<p>As long as your courseload is similar to other students at your school, med schools do not care about difficulty or what courses you take. My only concern is that you will have only completed physics and half of your math premed requirements by the end of freshman year, which puts you notably a bit behind many premeds. In all liklihood, you'll have to take bio and chem together next year and orgo junior year, as well as fit in another math or stat course somewhere. This or a similar sequence is perfectly fine, and is more or less the traditional track, but the trend seems to be more towards getting as many of your requirements out of the way as soon as possible, to allow for more preperation time for the MCAT.</p>
<p>I'm actually much closer to completing my premed requirements than that. I have APed out of BIO and CHEM, and next year will be taking Orgo, Biochem and Cell Bio--or one of those first semester junior year. Also, I will take Diff EQ and Linear Algebra along with 2 writing courses. I was just worried about the overall courseload/difficulty of course per semester.</p>
<p>Orgo and biochem, at least at most schools, can't be taken simulataneously, and they'd better be a year-long sequence each or else you won't have your four semesters of chem.</p>
<p>And you'll still need a year of bio, so cell bio is probably only one semester. And it had better have a lab, or else (again) you won't have your two semesters of lab bio. Remember, AP credits don't count.</p>
<p>Also, medical schools don't care about course load, so long as you aren't skimming by at 12 hours a semester for multiple semesters. They won't reward strenuous course loads, but they will notice if you repeatedly are taking just enough to be a full time student - unless you have a real, very substantial reason for doing so, like you are working full time in order to pay for school (and you tell them that in your personal statement or during the interview).</p>
<p>At Hopkins, we have Orgo I and II, so yes, it is a full year sequence. However, advising tells us that Biochem and Cell Bio comprise the full year of Biology, or thats what they've had success with for people who have APed out of Gen Bio. And they both have a lab, and Hopkins doesn't restrict taking Orgo I and Biochem together, and doesn't restrict taking Orgo II and Cell Bio together either, as they only offer Orgo I and Biochem first semester and Orgo II and cell bio second semester</p>
<p>You're going to need another year of chemistry. </p>
<p>I did notice while checking the JHU website that biochem is considered a biology course and has a biology call number.</p>
<p>You could either take the general chem course you AP'ed out of, or go to the next level of chem after organic - probably p-chem (which will not help that much on the MCAT).</p>
<p>I highly doubt this, but I wonder if Hopkins has found that most medical schools accept biochem (is it yearlong?) into BOTH the biology and the chemistry prerequisites? I can't imagine that this would be true, but IF it is, then it would explain why you don't seem to think you need more chemistry.</p>
<p>Biochem is one semester and is in sequence with cell bio. Usually they are taken in the same year.</p>
<p>So from what I gather from this board and medical school admissions websites is that with my AP credits in Chemistry (which got me out of 2 semesters of General Chemistry) and 2 Semesters in Orgo, I will be required to take one additional semester of Chemistry, which would probably be p-chem. Is this correct?</p>
<p>Yeah. And I've just spoken to some other people, including my RA who's going to medical school next year, and she didn't take a Gen Chem I or II, but only Orgo I and II, and nothing beyond that.
But I'm going to my pre-professional advisor tomorrow to sort this out.</p>
<p>It is worth mentioning that SOME medical schools will accept AP Credit. I just don't think it's wise to ignore the others.</p>
<p>And it's also worth mentioning that medical schools will admit kids who don't have all the pre-reqs if they otherwise want them badly enough. I just don't think it's wise to give them an excuse to reject you.</p>
<p>Having had a classmate be asked to leave despite his 39 on the MCAT and 3.98 GPA (and associated extracurriculars) simply because he hadn't taken genetics (which is required by my medical school), I will tell you that you should make every reasonable effort to fulfill your requirements. He seriously had to drop out a week and half into first year after they discovered he hadn't taken the class during their final review of transcripts. </p>
<p>I think that most schools have enough people on their waiting list, who they feel can and will be successful physicians that they see no problem with dropping another well qualified applicant.</p>
<p>Yes, if you were attempting to be one of the exceptions I mentioned, you would want to include a letter written to all the schools pointing that out to them, just so that there's no mistake that bites you later on.</p>
<p>"While I believe I'm fully qualified to perform the tasks that will be asked of me in medical school, I wanted to make clear that I do not have plans to complete a second year of chemistry in college. I believe my AP Scores and MCAT scores indicate proficiency in the material."</p>
<p>Which medical schools do not accept AP credit? Is it the top ranked medical schools? or the lower ones?</p>
<p>Is it possible to meed all the medical school requirements without having any AP credit? I took AP Biology and AP Chemistry and got 3's on them because I was an idiot my sophomore year and took 2 science AP classes(Not to mention I didn't even study for the AP exams). The colleges I am applying don't accept 3's. Will this set me back too much? Will I be forced to take general bio/general chem and all those lame classes again in college? </p>
<p>I'm a senior in high school.</p>
<p>Sorry to steal the thread with these questions.</p>
<p>I really made a mistake in high school taking too many difficult classes at once. My GPA took a big hit because of this and I really don't want to make this same mistake again in high school. I guess its sort of "pride" that forces me to take the most difficult classes because I feel like if my classmates are in an upper-level class I should be at par, or better than them. </p>
<p>So will it look bad if I retake all the intro courses as a freshman? If my college allows me to take higher level courses without the AP Credit, should I take advantage and sign up for the more difficult classes?</p>
<p>Many schools will not take 3's anyway. If there is even the slightest chance you will go to med school or be in a bio/chem major then you will want to take them over. A 3 is just not a good indication of mastery of the material and using them to get into a higher level same subject class will probably hurt your GPA. It is very possible to meet med school requirements without AP's.</p>
<p>In my opinion, taking all of the intro science courses is beneficial. Firstly, it prepares you much better for upcoming, more difficult courses than your AP high school course would. Professors at your university know what you need to learn to be successful in the upcoming courses. </p>
<p>Secondly, these intro courses, albeit difficult, can also be major GPA boosters, which you might need to compensate for lower grades in upper division, really difficult classes.</p>