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Courses for a first year student

obeg
edited August 2010 in General
Hi, Im new to SFU and will start my BSC starting this fall. My goal is to go to medical school and I recently found out that UBC requires atleast 15 credits per semester.

The courses I'm taking are

Chem 121
Bio 101
History 130
Psychology 100
Math 100

I know that what Im taking is against what I was told at blueprints. I wanted to know if this schedule is doable.

I also wanted to know if there were any 2 credit courses that I could take instead of taking psychology or history.

Comments

  • anonymous1
    edited August 2010
    Isn't that 17 credits? That's way too much for your very first semester in my opinion. And why are you bothering with History and Psych? UBC wants English.
  • DesolateDesolate
    edited August 2010
    Yeah, that definitely doesn't seem like a good schedule for first term. How'd you do in Math 12? Most of the time Precalc is a waste of time if you have the prereqs met to get into MATH 15X. If you're doing chemistry or physics, you take 150 or 151. 150 is a four credit class, with review of some precalc material so that you feel more prepared to take on calculus. One extra lecture a week too. These two are considered the hardest of the Calc I courses. If you're doing biology, you take 154.

    And, like anon said, you need two English classes to get into UBC Med.

    An ideal first year schedule for a biology student would be:
    CHEM 121
    BISC 101
    PHYS 101
    MATH 154
    ENGL 1XX (your choice, whatever interests you)

    Again though, be warned that that's 17 credits and you will have to work your ass off. That was my friend's first term (he chose ENGL 104 for the english class) and he had to work really hard to do well, and couldn't hang out very often.
  • obeg
    edited August 2010
    I couldn't get english because all the tutorials were full. I find history easy and I was really good at psychology at highschool so I decided to take these electives and to take the hard stuff (physics and math) later on. I dont even need physics and math for med school.

    But for my degree I do need 1st year math and physics which i would do starting next semester

    The reason Im taking math 100 is because i dont meet the 154 requirement.

    I am inclined to drop psychology and either take a 2 credit course if I can take one, or not take one at all. The thing is that Im worried that if on my first semester I dont take 15 credits, UBC med school may not accept me. They would rather have someone who can handle a full course load (15 credits).
  • DesolateDesolate
    edited August 2010
    You need physics/math for the MCAT, no? Pretty sure that tests you on both.

    And I've never personally encountered a 2 credit class. I know Engineering has a 1 credit class. You'd have to check out some options.
  • obeg
    edited August 2010
    yeah I need physics and math for the MCAT (general physics and some math related chemistry)

    Hopefully there is such a thing as a 1 or 2 credit class, I'll try looking for one
  • NukeChem
    edited August 2010
    Some Chemistry courses are two credits each. That said, you typically don't encounter them until CHEM 122/126.

    Also: For med school don't you typically need an undergraduate degree to begin with? In that case they'd be more interested in your transcript at the end of a few years :O
  • DesolateDesolate
    edited August 2010
    I don't really consider CHEM 122/126 and CHEM 282/286 two credit courses personally, since you pretty much are supposed to take them both together anyways. :shrug:
  • obeg
    edited August 2010
    hmm, I suppose I should then stick to taking the 5 courses listed above: Math 100, chem 121, bio 101, psychology 100 and history 130,

    or hmm something else i suppose, only if there is room
  • obeg
    edited August 2010
    oh yeah also, since SFU has 3 semester per year. Does that mean that if they look at credits for the year they will look at all 3 semesters. Med school needs 30 credits atleast per year, so that might work.
  • NukeChem
    edited August 2010
    A lot of the people I remember TAing for in summer labs wanted to go to med school and that 30 credits per year may have been a factor by letting them spread out their courses over three semesters instead of two.
  • anonymous1
    edited August 2010
    You could always take both bio classes at the same time.
    Bisc 101-4
    Bisc 102-4
    Chem 121-4
    and Math 100-3 or Phys 101-3 or something else -3

    Then that's 15 credits, 4 courses, and all going towards your final goal. Maybe 3 labs isn't ideal for your first semester, but I'd say that's doable since one's bi-weekly, one's open, and the other is a general waste of time. :P

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