APs and Med School

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I'm a pre-frosh trying to plan my fall semester schedule at Hopkins. I've taken the AP Biology and Chemistry tests, and I got a 5 on the Biology, still waiting for the chemistry score. </p>

<p>Hopkins allows me to skip out of intro bio and intro chem with 4s or 5s on the AP, but I'm worried that some med schools might not look kindly upon it because they want the courses taken at the college. </p>

<p>Provided I get a good score on the chem, Should I take the intro classes with the material I've already studied, or risk it and just move on to higher level classes</p>

<p>Also, is it important to take a foreign language while in college for med school?</p>

<p>Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>Retake it and get a nice high grade. That way you will be in awesome shape for med school. Foreign language is something that is up to you. It won't hurt, but it probably won't help much because many hospitals teach you a second language when you are a resident if you choose to learn it.</p>

<p>Congrats!!
I agree that you should retake the classes. I retook a calc class I could have used credit for and am SO grateful I did that! The surprising thing to me was that I still had to work hard, but in the end I did well, so I was extremely happy that I didn't skip ahead to upper classes. There is plenty of time for that.
I think the AP program is great because it prepared me somewhat for the workload of college, but I wouldn't recommend using AP credits to jump into upper level classes for sciences, especially because you're pre-med.</p>

<p>The language thing, I have no idea about :-) I'd say, if you want to take it, take it; but if you don't, don't take it just because you think it might help your admissions somewhere.
Good luck!</p>

<p>Im premed and Im gonna be skipping the intro classes I have AP credit for. I think that if you can do just as well in the more advanced classes, it will look better than just retaking the courses u already have credit for.</p>

<p>For the record, one is not going to learn a foreign language courtesy of a residency pgm.</p>

<p>Educational benefits
Yes Program to assess/enhance medical professionalism<br>
No Debt management/financial counseling<br>
No Formal program to develop teaching skills<br>
No Formal mentoring program<br>
Yes Continuous quality improvement training<br>
No International experience<br>
Yes Resident/fellow retreats<br>
No Off-campus electives<br>
No Hospice/home care experience<br>
Yes Cultural competence awareness<br>
No Instruction in medical Spanish or other non-English language </p>

<p>This is at Yale, no other instruction. Its an option on the FREIDA website though, and some program do have this instruction. You just have to look at specific hospitals and programs</p>

<p>Educational benefits
No Program to assess/enhance medical professionalism<br>
Yes Debt management/financial counseling<br>
Yes Formal program to develop teaching skills<br>
No Formal mentoring program<br>
Yes Continuous quality improvement training<br>
Yes International experience<br>
Yes Resident/fellow retreats<br>
Yes Off-campus electives<br>
Yes Hospice/home care experience<br>
Yes Cultural competence awareness<br>
Yes Instruction in medical Spanish or other non-English language </p>

<p>UCONN Gen Surg program.</p>

<p>This sounds a lot like "join the navy, see the world". In reality, residency is a grim period of life time where the quest for sleep & food takes on mythical proportions. Even with reduced work weeks, every second of the day is accounted for with patient care, rounds, conferences and on-calls.</p>

<p>I know the hours are horrid but by offering this they hope you never leave the hospital, and you become their slave. Hah</p>

<p>This will tell you the average working hours per week any particular specialty will likely entail: </p>

<p><a href="http://people.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=becoming-a-doctor.htm&url=http://www.ama-assn.org/go/freida%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://people.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=becoming-a-doctor.htm&url=http://www.ama-assn.org/go/freida&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you want an easier chance of getting an A then go for the intro classes, but if you really want to challenge yourself then take the higher classes. But for example if you pre requisite for a med school is 3 quarters of bio and you skip one and take only 2 higher bio classes The med school won't like that. So instead you have to take 3 bio classes but that is one quarter advanced</p>

<p>From Yale Medical School's website:</p>

<p>"Students entering college with a strong background in the sciences, as demonstrated by advanced placement, are encouraged to substitute advanced science courses for the traditional requirements listed above."</p>

<p>Advanced science courses are more impressive.</p>

<p>It's perfectly fine to use AP credit but you'll have to take upper level courses in the subject you are using AP credit in.</p>

<p>Advanced science courses are more impressive if you get the grade to back it up. A "C" in an advanced class will be look down upon compared to someone with a "B" in a normal class. An advanced class is only good if you know you can get at least a B or better. If you can't, don't bother, it won't impress anyone.</p>

<p>Well of course your grade matters. If you're applying to a decent medical school, grades are very important, especially in science courses. I would think that goes without saying.</p>