* * begin quote * *
Think of the poor biology profs who have had this problem for
years--they get all these students who want to save the world by
becoming "doctors" after having had exactly one biology course, as
sophomores, or perhaps freshmen, often taught by somebody whose name is
"Coach" (they don't all become physics teachers). Are physicists any
better than biologists that we can demand that our students have had a
"senior" physics course?
* * end quote * *
I said it before, but I'll say it louder and more direct. Pre-med
students coming to college out of high school do not get into trouble in
college biology because of what biology they had or didn't have in high
school.
Pre-med students get in trouble in college because of what chemistry and
physics they had or didn't have in high school.
We are an integrated science department. The prof who teaches anatomy
and physiology has his office two doors down from mine. We talk several
times a day. He could care less whether his anatomy and physiology
students had one or two biology courses in high school, or even none.
He wants them to have had chemistry and physics; especially chemistry.
Go to our on-line catalog and look at the prerequisites for our biology
courses. The prerequisites are not other biology courses. The
prerequisites are chemistry courses. We don't let freshmen into anatomy
and physiology. Students first have to take CEM121 and CEM122 as
freshman. These constitute the full year of freshman chemistry for
science and engineering. The anatomy and physiology professor set the
prerequisites; not me.
Note the chemistry prereq is primarily for the physiology component of
A&P. Two semesters of A&P in the sophomore year are the first biology
courses our premed students take in college. They have already had
calculus and chemistry as freshmen, and take physics concurrently with
A&P as sophomores. Essentially 100% of our students are accepted into
medical school if they complete our program with a GPA of 3.5 and can
write and speak reasonably well. Students entering here with pre-med
intent find their biggest challenges in chemistry, physics, and
calculus. The students who get less than B in biology have already
gotten C or worse in chemistry and math, and are getting C or worse in
physics.
After taking innate intelligence into consideration, student success in
premed at my college correlates with HS chemistry and physics, and does
not correlate with high school biology. The biology profs here will
corroborate that.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.