My son is interested in pursuing medicine. His major would be Bio or neuroscience. He hasn’t had chemistry since Chem Honors Sophmore year (he took Physics junior and senior year). Someone recommended he take an online college chem class (not for credit) over the summer before college because it had been a while and he never took AP Chem.
Can anyone recommend where to begin looking for a class? Should he just do open courseware?
No ideas on courses. He needs to brush up on chemistry to hit the ground running when in college. Even checking out the Dummies series and other books from the local library will give him an idea of the myriads of things to refresh. I recall from my eons ago chemistry major that problem solving I learned in HS chemistry (pre AP days) was very useful in doing well in that first (honors) course. Knowing how to do problems and working on them will help. Refreshing terminology also is useful.
If he’s rusty on his chemistry it would not hurt to take the baby chem 101 course at his school before taking Chem 1. A lot of kids in DD2’s incoming premed class did that. Given that they’ll be living out of the Chemistry building for 6 semesters an extra course won’t hurt them. If that’s not an option, find a good tutor over the summer (or late spring) that can go over the material so he can hit the ground running.
http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/chem_1p_preparation_for_chemistry.html
I found this one with a search
Be aware that ALL college level courses must be reported on a medical school application/transcript whether it was for credit or not.
He may want to try an ALEKS course. I have never used it, but have heard good things about it from other homeschoolers. They have a Summer Prep for General Chemistry course.
KhanAcademy.org has nice chemistry review materials in addition to the math materials most of us know that website for. Your kid could work his way through that, and pick up an AP Chem review book at the public library. No expense for you, and no academic paper trail to cope with later.
I took a premed chem course without any high school chemistry at all. Make sure courses taken are taught without a prerequisite. I would think the summer could be spent in better ways. Senior year is stressful and the transition to college in the fall is stressful. I personally would avoid making the summer in between stressful as well, though I get that you may feel taking chem will make the fall less stressful. He should be able to take college chemistry and do fine without the summer prep.
@WayOutWestMom is chemistry still a college requirement for medical school admission?
Do all medical,schools accept online courses that are not taken while pursuing ones degree?
I personally suggest the OP’s kiddo take the regular sequence of courses once he gets to college. First…he could easily change his mind about medical school. Second…if he doesn’t think he can handle freshman year courses including chemistry, he will be very surprised at the course requirements should he get into medical school…and there is NO taking some during a summer to lighten the load.
Gen chem is still a requirements for med school admission at every medical school. (Even those med schools experimenting with competency-based admissions have requirements for chemistry, bio, physics, math and social science coursework–just they allow a student to substitute higher level coursework for intro level classes.)
Online classes in core science requirements are specifically prohibited by medical schools (except in unusual circumstances like active duty military service overseas) and cannot be used to fulfill admission requirements.
Even if your son takes the chem class for no credit, he still must report the class and provide an official transcript from the college/program to AMCAS when he goes to apply to med school. Additionally, he must mark the chem class he takes at his college for credit as a “repeated class” on his AMCAS application.
I suggest that your son to do a self-review using Khan Academy or an AP Chem workbook and enroll in the regular chem sequence once he gets to college. Most students will be 1-2 years out from their high school chem class and bit rusty.
Post #7 has a good point. Be sure the summer is a true break from academic pressures. I understand that with the years instead of months gap between HS and college chemistry some review would be useful. But, a relaxed reading up on things instead of an intense course. I was a chemistry major and a medical student- very intense academics during school sessions. A total break from it was most needed! There are good reasons to not try to compress education into continuous weeks and months of school.
If too much prep is needed before taking any class then perhaps it isn’t meant to be. Brushing up on basic chemistry because of the long time is one thing. Spending time trying to go over material to be covered is different. The summer should not be spent being anxious over college performance. Be sure there is plenty of time for fun- with friends and just being lazy.
This also depends on the professor and reputation of the class. I took Chem 1A the freshman before my summer, which is one of the most failed lower division courses at Cal. I did not take AP Chem and my last chem course had been in sophomore year. I found that looking the AP chemistry books and just reading the college textbook weeks before classes started really helped.
Did he do well in high school chemistry? If so it might not be anecessary issue for him. My daughter had no trouble with college chemistry. Only took college prep chemistry as a sophomore in high school. Could never fit AP Chem during junior and senior years. She’s currently doing well in college orgo.
I remember chem being pretty tough my freshman year; it was the harder chem class (for the engineering students vs the liberal arts students) at a STEM school just as a point of reference. Definitely a brush-up or review over the summer would have been helpful.
But be careful with “formal” online courses as others have said, since they may need to be reported. Also I believe most colleges prohibit taking college-level classes after acceptance for entering freshmen, so another thing to be careful of.
I would recommend taking something unofficial to be better prepared for the tough freshman chem. I would recommend
Preparation for General Chemistry by Aleks.com