After some thought, and an appointment with my guidance counselor, he suggested that I do music in college while being on a pre-med track. It’s all fine and well, and I can see myself doing it, I’m just not sure that I should waste two electives doing biology and chemistry. Yes, they are focused on in the courses I will take during the first year from what I heard, but I want to know if they are required, or if I can jump into the college courses without them. I’m resilient and smart, I pick up quickly. I don’t want to waste these two periods on chem and bio unless I absolutely have to. Don’t get me wrong, I like the courses, but they don’t really work logistically speaking. Should I take them at all? Would it be better for me to do Grade 13, and do them then?
College biology, chemistry, and physics (that will be required for pre-med students) will be more difficult if you have not had high school level courses in those subjects.
Do you mean should you take AP Bio and AP chem, or do you mean you haven’t taken bio, chem, and Physics yet?
Competitive colleges generally want to see students complete a sequence of bio, chem, and physics in HS.
You can look online at the websites of colleges you are considering and see the recommended/required HS coursework.
Yes, you should take them. If you are homeschooling, you have some flexibility. You could do one intensively over the summer for example.
Music and pre-med would be an intense combo. The more you can be ready for the sequences, the better.
To be clear: even humanities and social science majors are expected to have bio, chem, and physics.
Pre-meds, to have a shot, need an AP science. Taking AP Bio and AP chemistry is better but often difficult to do as they’re level 2 in the sequence, which supposes students to take all three level one science classes in 8th, 9th,10th.
Note that the five core classes you’re supposed to take each year are English, Math, social science, science, and foreign language.
@MYOS1634 or anyone else…Do you think if daughter took 2 science courses in one year it would be fine to omit a science in senior year? She took honors Physics this school year and is thinking about doing D/E Biology over the summer–she already took HS Honors Bio in 7th but we thought it might be good to take Biology sometime during actual HS years, hence the DE Bio. Trying to lighten senior year class load just a bit–she will be a humanities major.
Yes, it’d be ok, as long as she’s also taken chemistry. Assuming her biology class appears on the HS transcript, and since’ll be a humanities major her 4th science could be a dual enrollment ‘science for non majors’ class, usually with fun and enticing titles. 
@MYSO1634 Here is what her science sequence looks like: 7th-Honors Bio, 8th-Honors A&P, 9th-Honors Chem, 10th-Honors Physics.
She is homeschooled so we can include Bio & A&P on transcript (A&P will automatically be included because it was taken at an accredited institution and will be on “their transcripts”).
I was worried that some colleges might not count the 7th & 8th grade sciences? So I suggested she take D/E Bio so she had an official “bio” course during high school (summer between 10th & 11th) and possible AP Environmental Science in 11th and then no science Senior year…
Thoughts? Too much? Or just right? Anything not necessary?
HS introductory bio taken in middle school normally appears on the HS transcript so she’d be fine. I don’t think she even needs an extra science class.
@MYOS1634 THANK YOU!!! You made us both so happy with that news!
APES is interesting so she can take it if she wishes. She could also take a “science for non major” class through dual enrollment, as those tend to be very interesting. They’re the classes with fun names like “Earthquakes and disasters in Hollywood movies”, “Chemistry of cooking”… However, she’s definitely completed the basic sciences classes (bio, chem, physics) plus an extra (A&P) so she has the basics. Everything else is cherry on the cake and should follow her interests. An advantage of a DE class over an AP is that it’s only a semester long but “counts” as equivalent to a year of HS material.
As a humanities major however she’d be expected to have Level4 or AP in one foreign language (or even another one through level 3), definitely AP or DE English, History, Social Science classes.
@MYOS1634 Thanks again for the science info–super helpful!
She has 2 years of Latin Honors & will have 4 years of American Sign Language…I think that should be ok?
Also, she has AP Psych (5) and honors Econ. She is taking AP Lang & AP Gov this year. Will take AP Lit, APUSH & possibly APES (depending on what she decides) next year. With regard to math, she is taking pre-calc next year and then possibly AP Stats for senior year plus lots of interesting electives. Senior year English might just be “Adv Senior English.”
She tends to prefer Ads over DE because they are easier on her schedule but it is definitely nice to be done in 1 semester…
Sound good? Anything you see that is missing? Thanks again for the help! 