Hi! I’m a current Junior in high school and am currently it AP Calc AB. I’m planning on being pre-med in undergrad and then going to med school. I am wondering if many pre-med majors require mutli, stats or both as I am deciding on which one to do my senior year. Also, what are the MCAT and Medical school course requirements?
Most/Many colleges do not offer “pre-med” as a major, sometimes as a pre-profesisonal concentration with some advising/inter opps, but not a major. If you’re interested in a science/math major it could still depend on which one. Probably Calc 1-3 plus Stats. More Calc for Physics, maybe less Calc and more Stats for Bio. And even if you take AP and get a 5 there’s no guarantee it will fulfill the major requirement. Some schools have credit caps, some only offer placement or elective credit. You have to check specific majors at specific schools to be sure. I would take which one seems the most interesting to you.
Depends upon the medical school. You may want to visit the websites of some med schools that may be of interest and get a general sense of what they are looking for from an undergraduate degree (some want calc, some want stats, some want both). As there generally isn’t a degree called “pre-med”, you will be pursuing an undergrad degree in something like bio (there are others). Go to websites of a few colleges you might be interested in for your undergraduate degree and see what their requirements are for those degrees.
At the end of the day, we advised our D (a STEM major), to NOT get off of the “calc train” if she could help it until she was done with having to take that subject. If you don’t take it in HS, you will probably have to take it in college. You may find it better to get it done now and worry about stats in college.
As a junior in high school in calculus AB, your next course would be single variable calculus 2, although if you take that at a college next fall, you could take multivariable calculus the following spring at the college.
Pre-med requirements typically do not specifically have multivariable calculus. However, those medical schools that require calculus sometimes do not accept AP credit, so taking a college calculus course may be required (so if the multivariable calculus course is a college course, it can help fulfill such requirements).
Pre-med requirements may require statistics, but often either want calculus-based statistics or do not accept AP credit for that. Knowledge of statistics is generally useful in medicine.
Pre-med can be done with any major. Those which require multivariable calculus are typically the physical sciences, engineering majors, math, statistics, computer science, and economics at some schools. Biological sciences, economics, and business commonly require single variable calculus. Statistics is widely use in social sciences and biological sciences, although some majors at some colleges may require something other than the course whose material is approximated by AP statistics.
Hello! Thank you all for responding. To clarify a few things, at my high school, after you take AP Calc AB, you can take “advanced topics in math” courses and the two I have narrowed my options down to are these two classes. I know that most colleges do not offer “pre-med” as a major so I am talking about the most common majors for pre-meds which I guess are biologies. I am not specifically looking for courses to get college credit, I am looking for courses that will help me have sort of a “head start” in college when/if I take those classes just to make my life a little bit easier.
I would take what is considered rigorous at your school. At my kids’ schools, a successful sequence in math was Calc AB ( Some kids took a non AP Calc) followed by Calc BC if Calc was taken junior year. Some kids did go directly to Calc BC junior or senior year skipping Calc AB or regular Calc. Those who took Calc BC as a junior took an analysis/diffEQ Course offered senior year. AP Statistics was for kids not as math oriented. Highly selective programs don’t seem to hold AP stats in high status. Most colleges require Stats and computer and seem to prefer their own.
Unless your focus is research medicine, take a major you enjoy in and can excel in grades taking the required Premed courses as well. What’s important for most Med school Admissions are ALL college course grades and then a separate premed/science gpa as well as MCAT scores. There is no percentage in taking difficult courses and getting a lower grade. My nephew did himself in doing that . Thought being a chem Major would up his chances. Got two Cs in advanced chem courses. They not only hurt his total gpa but to replace them in post undergrad courses he has to take other science courses that are super difficult. He could not do it in a year.
There are only a handful medical schools that require calculus beyond Calc 1. 4 of those are extremely competitive med schools (WashU, JHU, Harvard, and, IIRC, Stanford?) and 1 is niche program (Carle-Illinois, which primarily is looking for engineering, physics, comp sci and math majors. Carle requires 3 semesters of Calc plus differential eq for admission.)
Most medical schools now require calculus-based stats or biostatistics for admission. Stats is also tested heavily on the MCAT. If you take AP Stats next year, plan on taking a semester of biostats in college.
Some medical schools do not accept AP credit at all. Many do accept AP coursework, but require that:
- you receive AP credit equivalent to a specific class offered at your college (IOW, credit for Math 1100 needs to appear on your transcript , not mathematics—4 credits)
AND
- those AP credits are supplemented by an equal or greater number of upper level credits in the same department.
If you are thinking of using your AP classes to get a “head start” in your freshman classes, be aware that—
If you take an AP class and earn AP credit for that class from your college, then you take the same college class, you must mark the college class as REPEATED on your AMCAS application. Med school admissions officers don’t like this because it appears your are fluffing (artificially inflating) your GPA.
Med school adcomm members expect students who receive AP credits from high school to skip introductory level classes and start with more advanced coursework freshman year,