<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>A friend of mine is determined to go to med school. She has amassed a number of credits via AP (33 in all: Calc 1, Calc 2, Freshman Writing, General Bio 1/2, Intro Environmental Science, and General Chem 1/2). Now, she wants to spend only 3 years as an undergrad, and will be starting with soph level classes. </p>
<p>Is it a good idea to spend only 3 years in school for med? I don't think it is even with the credits, but I'm certainly no authority...</p>
<p>Thanks,
-Arachnotron</p>
<p>If she takes challenging 200-level classes after skipping from the APs, she will likely be swamped. The APs don’t cover the material quite like the college course. I would recommend continuing on with four years and just being a more advanced student. This could mean graduating with honors, better chances at med school, better MCAT scores, etc. If she has her mind set on graduating early, it is possible, however more difficult. And then there is the very high possibility of changing her major to…I don’t know- English?</p>
<p>Source: asked this question of my aunt, who graduated from UCLA at 16 and med school + residency at Harvard</p>
<p>Multiple topics on this, I made one a few weeks ago. To make a long story short: It’s definitely possible, however, as mentioned above, it makes it a lot harder on yourself. Most notably, your chances of getting into med school may actually go down, due to a fewer number of courses than you could take in four years (in an adcom’s mind this just means less data to go on) and generally less experience you could have volunteering, researching, etc. in that extra year. If your friend really wants to graduate in three years, a gap year is recommended to make up for these deficiencies. </p>
<p>Again though, it may hurt your chances, but only by a bit. There are definitely people who do it successfully.</p>