Difficulty deciding what classes to take sophomore year

[WayOutWestMom]

Before you overdose on AP classes, please read this FAQ about AP/IB/DE classes and medical schools.

FAQ Pre-med courses, AP/IB/etc. credit and college/DE courses, etc.

Frequently asked questions from pre-meds in college and prospective pre-meds in high school often involve AP/IB/etc. credit and college or dual enrollment courses taken while in high school. This page hopes to answer some of these questions. (Thanks to @WayOutWestMom for help writing this page.) A. Course requirements and policies relating to the issues described here for specific medical schools can be found in the Medical School Admission Requirements™ (MSAR®); see https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/applying-medical-school-process/medical-school-admission-requirements/ (requires subscription or payment to see that part of each medical school’s profile). Medical schools may also list some information on their own web sites. Due to variation in requirements and policies, check the requirements and policies for each specific medical school that you are interested in. B. Medical schools commonly require or expect applicants to have completed a set of pre-med…

tl;dr not all med schools will accept AP/IB credits for pre-reqs, but at the same time retaking classes you’ve previously taken is very much looked down upon by med school adcomms.

Med schools are interested in admitting well-rounded students with interests outside of medicine and science. In fact, all med schools now have pre-reqs in social sciences and English/writing skills, not just science and math. (50% of MCAT topics do not involve science.) Foreign language skills are always a plus.