Has anyone else used their pre-med Chemistry classes to meet the pre-nursing Chemistry requirements?

Published

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar.

In my previous degree, I took 1 year of inorganic Chemistry classes that pre-med students take. One of my advisors told me that it would be unnecessary for me to take the 1 semester inorganic Chemistry class that the pre-nursing students take but I took the lecture anyway as a refresher for organic Chemistry. I didn't take the lab though.  This advisor isn't the nursing advisor anymore. There's a new one and when I spoke to her I got a little nervous. She was looking at my transcript and this is the conversation we had:

Her: you can't apply, you didn't take the inorganic Chemistry lab.

Me: I was told that my pre-med inorganic Chemistry classes could cover for that.

After being silent for a few seconds she says "okay, I think you'll probably be fine."

I'm freaking out because of that "probably" LOL. What if the person reviewing my application goes through the same thought process? "No inorganic lab, throw this application out."

I have A's in all my prereqs but my school does not do interviews. I feel like I would have had an opportunity to explain all of this in an interview and feel much better about the uncertainty. They also don't do letters of recommendations. They just look at GPA and HESI A2 scores, which I am taking next month.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If the school requires a lab and you did not take it then they probably will not take the class. The only exception I have found is that for schools that require 1 semester with a lab, some will take advanced inorganic Chemistry (group theory, ligand field theory, cyclic voltammetry). This is an upper division class for Chemistry majors, and the only ones who accepted that class for me were direct entry masters programs. 

Other schools that require 1 semester will sometimes take whichever general Chemistry semester you got a better grade. I have a C from 14 years ago from Gen Chem 1, but most schools would take my B+ in Gen Chem 2 (9 years old). 

No one would accept physical Chemistry with lab or organic Chemistry with lab, not even advanced organic Chemistry. 

 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
10 hours ago, B K said:

If the school requires a lab and you did not take it then they probably will not take the class. The only exception I have found is that for schools that require 1 semester with a lab, some will take advanced inorganic Chemistry (group theory, ligand field theory, cyclic voltammetry). This is an upper division class for Chemistry majors, and the only ones who accepted that class for me were direct entry masters programs. 

Other schools that require 1 semester will sometimes take whichever general Chemistry semester you got a better grade. I have a C from 14 years ago from Gen Chem 1, but most schools would take my B+ in Gen Chem 2 (9 years old). 

No one would accept physical Chemistry with lab or organic Chemistry with lab, not even advanced organic Chemistry. 

 

Hi thank you for your reply. I am a little confused though, are you saying they will take whichever Chemistry you have a higher grade in or they won't? your second and last paragraph contract each other a little bit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Let's just called general Chemistry for science majors/medical school prerequisites "Gen Chem 1" and "Gen Chem 2". These are the classes you would take as a freshman science major.

If a school requires General Chemistry lab and you did not take a lab for Gen Chem then they will not consider the prerequisite complete. 

For schools that require 1 semester of general Chemistry with a lab, in my experience they will accept either Gen Chem 1 OR Gen Chem 2 (with a lab) if your Gen Chem 1 does not meet the prerequisite requirements. For example, my C did not meet the standard for some schools because they require a B- in all prerequisite classes, but my B+ from Gen Chem 2 w/lab did meet that requirement. I cannot tell you if all schools will do this, but for the four that I applied which required 1 semester of Chemistry, they did accept Gen Chem 2 with lab. 

None of the schools would accept Organic Chemistry,  Advanced Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physical Chemistry or quantitative analysis even with a lab component as meeting the Gen Chem requirements. Even though physical Chemistry is a type of inorganic Chemistry, it did not meet the requirement. For clarity, all of the classes in this paragraph are advanced upper division classes that you would only take as a junior or senior Chemistry major with the exception of sophomore organic Chemistry.  

The only example I found where schools would accept a non-lab Chemistry class when their prerequisites specified "General Chemistry with lab", was "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry". Even without a lab component, some of the direct entry masters programs would accept this class. It's an advanced upper division class that 4th year Chemistry majors and some biochemistry majors take if they want to punish themselves. 

I'm giving you more information than what you asked for, because you are moving onto organic Chemistry and there's a good chance you're a science major where some more advanced Chemistry classes are required. Also anyone searching for this topic in future years who is a Chemistry major (there are few of us), will have at least 1 person's experience. 

How the class is titled on your transcript is far more important than what is actually in the class if you want to use an upper division Chemistry class as meeting the general Chemistry prerequisite. For example, quantitative analysis is essentially statistical analysis of 1st year general Chemistry where you had to solve the gen chem problem first. Physical Chemistry is using calculus to solve and dive deeper into general Chemistry problems. I don't think anyone at the nursing schools making a decision on prerequisite classes has taken physical Chemistry, and when I tried to make my case, the answer was no because the name of the class said "physical Chemistry"and not "inorganic Chemistry" on the transcript. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
5 minutes ago, B K said:

Let's just called general Chemistry for science majors/medical school prerequisites "Gen Chem 1" and "Gen Chem 2". These are the classes you would take as a freshman science major.

If a school requires General Chemistry lab and you did not take a lab for Gen Chem then they will not consider the prerequisite complete. 

For schools that require 1 semester of general Chemistry with a lab, in my experience they will accept either Gen Chem 1 OR Gen Chem 2 (with a lab) if your Gen Chem 1 does not meet the prerequisite requirements. For example, my C did not meet the standard for some schools because they require a B- in all prerequisite classes, but my B+ from Gen Chem 2 w/lab did meet that requirement. I cannot tell you if all schools will do this, but for the four that I applied which required 1 semester of Chemistry, they did accept Gen Chem 2 with lab. 

None of the schools would accept Organic Chemistry,  Advanced Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physical Chemistry or quantitative analysis even with a lab component as meeting the Gen Chem requirements. Even though physical Chemistry is a type of inorganic Chemistry, it did not meet the requirement. For clarity, all of the classes in this paragraph are advanced upper division classes that you would only take as a junior or senior Chemistry major with the exception of sophomore organic Chemistry.  

The only example I found where schools would accept a non-lab Chemistry class when their prerequisites specified "General Chemistry with lab", was "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry". Even without a lab component, some of the direct entry masters programs would accept this class. It's an advanced upper division class that 4th year Chemistry majors and some biochemistry majors take if they want to punish themselves. 

I'm giving you more information than what you asked for, because you are moving onto organic Chemistry and there's a good chance you're a science major where some more advanced Chemistry classes are required. Also anyone searching for this topic in future years who is a Chemistry major (there are few of us), will have at least 1 person's experience. 

How the class is titled on your transcript is far more important than what is actually in the class if you want to use an upper division Chemistry class as meeting the general Chemistry prerequisite. For example, quantitative analysis is essentially statistical analysis of 1st year general Chemistry where you had to solve the gen chem problem first. Physical Chemistry is using calculus to solve and dive deeper into general Chemistry problems. I don't think anyone at the nursing schools making a decision on prerequisite classes has taken physical Chemistry, and when I tried to make my case, the answer was no because the name of the class said "physical Chemistry"and not "inorganic Chemistry" on the transcript. 

Oh okay thank you I think I understand this time. The classes I took were General Chemistry 1 and 2 with lab and the class the program specifically asks for is called Essentials of General Chemistry 1 with lab. I keep thinking since what they wanted was just the essentials then maybe the one I took is good enough because it goes beyond the essentials. I'm trying to get in contact with the school but so far no one is really replying to my email or answering the phone, I will keep trying though.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion