Is It Wise to Take AP Tests in High School...?

[doctorDoctor.]

Hello everyone. I'm a high school senior who's confused about a few things.

1. GPA is extremely important for med school admissions. Most doctors I've talked to advised me not to take all honors classes in college because medical schools don't really care about course rigor (or at least the grade is much more important). So why would any sane pre-med choose to skip out of classes with their AP credit? Wouldn't it be wiser to just not take the AP test in high school, then retake the exact same course in college, and get a very high grade (because you've already covered the material in HS), and thus have a much higher GPA?

2. As mentioned above, a lot of doctors I talked to seem to think that course rigor really doesn't matter for admissions. Does that mean I can take the easiest lanes in all my college classes, no honors or anything like that, and still be realistically competitive at top10~top20 medical schools (provided that I received high grades in those easy classes and did very well on my prerequisite courses)?


I'm confused because I've always assumed that people who successfully get admitted to top schools like UPenn, UCLA, Harvard, Stanford, wherever, would all be extremely high achieving students who took all honors classes and the highest lane in all of their college courses, etc.

Can someone clear this up? Am I just terribly mistaken about something?

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[FindMeOnTheLinks]

It doesn't matter what classes you take, as long as you get good grades. If you want to take honors courses, you better get A's because the excuse of having lesser grades due to honors courses does not fly. I think a lot of premeds take AP courses in high school and then take the same course in college because like you said it can lead to an easy A. It makes sense for a lot of people. Medical admissions want to see that you are challenging yourself but they also want to see you get good grades. Grades come first, so take some easy classes, some medium classes and some harder classes but don't go taking honors physical chemistry and get a B- just because you want to take rigorous classes. Just get A's and you will keep all doors open to medical admissions.

 

[Law2Doc]

It's counter intuitive. Med schools look at college science GPA and the courses you are most likely to place out of tend to be the ones that would bolster your sGPA. I wouldn't recommend AP credit if the goal is med school. However it might get you into a better college, and might free you up to take fewer science courses in college which for some can lead to a better cumulative GPA.

 

[eteshoe]

I'm of the mindset that college students shouldn't do cupcake majors because it will be a 'night-and-day' situation once you get to med school. So in that sense, course rigor does matter. However, one also has to think about what is needed for med school admissions - decently high GPA, high MCAT, research, shadowing, volunteering, etc. Pick a major that will challenge you while allowing you to realistically keep a 3.7+ GPA (I'm an advocate for biochem). Now if you are hell-bent on getting a 4.0, then you have to pick an easier major (usually) and be absolutely resolved to learn everything to the utmost level so you never get lower than an A in any course. IMO, this is mostly a waste of time since it makes (some) applicants scared of taking cool (and challenging) courses because they want to protect that GPA. Plus you can get into top med schools with less than perfect GPAs (I certainly did) - as long it's above a minimum threshold. Also (some) top med schools want to see that the applicants pushed themselves (a bit) - though that may be hearsay since I'm not an Adcomm.

Overall, I recommend you study what you want but don't be afraid to take honor classes.

 

[md-2020]

It's counter intuitive. Med schools look at college science GPA and the courses you are most likely to place out of tend to be the ones that would bolster your sGPA. I wouldn't recommend AP credit if the goal is med school.

I disagree. Intro bio/chem/physics/math lectures are almost universally huge "weeders." Upper level seminars and small electives, on the other hand, rarely are such. Given that the "goal" nowadays is to get into med school at whatever cost, the best route is probably to take and score well on as many APs as you can, place out of intros, and load up on easier upper levels (which of course will still require some research/careful selection once you get on campus). I cannot imagine a scenario in which your massive freshman lectures are gimme A's, unless you're a MIT level student attending a directional state school or a CC, where you are simply standard deviations above the curve.

 

[Ismet]

Moving to hSDN

 

[ElanaSilogram]

I would take the APs for some of the reasons mentioned above. However, once you decide where you will matriculate for college, research 1) the school's AP credit policies and 2) Your home state's public medical schools' pre req AP policies before you decide to take the credit.

I attended a UC that would not let me retake gen chem; I would've had to take calculus-based honors sequence (and would have to start in the middle of the sequence) as a freshman. I still wouldn't have gotten a full year of gen chem to meet the requirements of several UC schools I was interested in attending, so I opted to not take gen chem at all. This was a not great decision since I still had to take gen chem lab (2 yrs post AP) and struggled to reteach myself the subject for the MCAT (6 yrs post AP).

That being said, the past few years there has been a trend to replace concrete prereq courses with softer "competencies" at many medical schools. By the time you start college, things may be even less strict. Still, if the AP is in a hard science and you get a 5, think twice about claiming credit when you'll likely benefit from a refresher for the mcat.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Hello everyone. I'm a high school senior who's confused about a few things.

1. GPA is extremely important for med school admissions. Most doctors I've talked to advised me not to take all honors classes in college because medical schools don't really care about course rigor (or at least the grade is much more important). So why would any sane pre-med choose to skip out of classes with their AP credit? Wouldn't it be wiser to just not take the AP test in high school, then retake the exact same course in college, and get a very high grade (because you've already covered the material in HS), and thus have a much higher GPA?

This is a personal decision and I've heard people espouse both sides. On one hand, if you take the AP class, you might have a better chance at getting a higher grade in the "same" course in college than if you didn't. However, AP classes, in my experience, are in no way comparable to college classes, so it might not actually give you that much benefit. Another option is to take the AP class and then just leave it at that (assuming you get credit). Let's say you take the calculus AP and get credit for it - that means your calc credit has been fulfilled for med schools that 1) require calc and 2) accept APs. The third option is to take the AP class and then take upper level classes. Personally, I don't think it matters that much. By the time you get around to actually taking those "upper" level classes, you'll have an idea of your own abilities and whether or not it's a good idea to take them. Many (most?) colleges also offer you the option to drop your AP credit, so you can always retake the course if you feel like you need to.

2. As mentioned above, a lot of doctors I talked to seem to think that course rigor really doesn't matter for admissions. Does that mean I can take the easiest lanes in all my college classes, no honors or anything like that, and still be realistically competitive at top10~top20 medical schools (provided that I received high grades in those easy classes and did very well on my prerequisite courses)?

I mean, pre-med classes are generally inherently difficult, so if you take 80% fluff classes + premed prereqs and you have all As in your fluff classes and all Bs in your prereqs, yeah, you're going to raise a few eyebrows. If you get As in everything, as long as your MCAT is high, you'll be competitive.

I'm confused because I've always assumed that people who successfully get admitted to top schools like UPenn, UCLA, Harvard, Stanford, wherever, would all be extremely high achieving students who took all honors classes and the highest lane in all of their college courses, etc.

Go to a school similar to the one you listed and up until I applied to medical school, I took fairly difficult classes. I never took the hardest classes possible just for the hell of it, but I didn't fill my schedule with fluff. I took classes I was interested in regardless of difficulty - some of them were hard, some were easier. It didn't really seem to matter that much because I made sure I did well in all of them.

Can someone clear this up? Am I just terribly mistaken about something?

If you're saying that courseload effectively doesn't matter as long as you do well, you would be generally correct. That being said, GPA does not exist in a vacuum, but the actual number itself is ultimately more important (to medical school adcoms) than your courseload.

 

[frosted_flake]

Just so you know, AP classes are NOTHING compared to a real college course.... Many friends who were AP junkies ended up being weeded out when we went to college because the hand holding was just not there anymore.
Perhaps if you go to a school where it is an easy blow-off class, sure... but those intro classes are often made for the sole purpose of weeding people out who just shouldn't be there.

FWIW, I got a D in AP bio in HS I am now a (quite) successful bio major at a big 10 school. Suck on that, AP!

 

[md-2020]

I mean, pre-med classes are generally inherently difficult, so if you take 80% fluff classes + premed prereqs and you have all As in your fluff classes and all Bs in your prereqs, yeah, you're going to raise a few eyebrows.

Interestingly though, I feel like these people will still end up in med school. Hell, for the most part this is me! Far better than going like BME or something shmancy, getting a 2.5 (not that all BMEs have 2.5s of course), and realizing it's too late.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Interestingly though, I feel like these people will still end up in med school. Hell, for the most part this is me! Far better than going like BME or something shmancy, getting a 2.5, and realizing it's too late.

1. Yes, many of these people who make it through the process will end up in medical school. Not necessarily a top one (like this user is asking), but one

2. You are a special case and should not use yourself as a basis for comparison for most things that come up here (unless you're trying to get an ego boost in which case go for it - we all need that sometimes )

 

[md-2020]

1. Yes, many of these people who make it through the process will end up in medical school. Not necessarily a top one (like this user is asking), but one

2. You are a special case and should not use yourself as a basis for comparison for most things that come up here (unless you're trying to get an ego boost in which case go for it - we all need that sometimes )

Lol I totally didn't read OP's post in enough detail to realize that he/she was asking about top schools.

Yah I wasn't trying to use myself as a comparison, only that with some strategic "fluffing" a high aoGPA but lowish pre-req performance likely isn't a death sentence.

 

[alfie94]

Firstly, I'm impressed. You are a much smarter high school senior than I was!
I would look into whether you have the option to take the exams, but see what your college courses are like before you send your college your scores (make sure your school doesn't require AP scores from tests you take). At my school, the intro level bios are easy (so you would want to take them in college), but the organic chemistry/physics are the weed-out courses. Depending on which classes are easy/hard, you can decide whether or not to send your AP scores. Of course, this may not work exactly because you cannot pick and choose which scores to send, but it leaves you the option of receiving credit you might want down the road.

 

[gossip_girl_xoxo]

I took AP classes in high school and used them to knock out a semester of gen ed classes. I'm choosing to graduate early vs spend extra time in school. It might be a good idea to skip the AP classes if you don't care about the college you go to since many good colleges look for AP classes.

 

[doctorDoctor.]

Here's another thing for me to consider. I have not taken AP Bio, Chem, etc. (any of the classes that'd be relevant to pre-med prerequisites). I have taken AP classes like AP Economics, AP Psychology, AP Calculus AB, AP Statistics, etc.

Should I take these AP exams and try to skip out? Or should I just take the easy-A (or what I'd assume would be an easy A)?

 

[randomguy123456]

Hello everyone. I'm a high school senior who's confused about a few things.

1. GPA is extremely important for med school admissions. Most doctors I've talked to advised me not to take all honors classes in college because medical schools don't really care about course rigor (or at least the grade is much more important). So why would any sane pre-med choose to skip out of classes with their AP credit? Wouldn't it be wiser to just not take the AP test in high school, then retake the exact same course in college, and get a very high grade (because you've already covered the material in HS), and thus have a much higher GPA?

2. As mentioned above, a lot of doctors I talked to seem to think that course rigor really doesn't matter for admissions. Does that mean I can take the easiest lanes in all my college classes, no honors or anything like that, and still be realistically competitive at top10~top20 medical schools (provided that I received high grades in those easy classes and did very well on my prerequisite courses)?


I'm confused because I've always assumed that people who successfully get admitted to top schools like UPenn, UCLA, Harvard, Stanford, wherever, would all be extremely high achieving students who took all honors classes and the highest lane in all of their college courses, etc.

Can someone clear this up? Am I just terribly mistaken about something?

It would be very wise my dear friend. Cheers & and may the heavens pour you with gold.

 

[URHere]

The AP exams can be useful sometimes. For example, I was a double major in college and both of my degrees had statistics requirements that could not be fulfilled by the same courses - my AP statistics score fulfilled one of the requirements and kept me from having to take some nonsense-level stats class as a senior. Some of my classmates were able to use AP English credit to get out of Freshman writing classes. You never know when the classes will be useful, so you should probably just take the exams.

One caution is to be careful when trying to use AP credits to fulfill medical school pre-reqs. Not all medical schools accept AP credits, and I know many people who have scrambled to take gen chem, etc at the last minute to be able to apply to certain schools. It sounds like that won't be a problem for you, OP, but it is general advice for anyone else in the same situation.

 

[randomguy123456]

The AP exams can be useful sometimes. For example, I was a double major in college and both of my degrees had statistics requirements that could not be fulfilled by the same courses - my AP statistics score fulfilled one of the requirements and kept me from having to take some nonsense-level stats class as a senior. Some of my classmates were able to use AP English credit to get out of Freshman writing classes. You never know when the classes will be useful, so you should probably just take the exams.

One caution is to be careful when trying to use AP credits to fulfill medical school pre-reqs. Not all medical schools accept AP credits, and I know many people who have scrambled to take gen chem, etc at the last minute to be able to apply to certain schools. It sounds like that won't be a problem for you, OP, but it is general advice for anyone else in the same situation.

Majority of medical schools accept AP credit. It's just a matter which ones they accept. Here's a full list of medical schools that accept AP credit (updated 2015): http://oaa.rice.edu/files/2014/01/AP-Credit-Allopathic-Medicine-Summer-2015-27wt667.pdf

Cheers.