<p>Hi
I'm a junior in high school, about to start second semester.
For now I'm thinking of going on the PreMed track at a few colleges.
I've been hearing a lot about people graduating colleges early.
I was wondering if that was possible if I was a PreMed major.
Is it possible at all to graduate a year early and get into MedSchool?
Would I have to do anything while I'm in highschool?</p>
<p>Take a lot of AP classes.</p>
<p>First off, premed isn’t a major. You can major in anything you like as long as you have taken the prerequisites for medical school. </p>
<p>I might graduate college early with the AP credits I’ve taken. I might also graduate early because I’ve been invited into a program that specializes in early graduation/study abroad.</p>
<p>It seems a little late for you to be jumping on the wagon, but it’s never too late. I would advise you to fill you senior schedule with AP classes or college classes, if and only if, you’ve been taking a rigorous course schedule for the past year(s). Filling up your year with rigorous classes with no prior experience of that level of work is foolish. What classes are you taking this year?</p>
<p>Most people I know who graduate early take a lot of AP classes. If that is not an option (it wasn’t at my school) they might take community college classes either along side of high school or over the summer (or both).</p>
<p>Depending on just how many credits they come in with they will may also take a lot of credits per semester. For example the minimum number of credits may be 12 (3-4 classes) but they will take 16 (4-6 classes) or more. </p>
<p>Sometimes you trade good grades for graduating early. Most people I know who graduate early are engineering majors who don’t need 4.0’s to land a job (generally they need a 3.0 total GPA). </p>
<p>Your social life can also suffer if you are taking a lot of class and trying to get very high grades. I know a few vet students who took 16 or even 18 credit semesters and they were very stressed out. They still did well but they would not have time to do anything but study. </p>
<p>I think you should ask yourself why you want to graduate early and how early you want to graduate. If you can knock out some intro classes with AP credits by all means do that though.</p>
<p>I’m actually an IB diploma candidate so 6 out of 8 classes are IB classes.
which are all 2 years courses.
Maybe next year I’ll be able to fit one AP class. and the rest will be all IB classes and on elective class.</p>
<p>You could graduate early by</p>
<p>1) Taking a lot of AP classes in high school, and scoring well on the exams. (Many schools also take IB classes for credit, so I would check on that.)
2) Taking CLEP exams, if your college accepts CLEP credit.
3) Taking community college classes in high school and transferring those credits.
4) Once you’re in college, overloading on credits and taking summer classes.</p>
<p>However, as a pre-med major, I don’t understand why you would want to do that. If you’re overburdened it will be more difficult to get a great GPA which you need for med school, and you’ll have less time to study for the MCAT.</p>
<p>You could also take university courses instead of community college courses. They probably cost more but they might be easier to transfer in with equivalent credit.</p>
<p>
Sure, its probably possible to graduate college a year early and go to med school. But why would you want to?</p>
<p>Aside from the fact there is no such thing as a PreMed major, finishing college a year early means a year less time to take part in research, to get patient experience, and since people commonly take the MCAT spring of junior year you’d be taking it during what is essentially the spring of your sophomore year. Maybe you’ll have taken all the necessary classes for what it covers by then, but maybe not.</p>
<p>Also if you try this you’ll really be swimming against the tide. The average age of the starting student at med school these days is 24 or 25. This allows the applicants to do something helpful to their candidacy during a year after college, and allows the med schools to see all their college grades. In your case they’d have to make a bet on you after you finish your sophomore year.
</p>
<p>It’s more than possible to graduate in one year depending on the type of degree. Mathematics in most colleges allows one to “test” out of courses well beyond the intro level, if you have an aptitude for it self study 5-6 additional math classes per semester and test out to graduate early with a math major. For common core requirements tune up to 18-21 credits per semester and finish those.</p>
<p>Word of Warning, it’s not for the faint of heart</p>
<p>AP and Dual Enrollment classes and attending a university that honors the credit from these universities. </p>