Prospective Biochemistry Student has ????

[lhb89]

I will be a freshman in college next fall, majoring in Biochemistry. Are there any current or graduated biochemistry majors out there who can give me some advice for next year? Is there anything I should do this summer to prepare?

[hurley]

I am not a Graduated Biochemistry Major, but my teacher is and she told me stories about how she prepared for her freshman year. To sum it up, she went to a college and was in a summer program their and it helped her get ahead of her class. I guess that would be best thing to do, go to a Biochemistry camp or something to get some extra insight on it.

[hammerthumbs]

Number one thing: get a job in a research lab early, like sophomore year. This gets your foot in the door. Also, most Biochem students go beyond a bachelor's, where research experience is highly desired for admittance. Second, since you are not in college yet, I must warn you that it is a very difficult major. Common roadblocks are Organic Chemistry, the actual Biochemistry course, and the dreaded Physical Chemistry. I found Physical Chemistry the hardest. The biochem lab required a lot of writing (I topped one lab report off at about 30 pages!) As for advice for the next year, take general chem and general biology right away. take organic chem your sophomore year. Also, to help prepare for Physical Chem, you should take a third semester of calculus, even though only two are required. The third semester will cover partial derivatives which are used frequently in P-chem. Good luck!

[littlesti]

If you can do the above, that's great! If you have the option of taking general chem or physics in the summer that will be easier and save you from taking all the tough classes at once. Avoid that at all costs (i.e. organic chem + physics + calculus 2 = overkill)