<p>I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question but I can't find anywhere else to post it.</p>
<p>So I just finished my first year of college and I'm planning to graduate in three years. Today I heard from a friend that many Medical schools do not accept some or all AP credits an applicant uses and this might be a problem for me since I am relying on these somewhat. I have a series of questions based on this premise.</p>
<p>I've been searching a while online and it's been hard gleaning which universities accept which AP credits so I was wondering if someone could direct me to a list somewhere or posts which med schools accept which credits.</p>
<p>I'm particularly interested in the following schools:
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Vanderbilt
University of Washington in St. Louis
University of Chicago
Harvard
Emory</p>
<p>Anything else weird about these schools particular acceptance requirements would be greatly appreciated as well!</p>
<p>Also I have a question about chemistry in particular:</p>
<p>I am using an AP credit to exempt general chemistry but if a college will not except this AP credit can I use a biochemistry (I have to take this class for my major) credit to satisfy that credit instead?</p>
<p>Given that the rules are so variable (and the fact that it’s an absolute must you also apply to your home state medical schools), the safest strategy is to assume that NO school accepts ANY AP credit. Given the competition to garner acceptance to medical school, you do not want to give the admissions committee ANY reason to make you an easy rejection. No matter how amazing you might be as an applicant, when an admissions committee has to pare down thousands of applications to mere hundreds for either secondaries or interviews, the easiest thing in the world for them to do is reject anyone who doesn’t meet requirements. And it’s not their burden to do the leg work to prove that you do in fact meet their requirements with more advanced courses such as biochem (which more and more med schools are requiring these days in addition to gen chem). </p>
<p>For those HSers reading this post, this is the reason why I discourage AP Chem and AP Physics for anyone considering pre-med.</p>
<p>You have just finished your first year in college, how can you be “aiming” for specific meds schools yet? You can’t really have a sense of where you will be applying until you have your mcat scores(which I am sure you have not taken yet) or your final gpa. In other words, lets say after you get your mcat scores back, and you have your final gpa, and your stats are too low for these schools, then what? Then you would have to figure out what other school require, and at the last minute try to meet their requirements. Thats why its stupid to meet the requirements of certain specific schools, instead you should be more interested in playing it safe and meeting the requirements for MOST meds schools. You can find this data in the MSAR.</p>
<p>Contact every school Ad com and ask them specifically. My D. had questions about AP for math and English requiremnts. All sciences she took over. Ad. coms were very helpful and quick with responses.</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread when the topic came up. And I really think it is extremely important. I recently completed Boston University School of Medicine Secondary Application and it states:</p>
<p>“We encourage applicants to pursue a broad academic experience in the humanities and in the sciences. While we consider each academic record in its entirety, the BUSM Committee on Admissions generally prefers that applicants avoid using AP, CLEP, Community College, Junior College, foreign institution, or long distance/on-line course work in fulfillment of requirements”.</p>
<p>If this is Boston U., do you really think that the schools in your list will feel much different about it? </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins
Duke
Vanderbilt
University of Washington in St. Louis
University of Chicago
Harvard
Emory</p>
<p>D. did not try to guess, it takes really short time to ask adcoms of Med. Schools, all of them, not just one. You will get answers very quickly and you will know exactly how to proceed. Guessing might lead in a wrong direction. By the way, it does not mean that schools would stay the same with their requirements. One of D’s school has changed its requirements a lot after D. has applied and registered for next fall classes at her UG. Well, she is planning to change her schedule, have to stay flexible! She even needed to drop one of her minors for this, although she might not end up going to this Med. School at all.</p>
<p>Checking is best but…out of the 20 med schools my D is applying to now the only credit I remember is for AP Calc and that is at Harvard (a long shot) which is also the only one of hers that requires calculus. Med schools may take note that you took AP’s but most med school applicants probably did anyway so I don’t think that is a big deal for them. </p>
<p>Assuming you are taking carefully selected higher level courses in Chemistry, Biology, Physics and perhaps Math (don’t think you will need to but you might want to try to fit in statistics) you should be fine. </p>
<p>Often that is just one course at an upper level to show you can do the work at the college level. Since you have to take Organic Chemistry completing that should cover your Gen. Chem. but you should, once again check. I would advise a year of Biology which should cover you there leaving Physics and Math (which I don’t think will be an issue).</p>
<p>I suspect it is unlikely that you would take an upper level Physics course, I would strongly advise against unless you are very strong in Math, unless you are a major so I am not sure how you can cover that. If your major requires Physics, like Chemistry does, and your college accepted AP to cover that requirement then upper level courses in Chemstry like Physical Chemistry may cover it for you. If not, you might check for higher level Astronomy courses that usually require significant Physics and are sometimes taught in the Physics department.</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is that you for every semester of AP credit your undergrad institution gives you for a pre-med requisite class, you should plan on SUBSTITUTING it with an upper level class in the same area if you plan on taking the AP credit (e.g. inorganic chem for intro chem; genetics for intro bio; modern physics for intro physics). Of course for some people that may put your GPA at risk, but if you think you are competent and willing to work hard, getting As in advanced bio or chem courses will make you stand out much better among the adcoms than As in the basic intro courses that most people take to just fulfill a minimum requirement. This can be especially beneficial if your school’s intro classes tend to be weed-out courses and have lots of grade deflation. Just NEVER use AP to completely skip out of a pre-med req, especially the mandatory science courses, because most med schools want to see you take the class in college with an actual grade your transcript. Med schools are, however, more lenient on taking AP for the non-science reqs such as calc, stat, or english courses so don’t be as pressured to take an upper level class in those areas if you use the AP credit.</p>
<p>Again, this is just GENERAL advice to make you competitive for MOST med schools out there while still taking some advantage of your AP credit. As some previous posts have mentioned, checking with the specific med schools you’re interested in applying to is still the best thing to do. And DO NOT use AP to substitute an intro class for an upper level one if you believe it will hurt your GPA by more than 0.1 on the 4.0 scale, because getting Bs and Cs in upper level science classes won’t be excused by the med school adcoms despite the perceived increased difficulty of those classes.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry is NOT a substitute for general chemistry. There’s a reason why both are specifically required. </p>
<p>Upper level chemistry courses that would cover gen chem would include things like Analytical chemistry and physical chemistry…classes that, on most college campuses, are probably ranked in the top 10 most difficult classes on campus. My friends who took P-Chem simply referred to it as the 7th circle of hell. FURTHER, P-chem will likely require you to take calc 3 as a prereq…just adding more and more negative consequences (although BDM is a proponent of taking calc 3 anyways, I do not find it warranted - either for medical school or medical practice). </p>
<p>The reason why it’s okay to use AP bio is that there are enough upper level biology courses that will “count” for med schools, they aren’t any where near as excruciating as the upper level chem and physics courses, and they are classes you probably have an interest in anyways (genetics, micro, anatomy, etc). And they generally avoid adding non-departmental pre-reqs to your schedule.</p>
<p>A good point from bidredmed about Orgo not replacing Gen Chem and P Chem being a very tough course. Some colleges have a one semester gen chem course for those who have taken AP so that might be one way to work through this.</p>
<p>While this does not apply to the OP I think you should take all the AP’s you can fit in while in High School as preparation for college but you need not take college credit for them.</p>
<p>“Since you have to take Organic Chemistry completing that should cover your Gen. Chem. but you should, once again check”</p>
<p>Pre-meds at D’s school take Gen. Chem even with Chem. AP. In addition, Orgo has very little to do with Gen. Chem. Third point, Gen Chem is really easy “A”, so why not? D. ended up getting job offer from Gen. Chem. prof, never know what migh happen, this is the only job she was able to get in 4 years of UG. </p>
<p>The only AP credits in question are Math and English. I would strongly advise to take all sciences at college from the beginning, do not skip any classes, in particular Bio. The first colleg Bio is significantly harder than AP Bio even for those who have used the same textbook in AP Bio and got “5”</p>
<p>UCSD does accept AP credit for math
UC Davis and UCLA also accept AP credit for math IF you completed a more advanced coures
(Calc BC 5 allows you to skip 2 quarters of math, if you take the third quarter, then you are clear for math reqs)</p>
<p>UCSD UCD and UCLA also allow you to use upper division biology courses to cover for lower div reqs.</p>