I want to punch myself for not taking chemistry I and II over the summer (2 classes knocked out in 2 months, grr) but ah well.
So now technically all I have left are the 4 chemistries. Question tho, I’m debating which math to go with this semester along with gen. Chem 1.
At this point I’ve taken College Geometry (art school requirement), College Algebra, and Pre-Calculus. I guess these would be enough to satisfy most schools 2 semesters of math requirement, but I think Statistics would help on my transcript, since that College Algebra is from a community college that I took to prepare myself for Pre-Calc (taken @ a 4 year).
I hear a lot of bark about Stats vs. Calc I. I saw that calc wasn’t really required at many schools, and a lot that required it were upper tier schools. I’m not really concerned with applying to too many reach schools so I feel that I shouldn’t bother taking calc.
Or am I thinking wrong here?
(Also, I’m a post-bacc but I’m labeled as a 2nd degree Bio Major so that I can get fin. aid.
Bio requires BIOLOGICAL statistics, however my pre-med advisor told me to take General Statistics. Would either one work?)
You are right; most donot require calculus.
I donot know in what stat you plan to attend medical school, most medical schools in Texas require statistics. Therefore, if you take general/elemental statistic class, it may be to your advantage. Also, you may look at the schools where you plan to apply and check out their mathe preference.
I agree with the previous poster, check the schools you’re interested in applying to. See if they have a preference for a math credit, even if they don’t require a math credit – i.e., which would help your application more. Only an ADCOM from a school can tell you that for sure.
Look at the course descriptions for the two stats courses - how different are they? If biological statistics teaches you statistics as they relate to biological/medical research, it might be more relevant. I’m not sure that adcoms would view the two statistics courses as significantly different.
I took calculus and I can honestly say that my time would have been better served by taking statistics.
Thanks for the responses guys! I will look at the schools and see what their math requirements are, but at this point out of the 7 that I know I will apply to none of them require calculus. I think I will skip it and take statistics.
I’ll take your advice emergency, and choose the best statistics that will help me in the future.
Thanks everyone
If you intend on doing any kind of research (basic or clinical), stats will also be more helpful than calc, obviously.