Skipping General Chemistry and taking Organic?

[golfboy]

I've been thinking about skipping general chemistry at my college because i already have the ap credits.

Here are my reasons:

1. I don't think general chem will help that much with organic chem...what i learned in ap chem should be enough.

2. We actually covered slightly more material in ap chem than general chem.

3. I heard general chem and lab sucks at my college...why not just skip it?

4. I'm planning on taking two semesters of biochemistry anyways.

5. I can save 8 credit hours, and i'll be done with all the mcat preq's by the end of sophomore year, as well as being able to avoid summer school.


Has anyone done the same thing? Any advice?

I was under the impression that the schools don't care if you skip it, as long as you take two more uppper level courses and get good grades.

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[Emergency!]

My advice is to talk to your pre-med advisor and/or admissions officers and various medical schools. I was actually under the impression (perhaps wrongly so) that many medical schools do not accept AP credit for pre-reqs. Before you get too far into school, I think it would be well worth it to call several of the schools you think you might want to apply to and ask their opinion.

 

[willthatsall]

I got the impression the OP was suggesting that 2 semesters of biochem would take the place of the gen chem requirement from med schools. Is that correct? If so, I don't see why not. You really don't need it for organic at all. You should check and make sure that is the case though, because I know med schools will not take AP, but I'm not sure if you can substitute biochem.

 

[kimmer579]

I placed out of gen chem and went right into organic my freshman year - my advisors reccomended that and no one told me not too. However, first semester of my senior year one advisor told me that she thought I should take gen chem that year so that I could apply to all med schools! I did not... So I was not able to apply to most if not all of the UC schools, U of Michigan, Mayo, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Hopkins, BU and maybe a couple of others. I never took Biochem or anything else either so if I had I might have been able to apply to a lot of those schools. But on the other hand, I have been accepted to 3 great med schools and I finished my pre-med requirements very early!

 

[scrappysurfer]

if you already had g-chem in high school, you wouldn't have a problem with the material.

unfortunately, most medical schools will NOT accept your AP credit. unless you are a chem major and will take more inorganic chem classes in college to cover requirements, do not skip g-chem. most schools also require biochem classes. at these institutions you will not be able to use the biochem towards you g-chem requirement

i am learning this the hard way, returning to school two years after graduation to cover requirements before starting med school in august.

 

[Medikit]

A lot of medical schools specifically require G-chem

 

[hnbui]

if you have ap credit then skip it. The material you covered in your ap class is the same stuff they cover in college. basically the main thing you need for orgo that comes from gen chem is molecular structures.


i would just go ahead and take orgo so i can have more time to take other interesting classes.

 

[logos]

So the AP people give you a score, then the school you go to gives you credit for that score. If your school will give you the same credit for your AP work as the people with no AP would get from taking 1 year of general chem, then go for it. You can still apply to schools which require 1 year of gen chem, because that is what you have. The only major difference is that you have no grade in it, which may be an issue at a minute fraction of the schools out there. If it became a problem with a specific school that you really wanted to go to, you could always take physical chemistry or advanced inorganic or even retake gen chem your senior year (can you say easy?)

Personally I would just take the (small) risk and skip it.

Realize that Ochem would then be your only chem grade, making it pretty important that you do well. Also realize that Ochem will most likely be the most time intensive course you take during your undergraduate career.

 

[Thundrstorm]

I was always under the impression that you should use the AP credit, but then take more advanced classes in the same discipline. You've done gen. chem via AP Chem, so you could take 2 semesters of advanced inorganic chem, p-chem, etc. I have AP Calculus credit, so I just took Multivariable to show that I could hack it at real college level... that's what my advisor suggested.

The flip side is that you should get an easy A if you do take gen chem and it'd be one less difficult class to worry about this year.

 

[tigress]

sorry to hijack the post, but Thundrstorm I love your avatar

 

[alec689]

I would be really careful about using your AP credit. Definitely talk to your pre-med advisor. As you can tell from the posts so far, there's a lot of disagreement about what medical schools want to see.

I think it depends whether the schools you want to apply to require 2 semesters of inorganic chemistry (any courses) or whether they specifically require general chemistry (the specific course).

Bottom line: Talk to your school's pre-med advisor. That's what s/he is there for.

 

[SteelEyes]

I would take gen chem simply for the GPA boost. Plus then you can rest easy knowing you haven't shot yourself in the foot for any specific schools.

 

[musiclink213]

You have to be careful thouhgh about taking gen chem. if your school is anything like my school, they won't let you take it. I got AP credit for bio 1 and 2, and they told me I couldn't take it at tthe school because it would be like retaking a class, which would then use up my 2 class retakes in one shot. i wasn't going to do that. But if your school gives you credit for it, chances are, so will the med schools. If it shows up on your transcript, then for a large majority of schools, you should be fine. And even if you apply to a school that won't accept it, they may just say that you can get a conditional acceptance based upon you finishing gen chem before you enter.

 

[safariwagon]

Take GenChem your junior year...It will be an easy class for you and it will really help to review it for the MCAT.

 

[SteelEyes]

I would imagine most schools would let you 'retake' gen chem because although you may have received credit for gen chem, you did not get a grade. From a business perspective, the university does not like to give credits for free, so if you take it there, I'm sure they won't mind!

 

[javert]

I was under the impression that the schools don't care if you skip it, as long as you take two more uppper level courses and get good grades.

That is correct. If you take 2 upper-level courses I don't think any school will give you any grief at all.

I used AP credit to fulfill 4 credits of G-chem, 4 of physics, 4 of bio, and 8 of calc and I was fine. The only school that I ran into problems at was Vanderbilt; on their secondary they said they refused to take any AP credit, and since I didn't take any math classes in college, I was out of luck. However, if I had taken 2 upper-level math courses, those would have counted at Vandy.

In general, AP credit won't cause any problems. If you want to be safe, then take upper-level courses for the schools that don't honor AP credit. I would suggest skipping G-chem.

 

[45408]

did AP chem really cover all of the gen chem material? I knew some people in my gen chem class who had gotten AP chem credit but still didn't place out of our gen chem classes.

 

[javert]

did AP chem really cover all of the gen chem material? I knew some people in my gen chem class who had gotten AP chem credit but still didn't place out of our gen chem classes.

In my experience, it did. My school only gave 4 credits for AP chem, even though AP covered the material for both semesters. I was very bored in the G-chem class, but it was an easy A so I can't complain too much.

 

[Thundrstorm]

sorry to hijack the post, but Thundrstorm I love your avatar

Thanks. Isn't it great? Ebola that looks like Mickey Mouse.

 

[mwhou]

I would take gen chem simply for the GPA boost. Plus then you can rest easy knowing you haven't shot yourself in the foot for any specific schools.

I second this... If you really want to get ahead time wise - take G chem and organic at the same time, since the G Chem should be relatively easy for you. Don't pass up an easy A in a science class. Upper level biochems are not easy A courses and you will likely be taking them at the same time you are studying for the mcat.

Make the most out of retaking the General Chem and follow along in an MCAT book or the MCAT topics guide from the AAMC - when you study for the MCAT, your chem knowledge will be that much fresher. Despite your AP credit, you likely didn't take the class with this in mind.

 

[Peterock]

TAKE THE GEN CHEMISTRY!

I had AP bio/chem/math credit among others going into college. I really regret skipping my intro courses as they were easy A's. Some of my worse grades came from me "skipping" courses that really need certain pre-req's (like giong into cell biology w/o taking intro bio, microbio, organismal bio on the college level).

Also, I took an advanced general chemistry course in one semester and I got an A- (2 questions on the final away from an overall A). This class was roughly 150% of what the typical person does in chem1 and chem2. DEFINITELY not worth it.

Heed the warnings.

Medical schools are stupid about rewarding those who take rigorous courses. Take sciences from the intro level up and don't overload. It's all about the overall gpa and science gpa being their highest. Quantity is meaningless.

 

[ShyRem]

If you really want to skip out of the class, I would make sure to actually test out of both semesters. It's just a couple of hours on your part and it would end any question of whether or not you actually passed the appropriate class. Talk to the physical sciences dean.

Regarding skipping out of lab: I don't know how your high school class was, but I've seen darn few students who took "AP Chem" and actually learned any of their lab techniques. If you don't know your lab techniques from gen chem, future labs will be extremely difficult and very very long.

 

[DrBowtie]

IMO I think you should take the gen chem for numerous reasons:
1. 8 hours of 4.0 helps the BCMP GPA
2. It is good to get a feel for your university's teaching of G-chem as multiple upper level courses assume you know what is taught in g chem taught there.
3. As other have said, you can take it solely as a review for the MCAT
4. You won't be limited to schools who take AP
5. HS AP doesn't = College Chemistry

This is of course just my opinion but what is the rush...almost all of the other premeds will be taking it there so it will give you a chance to make some study buddies...Basically I see no negatives to taking it.

 

[Wiggy73]

IMO I think you should take the gen chem for numerous reasons:
1. 8 hours of 4.0 helps the BCMP GPA
2. It is good to get a feel for your university's teaching of G-chem as multiple upper level courses assume you know what is taught in g chem taught there.
3. As other have said, you can take it solely as a review for the MCAT
4. You won't be limited to schools who take AP
5. HS AP doesn't = College Chemistry

This is of course just my opinion but what is the rush...almost all of the other premeds will be taking it there so it will give you a chance to make some study buddies...Basically I see no negatives to taking it.

IMO if you can cut it in o-chem, you should skip gen chem.
1. Get the 8 hours of 4.0 in higher level chem classes. If you were a med school, which would you rather see?
2. Unimportant. O-chem has little to do with gen chem, and by the time you get on to a-chem and p-chem at least a year later, everyone's forgotten most of gen chem and the professors have to review anyway.
3. Why? You don't need that much detail. Use a study guide, and you'll remember what's important. Also, by the time you've taken upper-level courses like you say you're planning to, you'll realize how much they lied to you in basic chem.
4. WHERE IS THIS MYTH COMING FROM??? I mean, check with the schools and all, but you'll find that this isn't NEARLY as big a problem as people are making it out to be. You'll have course credit for gen chem on your transcript. Vandy, as mentioned above, seems to be about the toughest school out there regarding AP credit, and you can make them (and just about anyone else) happy with upper-level courses. Like I said, I skipped gen chem, and I might end up going to Vandy Med next year.
5. So what? See #2.

All of the previous advice only applies if you're a rockin' chemistry student and aren't worried about taking a traditionally hard, time-consuming class where everyone else is a year (or more) older than you during your first semester of college. There are some good reasons not to skip.

But if you do go straight into organic, there are some big benefits. Mainly, not having to waste a year "learning" stuff you already know frees you up to do so much more. That's eight extra credit hours to play with!! I'm a chemistry major and haven't taken any chemistry classes (besides my independent research) for the last two semesters. Instead I get to take fun stuff! Also, it let me get started researching sooner - you really need o-chem and its lab under your belt because it's a different flavor of chemistry and the lab techniques are pretty valuable. Finally, if you're a year younger than everyone in most of your chem classes and still ace them, that makes you memorable to the professor so you'll get a fabulous rec.

So, if you're confident in your chem skillz, do your thing.