Were schools flexible with your prerequisites? What about AP credit?

[VAhopeful]

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I have three more hours of bio than I need, but one less hour of chemistry. Does anyone have any input into whether or not schools might be cool with this as being sufficient for the prerequisites?

And some of my stuff is AP. Any thoughts on how AP is treated by schools? I know most say they accept it if it's shown on a transcript and counts towards my degree, but is it thought of as a step below credit earned at a community college or something like that? Is AP credit for prerequisites given less weight?

 

[xcgirl]

You're probably okay with one less hour of chem. I'm not at all an expert and you really should email schools to find out for sure. If you have an advanced class with lab, it should be fine if you have AP credit.
Schools don't look down upon you having AP credit as it means you were trying hard in hs and you got a chance to take advanced classes earlier in college. If you just have AP credit but don't take any advanced classes, that might come off as slacking.
Don't take take prereqs at community college, most schools will not take it.

 

[VAhopeful]

You're probably okay with one less hour of chem. I'm not at all an expert and you really should email schools to find out for sure. If you have an advanced class with lab, it should be fine if you have AP credit.
Schools don't look down upon you having AP credit as it means you were trying hard in hs and you got a chance to take advanced classes earlier in college. If you just have AP credit but don't take any advanced classes, that might come off as slacking.
Don't take take prereqs at community college, most schools will not take it.

Thanks! That's encouraging to say the least!

 

[RoadRunner17]

On a related note, I have 29 humanities/SS/english credits, and I want to apply to Keck... and that 29 is without the AP credits for Microeconomics, so if you include that, I have 32 H/SS/E credits to meet the requirement. Is this kosher?

 

[katarzyna]

I have three more hours of bio than I need, but one less hour of chemistry. Does anyone have any input into whether or not schools might be cool with this as being sufficient for the prerequisites?

And some of my stuff is AP. Any thoughts on how AP is treated by schools? I know most say they accept it if it's shown on a transcript and counts towards my degree, but is it thought of as a step below credit earned at a community college or something like that? Is AP credit for prerequisites given less weight?

As far as I know, some would like you to retake it... If you took it in a Uni, I guess it will be counted... some uni's discount it like UF etc...

and no, pre-reqs in a CC is not the end of the world, though take the advanced sciences in a Uni.

 

[Bananas Foster]

I have three more hours of bio than I need, but one less hour of chemistry. Does anyone have any input into whether or not schools might be cool with this as being sufficient for the prerequisites?

And some of my stuff is AP. Any thoughts on how AP is treated by schools? I know most say they accept it if it's shown on a transcript and counts towards my degree, but is it thought of as a step below credit earned at a community college or something like that? Is AP credit for prerequisites given less weight?

Schools I applied to typically wanted to know how many semester's of chem or bio you took (too be flexible and work with people from schools, like mine, that don't use credit hour system) so if you took 4 semesters of chem it's not too bad if its 15 hrs instead of 16 hours.

I will tell you some schools are cooler than other wish AP. I heard a lot of schools (Michigan and.... Wisconsin, i think...) discount AP a little bit... but a couple advanced classes would dispell any questions. OSU and Iowa had no problem with my APs.

Vanderbilt will not accept any AP credit whatsoever, the B-stards.

Northwestern and Penn say they are very flexible, but they are very competitive so....

 

[pele1001]

My HS was crazy about AP tests and so I passed out of a majority all pre-med requirements (chem, physics, calc, bio) and all the labs. At the time I was interested in graduate school, so I never retook them or replaced them with upper level courses as many schools request.

I applied to a bunch of schools, some of which explicitly said they would take AP and others which said they wouldn't, and I was surprised that it was never an issue at any schools. For example, I'm on the waitlist at a top 15 school which explicitly says if you used AP credits you should take an additional year of chemistry to "expand your knowledge on the subject". I mentioned this during the interview and the Doc looked at me like I was a fool and said it really wasn't a consideration.

So while its definitely possible, my recommendation, having gone through the whole thing with max AP credits, is if you think you want to be pre-med you should redo them all. If you dont like rote memorization and irrelevant information meant only to weed you out, medical school isnt for you. Plus, it really was not fun to take the MCAT having not taken Gen Chem in over 6 years, and Physics in 5.

And if you are trying to graduate early, I think you're making a mistake. If its for financial reasons- you're going to owe a ton of money for med school either way, and if you cant slow down and enjoy college- honestly, you are never going to slow down and enjoy yourself.

 

[iA-MD2013]

On a related note, I have 29 humanities/SS/english credits, and I want to apply to Keck... and that 29 is without the AP credits for Microeconomics, so if you include that, I have 32 H/SS/E credits to meet the requirement. Is this kosher?

you can use ap credits for the humanities requirement for keck??! that would save a lot of time.

 

[luna2326]

Hi everyone, sorry if this was covered more in another post, but I couldn't find it. Thanks Pele1001 for your response in this forum, too.

I received credit for AP Chem on my transcript for college and placed out of first semester Gen Chem. Therefore, I took Adv. Gen Chem (1 semester) but didn't take any other inorganic courses. (I took O Chem 1 year). So I'm not sure if I really did satisfy the pre-req of 1 year of chem, or not. Do schools accept the AP credit as satisfying the "1 year of inorganic chem"? Or are they flexible? Depends on the school?

Thank you so much for your help!!!

 

[bowlin123]

Hi everyone, sorry if this was covered more in another post, but I couldn't find it. Thanks Pele1001 for your response in this forum, too.

I received credit for AP Chem on my transcript for college and placed out of first semester Gen Chem. Therefore, I took Adv. Gen Chem (1 semester) but didn't take any other inorganic courses. (I took O Chem 1 year). So I'm not sure if I really did satisfy the pre-req of 1 year of chem, or not. Do schools accept the AP credit as satisfying the "1 year of inorganic chem"? Or are they flexible? Depends on the school?

Thank you so much for your help!!!

I don't think AP credits satisfy anything, except the total number of credit hours in your school and that means you can only use them as your electives. I have many AP credits and was told to take all of the pre-req

 

[Dannyw]

I don't think AP credits hold much weight. Why would taking a high school course with no grade compare with an A in a college course? Schools may accept them but you are fools if you don't take them over.