Calculus needed for Physics with Calculus

My son will be premed freshman in Biology this fall, and he is looking for advice on repeating his AP Calculus because of the calculus needed for Physics. He got a 4 on the AP test. All the top medical schools accept AP Calculus with a 4, and he can demonstrate his proficiency in math through retaking Statistics. Does the calculus in the Physics class warrant taking a year of Calculus again? Does calculus help in any medical school classes?

As a premed student myself here at UF, I have done a lot of research on this. Most medical schools take AP credits, but there are a lot that don’t. Most still want to see that you have taken a class at the university level, so I would suggest retaking it or taking higher level calculus. So for me, since I took Calc 1-3 dual enrolled in high school, I am going to be taking Differential Equations to demonstrate that I can take a calculus at a university level. For medical school, most students take Physics without Calculus. Physics 1 with Calculus is not too bad difficulty wise, but Physics 2 with calculus is extremely difficult and mainly geared toward engineering students. I would recommend taking without for med school, as taking the calculus based version probably won’t set you apart that much in medical school applications.

Hope this helps!! :slight_smile:

Your advice parallels the comments we’ve received elsewhere. Instead of retaking calculus, my son is going to retake Statistics to show his strength in math. Thanks!

DO not take Calculus-based physics. Med school will still accept algebra-based physics. That is why many Premed people take algebra-based physics. Although, there are many people out there that take the calculus-based physics just because they think it will improve their application when applying to Med school.