If one is accepted into medical school without a pre-medical background, yet has a medical background, is one qualified for medical school?
Let’s just say someone works 3yrs as a medical assistant. They’ve studied anatomy/physiology, biology, pharmogoloy and have taken math and advance medical course in college like Chronic and Communicable diseaes, what is your thoughts on this person ability to make it through medical school?
Many physicians have announced that their undergraduate work did not prepare them for medical school. If this is the case, then why must anyone spend 4yrs learning sciences that have very little to do with what we will deal with, exception being biology, microbiology and most importantly biochemistry?
Other than MCAT preperation, what is your view of having a strong science background? Do you feel that if a medical school allowed someone to enter without having the traditional pre-medical background, is the school fake?
your basic science curriculum in medical school - usually the first two years - is going to ask you to count on your coursework in organic chemistry, general chemistry, physics, and biology. Physicians who say their pre-med sciences were “a waste of time” are forgetting how much those concepts helped them understand the physiology of drug interactions, kidney functioning, neuron signalling, anesthetic gas diffusion in the lungs, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on forever, but you get the idea. Ironically, the more specific the undergraduate course, the LESS helpful for the basic sciences in medicine IMO. I can categorically state that what I learned in physics has been more important than anything I learned in undergrad anatomy/physiology. “Basic” doesn’t mean easy or unnecessary - it represents the underlying concepts by which we understand the workings of the human body in health and disease, and those essential prerequisite courses - gen-chem, o-chem, physics and cell biology - are the foundation of that understanding.
A friend of mine took only the bare bones minimum science courses. She is an MSI this year and feels she has had to work harder at her classes than say those who were science majors. I think it is because the more science courses you take, the more your mind starts to work in a scientific manner.
However, that said, I could have easily done without ecology and plant biology when getting my BS. I hated those classes and feel like they didn’t benefit me at all.
If a person has taken only the required courses and a school accepts them, well, that surely doesn’t make that school a fake. It may just mean that person wil have to work a bit harder to keep up with their peers. But having medically related classes can only help you.
I think that the general sciences are important in preparing one for the medical coursework, however, I do not think a science degree is important. At one premedical conference I attended, one of the med students on the panel stated that her biology major put her at an advantage to the non-science majors in her med school class…for about the first two weeks. However, not having a good solid science core can put one at a disadvantage on the application in my opinion. Minimal science courses most likely means little or no research opportunities, and it is my feeling that in today’s competitive application pool, that may put someone at a disadvantage. Most secondary applications have separate spaces inquiring about research, publications, and other such endeavors. Having an art major with the bare minimum prereqs, I had to leave most of those spaces blank.
I think it would be quite impossible to obtain a competitive score on the MCAT w/out o-chem and physics, even with a medical related background.
When I talk to docs, they talk about o-chem being helpful in understanding the differences between certain types of drugs. Physics is a little harder to relate, but there are topics one needs to understand in order to work in modern medicine.
I know these are all disconnected ideas…forgive me for typing as I think. I hope there is something useful here for you!
Angie
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When I talk to docs, they talk about o-chem being helpful in understanding the differences between certain types of drugs. Physics is a little harder to relate, but there are topics one needs to understand in order to work in modern medicine.
I know these are all disconnected ideas…forgive me for typing as I think. I hope there is something useful here for you!
Angie
Hi Angie,
Physics is pretty useful for Physiology, your most important class of first year. A good physiologist can diagnose with the best internist. I used to share a house with the Vice-Chairman of the Physiology Department at George Washington University. This woman had done research with Sir Hans Krebs and knew her physiology inside and out. She could explain the most complicated cardiology problems without difficulty because she totally understood the physics of water flow through pipes! She said that circulation was just plumbing and nothing more. Her name was Marie Mullany Cassidy, Ph.D, D.Sc. and she died before I finished medical school but I remember her lessons well. Don’t think for a second, that any of your premedical education is a waste because nothing leading up to medical school is a waste. It’s all preparation for something that you find yourself doing later. I can’t tell you how valuable woodworking is to Orthopedic Surgery! The tools are exactly the same. The last time I inserted an ICP bolt in the head of a trauma patient, guess what I used? A bit handdrill! It was totally fun.
Natalie
It makes me feel better to hear that the orgo will help with something! I hate hearing from docs that it is a waste of time!
I noticed last year when I was looking into my knee surgery a lot of articles mentioned torgue and various other physics related things so I can see where this will be applicable… someday.
Now, I will tell you that when those of you prepping for MCAT start throwing around o-chem questions, I think, holy crap, did I ever know all that stuff? (I did.) and it would be easy to conclude from my reaction now, six years after taking o-chem, that it must’ve been a waste of time because look - I don’t remember it.
But I DO remember the big picture and the key concepts. No, I don’t remember all the details of o-chem. But if I hadn’t gone into it in two semesters’ worth of depth, I doubt that the Big Picture concepts would stick with me to this day. It is definitely not a waste of time.