phosgenic Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I've been on the phone all stinking day with various counselors at Western asking them if a number of given courses would satisfy prerequisite requirements of med schools in the US and Canada... and all of them are completely incapable, due to an utter lack of knowledge, of giving me clear cut answers preferring to make vague inferences and speculations. Highly annoying. At Western, or any given University for that matter, in most given courses of study there are degrees of difficulty within it. For example, in first year Biology there is 1001/1002 or 1201/1202, the latter being easier. Both have the same number of lab/tutorial hours, and 1201/1202 has one additional lecture hour. So my question is, how do you know if a given course would be acceptable as a prerequisite requirement for medical schools in Canada and the US? Shouldn't my school provide a list of courses within each department that would satisfy the various medical school prerequisites? Or do I have to contact each medical school I'm planning on to applying to individually and provide a description of the course in question? I'm sure that most people when selecting their prereq courses take a customary approach, whereas I am trying to make things a little easier on myself by taking less rigorous prerequisite courses because I haven't been in school for a long time. So if anyone could shed light on this matter it would be much appreciated. Or, if I should just bite the bullet and take the courses that have been proven as valid prerequisites for schools in the US and Canada, feel free to say so. Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I didn't go to UWO, so this info is directly from the online course calendar, but it says that 1001/1002 are for science students and 1201/1202 are for non-science students. So, based on your signature stating that you'll be in a BSc program, you should take 1001/1002. It's pretty simple to know what core courses to take for med school. You take the ones your program allows you to be enrolled it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phosgenic Posted June 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I didn't go to UWO, so this info is directly from the online course calendar, but it says that 1001/1002 are for science students and 1201/1202 are for non-science students. So, based on your signature stating that you'll be in a BSc program, you should take 1001/1002. It's pretty simple to know what core courses to take for med school. You take the ones your program allows you to be enrolled it. You are absolutely right, but the thing is my program allows me to be enrolled in either or. Also, the question wasn't only for that particular course it was just one example. I'm also wondering whether I can take Mathematics 1225- Methods of Calculus to satisfy the 2nd half credit of the full-year Calculus requirement (with Calculus 1000 as the 1st half). I'm 90% sure that Physics 1028/1029 (Physics for the Biological Sciences) will be acceptable, but to conclude it just bothers me that none of this stuff is expressly stated anywhere. I don't want to take an easier bio and then find out when application time comes around that med schools won't accept it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ameltingbanana Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I remember Zinke saying explicitly that Physics For The Life Sciences is accepted everywhere as a full year physics credit when I took it (2 years ago). If you still want to double check that's fine, but the things studied in that course are quite similar to the other physics course, just a bit easier and applied more often to biological systems - stands to reason it'd be accepted as a physics course credit at other schools, especially since it has 3 hour labs as well (which are dirt easy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isix Posted June 15, 2011 Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 I took physics for life sciences...it's fine. None of the schools I applied to in the states had an issue with it. If two courses act as anti-requisites for each other, then they're fine as pre-reqs for most places. Also, Phospho, the science departments at any school aren't geared towards premeds or are meant as premed degrees specifically. No school will tell you "oh these courses satisfy medical school requirements." Unfortunately, that's research you have to do. All I can tell you, as I told you in the other thread, both bio courses are fine. They're both full-year biology courses with lab components...no school in the states is going to sit down and check up on each one of your courses. As long as it states on your transcript that it's a "Biology" course, they'll only verify from your school the credit hours, and the lab component and of course, your marks. Beyond that, I don't think they care (of course, I'm not adcom, so it's only a guess) Same applies with physics. I took Physics with Zinke while other students took regular physics. It's all about preferences...Nothing more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phosgenic Posted June 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2011 Holy f*cking hell I love premed101. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the replies. Just to be sure I'm still gonna contact a bunch of schools to ensure they're all valid, and if there's any discrepancy in what you guys have told me I'll be sure to post it up right away to let you know (though it probably doesn't matter anymore, but it might help some others out) Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EoE Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 If you think about it, people are applying to meds programs from all across the country and even outside the country. The medical schools just don't have the time to worry too much about what courses at what schools meet their reqs. Example, if you were required to take a calc course for your meds app and you took a second year course called 'Calculus, Statistics and You' which was really more of a social sciences course, the med schools would probably still consider it met their requirements because an admin person would see the course title containing the word 'Calculus' and move on. Although, it never hurts to be careful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phosgenic Posted June 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 If you think about it, people are applying to meds programs from all across the country and even outside the country. The medical schools just don't have the time to worry too much about what courses at what schools meet their reqs. Example, if you were required to take a calc course for your meds app and you took a second year course called 'Calculus, Statistics and You' which was really more of a social sciences course, the med schools would probably still consider it met their requirements because an admin person would see the course title containing the word 'Calculus' and move on. Although, it never hurts to be careful... Excellent point, which is why I sent out a mass e-mail to like 25 different medical school about an hour ago lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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