D is currently pursuing CS with premed track at Vandy. She is there with full tuition scholarship, so our annual out of pocket is about $16k, which is only her room and board. With CS and premed, she doesn’t have much space in her schedule, to play around at all. She is taking 16 credits this semester, programming, multivariable, Chem, sociology, etc. She wants to take bio in the summer, as that will free up her schedule as she will need to take harder math and programming classes as well as org chem next year. She had AP bio which Vandy gave her credits for, but health advisor advised her to retake.
If she takes the bio I and II in the summer at Vandy, it would cost us $16k in tuition plus room and board which is ridiculous considering a whole year of 30 plus credits is about $16k with scholarship. Of course, we don’t want to give up one semester of tuition for 8 hours of credits in the summer. She can get $5k of stipend, but that is hardly enough.
So our question is if it is ok for her to take the classes near our home in PA or another college in Nashville if she chose to stay there for the summer? It will not any community college, but reputable college where we are not paying an arm and leg!
Thank you!
Will probably be Ok for most med schools so long as it’s at a reputable 4 year college, although some schools may ask her why she choose to take bio someplace other than her home college.
Since she has AP credit and has received college credit for Bio 1 at Vandy, I’d suggest that instead of retaking her bio 1 & 2 at a local college, she take bio 2 and maybe an upper level bio elective if she wants to earn a second bio credit. Med schools really don’t like to see retakes. (I realize that some competitive schools strongly recommend or require pre-meds to take their own introductory course sequence instead using AP credit–my D attended a college that did that-- but, since your D isn’t taking bio at Vandy, the advice she got really doesn’t apply.)
Looks like Vanderbilt gives subject credit for BSCI 1100/1100L for AP biology, but this is not a course for biology majors, who take BSCI 1510/1510L and 1511/1511L.
@ucbalumnus brings up a good point .
If Vandy doesn’t allow AP credit for bio-major bio 1, your D needs to consult with the pre-med adviser at Vandy to see if Vandy will give bio-major credit if she takes Bio 1 & 2 at another college. She also needs to ask if taking Bio 1-2 at another college in the summer will prevent her from getting a health committee LOR or prevent her from getting the committee’s highest endorsement.
OP stated she is pursuing CS major (and not BIO major). So check Vandy’s pre-med requirement sheet and if it accepts BSCI1100/1100L, then it is done. In general best to discuss with pre-med adviser since in my D college noticed, what is stated in pre-med req sheet and what the online degree navigator uses to confirm if pre-med track courses are done or not are different. So best is to rely and follow what that college pre-med adviser says since the committee has to give reference letter.
I am not an expert by any means, just another parent with a pre-med kid in 2nd year in college. This is what happening in her situation. Very good chance they may allow whatever AP credit equivalent course, as long as s/he has taken some higher level course in Bio, even if taken in some other 4 year regular college. For example, in her college here is the list of course needed by pre-med req sheet in Bio sciences.
Bio 1114/ 1121 lab
Genetics
Either Cell or Molecular Bio
Physiology Bio3103
She did not do Bio 1114/1121 since her AP Bio got credit in those 2 courses.
She did Genetics and Molecular Bio in her college
She did Physiology in UCB (near our home) during summer and it got credited in her college Bio2124. Though pre-med req sheet states Bio3103, as I understand from my D her pre-med adviser is ok with that.
She is doing Entomology course on her own (though there is no req).
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/hpao/documents/Threading_a_path_through_premedical_expectations-2016-07-08_Rev.pdf is Vanderbilt’s pre-med advising course recommendations. BSCI 1510/1510L and 1511/1511L are recommended; BSCI 1100/1100L are not listed.
If the student does take general biology at another college, it should be a course suitable for biology majors.
Is this the total of her biology education? If she intends to use these classes to meet prerequisites for additional courses at Vandy, the summer courses will probably need to be preapproved before she takes them. The advice above to make sure you’re in the “right” type of bio class is important. Running it by the advisors at both Vandy and the proposed school to make sure is a good idea in any case.
Also summer classes are easier to bomb than regular ones as they are the same content as a semester class but at a much faster pace. Make sure she doesn’t have other commitments (job, etc) and can focus and do well in the classes, especially for premed grades. And look at the academic calendars between the colleges to make sure she will get a little downtime between terms, too.
Thank you for your comments. Already change of plans though. It seems that she will work this summer instead. Health Advisor told her to retake bio even with AP 5. She plans to double up bio and org chem, with CS classes. So it will be interesting next year!
Ap bio is not on the same level as college level bio for med school prerequisites. Normally there is a bio class in college for general studies that is not for bio majors or fufill med school prerequisites. The ones for the med school are more intense and detailed. To take bio with org chem will be a real challenge and CS classes are very time consuming, my advise is if she can spread out these in different semesters if possible. I suspect the bio for bio major and org chem are weed out classes in Vandy so try not to lump those together. There is no rush to apply for med school, it is normal to apply after completion of 4 years college.