Pre-Med AP Questions and More

Hey CC,

So I’ve passed AB and BC Calculus (AP Tests), and as a result only have to take one more quarter of mathematics (statistics) here at UC San Diego. I’m not allowed to retake courses I’m exempt from here, and I don’t really want to take another 2 math courses (I’m fine with just applying to schools that accept AP credits, but I will continue to think about it).

My question is, will these medical schools look down on someone who has used AP credits to complete certain courses (even thought they accept them in terms of pre-requisites) as opposed to someone who didn’t?

Thanks in advance!

You’re going to be a Calif applicant to med schools. You can’t afford to limit yourself to med schools that will accept a “weaker resume” of classes. Your competition is too high.

Most, if not all, med schools that “take” AP BCPM credits STILL expect you to demonstrate ability by taking a higher level course. Many will take AP because they know that some colleges won’t let you retake, BUT they will still demand that you take higher level BCPM to demonstrate competency.

I don’t know if college stats qualifies, but it might since many med schools are no longer requiring calculus. Others can chime in here who would know if there are enough that don’t require Calc taken at a college.

What other AP BCPM classes have you taken? You can’t just count those towards premed prereqs. You need to take higher Bio or higher Chem to demonstrate capability.

@honcho Suggest, get the UCSD pre-med office requirements sheet/doc and make sure you complete all of that. It appears in general the UG college pre-med office provides relatively a super set of courses than the actual medical college requirements doc/sheet. Since pre-med office is prep’ing kids who may go to any medical college in the country.

Also it is unfortunate medical colleges do not give clear and unambiguous requirements. They are more generic. For example when I looked at the top 5 UC public medical colleges, it is hard to get firm information except for UCLA.
UCLA explicitly states AP credit are NOT accepted. In a way it is good, at least they are making it crystal clear. UCSF ‘recommends’ 4 year college. UCSD says 1 year of math/stat. So you may have to take at least some course in math (besides stat) if you are interested in UCSD medical school. UCI says AP credit will be accepted for chem and bio. But no reference to math and so it is not clear. All that UCD states is:
Required college-level courses (verified by AMCAS):

Biological Sciences: 1 year
Chemistry, general and organic sequence: 2 years
Physics: 1 year

So check all medical colleges web site you plan to apply, especially your in-state public medical colleges. Also reach out to your pre-med office and get clarity and guidance.

It is better to be safe than sorry, if you are keen on medical college. GL.

While med school admission offices won’t look down on your having AP credits for pre-reqs, there are a number of CA medical schools that either don’t accept AP credits (UCLA, UC-Riverside) for pre-reqs or require applicants to have taken additional higher level courses in the same dept to demonstrate competency (UCSD, Loma Linda). And I haven’t even mentioned those CA med schools that “recommend” additional courses beyond AP credits. (For med school admissions, “recommended” often mean expected/required.)

California is an extremely competitive environment for medical school and you’re closing yourself out several in-state med schools before you’ve even started your pre-med career.

I’ve suggested to you previously that you consider taking BIEL100 (Biostats) plus MATH 20C in addition to regular stats to fulfill your math requirement. Biostats is extremely useful in med school, plus you may be able to double-dip on the class–i.e. use it to fulfill both your med school math requirement and use it to fulfill a bio elective at your college.

As a Californian, you’re going to need to apply widely and across the country to have the best chance at gaining a med school admission. Limiting your list of potential schools when you’re just now starting your pre-med career is not the best plan.

(BTW, complaining about having to take higher level math to mom2 and me is a lost cause. Her son was a engineering major, both my daughters had math as their one of their majors.)

I see from your other threads you’re anxious about taking higher level math because math is difficult for you. Please understand that med school admissions officers want to see applicants who challenge themselves, not those that take the path of least effort. Pre-med and med school is chock full of courses that are difficult—this is just a fact of life if you chose to pursue medicine.

@mom2collegekids @GoldenRock @WayOutWestMom

Thanks to all replies!

I’m pretty sure I can take these math courses my senior year if I wanted (correct me if I’m wrong), but is that not a good idea? What year do we apply to medical school, and ideally what year should I take these math classes to show that I’ve gone for higher level math (i.e. before applying or is after application ok? Do we state on the application that “we will be taking [those] classes”?)?

@honcho

The very earliest you apply to med school is the summer between junior & senior year–assuming you have everything you need ready (MCAT, ECs, LORs, competitive GPA). AMCAS opens for applications in early June and you should apply as early as possible.

You can take math pre-reqs during your senior year, but you probably will not know which med school you’re attending until March or April senior year. Or even potentially much later. (Acceptances either come out in dribbles from October 15 thru March or all at once in mid-March. Different med schools have different policies about when they send acceptances. Waitlist acceptances can & do continue until the first day of med school orientation. And 20-25% of med students get their only med school acceptance off a waitlist.) If you wait until you KNOW that the med school you’ll be attending requires more math credits, you risk not having enough time to take 2 quarters of math electives. If you don’t have your requirements fulfilled by a certain date (anywhere from mid-June -early August, depending on the school), then your conditional acceptance will be revoked.

There is a place on AMCAS to list anticipated classes, but adcomms don’t take that into consideration since anything that is in the future may or may not happen. Basically it’s either on your transcript or it didn’t happen.

Oh, one more thing–you cannot update your AMCAS med school application once it’s submitted. Also many (perhaps even most) med schools will not accepted update letters.

My only comment about when to take an additional calc class is to say that calc skills do get rusty if you sit out of too long. You will forget stuff and that makes keeping up with new material harder. That and quarter classes are much more intense than semester classes and you have less time to recover from a rough start.

@WayOutWestMom Ah so If I want to show these medical schools that I am a student who strives by taking these upper div. math classes, I should ideally take them before senior year (b/c they don’t take your senior year classes into consideration aside for pre-requisite purposes)?

Yes, you’ve got it exactly right.

Adcomms do not consider your senior year classes when evaluating the strength of your application.

@WayOutWestMom would Math 18 (linear algebra) and Psyc 60 (statistics) count towards the prerequisite year of math (if I mixed them with a stats and calc class)? I plan on taking these classes along with a calculus class to finish courses faster (take them at the same time).

I was somewhat confused because math 18 doesnt have calculus in the name, and psyc 60 isnt a mathematics class.

On AMCAS you choose to classify your courses either as BCPM (bio, chem, physics, math) or AO (all other). It doesn’t matter what the name of the course is or in a few cases what dept taught the course.

I’d link you to the AMCAS course classification guide but I’m on my cell.(Google it).

AMCAS will use course descriptions to decide whether a course is BCPM or AO if there is any doubt.

@honcho

“passed” is defined differently by different institutions, did you get a 5? If not, be aware that your preparation may not be optimal.

The next math course you would take is calc III/ vector calculus. Unless you need linear algebra for your major, be aware that it is considered by many to be a “first” course in mathematics. Calculus is a “skills” oriented sequence of classes. Linear algebra is the real thing. Unlike calculus, It requires you to think abstractly (e.g. vector spaces) and is the kind of class that has a high drop rate.