Chances of getting into med school if I graduate from college in 2 years?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>BEFORE you reply, please hear me out. I've done a lot of searching and I understand that it's not a good idea to graduate in 2 years - I should give myself the time to mature, enjoy the undergrad experience, and discover what it is I really love. I also understand that med schools don't want students that pretty much speed through college just to get everything over with asap.</p>

<p>My situation is a bit different from the threads I've read. I will be graduating high school with 50+ college credits, some from AP exams and some from dual-credit courses. I will list those that my university will accept.</p>

<p>AP Credits:
5 on AP Calc AB exam (4 hours)
5 on AP Calc BC exam (8 hours)
5 on AP Statistics exam (3 hours)
4 on AP Chem exam (8 hours)
4 on AP World History exam (3 hours)</p>

<p>Dual-Credits (college credit obtained from community college during high school):
8 hours for Physics (General College Physics I & II)
9 hours for English (English Composition I & II and American Literature I)
6 hours for US History (US History I & II)
3 hours for Economics
3 hours for Government
3 hours for Sociology
3 hours for Speech
3 hours for Personal Computing</p>

<p>The Personal Computing credit won't be of any use to me since I'll be taking the pre-med route; I just needed my tech credit and had no room in my high school schedule to take it. I'm also thinking of dropping my AP Chem credit so I can get all my foundations for chemistry, and get a good GPA since I'll know most of the material.</p>

<p>From what I can tell, I've pretty much gotten most of my undergrad reqs completed before even starting college. And as for the pre-med route, I think I've gotten most, if not all of the non-science reqs done. So I just need the science classes and my major reqs.</p>

<p>Do you think it would be possible for me to graduate from college in 2 years? If not, then what if I took some classes over the summer? It would save me lots of money to graduate 2 years early, but I don't want to overload and kinda wanna enjoy my college experience, so I might graduate in 3 years instead, but I'm still not sure. And what would medical schools think of this? Would it increase or hinder my chances of getting accepted? I'm not trying to rush through, hence considering dropping my AP Chem credit (remember, 8 HOURS!! That's a lot!). I want to take my science and major classes slowly so I can understand, enjoy, and get good grades. But I just happen to have all of my other classes completed.</p>

<p>What are your opinions?</p>

2

<p>Check out this subforum: [Pre-Med</a> Topics - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/]Pre-Med”>Pre-Med Topics - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>Listen when they explain that getting into med school is not just about the grades, but also about having good volunteer, shadowing, and research experiences; it’s often easier to get those while in college. You’ll also want to have good letters of recommendation from profs, and to get those, you’ll need to get to know them, and they’ll need to get to know you – this takes time. </p>

<p>I understand your reasons for wanting to go quickly, but bear in mind that if you don’t get in on your first try, med schools are much, much tougher on those who are reapplying.</p>

3

<p>Your situation is not any different than the ones before you. I think 4 years in college is best but if money is that tight than do 2 or 3 years and spend 1 or 2 years post grad working/still building up your app. In other words, if you must save the money, speed up college but definitely don’t actually speed up the time to medical school.</p>

4

<p>Not a good idea.</p>

<p>The dual credits from community colleges do not help adcoms at med schools to evaluate your academic strength.</p>

<p>Just think about it in this way. Many students at top colleges may have the same academic preparations/credential before college. Some of these colleges actually require all of their students to take the core education courses again because they think the courses taken elsewhere before college are not rigorous enough - fair or nor, med school adcoms may agree at this. Many of these students even throw in another glide year in order to enhance their qualification, and some even add two glide years. The competition among peer students at such a school is generally perceived as being more fierce. Do you think you may be disadvantaged if you only have two years (one year if no glide year) to present yourself?</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>OP, AP Calc AB and BC are not a sequence. AB is the first part of BC. The most credit you can get is 8 hours.
Also, you scored a 4 in General Chemistry. IMO, you should retake the class in college. A 4 is not good enough. I’ve seen people struggle terribly trying to move forward with only a 4 on the exam.
Also, doing dual credit at a CC is not something I’d recommend. If someone plans on doing dual credit, make sure it’s at a 4 year university.
I started college with 55 hours of AP credit. It means I will graduate with about 180. I used the extra credits to take advanced classes in my major and in other arts and sciences.
Best of luck.</p>

6

<p>Not only do I think it would not be a good idea, but I also don’t even think you could do it. A lot of people are surprised what high school credit doesn’t count for anything. Each school requires different things, but in my case, your economics, speech, us history, calc ab, statistics, and personal computing wouldn’t knock out any required courses for me to get a degree. Also, I’m not sure if world history would either depending on if it satisfies the western civilization requirement at my school.</p>

<p>Statistics wasn’t required for me, but I guess some med schools recommend it. I don’t think you get credit for Calc AB and BC separately for 12 credits total. I believe you would get credit for Calc BC which would satisfy the Calc 1 and II requirement. I may be wrong on that though.</p>

<p>Depending on what you major in and where you’re going to college, you still have a lot of classes left to take. I was required to take 3 humanities courses. I suppose speech may satisfy one of those. </p>

<p>If you’re going to a good university, chem I and II will not be easy regardless of what you got in AP chem. This is a major weeder course at all good universities, and labs are extremely difficult and completely different than what most high school students have ever experienced. </p>

<p>If you wanted to finish in 2 years, you would need to take organic chem your first year. Most places won’t even offer that to a freshman and for good reason.</p>

<p>I suggest going 4 years, but 3 minimum. You need time to get lots of volunteer, shadowing, and research hours. MCAT will need a lot of devotion time too. This isn’t even close to the difficulty of the SAT/ACT.</p>

<p>You are obviously smart by your AP scores, but I think you should slow down and enjoy yourself. Med school will be the end of any free time you have, so these 4 years are important. Good luck to you, and I suggest talking will your guidance counselor before anything. They know more than we do and will guide you in the right direction.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>At my school, a 3 or 4 on the Calc AB exam gets you credit for course M 408K which is 4 hours. A 5 gets you credit for M 408C, which is also 4 hours. A 3 or 4 on the BC exam gets you what you would get with a 5 on the AB test - credit for course M 408C. But a 5 on the BC gets you credit for M 408K and M 408L, which are 4 hours each and add up to be 8 hours.</p>

<p>Thank you for your opinions. I can understand why 2 years is a bad idea, so I’m leaning more towards 3. I also understand why 4 would be the best idea but what would I do in that time seeing as I already have so many credits? Take fewer classes for each semester to span out my years? I am positive my school will accept my AP and dual credits - they posted a list of conversions of what the credit from an AP or dual-credit class would be equivalent to in the school. So I think I’m done with most of my reqs… all that remains are my science classes and classes for my major. I don’t know, I just think I’d be wasting time and money if I do 4 years but I’m not quite sure what to think or do.</p>

8

<p>I know there are some schools which will force you to take your AP credit, and which will apply it towards a maximum credit cap before kicking you out. In that case, you might be forced to graduate in some abbreviated amount of time. For this reason, I suggest to some high school seniors that they not take their AP exams at the end of the year.</p>

<p>I agree with IWBB. Yours is precisely the scenario that most students trying to rush through come with.</p>

<p>I also agree with him that if money is tight for tuition, that’s understandable. I’d try hard to make it work for longer than two years. But if that simply isn’t possible, then you should take two years off so that you are four years out of high school. You would apply at the same age as if you were taking four years in college.</p>

<p>But that doesn’t sound to me like the issue. It sounds to me like you just don’t know what to do with yourself if you come in with all this credit. You ask whether you should underload every term (absolutely not). Unless they kick you out, the answer to me seems obvious: graduate with a lot more credits than you need.</p>

<p>You’ll find that time in college is not a waste – that extra classes are not a waste, that extra education is not a waste, and above all that the best sorts of students are the ones who enjoy learning for its own sake.</p>

<hr>

<p>In other words, if you are concerned that:
Your college will kick you out: Skip the AP exams at the end of high school.
You can’t afford the extra two years of tuition: Take two years off in the workforce before applying.
You don’t understand what the extra two years are good for: Graduate with extra credits. I promise that in retrospect (and in fact, even during your second year), the purpose of the extra two years will be clear to you.</p>

<hr>

<p>PS: My college also had a list of what converted and what didn’t, but many freshmen were surprised to find that even though each individual class converted, there was an overall credit cap (of 2). Their AP credits allowed them to skip over things, but not to receive credit for doing so. Your school may or may not be similar.</p>

9

<p>Talk to a premed advisor in your college.</p>

<p>Are you going to UT?</p>

10

<p>Yes, it is possible (my advisor “approved” my 3-semester degree plan).</p>

<p>But you need to figure out which of your credits your university accepts and how your leftover required classes will fit into those semesters (use the Class Schedule catalog).</p>

<p>Because you only have one year of preparing your med school application (doing extracurricular activities, asking for recommendation letters, ect), your chances may be hindered by the lack of time and experiences.</p>

11

<p>First off, congrats! That’s amazing drive to have in high school.</p>

<p>Few questions:

  • Did your high school (district) or parents pay for all of those duel enrollment courses?
  • Why CC instead of a 4-year university for the duel enrollment?
  • What university are you planning to attend?
  • SAT/ACT score?</p>
12

<p>^^^Based on everything I’ve read, most dual-enrollment agreements are with CCs.</p>

13

<p>I would not suggest anyone take organic chemistry after only having taken AP Chem. I think you would have to do this in your plan. It might be fine to replace your college chemistry class with an AP Chem credit if you were not going to really need to know chemistry. You will need A’s in O-chem to get into med school, and you will need to understand chemistry with a depth that simply is not present in the AP course.</p>

14

<p>If you cannot afford UG tuition, the best is to apply to UG that would offer you full tuition / free ride Merit award. There are plenty of schools that will or come very close. It takes time to research though and do not eliminate privates, some of them are great about attracting the top kids by offerring huge Merits to them. College experience is not only about grades as cooorectly pointed by others. It is not only for Medical ECs either. And Med. Schools are fully aware of it. They are looking for mature people who allowed themselves having some time for personal growth, and it might be more important in some cases.</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>“Anyone”, really?
IF you have done well in your AP Chemistry class and scored a 5 on the exam, then you should be fine in Orgo. General/Intro Chemistry is a high school level course, the content is close to standard across the nation and frankly just isn’t that difficult. </p>

<p>BTW, there are a lot of people in medical schools who didn’t get As in orgo.</p>

16

<p>^Orgo has very littel to do with Gen. Chem.<br>
At least in my D’s UG, Gen. Chem was her easiest science class. She ended up being an SI for 3 years working for Gen. Chem. prof which resulted in no need to prep. Gen. Chem for the MCAT at all. D. never had AP Chem., was not offered in her HS. She ended up with 100+% (extra credits) on every Gen Chem test
Orgo, on the other hand, was one of the hardest and extrememly time consuming classes.
She has said on several occasions that Orgo had practically nothing to do with the Gen. Chem (which apparently she mastered to the point that anything in Med. School that had used Gen. Chem. was always her favorite academic material)</p>

17

<p>Many smart kids these days enter college with lots of AP/IB/DE credits. In some cases, it makes sense to take advantage of that and get an early start on a masters degree or to do a double major.</p>

<p>For those who are med school bound, it’s a different story. You need the 3-4 years to demonstrate that you’re really med school material. The minimum I think you should do is 3 1/2 years (graduating in winter). </p>

<p>Use that extra time for some interesting classes…art, music, foreign language, whatever - but not classes that will hurt your GPA.</p>

18

<p>^Very good advice. Most of my D’s pre-med friends (including herself) had unrelated combo of major(s)/minor(s)…not to impress adcoms, but for self-enrichment, and it was a truly rewarding experience all by intself…aside from the fact as being the most common topic of Med. School interviews (at least in my D’s case, which again, has nothing to do with acceptance, just breaking a boredom for the interviewers, they are human beings also)</p>

19

<p>Just to let you know, last year, I did not take AP Chem but took the Ochem classes at a local community college.</p>

<p>If you’re already mature and well-rounded, there’s no reason to stay in college.</p>

<p>Even though I would profit each year if I were to stay longer in university, I’d rather work toward my goals than dilly-dally on subjects I could study on my own (for free) when I’m finally working.</p>

<p>It’s fine to want to move on and start your career sooner.</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>According to this link (if what was written is true), it is better not to major in science (with the exception of maybe CS when you are still young - CS is arguably really not a traditional science major) if you want to find a more pleasant job and work for several years before going to med school.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1507844-what-should-my-exact-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1507844-what-should-my-exact-major.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;