My son will start UA in the fall of 2018 and recently reached out to premed advising about his first semester schedule. He will be starting UA with several hours of AP and duel enrollment credit in biology and chemistry. He was told that they advise retaking science courses that he already earned credit for through AP. Is there anyone who is currently a premed student/parent who can comment on this? Did you retake classes? If not, did you have any trouble moving on to the higher level biology and organic chemistry classes?
@mom2collegekids - can you answer the questions here?
My son did not retake bio or chem or calc because he had AP credits. He just moved onto the higher level courses.
How did your son do on his AP exams?
I know that it’s pretty common for college advisors to suggest that students retake. They do that either because they’re not sure how strong the high school AP class was…or they think that the retakes will be easy A’s. The truth is that those classes are weeders everywhere and often students lose points over odd things. So, in my opinion, if the student feels that he/she received a strong bio or chem foundation in their AP classes, and got a 5, then feel free to move on. A student may want to retake bio I but use their AP credits to cover bio II because that class is about plants and stuff that isn’t really needed for a premed.
I would NOT recommend a first semester freshman to take Organic Chemistry. There is more to college than doing very well in an AP science course and starting with the hardest weed out class first semester would be like expecting an excellent high school swimmer to win a meet against college varsity seniors during their first weeks on campus - for premeds, it has to be a ‘win’ and right off the bat.
I can imagine moving to calc 2 and bio2 for a strong student in ap biology and BC with 5s to back it up as well as college experience through concurrent/dual enrollment, but for premeds slow and steady wins the race. Don’t overload the first semester.
I agree with not overloading the first semester and also not taking ochem fall frosh year.
I know another student who opted to audit gen chem because he already had the AP credits. This allowed him to refresh w/o worry of a damaging grade. https://www.as.ua.edu/advising/question/how-do-i-audit-a-class/
But again, never overload your fall frosh semester. Too many adjustments and distractions. I also recommend not taking 8 o’clock classes unless you’re a natural early riser…which few college kids are…lol
Great advice, thank you. He’s leaning towards redoing bio 1 and chem 1 to make sure he can handle UA classes. Would it be better for him to take honors classes? I’ve heard those are usually smaller and have better professors. Also he’s only in Calculus AB. Do you think he’d be ready for Calc 2 if he earned a 5 on AP exam?
Typically honors science is better - better professors, more useful office hours, no out of their depth lab partner, sometimes a chance to become learning assistant for the regular section the following semester) but it could be 1 or 2. Add regular calculus 1 or 2 depending on how comfortable he feels with math ( a good way to know that is to ask for an old, ‘retired’ calculus final and see if he scores 90%+.)
Add two gen eds that seem easy and fun, and it makes for a very challenging first semester already.
How would he find an old retired calculus final? Could he email and ask the math department?
Sometimes they’re posted online for students to use in preparing for exams. If not yes email the math Dept, explain the purpose (also, the math placement test doesn’t test calculus but ask if they offer a placement test geared toward students who’ve had calculus in high school.)
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If this were my son, i would tell him to audit Chem 1 and either skip bio 1 or retake bio 1, but not the lab (lab is separate for bio 1…non honors. Honors has bio and lab combined.). He doesn’t need the lab since he’ll already have the AP credit that includes lab.
Those classes are such weeder classes with rigid rules (everywhere, not just at Bama), that I’ve seen too many A students get B’s or lower in those retakes…and again, not just Bama…everywhere. Seen many posts in the premed section here on CC.
I’ve seen too many kids lose valuable points in those classes for overlooking some minor thing or missing classes due to the flu or whatever. The profs in those 1XX classes seem very rigid about excuses…all part of the weeding process EVERYWHERE
As i said, my son skipped all chem and bio, and moved on to higher levels. I think that helped preserve his GPA. (He graduated with a 4.0 BCPM GPA and a 3.99 cum GPA in Chemical Engineering). He also had excellent AP teachers. And, he self-studied over the summer to make sure he remembered concepts. He’s very science-minded and actually enjoys reading college bio and chem books…started doing that as a frosh in high school. Back then I was able to buy cheap used college chem and bio books on amazon. Didn’t matter if they weren’t the latest editions since he was just reading for info and not for a class.
If you want to join our UA parents of premed students group, please send me a PM
It seems that the right balance between chem1 and organic chemistry would be chem 2…
I’m worried that if he audits Chem 1 he’ll have to take on another course to reach the hours necessary for full time status and his scholarship. It seems like it would be more work for him.
If he has 13 credits registered plus one audit he should be fine.
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? Which scholarship does he have that requires him to be full time? If he has the presidential or any of the automatic ones, he’s not req’d to be a full time student EVER! That said, it should not be hard for him to take 12-13 real credits while also auditing Chem I or Bio I…whichever one he wants to audit.
It is good to have these discussions. Missteps are often make in the premed process because there’s often assuming going on, and decisions made based on assumptions, and then there’s a problem that could have been avoided by talking about things. In this case, if this student has one of the Bama assured awards, there isn’t a req’t for full time status.
Oh I thought he had to be full time for the preseidential scholarship. If you don’t mind me asking, has your son graduated yet? If so how long did it take him to finish? I’m asking b/c he sounds very smart and I assume he went to UA with lots of AP credits. Did his credits allow him to finish early and apply to med school in less than 4 years? Just wondering if that’s even am option. Thanks again for all of your help!
Yes, my son did easily graduate within 4 years. He came in with AP bio, chem, calc, us history, euro, english, govt credits, which fulfilled most/all gen ed. He could have graduated in 3 years, but that’s not recommended for premeds. He took several classes for interest, some add’l Spanish and Italian classes. He applied to med schools during the summer between his junior and senior years.
Many students apply to med schools after their junior year.
My son is currently a second semester premed freshman. He had bio, chem, and Calc AB AP credit going in with 5’s on all the tests. He is skipping the intro bio and chem classes and taking upper level later on. He is also using his Calc AP credit for the math premed requirement and is currently taking a statistics course that is required by all the med schools I’ve researched using MSAR and their individual websites. He told me his premed advisor says this is a very common path for students who did well on AP tests in high school. He is also now taking org chem. As the others have said, he was careful not to overload his first semester (took 14 hours) and made A’s. This semester he also is taking 14 hrs (stat, o chem, English, and 2nd physics class). He is balancing his course load with clinical volunteering and a couple of leadership commitments he’s found. He may take a summer class or two combined with a research opportunity he just interviewed for.
Realized after fact that this is in UA forum. To clarify, my son is not in UA but I think my comments still may be helpful.
Thanks again for the information. It’s so great to be able to talk to others who have already gone through this.