AP creds for prereqs

[DaiCa86]

I've gotten mixed information on this topic. Do ap credits count for the prereqs? Does it depend on the different med schools?

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[sgglaze]

I'll take a stab at this one:

Generally, if you have AP credit in a given subject, you are not necessarily expected to retake that course for a letter grade, but rather, take a higher level course in the same subject for a grade.

For example, if you have AP credit for General Biology, you will want to take 2 semesters of upper division biology classes, like General Physiology and Microbiology.

Retaking the courses, however, is not necessarily a bad idea, as you should be very familiar with the material and should have no problem getting an A, which, in my opinion, looks better to the adcoms than AP credit without a grade.

 

[NCF145]

I've gotten mixed information on this topic. Do ap credits count for the prereqs? Does it depend on the different med schools?

I am pretty sure that medical schools will not accept AP credit for your pre-reqs.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

unfortunately, you are right there is mixed information out there. this is mostly due to different schools having different standards for AP credit. Some won't recognize it (esp for bio and chem), others will. To hedge yourself, take upper levels or retake the intr courses (theyll be easy at least)

 

[Mr. Tee]

It varies from school to school....I just avoid the problem entirely by retaking the AP-equivalent courses in college (because at the time I didn't know which schools I would apply to, nor did I want to look up each specific school's policy), which was the easy way out. It didn't seem to hurt.

 

[Punkn]

Completely depends on the school. I didn't have any trouble with my schools accepting my AP Physics as my physics pre-req (IU, Loyola, Creighton, Ohio State, U. Cincinnati, and Georgetown). Some schools specifically state they won't accept any AP credit or require you to have taken advanced courses in that discipline, though.

 

[apsojdoooo]

Some schools specifically state they won't accept any AP credit or require you to have taken advanced courses in that discipline, though.

So does this mean that an AP chem credit would be accepted as long as Organic chem was taken and AP bio accepted as long as other more advanced bio classes were taken?

 

[TIGIBedHead]

Most schools have no problem with accepting AP credits for the pre-reqs. I received AP credit for bio, chem, and calc.. and I've had 4 interview invites and one acceptance so far.

Of course, if you're getting credit for AP Bio, they expect to see you taking upper level bio classes.

If you're getting credit for AP Chem, I do believe that orgo generally does not count as an upper level b/c it is a pre-req. My pre-med advisor said that biochem would count as an upper level chem class, so I took that instead of gen chem.

Physics is slightly more difficult to work around. I've read on some med school websites that it's ok for you to AP out of the first semester if you take the second semester at your university. It's best to look around at the websites for schools you're interested in.

Some notable exceptions I've read about on SDN include the UCs (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and BU (which is not a big fan of APs, but might still consider you).