*Advice on undergrad schedule

[Ian Wong]

Author:*Colin Newman, UG2
Date:***10/18/2000 2:49 pm*PST
*
Just wondering if I could get some comments/criticisms/suggestions/death threats about this schedule that I plan to follow on the yellow brick road to med school. I just want to know if anyone with some experience could let me know if any of these courses are pointless to take, or if there is a type of course that i should add, or whatever. (By the way, I'm a psychology major, which should explain all the psych courses)

1st Year
Human Biology 1 Half Year
Human Biology 2 Half Year
Fundamental Chemistry 1 Half Year + Lab
Fundamental Chemistry 2 Half Year + Lab
Intro Psychology 1 Half Year
Intro Psychology 2 Half Year
Statistics for Behavioural Science 1 Half Year + Lab
Statistics for Behavioural Scuence 2 Half Year + Lab
Engaging Literature Full Year

2nd Year
Psychology Research Methods 1 Half Year + Lab
Psychology Research Methods 2 Half Year + Lab
Abnormal Psychology Half Year
Physiological Psychology Half Year
Cell Biology Half Year + Lab
Principles of Heredity Half Year + Lab
Organic Chemistry 1 Half Year + Lab
Organic Chemistry 2 Half Year + Lab
General Physics 1 (w/o calc) Half Year + Lab
General Physics 2 (w/o calc) Half Year + Lab

3rd Year
Information Processing Half Year
Health Psychology Half Year
Cognition Half Year + Lab
Perception Half Year + Lab
Medical Ethics Half Year
Human Physiology and Anatomy 1 Half Year
Human Physiology and Anatomy 2 Half Year
Stats for Life Sciences 1 Half Year
Stats for Life Sciences 2 Half Year

4th Year
Hormones, Drugs, and Behaviour Half Year
Reading in Psychology Half Year
Microeconomic Principles Half Year
Macroeconomic Principles Half Year
(thank Ian Wong for those 2)
Biochemistry 1 Half Year
Biochemistry 2 Half Year + Lab
Medievil European History Full Year
(need some arts credits!)
Histology 1 Half Year + Lab
Histology 2 Half Year + Lab

whoa...that's alot of writing. any comments? i'd appreciate it!

[Ian Wong]

Author:*moo, UG3
Date:***10/18/2000 11:01 pm*PST
*
Take some more arts/fun courses! You'll be loaded down with all that anatomy and histology stuff in med school anyway. No need to learn it twice. For example, I'm taking a year of biochem this year and one genetics course next term, and that's it!! The rest are all physics/math (even some graduate courses on quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, stuff which I absolutely LOVE) and a couple US history courses, in which I'm also really interested.

[Ian Wong]

Author:*Ian Wong, MS2
Date:***10/22/2000 11:42 pm*PST
*
Hi Colin,

I'm a little (well, a LOT) busy right now, but I will get back to you on your question. It's just that this is something I can't really one-off in five minutes, and so I'll have to take a closer look.

Ian

PS: The acid test is whether you think you'll enjoy going to the classes, while not making it too difficult to get good marks.

[Ian Wong]

Author:*Ian Wong, MS2
Date:***11/4/2000 8:38 pm*PST
*
Hi there,

I think I've delayed sufficiently long with this. :) Below, I've quoted your entire post, and I'll just insert my comments where appropriate:

Since you're already in second year, there's not really much I will say regarding your first year, as it's already over and done with.

-----------
2nd Year
Psychology Research Methods 1 Half Year + Lab
Psychology Research Methods 2 Half Year + Lab
Abnormal Psychology Half Year
Physiological Psychology Half Year
Cell Biology Half Year + Lab
Principles of Heredity Half Year + Lab
Organic Chemistry 1 Half Year + Lab
Organic Chemistry 2 Half Year + Lab
General Physics 1 (w/o calc) Half Year + Lab
General Physics 2 (w/o calc) Half Year + Lab
-----------

That's a fair amount of labs. It looks like you're taking 4 lab courses each term. How are you holding up, now that midterms are over? In undergrad, I found by far that the lab portion of the course took way more time than the lectures, in terms of hours spent.

Make sure to learn the Organic Chem thoroughly, and not to try to cram it in the week before your final exam. Same goes with Physics. The reason for this is that mastery these two courses will be very beneficial when you write the MCAT.

Speaking of which, Physiology and Anatomy in third year will be the only course that will be directly useful in writing your MCAT. And in fact, only the Physiology component will likely come up; the MCAT doesn't test anatomy deeper than what would be covered in a Physiology course.

Hove you considered writing the MCAT after second year in the summer? You would need to do some independant study of Biochem, and perhaps any Genetics not covered in your Heredity course, but the Cell Bio, Physics, and Organic Chem, which constitute a large portion of the MCAT will still be fresh in your mind.

-----------
3rd Year
Information Processing Half Year
Health Psychology Half Year
Cognition Half Year + Lab
Perception Half Year + Lab
Medical Ethics Half Year
Human Physiology and Anatomy 1 Half Year
Human Physiology and Anatomy 2 Half Year
Stats for Life Sciences 1 Half Year
Stats for Life Sciences 2 Half Year
----------

Very little of this, as mentioned above, will be directly useful for your MCAT. However, given your major, I really shouldn't be analyzing your choices like I would for someone doing a Biology degree. :) Make sure to get the most out of your Ethics course; it was the most fun course I took in undergrad. Also, almost without doubt, you'll be asked an ethical question in your interviews at each medical school.

----------
4th Year
Hormones, Drugs, and Behaviour Half Year
Reading in Psychology Half Year
Microeconomic Principles Half Year
Macroeconomic Principles Half Year
(thank Ian Wong for those 2)
Biochemistry 1 Half Year
Biochemistry 2 Half Year + Lab
Medievil European History Full Year
(need some arts credits!)
Histology 1 Half Year + Lab
Histology 2 Half Year + Lab
----------

Remember: my advice applied to me in my situation. If you are not interested in Economics, don't take it! On the other hand, I'm happy to give people new ideas about the courses they can take, so if Econ seems interesting to you, then go right ahead. Biochem would be a good course to have before your MCAT, but it can be learned on your own. There is little in Biochem that needs to be explained to be understood (unlike Calculus, or other more cerebral courses); most of it is just raw memorization.

Histology also doesn't get much of a vote from me, simply because I'm taking it now, and finding it to be rather boring. Why would I want to spend my time looking at slides under the microscope when I could be dissecting stuff? On the other hand, it would have been nice to have this knowledge before entering med school...

Ian
Can, MS2