<p>I am a high school junior and absolutely love Chemistry. I am the top student at my school in AP Chemistry, and I truly want to study Organic Chemistry this summer. </p>
<p>However, I know how difficult this course is (seeing my sister struggle), so knowing my credentials, do you believe I should jump to Organic Chemistry without taking General College Chemistry first? Thanks.</p>
<p>OChem is very different from Gen Chem.</p>
<p>The AP Chem you’re now taking may or may not be adequate preparation for OChem. AP Chem classes vary considerably in their rigor and depth of preparation. Since you haven’t reported an AP exam score, I assume you haven’t yet taken the exam. Without an objective measure of success in the class, it’s hard to know how strong a chem student you actually are.</p>
<p>Another consideration–AP Chem, even if it is a well taught course and you score well on the exam, may not be an adequate substitute for college-level gen chem, depending on the school.</p>
<p>For example, D2’s university strongly recommended all students with AP chem credit take gen chem–which D2 did. The course was much harder, covered more material and in much greater depth than AP Chem. Even people with 5s on their AP found the class challenging.</p>
<p>I can only see problems with you formally taking OChem this summer since the course must be reported on your AMCAS application for medical school. (I believe it must be reported even if you only audit the class and don’t take it for credit. But I’m not sure about that. Perhaps someone else here can speak to that.) All college coursework must be reported and will be computed into your GPA, even if you take the class during high school. If you take OChem this summer and do poorly or even mediocre, it will negatively impact your future medical school application.</p>
<p>If you truly want to study OChem, what about a self-study course? You can get a look at the material, see if you have the skills to formally undertake the class and not have a class you must eventually report for inclusion into your GPA and med school application.</p>
<p>Since you’re taking AP Chem as a junior, you might forget a lot of Chem when you get to college. You probably should either retake Chem or take the next level of Chem.</p>
<p>You can’t really just count AP Chem for med school. You’ll either need to retake or take more.</p>
<p>My son skipped Gen Chem and went to OChem. But, he’s having to take extra Chem classes (with labs) to make up for skipping Gen Chem.</p>
<p>Yea AP chem is good enough for college O-chem, just like taking Anatomy in college is good enough to skip Anatomy in med school……</p>
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</p>
<p>huh?</p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>I would check with a possible future College/University chemistry department on your proposed course of action. I would take college general chemistry and take Organic during your first year of college if you want to push towards you major in chemistry. If you do not want to major in chemistry I would just do general chem and organic during your first two years in college. If you do take college O chem in the summer and do not do well it could hurt you in applying to med school. Many medical schools also will not accept AP credit for required courses. College anatomy courses are not a substitute for medical school anatomy.
I did extremely well with an A in medical school anatomy during my graduate work at a top Ivy league medical school and I had to repeat it several years later when I went to medical school.</p>
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<p>You need to turn your sarcasm detector up.</p>
<p>Although I will say that very little gen chem is needed to succeed in orgo.</p>
<p>Why risk your GPA, retake one or both chem semesters and ease yourself into college. Adcoms wont be more impressed, they don’t have time to overthink your schedule like that. They definitely will notice if you bomb it.</p>