AP Credit for Med Schools

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a graduating senior who will be attending a 4 year undergraduate institution next year. I have a LOT of AP Credits from all the AP exams I took and I can easily skip a year at the college I will be going too. However, I really want to go to medical school after my undergrad and I was recently told by a friend that medical schools do not accept AP Credits so it would be better to just redo all the classes I could potentially skip. Is this the case at most medical schools? Should I just redo all the classes in college.</p>

<p>Some med schools will accept some AP credits. You will need to consult the MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements–available by subscription or at your college’s library) or the individual admission websites of specific school to find which will accept what. There’s no universal policy about AP credits.</p>

<p>If you do have AP credits, it’s critical that you receive specific course credit on your transcript. ( AP Bio = 4 credits for Bio 101, not AP Bio = 4 credits general biology) Medical schools will only consider AP credit if it’s equivalent to a specific university course.</p>

<p>When you have AP credit, you will usually be expected/required to take higher level coursework in the same discipline at college. If you have 3 credits from AP Bio, you will still need to take an additional 2 semesters of biology coursework at college to fulfill med school admission requirements. If you skip gen chem (not advised) using AP credits, you’ll need to take 2 semesters of Ochem plus 2 semesters of additional chem coursework to fulfill med school admission requirements.</p>

<p>No med school will accept AP credits in lieu of the writing coursework requirements.</p>

<p>Whether you redo the classes is up to you. If your AP scores were anything other than a 5, you need to retake the classes. (You have holes in your preparation!) OTOH, if you plan to major in Biology and you have AP Bio credits, go ahead and start with upper level coursework if you’re confident you can handle it.</p>