Help me decide my courses!

[jpark02]

Hey everyone, this is my first post here

 

I am going into my 2nd year of undergrad this fall at the U of Guelph B.Sc. Biomedical Honours program, and like all of you here plan to apply to medical school. I have no problems with my program's schedule of studies except for a few mandatory requirements that I'd like some advice on:

 

1. one anatomy course (0.5 credits)

2. one of either philosophy or english (0.5 credits)

3. two more social science courses (1.0 credits)

 

For anatomy, I can choose from a) Vertebrate Mammalian or c) Human. Of course, because we're dealing with getting into medical school, human anatomy is the obvious choice, but the problem is that its a very hard course that is 2 semesters long plus a separate lab course, and requires special permission from a faculty member to take it, whereas the other two are open to all science students and are comparatively easier.

 

Is the challenge worth it? The human anatomy course is apparently extremely helpful, with lots of hands on experience, including examining cadavers. Should I just stick to a more general (ie vertebrate/mammalian) anatomy course for a lighter course load and better marks?

 

The next is that I need to take either a philosophy or english course. For this I know this is highly based on personal preference, but if you have taken either (or both!), please let me know what you think.

 

And lastly, what kinds of social science/humanities courses would you recommend? I've taken psychology already, but did not like it. I did like a "first-year seminar" offered at UoG on how to make local efforts on global issues (like food security, bottled water, etc) effective, which I did enjoy.

 

Thanks for reading! Any piece of advice is welcome!

[Jochi1543]

I'd go with human anatomy....as long as you can get a decent grade. Find out more about the grading in the class and how people tend to do. I took human A&P, but it was without lab, and it was very helpful in my paramedic class and I hope will help me a bit in med school (obviously it's not the same level, but that's still some background).

 

Otherwise, go with mammalian - the closest to human out of all these.

 

Philosophy can be very interesting or very boring. Highly dependent on the prof and the exact topic. Ancient Greek philosophy has a high potential for being very hard and very boring, for example. If you are good at essays and enjoy reading, either English or Philosophy would be ok.

[NicMB]

I would say check out if any ethics courses fulfill the social sciences/humanities requirement. Usually those courses have alot of current events stuff to keep it interesting.

[leviathan]

People say that undergrad anatomy and physiology don't help with med school because it is so much more detailed. I agree that it goes into more detail, but I disagree that it isn't helpful. For instance, we covered the brachial plexus and its branches in undergrad anatomy. Then in med school, we went into more detail on that by learning all of the branches of those 5 nerves, all the muscles + cutaneous regions they innervate, clinical diseases associated with brachial plexus injuries, how to do a physical exam to test nerve function in the arms, nerve blocks, tendon injuries, inflammatory conditions, and so forth. So yes, there was MUCH more info, but at least having that foundation made things a bit more familiar when they threw us in the deep end. The same was even more true for physiology.

 

Besides, if you want to apply to medicine, you should presumably have an interest in medical courses, so why not take them for your electives to enjoy undergrad more?