pre-med question

[pie741]

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so does taking honors/ap in highschool really give you large advantage over other pre-meds? i personally doubt this because i think that the majority of pre-meds take or have taken these type of classes to begin with.😕

so my overall question is does it really make that much of a difference if you take these rigorous classes at high school?

(p.s. i'm already in the honors/ap classes in h.s. so don't post replies encouraging me to take these classes.)

 

[witness23]

no

 

[pie741]

no

oh, cool so i don't have to overload myself because of a popular misconception thanks for straightening my out.😉

 

[RySerr21]

oh, cool so i don't have to overload myself because of a popular misconception thanks for straightening my out.😉

They wont give you any advantage in the classroom, but they are still useful to take (if you pass the AP test with high markings). Taking AP stats in high school turned out to help me tremendously. The school i'll be attending next year requires stats, which i never took in college. Thank goodness my AP credits transferred to my undergrad and count for the med schools requirements. If I didnt have that I'd be taking summer school the summer before med school, which would blow. The extra credits you transfer over are also nice b/c it gives you flexibility in the number of classes you take...if you have a really tough course load you might want to take less classes than usual and you cand o that if you have credits that youve transferred over.

 

[sportsfreak]

I would disagree...if u are committed to the AP class and take the AP test seriously then it will help in college, at least it did for me....
I did very well in physics in HS and in college I basically knew most of the physics already, and I did go to a hard university where its tough for pre-meds...

 

[rockaction]

no. for most allopathic medical schools, AP credits do NOT count for the pre-reqs. you'd have to take more advanced (and way tougher) courses to satisfy the basics. for example, a friend of mine AP'd out of Gen Chem I & II but had to take Inorganic and Analytical Chem to make up for it.

 

[261766]

it's all about foundation. if you build a good foundation, it does not matter. (personally i think ap helps build a very strong foundation) i did well in ap chemistry and biology and did exceedingly well in all my undergraduate sciences. i know others who did reasonably well in ap but are failing undergrad sciences.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I took double enrollment classes in high school in conjunction with a local university... Those helped a ton, I tested out of a bunch of stupid freshman classes.

AP is somewhat worth it but generally not in pre-reqs. AP and college credit classes in high school won't prepare you for college classes. A major component of doing well in college is not getting used to how hard the material is.... It is showing up to classes when you no longer live with your parents and could go drink instead.....

 

[RySerr21]

I would disagree...if u are committed to the AP class and take the AP test seriously then it will help in college, at least it did for me....
I did very well in physics in HS and in college I basically knew most of the physics already, and I did go to a hard university where its tough for pre-meds...

so did every other pre med in the country 🙄

 

[sportsfreak]

i just meant that the physics wasn't a joke and that the AP class actually helped

 

[nick_carraway]

AP courses help for some classes (e.g. stats, calc, English), allow you to skip some lame classes (e.g. history), but can lead you into a false sense of security in other classes (e.g. chem) if you do well in the first course based on prior classes and get in trouble the next few courses because [1] you didn't really understand the material or [2] you didn't really know how to study and you were cruising from high school.