Relevance of Undergraduate Anatomy in Graduate Medicine??

[ooottafvgvah]

Hi current/past/future med students, 

I'm a 3rd year sci student, intending to pursue medicine (hopefully) after my undergraduate degree and I'd like to seek advise on my subject options for 3rd year.

I'm not an anatomy(HSF) major but I am currently contemplating whether to enrol in anat30007 and anat30008 during my 3rd year as "space-fillers"/elective subjects in my current study plan.

I do have a genuine interest in anatomy, but to be honest, the major reason why I want to do ANAT30007/8 is that it might potentially relieve me of some study load or maybe even confer some advantage during my (hypothetical) MD1 year. I understand that anatomy is maybe 20% of med school at most. However, my logic is that since it's the basic building block of medicine, having a solid foundation in anatomy knowledge might potentially relieve me of study load so I could focus on other more important aspects (phys/path/phrm/pcp etc). 

Although I did not have much problem with 2nd year anatomy, I had to put in lots of extra hours into it in order to do well. So my biggest concern about doing ANAT30007/8 would be the time commitment. I understand that 3rd year anat subjects are notoriously time-consuming with huge chunks of information to digest. As such, this would mean I will have to put in extra hours and pass up on other things such as research opportunities (UROP in particular) since I would want to dedicate more time into studying anat.

Therefore, I'd like to seek advise on whether it's worth putting in the extra hard work and passing up on other opportunities during undergrad, just for the potentially added benefits during MD. Does HSF actually confer any advantage in med school? Or should I just leave it until med school since it's going to be taught "from scratch" anyway? Do non-HSF/non-anat majors find it hard to cope with anatomy in med school?

I would really appreciate it very much if any current/past/future med students could weigh in their opinions on this matter. I look forward to hearing your responses! 

[vox nihili]

Hi current/past/future med students, 

I'm a 3rd year sci student, intending to pursue medicine (hopefully) after my undergraduate degree and I'd like to seek advise on my subject options for 3rd year.

I'm not an anatomy(HSF) major but I am currently contemplating whether to enrol in anat30007 and anat30008 during my 3rd year as "space-fillers"/elective subjects in my current study plan.

I do have a genuine interest in anatomy, but to be honest, the major reason why I want to do ANAT30007/8 is that it might potentially relieve me of some study load or maybe even confer some advantage during my (hypothetical) MD1 year. I understand that anatomy is maybe 20% of med school at most. However, my logic is that since it's the basic building block of medicine, having a solid foundation in anatomy knowledge might potentially relieve me of study load so I could focus on other more important aspects (phys/path/phrm/pcp etc). 

Although I did not have much problem with 2nd year anatomy, I had to put in lots of extra hours into it in order to do well. So my biggest concern about doing ANAT30007/8 would be the time commitment. I understand that 3rd year anat subjects are notoriously time-consuming with huge chunks of information to digest. As such, this would mean I will have to put in extra hours and pass up on other things such as research opportunities (UROP in particular) since I would want to dedicate more time into studying anat.

Therefore, I'd like to seek advise on whether it's worth putting in the extra hard work and passing up on other opportunities during undergrad, just for the potentially added benefits during MD. Does HSF actually confer any advantage in med school? Or should I just leave it until med school since it's going to be taught "from scratch" anyway? Do non-HSF/non-anat majors find it hard to cope with anatomy in med school?

I would really appreciate it very much if any current/past/future med students could weigh in their opinions on this matter. I look forward to hearing your responses! 

Anatomy in undergrad is basically exactly the same as anatomy at med school. They’re the same lectures in many cases. So yes taking those subjects would help ease the load of med school. But it also means two fewer subjects to broaden your perspective of pursue something else.

Getting through all the anat is hard work, but definitely not the hardest bit of first year. Personally I was glad I didn’t do anatomy for that reason in undergrad because it meant that I had studied something else which gave me a different perspective to put to work in CSL (case based discussion) and more generally across the course. Having that knowledge somewhat extraneous to what you’re studying in med is always an advantage I think, if not grades-wise intellectually.

[Shenz0r]

I think the amount of depth of MD1 anatomy is roughly equivalent, if anything slightly less than 3rd year undergrad. You’ll pretty much get the same lectures.

I don’t think you get a huge advantage having had that much prior knowledge in MD1 though. It’s a similar question to “Should I do VCE Biology for undegrad med?”. It might let you chill a tiny bit but everybody still ends up being on the same page at the end of the year.