<p>So I'm having a bit of a crisis over scheduling. School just started today, and I'm trying to figure out if I should adjust my schedule.</p>
<p>I took AP Chemistry in high school, and it was a dual enrollment class, so I also got credit from a local community college for the courses (A- and A for the semesters) as well as a 5 on the AP exam. My university accepts that community college's credit, and AP credit as well, so either way, I can be exempt from Chemistry I and Chemistry II (one-semester classes). That credit can even count towards my major.</p>
<p>However, when I was registering, someone said that medical schools may not accept that credit towards the prerequisites of a year of gen. chemistry, even though my current university does. I signed up for Chem I for this semester to cover my bases, but I'm not sure if I should drop it and make room for preferable classes. My brother (and some other older pre-med students) didn't take Chem I or II their first year at this university, and my brother's now in this university's medical school. Still, he said it was kind of iffy when he did it, and things may have changed or be different for other medical schools.</p>
<p>A sophomore said her advisor said that medical schools won't like someone using some summer course at a community college to cover prerequisites, but something like credit from before university (like at a high school) is fine. I'm going to get an appointment with a pre-med advisor here soon, but I'd like another opinion. For most good medical schools, do you think it would be safe to drop Chem I and II, use high school-community college dual credit for the prereqs, and use the space in my schedule for Spanish or even Organic Chem.?</p>
<p>Will you eventually take more advanced chemistry and/or biochemistry courses (beyond organic chemistry) for your major or as electives?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. If I don’t take chemistry now, I’m counting on the previous credit to work.</p>
<p>Seems like you have little to gain by repeating (at most you can raise the A- to an A, but you could also get worse grades), plus repeating may itself look bad. Perhaps others here can say whether repeating looks worse than using community college courses for pre-med requirements without taking additional advanced courses at a four year school.</p>
<p>But if your major does not require any advanced chemistry or biochemistry courses, then you can defer the chemistry decision until a later semester while you do more research on pre-med requirements, since you would still have time to take whatever sequence of pre-med chemistry courses you decide that you need then.</p>
<p>How well-prepared are you for the year of Ochem? If the chemistry experience is rusty or if you are not sure you are ready to do well in Ochem, then retake the chem I-II if your school allows you to do so.</p>
<p>It may be worth reviewing the final exams for the chemistry courses at the college you are now attending, to be sure that you know everything taught in the courses. Or sit in on the chemistry courses for review purposes even if you do not take them for credit.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the help. (: I talked to other people, and it seems that some of them are using their earlier chem credit too. I’m going to drop the chem class and take Spanish (I feel like Organic Chem might be a bad idea right now), and I guess I can always take basic chem later on, if I absolutely need to - though it would stink.</p>
<p>I might creep on some of my classmates’ notes to see if I’m in line with this school’s curriculum, though; that sounds pretty smart. Thanks!</p>