<p>I'm an incoming freshman at Hopkins, majoring in either Chemistry or Biology (formerly BME, but that's a different story...)</p>
<p>I just looked at the course requirements, and it certainly doesn't look impossible to graduate in 3 years. I have AP credits in Chemistry, Biology, Statistics, Calculus BC, economics, psychology, etc etc, so I've got about 20-25 credits already covered by the time I enter college. During my freshman year, I'm planning to take Organic Chem, effectively skipping all the introductory level courses for my major.</p>
<p>My question is, though, is a 3 year graduation route recommended for pre-meds? I can see quite a few advantages in doing so, but will medical schools see it as inexperience if you don't stay the full 4 years and pay another $50k? I know they'll only have 2 years of coursework to judge me on when I apply, but since I'm skipping all the introductory classes my coursework should be at the same level as those who are in undergrad for the full 4 years.</p>
<p>please please please do a search. this is one of those topics that gets beaten to death. Also look up using (or rather, not using) your AP credits.</p>
<p>I don't think 3 years of college is a big deal as long as you take a year off afterwards and do something productive. Get a job during your gap year and you could actually make $30k in the year before med school.</p>
<p>From what I've seen on this forum, a lot of med schools won't accept AP credit for specifically required courses such as General Chemistry (AP Chem). Bio can be substituted with upper level classes if you don't want to take Intro Bio.</p>
<p>I was going by the JHU medical school requirements, since I think other top-level med schools should be similar in what they look for. JHU says that intro level classes such as chem and bio can be skipped as long as a higher level one is taken in its place (for example, Biochemistry in place of General Bio or Organic Chem in place of Intro Chem).</p>
<p>Venkat89:
The reason I posted this thread was to get some more opinions from the trusty people at CC after I talked to my advisor. My advisor recommended that I do 3.5 years if I plan to graduate early...the reason being that elite medical schools want to see a student advance in coursework rather than graduating early. However, having a few more opinions never hurts.</p>