5 sciences 1 semester

[IDKwhatmynameshouldbe]

So I'm planning to take 5 sciences in one semester.

Intro to Human Physiology
Organic Chem 1
Physics 1
Genetics
Intro to Neuroscience
(21 hours weekly)

no labs this semester except for a bio lab.

It comes out to be 16 credits out of the 18 max I can take.

Am I crazy or doable?

I'm doing this to prepare for the MCAT which I will take in May after my Spring semester. I'm doing all this to graduate 1 year early and hopefully make medical school right after.

Spring sem will be Organic Chem 2, Physics 2, Biochemistry, and labs for all those classes (13 credits but around 24 weekly hours)

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[EdgeTrimmer]

I think it's too much. How is the grading at your school? I think more than 2 premed courses is risky.

 

[dr_kateb]

I'm doing all this to graduate 1 year early and hopefully make medical school right after.

Crazy.

 

[907914]

I am just curious how that is only 16 credits. That would be 24 credits with those classes at my school...

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Why do you want to graduate one year early?

 

[ciestar]

I am just curious how that is only 16 credits. That would be 24 credits with those classes at my school...

It would be 16 at my undergrad

 

[ciestar]

OP, this is a lot. Don’t tank your GPA trying to graduate early and taking the MCAT by a certain date.

 

[TempuraOreos]

Umm, this sounds excessive. I dont think it's worth it to try to graduate a year early and rush things.

 

[deleted804295]

So I'm planning to take 5 sciences in one semester.

Intro to Human Physiology
Organic Chem 1
Physics 1
Genetics
Intro to Neuroscience
(21 hours weekly)

no labs this semester except for a bio lab.

It comes out to be 16 credits out of the 18 max I can take.

Am I crazy or doable?

I'm doing this to prepare for the MCAT which I will take in May after my Spring semester. I'm doing all this to graduate 1 year early and hopefully make medical school right after.

Spring sem will be Organic Chem 2, Physics 2, Biochemistry, and labs for all those classes (13 credits but around 24 weekly hours)

Yeah just casually throw all the hardest pre-reqs in one semester for funsies and to graduate a year early. It's doable but you will hate yourself for it and your GPA will suffer. I dedicated around 2 hours of study every day to O Chem alone to get an A in that class. Physics should also take about 2 hours per day.

I personally would advise not rushing to graduate early to take all those difficult classes in one semester. If your GPA and MCAT is of importance then this plan will not work. Even with only 3 classes spring semester, you have two of the arguably most difficult pre-reqs to study for.

 

[dr_kateb]

17 at my school. Sometimes it's not the credit hours itself but the coursework. Some 1 or 2 credit lab classes could be a massive time-sink.

 

[jamaica jan sun princess]

I'm currently taking Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry II, Physics II, and Biology II. It's not particularly fun and I'm definitely feeling the burn. Your plan is doable if you dedicated all of your time to school but I still wouldn't recommend it. I probably wouldn't take these four classes at once if I had to do it again.

 

[Caregiver2016]

I don’t think that this is a stellar plan.

 

[getdown]

what's the point. You want to NOT get into medical school a year early?

 

[Dr. Let 'er Buck]

Your O-chem and Physics don't have a lab associated with them?

That would be extremely odd to me.

 

[Morty c137]

So I'm planning to take 5 sciences in one semester.

Intro to Human Physiology
Organic Chem 1
Physics 1
Genetics
Intro to Neuroscience
(21 hours weekly)

no labs this semester except for a bio lab.

It comes out to be 16 credits out of the 18 max I can take.

Am I crazy or doable?

I'm doing this to prepare for the MCAT which I will take in May after my Spring semester. I'm doing all this to graduate 1 year early and hopefully make medical school right after.

Spring sem will be Organic Chem 2, Physics 2, Biochemistry, and labs for all those classes (13 credits but around 24 weekly hours)

Theres really no point. If you really cant fit these in some other semester/summer in order to stick to your graduation plan then take the classes and suffer the studying, but if youre just doing this to impress med schools with course load then youre taking the load for the wrong and unnecessary reason.

 

[goldfishdoc]

Intro to Neuro is one of the hardest courses at my undergrad. I couldn't imagine taking it with Orgo & Physics & a bio course lol

 

[deleted895369]

I'm taking 18 credit hours of solely chemistry right now, because I need all of them to graduate on time and my parents won't pay for an extra semester. For perspective, I'm taking:

Biochemistry
Analytical Chemistry + lab
Advanced Organic Spectroscopy
Chemistry Colloquium (easy, lol)
Chemical Literature
Industrial Synthesis (grad-level course)

This isn't fun.

Please heed my warning that comes from my experience:

1. GPA is king when applying to med school. When you overload your schedule with too many labor-intensive courses, something is bound to suffer.

2. When all your time is spent working on your classes, you will miss out on valuable extracurricular opportunities that are also necessary for med school.

3. If you are applying a year earlier, you will be missing out on a year of volunteering, shadowing, leadership, etc. compared to your peers.

4. These are all relatively low-level AND fundamental pre-med courses. You need to prove that you can handle the challenge of pre-med courses first, before you throw in the additional challenge of taking a bunch of hard courses at once. (Plus, you will most likely need time to adjust your study habits for these classes - I'm looking at you, Orgo and Physics!)

5. By overloading your schedule right before jumping into med school, you run the risk of burnout. I'm not a med student yet, but I'm imagining that burnout before you even start M1 year isn't great.


Side note: I can manage 18 credits of chemistry because I took fewer fundamental pre-med science courses (like Physics, Orgo, etc) back in my first and second year. By now, I pretty much know which study methods work for me and which ones don't.

 

[Tollats]

Had a similar schedule in a past semester. Would not advise.

 

[IDKwhatmynameshouldbe]

wow that's a lot of replies recommending I don't.

OK lol I think I'll eliminate 2-3 of those classes and add in more EC's.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

Omg. That sounds awful.