Beyonder Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 Does anyone have any experience taking premed courses at Carleton? I'm a second year Political Science student that has recently decided to work through the course requirements for medical school, which should I take and with what professors? My research tells me students need take 1 year of biology, 2 of chemistry (general and biochem) and 1 year of physics to qualify for basic med school admission. Is this all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prothrombin Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 Does anyone have any experience taking premed courses at Carleton? I'm a second year Political Science student that has recently decided to work through the course requirements for medical school, which should I take and with what professors? My research tells me students need take 1 year of biology, 2 of chemistry (general and biochem) and 1 year of physics to qualify for basic med school admission. Is this all? Not every mad school in Canada requires you to take Physics. In fact there are quite a few schools in which just Bio, Chem and Humanities is enough. That aside i'm in my 5th and last year at Carleton so I can definitely help you out with regards to which profs and courses are best. My degree is in Health Science, which is pretty much Carleton's equivalent of pre-med. You're going to have to take BIOL 1003/1004 (Introductory Bio I/II) which IMO won't be with any good profs. The course is not hard, but the labs and their TA's are not there to help you (at least when I took it). As is the case with a lot of first year science labs, the TA's are giving you really tough love because of the fact that they want to instill good habits in you. Unfortunately though they often came off to me and my friends as being rude and obnoxious and really refused to help out. I'm fairly sure it's changed though because of the sheer volume of complaints people gave. Intro Chem will most likely be with Bob Burke who is a legend and is one of the best profs you'll have at Carleton. You can take Organic Chem, which is fairly challenging but the labs are significantly easier and the TA's IMO are much nicer. The prof Peter Buist is also extremely good at what he does and makes me laugh. Into Biochem is pretty boring and none of the profs i've heard teach the course seemed to really connect to students. If you decide to take physics i'm gonna warn you it's a double edge sword. The topic itself is dry as the desert and the profs I had for 1007/1008 weren't the best, but the easiness of the lab sections made up for it. To put that into perspective, I had an A going into the final exam for PHYS 1008 simply from the lab section alone. I ended up dropping the course prior to the final exam because I had no effing clue about electricity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beyonder Posted July 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 Not every mad school in Canada requires you to take Physics. In fact there are quite a few schools in which just Bio, Chem and Humanities is enough. That aside i'm in my 5th and last year at Carleton so I can definitely help you out with regards to which profs and courses are best. My degree is in Health Science, which is pretty much Carleton's equivalent of pre-med. You're going to have to take BIOL 1003/1004 (Introductory Bio I/II) which IMO won't be with any good profs. The course is not hard, but the labs and their TA's are not there to help you (at least when I took it). As is the case with a lot of first year science labs, the TA's are giving you really tough love because of the fact that they want to instill good habits in you. Unfortunately though they often came off to me and my friends as being rude and obnoxious and really refused to help out. I'm fairly sure it's changed though because of the sheer volume of complaints people gave. Intro Chem will most likely be with Bob Burke who is a legend and is one of the best profs you'll have at Carleton. You can take Organic Chem, which is fairly challenging but the labs are significantly easier and the TA's IMO are much nicer. The prof Peter Buist is also extremely good at what he does and makes me laugh. Into Biochem is pretty boring and none of the profs i've heard teach the course seemed to really connect to students. If you decide to take physics i'm gonna warn you it's a double edge sword. The topic itself is dry as the desert and the profs I had for 1007/1008 weren't the best, but the easiness of the lab sections made up for it. To put that into perspective, I had an A going into the final exam for PHYS 1008 simply from the lab section alone. I ended up dropping the course prior to the final exam because I had no effing clue about electricity. This is an insightful and informative post, thanks. I have no Chemistry experience and only basic pre-Calc experience (I plan on doing Calc next semester). Taking this into account, do you still recommend Organic Chem as an option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprinkles Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 heya im actually kind of in the same boat (but '5th year' psci ) thanks for the tips Do you think it would be hard to do the first year courses without any background? (last science course I took was in gr.11 (about 5+ years ago?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prothrombin Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 Beyonder, Orgo isn't too bad and doesn't require much prior math knowledge. Basic chem however will require some basic intro math. That said as long as you can stay motivated to learn the material you should be ok. You'll have to grasp some major concepts regarding synthesis of chemicals but if you ask questions and stay on top of your work you'll be fine. Sprinkles, first year science courses aren't too bad ad the textbooks do a good job at getting you into the concepts that will be covered in the course. The classes themselves aren't hard, but the labs can be challenging especially if you don't have a science background. You should be ok but of you're hesitant you can always pick up an old bio text and read it casually so you can get your head around some of the more difficult stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akf Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Be careful trying to do premed at Carleton without being in Science. First year bio (BIOL1003 and BIOL1004) are restricted to those students that require them in their program. I'm in Computer Science and I wasn't allowed to register and both my override requests were denied. Also, the course selections are extremely annoying to plan because certain courses are only offered in specific terms and missing the first prerequisite course pushes everything back a year or more. Anyone have any advice on how to get into those bio classes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprinkles Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Be careful trying to do premed at Carleton without being in Science. First year bio (BIOL1003 and BIOL1004) are restricted to those students that require them in their program. I'm in Computer Science and I wasn't allowed to register and both my override requests were denied. Also, the course selections are extremely annoying to plan because certain courses are only offered in specific terms and missing the first prerequisite course pushes everything back a year or more. Anyone have any advice on how to get into those bio classes? If you are done your degree you can take the class as 'special student' ( a family friend did this) I might just end up taking it at Ottawa U though (as a special student since I haven't taken any courses with them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prothrombin Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 Be careful trying to do premed at Carleton without being in Science. First year bio (BIOL1003 and BIOL1004) are restricted to those students that require them in their program. I'm in Computer Science and I wasn't allowed to register and both my override requests were denied. Also, the course selections are extremely annoying to plan because certain courses are only offered in specific terms and missing the first prerequisite course pushes everything back a year or more. Anyone have any advice on how to get into those bio classes? Find out who the prof teaching the course is and e-mail him/her directly telling them that you're interested in pursuing a career in medicine and need to take the course, and that the overrides have failed. They'll almost 100% of the time give you permission to take the course. One of my friends wanted to take a psyc class that was restricted for psyc majors so she e-mailed the prof and asked him if she should take it because she was super interested. He had absolutely no problems letting her in (obviously provided the fact that there was space). First year science courses are generally really big so you shouldn't run into a class size issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 Find out who the prof teaching the course is and e-mail him/her directly telling them that you're interested in pursuing a career in medicine and need to take the course, and that the overrides have failed. They'll almost 100% of the time give you permission to take the course. One of my friends wanted to take a psyc class that was restricted for psyc majors so she e-mailed the prof and asked him if she should take it because she was super interested. He had absolutely no problems letting her in (obviously provided the fact that there was space). First year science courses are generally really big so you shouldn't run into a class size issue.+1 Don't try to do an override through the deparment. Contact the prof directly and they'll (more often than not) let you in the class. That's how I got into classes without having the prereqs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beyonder Posted September 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2012 Beyonder, Orgo isn't too bad and doesn't require much prior math knowledge. Basic chem however will require some basic intro math. That said as long as you can stay motivated to learn the material you should be ok. You'll have to grasp some major concepts regarding synthesis of chemicals but if you ask questions and stay on top of your work you'll be fine. Sprinkles, first year science courses aren't too bad ad the textbooks do a good job at getting you into the concepts that will be covered in the course. The classes themselves aren't hard, but the labs can be challenging especially if you don't have a science background. You should be ok but of you're hesitant you can always pick up an old bio text and read it casually so you can get your head around some of the more difficult stuff. Should I take intro Chem or Orgo? Which is easier and which would look better to prospective schools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beyonder Posted September 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2012 Isn't chem a pre-req for orgo at Carleton? Bob Burk's chem is very doable without any math background. I hadn't taken any high school chem or calc and I managed an A+ in chem. The old exams are posted, so studying for them is extremely straight forward. Microbiology with uh...Golshani? (I think that's his name, took it yeeaaars ago) is absurdly easy, as in easiest A+ you will ever get if you've taken 1st year bio. I never bothered with Biochem, and I never met anyone at Carleton who enjoyed the class. What are the prereqs for med school acceptance exactly? 1 Bio, 1 Chem, 1 Biochem and 1 Humanities? The former is described as a course for those wishing to take chem upper courses. It is also listed as "math intensive" while the latter is not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beyonder Posted September 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2012 Different med schools have very different pre-reqs, but they're very easy to find so I'd recommend looking them up and planning from there. Chem was definitely a prereq for orgo when I took it at Carleton, but that was awhile ago. Perhaps you *can* take them concurrently, but I'm not sure. Even though orgo isn't mathy at all, I still wouldn't have wanted to take it without having taken at least the first half of intro chem (just my opinion). Sorry I didn't describe the chem options. I have two first year options: CHEM 1005 A Title: Elementary Chemistry I (for people NOT planning on going further with chem) or Title: General Chemistry I Section Information: For students who only need to take upper year chemistry courses. (math intensive) --- Which should I choose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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