Guest chin up Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 I was wondering if you guys can help me... I've just finished my 3rd year in a Humanities program, and I've gotten in to UofT (huzzah!) - but I've deferred for a year so I can finish up a double major in Biology (still a BA) which will hopefully prepare me better for med school. I'm getting really nervous about keeping up. Because of a timetable quirk, I have to pick one of either Microbiology or Health Psychology (Course Description: "A survey of concepts in health psychology. Topics will include the physiological bases of behaviour and health and the role of psychological factors in the genesis, development and treatment of physical disorders. The etiology and treatment of problems such as headache and other pains, anxiety and stress, cardiovascular disorders, and substance abuse will be discussed"). The latter course interests me MUCH more, and the more mundane perks include a much better time slot and no lab - this is, after all, my year off before med school and most current med students have told me to enjoy it rather than killing myself with work in some bizarre attempt to "get used to it". My problem is that in terms of content, Microbio be better than Health Psych to reduce the amount of hair-pulling that I do in the future... although I must admit that I didn't really see Microbio explicitly addressed in the curriculum. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 Don't worry about it. Microbi in med school is much different than most undergrad courses, which means that most undergrad courses won't help you that much. I didn't see a vast amount of difference between the Microbi majors and the other science majors when we were in our microbiology block. Med school is much more focussed on all the different things that each bacteria/virus can do, and which antibiotics are the best for nuking said bug. Take the psych course. Everything you need to know in medical school will be taught there. This is your last chance to study something purely for interest's sake! Ian UBC, Med 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Akane200 Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 Uhhhh, they don't teach very much microbio in U of T medicine. Microbio and pharmacology are things that you have to do a lot of self study for (if you are preparing for the USMLE especially). They do go through a few topics in these areas, but not to the depth of undergrad courses (and in my own opinion, not enough to make us feel confident in those areas if we have never ever taken such courses). There is no block called microbio like there is for biochem. It's taught in an "integrated" fashion. But since you are deferring (and you're lucky if the tuition doesn't go up during that time), you should take whatever you like. It doesn't make that much of a difference in the long run (since microbio is not as vigorously tested material like immunology and pathobio). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PSY 330 Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 chin up, i took health psychology (what is it? PSY 330?) in my third year. it is a very interesting course, but the term that i took it, i swear to god the prof was trying to keep the class average very low. on the first test, everybody did well. then we had these papers worth 30% and a 10% outline. she crushed us on those and the final was brutal. i walked out of there thinking, 'well, i blew that course - ah well, it's just worth half a credit'. i ended up with an A, which to me, suggests that there was some serious adjusting of marks at the end of the term. the rumour was that she had taught the course the previous term and the class average was too high (i.e., B+ or even A- if i remember correctly). she had some motivation to bring the average down. this is all just my personal opinion . it may even be a different prof this time around - i took it during the winter session in 1999-2000. i would suggest checking out that assu anti-calendar. but again, it was an interesting course. the material wasn't all that challenging - just a really weird prof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chin up Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 Thanks PSY 330... good of you to try and warn me. I actually don't go to U of T right now, however - I go to a wee undergrad university (Bishop's, in Quebec) so things like that don't tend to happen. Well, I only say that because class-average-pressure on profs isn't a huge thing, although sometimes you do get the odd nasty prof who just feels like being an ass. I wish we had an "anti-calendar", though - right now the only one we have exists through word-of-mouth. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no worries Posted June 21, 2002 Report Share Posted June 21, 2002 Anyways, if you're already accepted to med school, a couple lower grades aren't gonna kill ya! :-) It must be an awfully nice position to be in. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.