Guest gwendolenharleth Posted June 27, 2003 Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 I've been accepted to Mac and I'm a non-science student. I've taken the basic "MCAT courses" and that's it. Just how much will I suffer in first year? How common are non-science students at Mac -- misery loves company, afterall. Is there anything I can/should do to prepare in advance, or should I just enjoy my last summer of freedom before the wall of stress hits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cher1234 Posted June 27, 2003 Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 Hi gwendolenharleth. First of all congrats! I look forward to meeting you in the fall! I am also from a non-science background.. specifically, H.B.A. & M.A. in Clincial Psychology. I was wondering the same thing, so thanks for the post. I previously came across some stats indicating there is little to no difference in performance ratings between science and non-science premed backgrounds after the 3 years are complete. This, however, does not provide any indication of whether or not we will suffer during first year. Can any second year students comment on this? C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted June 27, 2003 Report Share Posted June 27, 2003 Well...this is a hard one...I come from a very clinical background, so I may not be the best one to answer this. However, I do have good friends in the program that just survived (and thrived) in year one with a very limited science background and in some cases no background at all. Unit 1 may be the most difficult...some people (a very small few) had to start from the basics, cell biology, basic homeostatic mechanisms which you can easily incorporate into the unit 1 topics because the workload is really not that bad...they call it "unit fun"...unit two is a different story...very interesting but ++ work (for me anyways)... My best advise is to relax, enjoy your time off...now that I'm on elective, I'm working long hours but not having to read all that much, just around the cases I'm involved in, which is such a welcome change!!! I'm starting already to re-charge the batteries, no breaks between units 1,2 and 3!!...but if you are one of those people who is go-go-go and you want to read a bit (only do a BIT!) get a copy of Tortora's Anatomy and Physiology and casually read the first few chapters. Really, that's all I would recommend. You will get everything you need from school and will learn where your deficits lie in unit 1 and you can work on them then. I hope that helps, sorry I can't really add more... Take care, see you in August!! Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MDWannabe Posted June 28, 2003 Report Share Posted June 28, 2003 Speaking as one of those total non-science people (ie not a SINGLE science course in university), I totally agree with the wise words of JMH2005. You could get a head start by reading Tortora. It is a book that will be very useful to you in your first year anyway; simple explanations; easy to understand diagrams. Now you can certainly survive by doing nothing - Unit 1 will probably be difficult for you no matter what you do, but you will cope either way. You will feel that it is all pretty manageable as you begin Unit 2. The unavoidably frustrating part at the beginning is that you are comparing your knowledge against others in tutorial to determine if you are progressing quickly enough. Because your learning curve is so much steeper, you feel way behind at the beginning. You get concerned that you are not catching up quickly enough. Unfortunately, despite Mac's reputation, the class is not crawling with non-science students, so you don't have many people to compare notes with. I'd venture a guess in saying that there are maybe 15 truly non-science people in our class (ie those with absolutely no anatomy or biology courses in their backgrounds). Last year, I gathered a list of resources recommended by these and other students for the likes of us, and will be most happy to post it for you when you start in August. This will hopefully help you get through those more difficult first few months. As a parting note, please don't get all that concerned about the first few months based on what I have said. "More difficult" does not mean less interesting, less fun or less worthwhile. Despite any frustrations I may have had at the beginning, I have felt like a kid in a candy store (I think probably everyone who knows me in the program has heard me say this at least once!) from the very start. You will experience a wide-eyed excitement seeing all this stuff for the very first time - it's all pretty amazing, and from my viewpoint, you couldn't be at a better school to learn it all! See you in August.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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