If you plan to attend The University of the South (Sewanee) or you are currently enrolled at Sewanee and are planning to attend medical school when you graduate, please read the information in “Information for Students Who are Interested in A Career in One of the Health Professions” before you meet with your advisors to select courses for your first semester. It is always safe to begin your first year by enrolling in Chemistry 101 or English in the fall; however, there are not enough sections of these courses for all first-year students to take them. Don’t panic because there are many alternatives. You can enroll in Physics 101 or Biology 133 if you can’t enroll in Chemistry 101. You may also want to consult two hypothetical schedules to help guide your decision-making process. These hypothetical schedules are not exhaustive lists of courses you can enroll in so don’t think that you have to take these courses during your first semester to be a successful pre-med student. Let me repeat; they are only several of the potential course schedules that are available to you.
Regardless which course you have already registered for, I would recommend that you register for general chemistry your first year. During your first-year, you should take English 101 (you need two English courses to go to medical school and our writing intensive courses don’t count as an English course), calculus, and begin your language requirement. (Begin to fulfill your the language requirement your first semester, not the second semester or second year.) If you can’t get into English in the fall, you can enroll in it during the spring semester. I also suggest that you take an introductory biology course in the spring of your first year. Remember you can major in any discipline as long as you take the courses that all medical schools require for admissions. If you are not majoring in biology or chemistry, I suggest that you take a course in the discipline that you want to major in like history, political science, economics, etc. Make sure you take calculus during your first or second semester if at all possible. Also, you need to begin taking courses that will satisfy your core requirement; those courses are found on p. 30 in the printed college catalogue under degree requirements. I would have to talk to you about these if you have any questions because these requirements are too complex to explain in an e-mail.
Let’s discuss whether you should take Chemistry 101 or Chemistry 111 (this course is by invitation only) your first semester. While taking Chemistry 111 looks good on your transcripts because it is a more advanced general chemistry course, you are absolutely correct that medical schools expect you to take four chemistry courses before you apply. Therefore, if you take Chemistry 111, you will have to enroll in an upper level chemistry course beyond organic chemistry. Some of the options that you can choose from are physical chemistry, biochemistry, or analytical chemistry.
Chair, Health Professions Advisory Committee
