AP credits and medical colleges

[MEG@COOL]

I am seeking advice for a friend of mine that is in highschool and wanting to take 2 of the following AP classes:

Anatomy, General Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and maybe some other science.

I advised my friend that AP credit for prereqs might not be accepted by all medical colleges unless upper division classes were taken in that area, but Im uncertain of the exact rules for this.

I think that its unlikely that she will major in physics or chemistry relative to the probability that she will major in biology or something else. If this is the case would it be best for her to take anatomy (non prereq so ok no matter) and general biology (likely to take upper division classes in bio in collge).

How would it work if she took chemistry or physics? Thanks.

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[CTtarheel]

About 80% of medical schools will accept any kind of AP credit as long as it is granted by your undergraduate school and listed on your transcript.

Naturally, the 20% that don't include the ivys, all the CA schools, and a bunch of other very highly ranked schools.

I'd advise "your friend" to go ahead and take the AP courses in high school. At the very least they look good in applying to college and if you have to take the course over again it should be a total cake walk.

When he/she gets to college, I would take the credit offered for the courses in my major (because you'll have enough credits there to satisfy the requirements without counting the AP credits), but retake all the courses not in my major. Although, for a pre-med chem major you might be able to get away with taking credit for bio, b/c you'll probably end up taking at least two of genetics/cell bio/micro. The only caveat would be to make sure that you have 8 hours of bio WITH LABS!! I can't stress this enough as many schools don't include labs in some of the upper level bios.

I used AP credit for all of my basic science pre-reqs and was still able to gather together a good list of schools to apply to (see link below), but I didn't get a chance to take a shot (a long shot) at hopkins, etc. b/c they wouldn't take AP credits.

 

[TheAmazingGOB]

AP credits are good preparation for college, but not a substitute for college. Even though you are given college credit from passing the AP test, college courses are (in general) more intense and will better prepare you for the MCAT. The only AP course I used for my medical school pre-reqs was AP Chemistry and only because I was a Chemistry major.

It depends on the medical school, but most I applied to only accepted AP Chemistry in place of a college course. If I were you, I would still take AP Physics as many people struggle with the physical sciences portion of the MCAT and AP Physics will prepare you well for college physics.

Another suggestion I have is to AP-out of as many gen-ed requirements as you can (like US history, fine arts, social sciences, etc). That way in college you can spend more time focusing on your science courses.