Pre-med courses?

Question

What pre-med course would you recommend? Some of you may answer Biology, but I want some alternative if ever I don't get into Medicine. I'm considering Medical Technology, Physical Theraphy, Public Health and Pharmacy.

Suggestions please.

Answer 1

biochemistry, Anatomy and physiology, microbiology, endocrinology, genetics, psych classes. Of course, this is on top of the prerequisite biology, advanced biology, 2 semesters of physics, gen chem, and organic chemistry, all with a lab.

Answer 2

Well, first it depends on what country you're in. I can only speak for the US, but frankly here none of those are great premed options. Most of those require post-graduate training, and have different course requirements while in college (and a few of those involve going to a technical school and not a 4-year university, which then makes you ineligible for attending medical school). Yes, people go into medicine with former training in nursing, pharm, or PT but it's almost always because of a career change where they chose the wrong field, and not something they planned in advance. Those are all very different career paths, and instead of hedging your bets and just barely preparing yourself for a few options it's much smarter to put your full energy into ensuring you get into your first choice field. Nursing isn't going to give you enough depth in subjects, a med tech has little if nothing to do with premed, pharm has some crossover in basic courses but requires grad school (and usually you leave undergrad after 3 years, whereas a BS or BA is required for med school), and PT has some early crossover but again diverges from the med path fairly early on. Medicine is different from all those fields in part because you are required to have a much deeper understanding of the basic science and be able to apply those principles to clinical practice, whereas the fields you've listed tend to skip over that in the name of going directly to clinical medicine. If you go on one of those routes you'll also have to work harder to convince med schools that you truly want to become a physician and aren't just aimlessly applying to careers in the health field. Usually you can tell well in advance whether you're going to get into med school or not...the people who don't get in usually have obvious reasons why (low GPA, low MCAT, only applied to top schools, etc) that can be predicted years in advance....giving you ample opportunity to change tracks. Majoring in a traditional university major (be it bio or chem, history or poli sci) will naturally give you other careers to fall back on. If you want to be a nurse/PT/pharmacist then of course you should major in those fields...but you've been ill-advised if you've been told those are solid options for someone who wants to become a physician.

Answer 3

Let's have a look. Here is the web site for Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. This is a medical school, but also offers degree courses in other fields.
Good luck.

Answer 4

Honestly, take whatever class you'll get an "A" in. That's what will help you get into the med school and once you're in you'll learn such a ridiculous amount of material that you'll barely remember college! This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but it's the truth! Good Luck!

Answer 5

Medical technology would give you most of the courses for medical school, if you took an ASCP course for the registry.