My D is excited about going to Northeastern. She’s thinking of majoring in biochemistry, on the premed track. She scored a 4 on AP bio and AP chemistry. She will take the AP calculus BC exam and hoping for at least a 4 there as well. Since she is a bio major on the premed track will she be recommended to retake the intro bio, intro chemistry, and calculus classes? If that’s the case, would she then forfeit the AP credit or could it be counted toward electives?
If you take the class you can’t take the AP credit - each AP test is specifically mapped to a Northeastern class that you get credit for.
Most med schools will not accept AP credit except for Calc BC. If she uses her credits, she will have to make it up by taking more advanced classes toward the med school requirements. She needs A’s in her classes and for this reason I’d recommend retaking the intro classes to maximize her chances of having a good GPA. Not very many students can do well just jumping into Organic Chem (it’s very hard!) and I wouldn’t risk it with your daughter since she only got 4s on her AP tests so far. If she retakes, the AP credits will be lost. The more important thing is the GPA. Good luck!
I didn’t have a problem jumping into orgo after skipping intro chem with AP credit, but it’s a personal thing. (I also had a very strong chemistry program in high school that included a semester of organic chemistry and got a 5 on the AP exam.) The same goes for placing out of bio and calc. Northeastern does have 1-semester bio classes for students who took AP bio, instead of the 2 semester sequence, which is what will be recommended for your daughter.
For pre-med, they care that students took the material at college, not just AP. For bio and chem, that shouldn’t be a problem, since she’ll have other higher-level bio/chem classes. For math, taking a statistics class after calc BC might do the job. (There’s a bigger emphasis on stats for pre-med now.) The pre-med advisors can also help sort out some of the details of her specific case if she chooses to go to Northeastern.