<p>I can start a separate thread for this discussion if you’d like. I was just looking for a little debate. </p>
<p>As a piece of advice though, if you were to make such a comment on your application or interview, it would certainly be pursued (or even if you don’t, interviewers might ask why you did this course of study. I could very easily imagine a doctor saying “I don’t have any engineering background and I practice modern medicine just fine. What makes you think you need it?”. I know I got such questions from MDs and PhDs during my MD/PhD interviews.</p>
<p>biganthony,</p>
<p>i know that you chose the path of most resistance and did well in high school, but that may not happen in college. college is pretty tough, and you’ll really need to do well to study medicine later. </p>
<p>there isn’t much reason to choose the path of most resistance here either. the fact of the matter is that you don’t have to know much about anything in order to get into medical schools–medical school prerequisites are a handful of introductory science classes. i’ve known people who have studied music performance in college who have gotten into johns hopkins medical school.</p>
<p>medicine is a vocational degree and understanding more theory doesn’t really help you practice medicine. unless you really have this weird, burning desire to study engineering despite not wanting to work as an engineer, you should probably pick a subject that will be less of a time and effort sink.</p>
<p>from your first post:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>a 5 in AP calculus isn’t that great. the ap tests aren’t really at college level if you are going to be studying engineering in a good program. you may know how to do the calculations, but do you know what they mean? a good intuition about calculus really helps when studying engineering or physics and you can know how to move the symbols around on a piece of paper and get top scores on the ap tests without having it.</p>
<p>“alright ya know what, the purpose of this thread was the get some advice of whether or not i should place out of intro classes”</p>
<p>-The simple fact is there is no general answer to that. It depends on HS, UG, individual student and each class. I have mentioned before in regard to my D’s experience:
- Skipping first Bio after both Honors and AP Bio (5 on exam) and using the same textbook in HS would have been devastating.
- Gen. Chem was the easiest A+ without having AP Chem in HS. No grades below 100%+, job offer, paid SI position for 3 years.
- AP English with 4 on exam. Had to have 1 semester at college because of 4. College Honors English class was complete waste of time, learned nothing, but easy A, although very time comsuming reading tons of novels that she D. not care about.
- Used credit for AP Calc. In D’s opinion, Calc is useless for pre-meds, she would have taken more if she liked math. Took college Honors Stats, again very easy A and very useful in understanding Med. Research procedures
- Used credit for History. This was the hardest class in D’s HS. She had to work extremely hard to get an A and it was great that she did not need to take it again at college because of potential loweirng of GPA. </p>
<p>This is an example of how personal all of this is. There is no general answer to this question.</p>
<p>And for reference, my experience with the things Miami just wrote (note both Miami’s D and I are going to med school this year).</p>
<p>1) Skipping intro bio was typical with a 5 on the AP. I did it and am happy that I did! Took plenty of other upper level bio classes though (bio major)
2) Gen chem’s one of the hardest premed prereqs at my school, and even with a great HS teacher and a 5, I ended up with a B+ (and yes, I’m still bitter about missing the A cut off by 2 points (not 2%)!). No savvy premed would test out of this class.
3) It’s not possible to use AP credit for English at my school–just dual enrollment, which I didn’t have. I opted to take it online through a community college–which worked just fine.
4) I used dual enrollment for Calc II, which gave me back credit for Calc I and college algebra. I haven’t taken a math class since senior year of high school, and by the looks of it, I never will take another one!
5) That required American history class is a joke at my school. I hadn’t taken a history class since sophomore year of high school (opted for other social studies classes) and coasted to an easy A during a challenging semester in college.</p>
<p>^Exactly!! My D. and Kristin had completely opposite experiences in every single point, with the same results at the same time. You cannot get general answer to your question. Not possible.</p>
<p>BTW, Kristin, off topic, D. has started her classes this week. Real classes, she is done with orientation. Sorry for wandering off.</p>
<p>How exciting for her! Hope she’s loving it. I’m moving to school this weekend, orientation starts 7/25, classes start 8/1. So soon! Definitely excited.</p>
<p>Best wishes!!! You deserve it. D. loves it so far. Lots of adjustments. I am glad she was where she was at UG. Small college town in a middle of nowhere was definitely good place to grow without too much stress to deal with large city.
D’s Med. School class is unbelievable, PhD from Harvard and U of Mich, 2 lawyers, several masters, most from Ivy’s and other elite schools, the oldest is 46. I hope she is adjusting well. At least she is done moving, some are still living on air mattresses and D. knows one who was accepted 12 hours before orientation. Promise, no more of that, jsut stambled on Kristin and could not help. No more of topic posts.</p>
<p>Haha, sounds like a fun whirlwind! I’m looking forward to getting this show on the road. One of the guys who was slated to go to school with me got a last minute offer about a week and a half ago (on his birthday, no less!) to go to school with your D–he took it!</p>