Dual Enrollment and Future Med School Plans

[yelramttocs]

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I am currently a junior in high school and involved in a dual enrollment program. I am planning on graduating with my AA degree in the spring of 2013. My ultimate goal is to become an Oncologist.
I am fearful that these Dual Enrollment courses are a waste of time. I'd like to be able to knock out some pre-requisites of a pre-med program so I'll shorten my amount of time in school in the long run because I understand the amount of training Oncology requires.

Has anyone dealt with this or have any experiences to share with me to ease my mind? I'd hate to do this and not have it count for anything.
Thanks 🙂

 

[HolySmokes]

I was in a sort of similar situation (dual enrollment for last two years of high school), so I'll try my best to help.

First, dual enrollment isn't a waste of time. You're taking actual college classes, which means you're getting credit that any medical school will accept, unlike with AP classes.

Feel free to knock out some of the prereqs while you're there if you want, but understand that you won't shorten your time in school by any appreciable amount. It's still a long road. Even if you take enough credits to go in as a sophomore, you still have 3 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years (?) of residency for Oncology.

Personally, I had a blast with my dual enrollment program and I'm glad I did it. I don't think our programs were quite the same, but feel free to PM me if you have questions about it.

 

[Morsetlis]

Take as many relevant classes as you can while maintaining high grades. How hard is that to understand?

Find a copy of the AAMC's MSAR and read it. Or, read a summary from a medical school: http://www.byui.edu/preprofessional/Premed Prerequisite Classes.pdf

 

[yelramttocs]

I was in a sort of similar situation (dual enrollment for last two years of high school), so I'll try my best to help.

First, dual enrollment isn't a waste of time. You're taking actual college classes, which means you're getting credit that any medical school will accept, unlike with AP classes.

Feel free to knock out some of the prereqs while you're there if you want, but understand that you won't shorten your time in school by any appreciable amount. It's still a long road. Even if you take enough credits to go in as a sophomore, you still have 3 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years (?) of residency for Oncology.

Personally, I had a blast with my dual enrollment program and I'm glad I did it. I don't think our programs were quite the same, but feel free to PM me if you have questions about it.

thank you! that's all i needed to know, i'm not really worried about the amount of schooling it takes. I've just heard stories about credits not transferring over and it scared me a bit.