also I will be transferring to SUNY geneseo for the second semester of this year ( spring04) not fall of next year.

Thanks a bunch

This is tough to gauge, in my opinion, since we don't know how many of the premed science classes you have already taken -- nor how many more years until you graduate with your bachelor's! (Your posting doesn't mention these tidbits...)

If you already knocked the premed classes out in the PharmD program, then no biggie. If you still have a lot of them remaining, then only you can decide if taking a semester away from premed courses will set you back too far for your comfort level in preparing for the MCAT.

Also, if you are planning on a career specifically in psychiatry, then the stuff about psychologists and psychology graduate degrees is moot. You can major in whatever you like, as long as you take the premed classes. If you dig psychology as a major for your BS/BA, then that's awesome, but it won't be an absolute necessity.

I do remember really enjoying the History of Jazz class that I took way back in the day. Great stuff, and a REALLY funky professor.

Good luck, and enjoy your classes! 😎

Well I am a freshman and thsi is my first semester in college. I dropped the pharmacy program and the classes I have mentioned above are the only classes that I have taken/ are taking so far. I will be spending the second half of my freshman year at either SUNY binghamton or Suny geneseo. More than likely it will be Geneseo.

No, you do not have to take a math or science class first semester, as long as your major does not require it. And I can't think of any that do; as many students don't know what they want to major in when they're freshman. Most colleges will allow you to remain undecided even up till your second year.

As for med school, you can major in anything you like as long as you take the required pre-med classes along the way; 1 year Biology, 1 year Organic Chemistry, 1 year Inorganic Chemistry, and 1 year physics. Major in something you enjoy studdying, if that's psychology I say go for it.

[ Edited by Jl87d on 2004/9/13 21:51 ]

Not taking any pre-med classes first semester is not a big deal in the long run. The only issue you may encounter is that you probably can't take 1st semester chemistry or organic chemistry until your 2nd year. Most people would say you should not take orgnanic chemistry at the same time as general chemistry (although I have heard of some people doing that successfully). That means that you will now be taking general chemistry 2nd year and organic chemistry in your 3rd year. You will probably want to take your MCAT at the end of your 3rd year, so you won't have completely finished organic chemistry. Overall, this is probably not a big deal. The other option is to take the MCAT at the beginning of your 4th year of college, which is the equivalent of what I did (I graduated in 3 years, and took the MCAT at the start of my last year). The disadvantage of doing that is that you won't get invited for interviews until the programs have your MCAT results - which means that you will likely be interviewing later than those applicants who took the MCAT sooner - and a medical school may actually fill up before you even can get accepted - meaning you will be placed on the waiting list. This is pretty rare, but I know for me, University of Illinois in Chicago was already full to regular applicants who too the fall MCAT. Ultimately, spots came available. I'm guessing that occasionally, though, schools do fill up before the fall MCAT takers even get accepted.

Overall, these are very minor and rare issues - you shouldn't worry about not taking any science classes or math classes first semester. As those above said - major in what is interesting, and make sure you take all your pre-med classes.

are these all full year courses?

and if so, how are they usually incorporated into the schedules of all 4 years? for example when do typical students take bio/chem/physics etc. Do students typically double up on scienes certain years?

And as stupid as it may seem, I'm very worried that I may not be smart enough to get admitted to and complete med school. my sat scores were low and my gpa in high school was mediocre. How can I assess if I have what it takes mentally to embark on this?

They are full year courses, typically at least.

At Emory, the typical schedule was:

1st semester Freshman: General Chemistry 1 with lab

2nd semester Freshman: General chemistry 2 and Biology 1

1st semester Sophomore: Biology 2 and Organic Chemistry 1

2nd semester Sophomore: Organic Chemistry 2

I don't now when most people take physics in there - maybe in junior year, or with the other classes sophomore year. Emory staggered the basic biology class because so many students were pre-med, and I think they didn't want them all totally stressed right at the start of college. But no matter how you slice it, you'll have to double up some of the pre-med classes in a few spots.

As far as concern about being "smart enough" to get admitted and complete med school - I don't know that there is any way to acurately predict this at your stage of the game. While I think there is some correlation between SAT scores and MCAT scores I don't believe that low SAT scores alone are enough to predict whether someone will or will not be able to get into medical school.

If you say your high school GPA was mediocre, do you think you could have done much better if you had applied yourself better? In the end though, the best test to see if you have what it takes is to see how you do. Start with the pre-med classes, and if you are able to get good grades, you probably can do well enough to get into medical school.

Regarding completing medical school - my own sense is that if you have done well enough to get into medical school, you are capable of handling the academic load of medical school. In my med school class, it was usually personal reasons that people dropped out, not because they were failing out. In fact, there are several people who did very poorly in one class or another, and the med school seemed to be very helpful in assisting those students get through. Some of those classmates are now very successful doctors.

So, one suggestion would be to take some of the pre-med classes and see how it goes - if that is the path you want to pursue. It seems like you have a realistic perspective that it may not be for you in the end.

It seems that everyone who has hopes of going to med school are all 1400+ sat students. My Sat was a combined 1290 ( yea I know I'm stupid). As far as the whole would I have done better if I had applied myeslf in Highschool. I believe that I could've done a lot better if I had cared in high school. My gpa was slightly under a 90 in honors and 1 or 2 aps. I just want to be realistic in my endeaveors.

My own guess is that 1290 is not that far from the average SAT for medical school students. That's a lot higher than I had guessed from the way you worded your initial post.