Hello all,
After researching and praying for months and months, I have finally decided to make the leap and go back to school! I am very excited and not a little nervous. I might be the oldest person in every class I ever take for the rest of my life. Crazy!
Anyway…this is what I have planned so far. I want to waste as little time as possible and am aiming to take the MCAT in Spring 2015. Yes it will be the new test but I just can’t prepare sufficiently before then.
Spring 2014
MATH 1210 (Calculus) (4)
Gen Chem 1 w/ Lab (5)
BIO 1210 (4)
13 credits.
Summer 2014.
Gen Chem 2 w/ Lab (5)
BIO 2010 (Evolution) w/ Lab (5)
PHYS I w/ Lab (5)
15 credits.
Fall 2014.
O Chem I w/ Lab (6)
PHYS II (5)
Begin MCAT prep
11 credits.
Spring 2015.
O Chem II w/ Lab (6)
Heavy MCAT prep
6 credits.
After taking the MCAT and getting applications in, I will go back to work during the glide year and take classes part-time (Biochem, Cell Bio, maybe Genetics or Statistics, etc.).
What do you think?
- swalsh Said:
If you can't prepare sufficiently, then you should wait to take the test when you can.
I also think that schedule is "heavy" especially if you've been out of school for a while.
If I were you, I'd slowly work my way into a heavy schedule and study for/take the MCAT as that schedule worked itself out.
Good luck!
I really think you need to relook at the first summer load. Classes that are compressed into a summer term are difficult enough. But taking 3 sciences with lab in that time? It seems like way too much.
I know you are eager to get started, but remember that your grades in these classes are very, very important. It’s no use going faster if your grades end up hurting you.
This is just said from my perspective, but I had also been out of school for awhile, 10 years in my case, and gen chem in a normal semester schedule is kicking my butt. It’s a lot of work if it doesn’t come naturally to you or you don’t have some idea already of what you’re doing.
Depending on where you want to go or what kind of physics is taught where you’re taking classes, you could also drop calculus. Most med schools do not require it.
Also is your first bio class with lab? A lot of requirements I’ve seen are bio with lab (2 semesters).
And finally, if you’re planning on the new MCAT and you don’t have a psychology course of some kind, you might want to consider adding one in. Maybe in a summer since it doesn’t have a lab and couldn’t almost be a break from the hard sciences.
All that said, good luck! Nothing will change until you make a change, so congratulations on getting started.
As a general rule of thumb, summer classes are almost like doubling your credits since a typical 4 mo class is compressed into 2 mos. So 15 credits in the summer would be like 30 credits otherwise 
That being said…(and to paraphrase Shakespeare)…to thine own academic self be true. I see you are an attorney so studying and working hard scholastically is not unfamiliar territory for you. However, pre-med sciences can be a real bear, and doing well in what is already considered challenging classes can take a lot more effort than usual.
By all means, take a re-assessment after your first semester back. I know that it is a common feeling among us older students that we have to make up for lost time, but it really is a marathon and not a sprint. In the grand scheme of things, an extra semester or two is not going to make that much of a difference.
Think if it this way, I would rather get done in 6 semesters with a 3.8, than 4 semesters with a 3.2.
Summer classes that involve science courses w/labs are HARD. Crunched in as well. I took BIO, CHEM, and Medical Term last Summer and got a 4.0 in all classes.
If your not working then it might be alright. But if you are, then your going to be going to bed late a lot!!!
Seriously, if a dumb ass redneck at 43 like myself can do it, surely you can do it. HANG IN THERE. Only you know what you can handle and can not. But one thing good for you and I, is that there are some really good people on this site that have been there and done that and truly want to see you succeed.
Thanks, everyone. I met with the premed advisor at my university and she slapped me around a little bit, basically telling me that I was biting off more than I could chew.
I let it all simmer for a few weeks and have now decided that the responsible route is to back off the gas a little bit and make sure I do well. I will be working part-time during school so I don’t know yet how the balancing will work out.
Thanks again, all! This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me!
I’m a bit late to the party, but what the hell.
I’m going to disagree with some other people here and not tell you that your summer course load is too difficult. It may be three classes with labs, but Evolution and Physics I labs are more demonstration than lab science. If they were Genetics Lab and Physics II lab, I’d be saying something different.
Physics II, Orgo I, and Orgo II are probably your three most difficult labs. I would shake things up so you aren’t taking any of them at the same time. Perhaps do the Physics sequence in Spring/Summer, and the Bio sequence in Summer/Fall. Of course, this does also make your Summer semester more difficult.
Also, check in with exactly how long summer semester is. I know that other people are saying that summer classes are compressed, but that isn’t always true. I’ve been at four universities and at each, the summer semester was as long as the other semesters.