Please help an incoming FPF student choose her classes :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>I'm a spring admit and will be attending FPF this fall. I'm currently planning to be an MCB major (for pre-med), but I'm also considering being a non-science major pre-med, as I'm also interested in education policy. In that case, would I major in... political science? I don't see any policy majors on the L&S majors list. Any advice on being a science major vs. non-science major for a pre-med student?</p>

<p>Also, I'm confused as to how AP credits work. I'm looking at the Berkeley AP Credits website and under L&S, it says that each mathematics test satisfies Quantitative Reasoning requirement. However, looking at the MCB requirements, I must take Math 1A and 1B. If I use my AP Calculus BC credit (score of 5), does that make me exempt from taking Math 1A/1B, or does it simply give me unit credits and I would still have to take the courses for MCB / pre-med? Or would I skip to Math 53? Or should I take Math 16A/16B? Would it be to my advantage to not use the credits so that I can maintain a higher GPA (since that is so integral to med school apps)? I'm not that great at math, so I would like to avoid harder math courses if possible. My main concern is to maintain the highest GPA while also fulfilling pre-med requirements. </p>

<p>If I get a 5 on my AP Literature exam (I already have a 5 for AP Lang), does that mean I won't have to take any Reading & Composition courses? Or do I just skip to a higher level (which course would that be?)? I read that some Med Schools require English courses, so would it be better to take the intro courses or skip to higher level ones? Which English courses are easier? I know an intro course isn't necessarily easier than a higher level course since some classes are weeder classes?</p>

<p>Also, any advice/tips/info on which courses to take for FPF? Like which breadth courses are the most interesting and/or easy? Also.. which professors are the best?</p>

<p>Sorry about the immense number of questions; there's just so much information, and I'm quite confused! I hope I don't sound shallow by worrying about getting the highest GPA possible... I just want to keep my chances for Med School as high as possible :)</p>

<p>I appreciate all your help!! :D Thank you so much - this is all a bit overwhelming.</p>

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<p>Regarding using AP credit to take higher level courses or retake entry level courses for medical school purposes, it depends on how much interest you have in the higher level courses (or whether you want to major in a subject requiring the higher level courses) and how confident your knowledge of the subjects from AP are. Note that retaking courses which you have AP credit for is not necessarily an “easy A”, since lots of other pre-meds and other students do that, so the grading curves are not necessarily easy.</p>

<p>For math, you may want to check the links to the old Math 1A and 1B final exams at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1305840-freshman-math-faq.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1305840-freshman-math-faq.html&lt;/a&gt; to help you decide whether to consider skipping Math 1A and 1B. Note that MCB and IB recommend Math 10A and 10B, a new math sequence designed for biology majors, and MCB does not accept Math 16A and 16B. If you do pre-med while majoring in something without any specific math requirement, Math 10A and 10B may be the most useful in terms of content that you may use in medical school.</p>

<p>If you skip reading and composition courses with AP English literature credit, you may want to ask on the pre-med forum what type of other courses could be counted as English writing courses for medical school purposes.</p>

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<p>Some interesting FPF breadth courses include ESPM 50AC, Music 27, and Sociology 3AC. These classes have good professors but don’t require a ton of work. Check ratemyprof or ninjacourses for more class recommendations.</p>