous for now) and when I sat with the admissions person, he said you must take this course plus another one in the summer. I guess it's the anxiety around post-interview stuff as well as "am I a complete idiot for doing this?".

At first I kind a freaked about doing it plus working full-time, but now that I'm doing it I find I really want to go to the school. This application process is so anxiety provoking even at its best times. But the biochem is definitely becoming a really important preparation for school in the fall.

I'm glad to know that other people have wrestled with this question, too. 🙂

 

[meanderson]

Many sdn'ers can afford to love, hate, or have lukewarm feelings towards a particular school. That's because SDN doesn't cater to the average premed. Sure, there are plenty of people browsing and posting in the forums who are struggling to get into one school, but it's a lower % than the overall premed population.

But where I went to undergrad, ALL of the premeds shape their entire application for the purpose of being more appealing to one or two schools. For most of us, it wasn't a question of whether or not we liked those two schools.........we knew that's where we had our best chance to get in by far. So if one of these schools said we needed to take a class on underwater basketweaving to be more competitive for admission, there would be 300 people signed up for underwater basketweaving in a matter of minutes.

I went to a small regional state school however. It's a lot different at private schools where there isn't a concentration of students all applying to the same state schools. Even at pretty state schools with national reputations, however, I'd bet you see a good deal of school-specific application shaping. If UT-Southwestern suddenly decided that they were adding an unusual new prerequisite, you would see widespread movement by undergrads at UT at Austin to meet it.

 

[SunnyS81]

I took survey of biochem for Michigan and genetics for vandy (and maybe emory too?......this highly suggest it, and vandy wanted 2 semesters of bio taken in college, no AP).

Genetics I took over the summer, so if that reflects how much I was willing to sacrifice, consider it. Both turned out to be very useful courses in the long run.

If the class is underwater basketweaving or something equally useless, don't bother.

I suggest you take calculus. Everything in the world involves calculus. Even in med school they say "derivative" and "integral" and you better have a clue what they are talking about, even if you don't know how to do it.

I think calculus should be a requirement for graduation at every college........just like english........

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

the wouldn't be requirements if they weren't required. i'd guess that any given school with a 'unique' requirement like biochem or genetics or molecular genetics (usc) can easily cut there workload in half or greater (meaning the secretary looks over the app and sees the defeciency and rejects folks). this would explain a lot of those i have a 4.9 gpa and 74 mcat and came up with a cure for cancer while volunteering in some third world $****hole country and didn't get an interview at x.

 

[NotShorty]

A great thing about the quarter system:

I offered to re-take a class in spring quarter to fill the requirements for a school I applied to. They gave me an interview, but I didn't like the school, so now I don't have to take the class.

However, I did sit in on the class over winter quarter for a while and learned for free. If I had to take the class, I would have already been familiar with the material.

-NS

 

[vtucci]

I'll be taking Calc 2 this summer and will be taking BioChem in the Fall. I am also going to take a number of the recommended classes (e.g., embryology etc)