Pre-Med not taking AP bio?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I have a friend that’s going to UPenn for pred-med next year and she recommended not to take AP bio if you want to become a doctor. (Don’t know if I want to) She said it’s way more helpful to take things like AP Chem/AP Physics/Organic Chem in high school so you can skip or be better prepared for “weeder classes.” Is this a good idea if your thinking of pursuing medicine in the future?

2

Most medical schools require those science courses to be done in college. Those AP classes would prepare you for those classes.

3

You’re going to have to take Biology, Chemistry, Orgo, and Physics classes in college anyway. It’s a good idea to take AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics. They’ll all help you for college and potentially give you some credits.

4

I would take AP Bio or AP Chem (if not both).

5

Uh, you will need to take lots of bio in college. AP Bio will definitely help prepare you for pre-med tracks in college. Chem is super helpful as well, definitely recommend AP Chem. AP Physics is not necessary.

Try to take both AP Chem and AP Bio. You’ll have to take chem and bio again in college most likely, but doing well in the AP classes can help you get out of huge intro classes and into smaller, more helpful advanced courses. They also may help you decide whether you would be able to survive a pre-med track. Lots of kids in HS discover they hate bio/chem/both and end up choosing engineering, CS, business for college instead.

6

You should take AP Chem and AP Bio if you can, AP Physics1 or Honors Physics for sure (no need for PhysicsC as that’s not what you need in college). Then as a first year premed you enroll in these classes, which will cover some of the same material but more in-depth and at a faster pace.
If you took Calc AB you may not have to take Calculus (depending on your major) and would move straight to biostatistics.
An optimal first year would look like this
Fall: Chem1+lab, Calculus or Biostats, English/Freshman seminar, one more class
Spring: Chem2+ lab, Bio1+lab, Biostats or gen ed, psychology or English/Communication
Summer: Bio2+lab