<p>My son who is in 10th grade has the opportunity to attend SAS, School for Advanced Studies at Miami Dade Community College. This high school is comprised of 11th and 12th grade where students hold high school courses, all AP, and college courses. At the end of their senior year, students graduate from high school as well as earning a college Associate degree.
My son wants to be a biomedical engineer and wants to major in biomedical engineer and then apply to medical school (he would like to attend Johns Hopkins or Duke because they have a good biomedical engineer program.) Currently, he is attending a private preparatory high school where he is taking a PLTW (Project Lead the Way) biomedical engineer course. This is a four-year program that includes STEM courses such as Principles of the Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems, Medical Interventions and Biomedical Innovation.
My question is this: shall he continue as he is at the prep school or shall he attend SAS next year, take all AP courses and then graduate with an AA degree to later apply to universities offering the biomedical engineer degree?
Ive read some posts stating that going to a community college is a negative step towards attending medical school. In my sons case, assuming he goes to SAS, he will get his Associate and finish at a four-year university with a biomed engineer degree to later apply to med school, if he wants to.
If he stays at his current school, he will continue to take AP and Honors courses as well as continue the PLTW program. My only concern with this school is that it is fairly new and they will have its first graduating class in 2015. The administration is still working out a lot of problems with scheduling. He is taking Algebra II, World History AP, Physics Honors, British Literature Honors, Philosophy, Spanish IV Honors and Biomedical Sciences. Next year, he will be taking Analysis of Function, US Government/Economics, Environmental Science, Ancient and Medieval Literature, Ethics, computer programming and Human Body System. On his senior year, he might take Statistics, Human Geography, Renaissance and Modern Classic Literature, some type of Science (the school have not posted it yet,) Medical Intervention and he will continue with his Spanish courses.
One side benefit of going to SAS is a financial one. I dont have to pay for anything. Its like he is getting a scholarship for the first two years of college. Although the main basis of this decision is academic rather than financial.
I am sorry for the long post but I would like to guide my son as best as possible but Im debating if he should stay where he is or move to SAS. Please help.</p>
<p>He’s (and you) making a serious mistake in focussing on any particular medical school so early. It’s much, much too soon to even guess if he will be competitive for Duke or JHU when the time comes to apply.</p>
<p>Unless he plans to apply for MSTP (MD/PhD programs) in BME, the quality of the BME dept at the associated university is completely irrelevant w/r/t his medical education. Once he starts med school, he’ll never do BME again.</p>
<p>Also realize that unlike US undergrads, there is pretty much parity among US medical schools. There are no “bad” US med schools. They all teach the same, standardized curriculum and all med students take the same standardized board exams at the end of their second year. Pass rate of these standardized exams are all pretty much the same no matter what allopathic med school a student attends.</p>
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<p>Some considerations:</p>
<p>— Because he is earning a concurrent AA degree and his coursework will generate a college level transcript, any and all coursework he takes at his dual enrollment program will be included by AMCAS when calculating his GPA and sGPA (science GPA) for medical school admission.</p>
<p>This means he cannot afford to slack off even a little bit in his CC courses. These grades count. </p>
<p>— Dual enrollment classes will not be looked negatively on med school adcomm provided he takes-- and does well in-- higher level coursework at a 4 year college. (IOW, he will need to take additional upper level bio and chem classes at the 4 year even if not required for his degree.)</p>
<p>—Younger than typical applicants to medical school have a significantly more difficult time gaining acceptances due to many reasons, including the fact that he will be perceived as less mature and less able to handle the interpersonal and ethical issues of medicine than an older, more mature and world-experienced applicant. The onus will be on him to prove he is equally mature/sophisticated as the more typical 24 year old applicant.</p>
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<p>TL;DR</p>
<p>If he wants to enroll in SAS–fine. He’ll get a head start on college. However, he should not plan on applying to medical school as junior. Maybe not even as senior. He should plan to graduate and either earn a grad degree or work for a couple of years before applying to med school.</p>
<p>The problem with medical schools is that they oftentimes don’t accept ap credits. If he goes to a school where he will be taking mostly AP courses it may be for no reason. Also, as you said, medical schools and community colleges are enemies. However, the schools may understand his situation. If you are confident in your current school and that he will be able to get the courses he wants with the grades he wants, stay there.</p>
<p>Thanks, WayOutWestMom and BParker253. Your replies are really helpful.</p>
<p>WayOutWestMom’s comment about age/maturity is a valid point. He’s mature for his age but if he attends SAS, he’ll be around 20/21 yrs. old at graduation and you are right, that’s too young to apply for med school.</p>
<p>Also, I have searched several universities/colleges and they recognized the AP classes but do not give credit for them. They are just listed in your transcripts as unassigned credits. Therefore, BParker253’s comment about “taking mostly AP classes may be for no reason” is one to really considered, especially if he’s taking college courses as well and in need of making good grades for all of them. </p>
<p>I understand that AP courses could count towards an admission decision, but is it really worth all the effort? As WayOutWestMom states, one can go to any university as an undergrad and still make it to med school (provided you have good GPA, etc.) This for me means that he can take CP and Honors courses in high school, insure he gets good grades to have a high GPA and do well on the standardized tests so that he has a chance to apply to pretty decent universities and save all the effort for college and pre-med.</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards him staying where he is. He is able to take dual enrollment classes if he wants to next year and he can continue the PLTW program which will look good on his student resume. Thank you again for your comments, they are making it easier to arrive at a decision.</p>
<p>RE: AP classes </p>
<p>Unless he takes AP classes, the school guidance counselor will NOT be able to check that he took the “most challenging” courses available. This will be a strike against him for admission at competitive undergrad schools like Duke, JHU, etc. Possibly even for admissions to Honor Colleges/special programs at your in-state universities.</p>
<p>A lack of APs and “most challenging” designation may also hurt his chances for merit awards.</p>
<p>Should he attend a competitive undergrad (or even his instate honors program), the lack of AP classes will disadvantage him academically since most (all?) of his fellow students (and his competitors) will have taken them. These students will be in the same class with him. At most colleges, there is a huge weeding out process occurring in the lower level science classes. Grading is curved and the number of A’s capped (varies by school but 15% is pretty common).</p>