<p>I have an opportunity to attend this dual HS/college program where you save 2 years of college because you go to a community college your jr and sr years of HS. Then I would attend UF for my jr and sr year of college, then get into med school. Do you think I would be prepared enough to get into med school and do well? Do you think this is a good idea?</p>
<p>Absolutely not, unless you intend to apply to medical school after you graduate, rather than during your senior year like most. If you do this, you risk killing your GPA by not be prepared for university upper level courses. Just as importantly, you give yourself basically no time to do college extra curricular activities and connect with professors ( a single years worth instead of three before you apply). THAT will hurt you.</p>
<p>OK, thanks for the input!</p>
<p>Most pre-meds are reguired to take science classes over even having “5” for APs. So,
your plan might not work anyway. If you want to save 2 years, go to accelerated combined program.</p>
<p>The OP means that he is going to go to college full time in high school, not do AP. I agree though, avoid science related AP CREDIT (take the courses though, excellent classes).</p>
<p>I assume McD means that the OP should take AP Classes while in high school. Taking heavy numbers of courses at community college, as the OP appears to be planning, is a bad idea.</p>
<p>A dual enrollment programs with a 4 year university wouldn’t be a bad idea, as long as you ultimately wait 3 years post-HS before applying. This would give you an extra year or two to do full-time clinical and research work; however, note this would not be AP nor would it be CC credit. You’d want to do one through your HS with dual enrollment at a respectable 4 year institution (public/state U would generally be a good choice).</p>
<p>Yes, that’s what I meant. Only go the CC route if you have a significant financial need to do so.</p>
<p>“A dual enrollment programs with a 4 year university wouldn’t be a bad idea, as long as you ultimately wait 3 years post-HS before applying”</p>
<p>What are dual enrollment programs? I know only combined bs/md programs that take kids straight out of HS. You cannot get into them later. Some of them accelerated, others not. If one wants to cut combined years in UG+Grad, accelerated bs/md might be a good idea.</p>
<p>Basically, you enroll in college, whether it be a CC or even a 4 year college, and after you finish the first two years, you basically get your HS diploma and associates. They have a program like that here with Richland community college. There is also one called Texas Academy of Math and Science at University of North Texas, and that’s a pretty rigorous program.</p>
<p>However, if you plan on entering medicine, it’s probably better to go the tradtitional route, unless you want to take a couple of years after graduating at the age of 20 to grow maturity-wise. That’s the biggest problem, is that at that young of an age, you probably aren’t old enough (not literally) and mature enough to appreciate the consequences of cutting someone open or having their life in your hands. Most people aren’t even fully equipped when entering medical school at the “normal” age (right after undergrad) to make these decisions, but have the potential to develop those skills.</p>
<p>When you’re 19, it’s not easy to be able to make someone believe you when you say you want to know what you want to do for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>ZF, that’s not necessary the exact kind of dual enrollment I was referring to, actually. Many high schools actually offer on-campus courses w/ dual credit at a 4-year or you could do as ZF said and take classes at a 4-year institution.
If you were to do dual enrollment, I’d suggest taking 2 yrs of gap time post-BA/BS to do clinical work (maybe get your EMT-I/P and work in that area). You probably shouldn’t be applying to med school at age 19 or 20.</p>
<p>I am aware of the dual credit thing. My school has it, and I took those classes too. Just not gonna be using the credit. I was talking about the programs the OP was talking about.</p>
<p>I know someone who did this, one of those special dual enrollment things, and she just took the MCAT and failed it utterly. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, I mean, if you think you can handle it than by all means go for it, but also remember that for stuff like the MCAT, take your time and make sure you’ve got it all down. I think her problem was that she didn’t give herself the time she needed to prepare (even though she took the MCAT as a junior), and I don’t know if age played into it any, but I feel like if she had taken like AP Bio, then intro bio in college, and done that with all the prereqs, maybe she’d have a better handle on the information.But if you think you can handle it then just go for it and see where it takes you.</p>
<p>my program is like post #10. i won’t be taking any AP classes. if i stayed in HS and did all the AP courses, i would still have so much credit it would be just about a semester behind if i went the dual enrollment program way (UF allows 45 credits from APs, versus 60 from the DE program) i am planning on taking higher sci & math so that isn’t an issue, nor is the maturity thing.</p>
<p>Like Zfanatic says. Applying to med school younger than most is not a great idea. If you use the time to do something else interesting or useful then med schools might love you. Get a Masters, do some research, get a clinically related job. Almost anything that uses your brain or helps people. Peace Corps would be perfect. You will be a doctor for the rest of your life, spend some time being a college student, and do not be so quick to dump high school.</p>
<p>If you show the academic ability then the next questions are commitment and maturity. It is awfully hard, at 19, to compete on the latter with the 23-24 year old typical applicant.</p>
<p>The main exception would be hard to demonstrate going the route you are proposing. There are at the top med schools a small number of people who are there simply because they are so freakishly smart that the school could not contemplate turning them down. They are going to be the next generation of top scientists and academic docs. The problem is they proved this not be getting high grades in their science courses (although they did this), but by impressing their college professors in their research. If you are only in conventional college for a year before applying to med school you will not have a chance to prove you are one of these people. </p>
<p>So… if this is best way to make the rest of high school intellectually stimulating, go ahead. But to not be in such a hurry to go to med school early.</p>
<p>
Let’s say you fulfill all of your premed requirements in CC except orgo. Taking pchem and upper level physics (thermodynamics, modern physics) is going to be tougher than genchem and algebra based physics. I’m not saying you can’t handle this, but I know a good number of current med school students who probably couldn’t.</p>