CHEMISTRY IN THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM OF THE PREMEDICAL STUDENT* ROYI. GEADY.THE COLLEGE OP WOOSTER, WOOSTER,OHIO
This article shows the courses which are required, recommended, considered of doubtful values, and are not desired by a number of leading medical schools i n the premedical training of their students. The importance of chemistry i n such training i s clearly indicated. . . . . . . Teachers of chemistry recognize the fact that the American Medical Association's minimum requirement of twelve semester hours in chemistry is not sufficient to prepare properly the student for the study of medicine. The American Medical Association has not been willing to inaease materially these requirements lest it work a hardship on some of the less well-equipped colleges. Some of the medical schools have published an inaease in their requirements and others strongly recommend more chemistry. A study of the catalogs of the medical schools, however, does not indicate sufficiently the importance of chemistry. The failure of the medical schools to publish their recommendations brings about a similar situation in the catalogs of the undergraduate schools. The chemistry teachers in most colleges are not privileged to make up the curriculum for the premedical student. This is ordinarily done by a committee representing a number of departments. Often the committee does not agree as to which science is most essential. Because there is no definite source of reliable informationqand also because of considerable misinformation many colleges simply publish the minimum requirements of the American Medical Association in their catalogs. In order that we might improve this situation we wrote to the deans of a number of Class A medical schools asking that they indicate what courses, (1) they require, (2) they recommend, (3) they are doubtful as to the value of, and (4) they do not desire. For the convenience of the medical schools, we enclosed a sheet listing the courses offered in the College of Wooster from which the premedical student elects his course. The deans were asked to indicate in the proper column their attitudes toward the courses listed. The following twenty-two medical schools answered our inquiry and are included in the summary: Baylor, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbia, Cornell, George Washington, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Louisville, Marquette, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Stanford, Vanderhilt, Virginia, Washington (St. Louis), Western Reserve, and Yale. *Presented before the Division of Chemical Education of the A. C. S. at the Buffalo meeting, August 3lSeptember 4, 1931. 111
112
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
.
JANUARY 1932
SUMMARY OF REPLIES Number of Schools Subjcd
Biology: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zdogy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vertebrate Anatomy . . . . . . . Physiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vert. Embryology . . . . Animal Histology . . . . . . . . . Histological Techn . . . . . . . . . Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chemistry: General Inorganic . . . . . . . Qualitative Anal . . . . . . . . Quantitative Anal . . . . . . Adv. Qnant . Anal . . . . . . . . Organic, 1st Sem. . . . . . . . Organic, 2nd Sem. . . . . . . . Physical 1st Sem. . . . . . . . Physical, 2nd Sem. . . . . . . Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . English, Freshman . . . . English Literature . . . . . . . . . Geology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . History, European . . . . . . . . . History, American . . . . . . . . . Latin, two years of high school . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Latin, College. . . . . . . . . . . . . Trigonometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anal . Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
Sam. hrs .
Rcgriring
Reurnmending
4 4 4
18 18 6 1 2 0 0 0
3 4 13 6 11 6 10
22 12 9 6 22 18 1 1 0 20 4 0 0 1 0
0 9 9 9 0 1 17 16 10 2 13 3 3 9 9
4
4 4
4 4
8 4
4 4 4
4 4 4 0 0 4 4 10 6
6
..
Darbffd
0 0 .0 4 3 6 9 6
5
.
*
0
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 10 12 5 4
Repuirillg Nol DL- or Recornsiring rncnding
0 0 0 4 2 5 2 2
21 22 19 7 13 5 6 10
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1
22 21 18 15 22 19 18 17 10 22 17 3 3 10 9
1 1
0
1 15 3 2 1 0 0 19 0 13 0 3 1 6 1 7 0 9 1 5 Physics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 0 0 22 Political Science . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 1 5 Psychology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 0 16 0 6 3 4 Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sociology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 0 13 Social Psychology. . . . . . . . . 1 7 7 0 8 Spanish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 0 1 7 4 1 speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 8 5 2 9 All schools require a t least one year of college German Geman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . or French Many require two years . Some require French both German and French 8 3 3 3 3 8 4 3 4 3 3
2 0
.
13 2 18 13 6 5 0 4 14 4 12
4
7
.
It would seem desirable. if a t all possible. for the prospective medical student to take most of the courses which are either required or recommended by a majority of the schools answering. For this reason we have
VOL.9, No. 1
CHEMISTRY IN PREMEDICAL CURRICULA
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added another column in which there is entered the total number of schools either requiring or recommending a given subject. Many of the schools did not mark some of the courses a t all. The following subjects were required or recommended by a majority (11 or morc) of the medical schools: Sub;ecls
Scmmln Bows
Biology: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Vertebrate Anatomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Zdogy................ .................... 4 Vertebrate Embryology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chemistry: GeneralInorganic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Qualitative Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Quantitative Analysis.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Organic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Physical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 High-School Latin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 years Trigonome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Analytical Geometry.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Psycholo..................................... 3 Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Sodology.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FrenchorGman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Such a curriculum totals 100 semester hours. A student taking the regular four-year college course, which is being stfongly urged by many of the medical schools as well as the liberal arts colleges, could easily take all of these courses and still have considerable time for electives. Although this curriculum would meet the entrance requirements of most schools, it would be well for the student to consult the most recent catalog of the school he hopes to enter and determine if that school has any special requirements which are not included in this list.
