How much will ACE credit hurt my chances?

[hannahholmes]

Hello! Thank you in advance for your time!
I am a very non trad student... A.A at 16, B.S in Law at 18. I just turned 19 and am looking to complete my med pre-reqs by testing out with ACE credit at Straighterline. I learn very quickly & can confidently test out with A's & B's on ACE exams (though they get reported as Pass/Fail on transcript). The main reason I would want to do it this way is because my grandmother is dying of GBM & I am her primary caretaker. It's pretty much impossible for me to go to college and take the courses right now, not only because I am her caretaker but also the disease exposure risk. Will this kill my chances of getting into med school? I have a 4.0 GPA otherwise & am shooting for MCAT 518+ (I know it's very high and ambitious, but potentially doable because I have the time and drive). I'm worried schools will just see my pass/fail and think I did it to skimp.
I also have some weird things that I feel like would help my application. First class of girl Eagle Scouts, earned all 137 merit badges in scouting, SCUBA diver, Part 107 drone pilot, black belt in Taekwondo, real estate license (not that that means anything lol, no offense to realtors), decent social media following, co-founded a successful media production company, bestselling author of 2 books by 18, travelled to 25+ countries and 49 U.S States, bilingual. I'm not kidding. I almost never sleep. Genuinely am worried about ACE credits though because I want to have the best chance possible. Just because I've done unique things and am young doesn't give me a free pass to skirt out on pre-reqs and I want to show I'm dedicated but also be there for my family. Thank you for taking the time to read and answer!!!

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

A lot of schools won't take full test out credits. Take the time to care for your grandma and do a 1 year post bacc after that situation comes to an end, it's not like you're getting too old. Med School will always be there.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Sorry about your grandmother.

Just focus on her right now and living your best life. If you don't get started on premed coursework right now, that's fine. And if people ask you (they won't) what you were doing, saying "I was caring for an ill family member" is a perfectly acceptable answer.

Once you're in medical school, you can't really take time off to do stuff like this without big career consequences. Just focus on your family right now. You're a spring chicken. Who cares if you're an attending at 32 instead of 30? Take this time for your family.

Also, sorry to be big brother here, but if that's your name and face.... you really shouldn't put that on the internet. I'd change the photo and change your username to "Unicorn_Lover3367" or something unrelated to your personal life

 

[AJS59]

Congrats on the hard work so far, and from 1 eagle scout to another, congrats overall!

FWIW, if you test out of a class you will be expected to take an upper level course to replace it. So like if you test out of gen chem you'll probably need to take inorganic chem, if you test out of cell bio you'll need to take another upper level bio class, etc. There's pros and cons to this (the cons being the material is harder, the pros being that sometimes those classes will be smaller/less demanding/less "graded on the curve" etc.). So I'd think long and hard about what you want to do there.

For now though above all else I'd focus on taking care of your grandma. Family comes first, even before medical school. Once things have reached some more stability then I'd jump back into things. It's a marathon, not a race.

 

[jvquarterback]

Take care of you grandma. I’ma little surprised people have told you you need to isolate for temozolimde. Maybe just take one or two courses a semester while you’re caring for her but if you really learn fast you should be fine with a couple pre reqs per semester. You can’t just take them pass fail.

 

[LunaOri]

You can take legitimate online courses via Harvard Extension or a similar program at another university.