I’m a freshman at Rice University who is premed and was wondering if I will be unprepared for the MCAT since I am using AP credit to place out of general chemistry. I’ll be taking organic chemistry next year and plan to major in either Biochemistry or Cognitive Science. According to the AP credit chart published by Rice (linked below) most schools don’t prohibit using AP credit so I’ve decided to save myself the trouble of genchem since it is definitely not an easy course at Rice.
(http://oaa.rice.edu/files/2016/06/AP-Credit-List-Allopathic-Medical-Schools-2016-2017-Updated-May-2016-1fnb7cz.pdf)
Do your AP credits appear on your transcript as credit for gen chem?
If they don’t, and you received advanced standing, then you definitely need to take 2 semesters of adv inorganic/analytic chem w/ lab to fulfill med school admission requirements. In fact, you may want to take additional chem classes anyway since many med schools that say they will accept AP credits expect students to take advanced coursework in the same subject area for admission. Please consult the MSAR and individual med school admission pages.
Have you checked the AP policies of your home state med schools? Since your home state public med schools are every pre-med’s best opportunity for an acceptance, it’s extremely important that you meet admission requirements for all of those schools.
(BTW, the Rice doc you linked to has been known to have some errors in the past, be sure that you double check the info using either the MSAR or individual med school website.)
Another potential issue to be aware of–med schools are moving toward “competency based” admission requirements and away from traditional course requirements. Many have already announced they will be using core competencies for admissions starting 2018. See: [Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students](https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/admissionsinitiative/competencies/). This will be an issue you’ll need to keep on top of with Rice’s pre-med advising office.
I’ve heard that some med schools don’t even accept AP credit… make sure you double check if the schools you’re interested in do.
Thank you for the response WayOutWestMom! Yes, my credits do appear on my transcript as gen chem credit. As a biochem major, would two semesters of biochem count as advanced chem credit? I’m from New York, so to the best of my knowledge the only school that doesn’t accept AP credit is CUNY.
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I’ve heard that some med schools don’t even accept AP credit…
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That is often misunderstood. My son used his AP credits in Bio and Chem to “move forward” and take the next higher levels of Bio and Chem. That is usually fine with most/all med schools.
A student usually cannot just take their AP science credit, count them towards prereqs and be done.
@mom2collegekids Does that advanced coursework have to come from courses like physical chemistry? Or could biochemistry also be considered advanced coursework at most institutions? Thanks everyone for the responses, I’ve been emailing my public in-state admissions officers to clarify this further.
Maybe. Maybe not. If the biochem is listed a CHEM class, maybe; if it’s listed as BIO class–definitely not. And at Rice, biochem is listed a bio course.(BIOC 301).
Generally speaking gen chem needs to supplemented with physical, inorganic or analytic chem, not biochem.
Also several NYS med schools already require biochem for admissions, so one semester would go to fulfill that requirement leaving you only semester of credit even if they would consider it.
You need to check the MSAR for AP policies of UB and Stonybrook since they’re not posted on their admissions pages.
Upstate and Downstate both state:
I’ve heard that meeting all requirements for in-state schools is crucial since students typically have the best chance of getting in to these schools. Maybe it would be worth it to take general chemistry my sophomore year then rather than take pchem or analytical chem. I’ll probably look into the difficulty of these classes at rice and contact a premed advisor.
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Does that advanced coursework have to come from courses like physical chemistry? Or could biochemistry also be considered advanced coursework at most institutions?
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Usually the advance science coursework needs to have LABS.
My son took a variety of higher level science courses…BioChem, Genetics, Cell Bio, and some that I don’t remember.
Did you get a 5 on the AP exam? If yes, you will be fine for the MCAT. I suggest you also take analytical chem. If you major in biochem then you will have more than enough upper division chem classes. I believe most biochem majors are required to take at least one semester of Physical Chemistry.
What you don’t want to do is retake courses that you’ve already taken without good reason. That’s a waste of time.
Good luck.
I agree.
I’ve also noticed that many colleges seem to purposely make Gen Chem harder (maybe because weeder), so being able to skip-over into more advanced Chem classes can save one’s GPA. Only do this if you, as @plumazul mentioned, got a 5.