<p>I always wanted to be a doctor and I realize that my performance in college is going to be a major factor in deciding my admission to medical school. </p>
<p>As a senior in high school (hopeful UVa student in Fall 08), I'd like to know whether it is a good idea to take & receive credit from AP courses in order to take a fewer amount of classes and thus try to maintain a higher GPA. Would medical school frown on this approach or would they rather see me skip introductory biology for instance and head into more advanced courses right away? I feel that the latter approach could lead to me getting in over my head too quickly and could lower my GPA. The last approach would be to take AP Exams in areas that aren't important courses for pre-med students such as History and focus more on science and math.</p>
<p>I've outlined three possible plans. I need to tell my AP coordinator what exams I plan on taking in May. What should I do?</p>
<p>P.S. Do medical schools look down on skipping a year in college?</p>
<p>I would take all of your APs. Obviously your college GPA is the most important factor besides entrance exams, but it really doesn't matter what you take as long as you complete all of the reqs. It might be slightly better to take Bio in college, but if you get credit for it from APs, who cares. You can go on in harder courses, which might be even better. As for history and stuff, you can use those AP credits to knock out basic reqs, thus allowing you to take whatever in the reqs place (science/math or whatever you want).<br>
In the end, I would take all the exams and see. If financially you can't afford them all, then I would focus on whichever subjects are your strongest. But, if you can afford them, take them all. And saying "oh but then I have to take 3 or 4 or 5" isn't very good...if you can suffer through AP exams, no offense, but I don't think you're quite cut out for med school, much less pre-med work.</p>
<p>I'd take them all. If eventually you decide that you want to take the easier classes in college to maintain you GPA or just because you didn't get the full experience, then you are certainly not REQUIRED to use the APs for credit.</p>