Fulfilling Pre-med Reqs

[Goran]

A lot of people nowadays come into undergrad with AP credits. Med schools like to see upper level courses in those areas in which AP credit is given. So far, I have credit for bio, chem, and calculus. This year, I'm getting the physics requirement out of the way. Next year, I plan to do orgo along with biochem and cell bio. Given that orgo is a higher level of chemistry, would I need to take even more chem classes to fulfill the requirements?

I also plan on majoring in the humanities. While I enjoy science, I don't want to focus on the sciences in undergrad if I am going to focus in this area for the duration of my career. So, I probably won't take many bio courses beyond cell bio and biochem. If I do well in these, would med schools care about my lack of even more upper level bio courses?

Lastly, as AP credits seem to be pretty standard among med school applicants, is it not a big deal to come into undergrand with a good amount of them?

Thanks for all of your help! I hope everyone is enjoying their break 🙂

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[jlee9531]

there might already be a thread on this so look around...

1 year bio with lab
1 year gen chem with lab
1 year ochem with lab
1 year physics with lab
1 year math
1 year english

these are the basic requirements...

there are some med schools that do take AP credit however i believe a good number of them do not and want you to take the classes at the university level.

if you dont want to limit yourself to the number of schools you want to apply to then you should take all the prereq classes.


now about that other questions...i dont think most adcoms really care how many ap classes you have taken. even a good number of undergrad schools esp. some of the UCs essentially make the AP credits useless and not count towards anything useful.

oh a lot of people do not major in the sciences. so dont worry about having to take more science classes. just do well in the classes you have to take and you should be fine. some med schools do like it if you take some biochem or computer courses or some stat classes so that could be an option if you feel like applying to the schools that have these preferences/requirements. these you can look up on your own.

good luck.

 

[Bluemirage]

While we are on the subject of credits for pre-med prerequisites, has anyone used CLEP exams to gain credits towards certain classes to save time? eg Calculus, English Comp I & II etc. Can anyone comment on admisson committees' attitudes toward "CLEPPING" out of a whole bunch of classes? What are your opinions of the maximum number of credits that should be "CLEPPED"? Your answers will be much appreciated.

 

[Chet Rogers]

What about duel enrollment credits. They show us as community college transfered credit, but essentially hs/college credit.

 

[Gleevec]

I can only speak for APs, but I have had absolutely no trouble in terms of prereqs for bio, chem, physics, math, or english. In fact, my school creates a mythical class to correspond with the AP, and in all those cases no lab credit was conferred. Yet med schools still accepted my AP credit, even though they said a lab is required (and even though I did not have said lab credit)

So APs are fine to place out of intro courses, but make sure to take some upper level courses in the subject as well, as you seem to intend to do. I think the reason I wasnt hastled with my lack of real intro courses with labs was because I took a ton of other courses in those subjects (or related subjects). There might be a problem if you try to pass off the APs as a requirement unto themselves, but I am not sure, it really depends on the med school. Its probably best to use APs as placement out of intro classes and take upper level classes instead.

 

[Goran]

Thanks jlee and Gleevec 🙂

Since I am planning on taking upper level bio courses, I'm covered there.
However, chem still concerns me, because even though I am taking orgo next year, I will probably have to take 2 more semesters of chem in place of the intro chem course. Gleevec, did med schools require you to take chem beyond orgo? I have heard pchem horror stories, and although the material sounds interesting, I would rather devote my time to more humanities courses while I still can.

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by Goran
Thanks jlee and Gleevec 🙂

Since I am planning on taking upper level bio courses, I'm covered there.
However, chem still concerns me, because even though I am taking orgo next year, I will probably have to take 2 more semesters of chem in place of the intro chem course. Gleevec, did med schools require you to take chem beyond orgo? I have heard pchem horror stories, and although the material sounds interesting, I would rather devote my time to more humanities courses while I still can.

biochem or pharm will placate them. biochem definitely, pharm is optional.

biochem has become a de facto requirement at most schools

 

[jbish]

For your Gchem query, you'll have to ask each school that you apply to individually. What would be easiest is to just take another year of chem. I can't see how it would do anything less than help you for classes to come in med school. Like Gleevec said, Biochem would be great (and you'll definitely use the knowledge in med school and it's also helpful for the MCAT). If this is another required course for the med schools you are applying to and they want to see add'l inorganic chem classes you may have to go for pchem/analytical/adv. inorganic. Unfortunately, there is no "set" answer as each school can make diff. decisions regarding what they accept as having fulfilled the gchem requirement. You could just try to get away w/ AP credits....but you should really check out the MSAR and call/email schools to get their p.o.v. before you get into a real pickle during the application process.

 

[ATPase]

I also had AP chem credits coming into college. I ended up taking a course called "Solutions Chemistry" which was a combined lab and lecture course (one semester long) similar to analytical chemistry. I took orgo and orgo lab the following year, then biochem my final semester in school. I didn't have any problems when applying to med school, and I was a history major.