<p>If my son wants to go to premed, which courses should he take at high school? He is freshman now. Thanks.</p>
<p>Will</p>
<p>I am a freshmen, too, wzzz, and I asked about the same question. Overwhelmingly, people said not to worry too much on succeeding in the future as a pre-med, but succeeding in high school. They recommended me to take all the math and science courses my school has to offer, making sure to include that these courses must be the most rigorous. Surprisingly, they were adement about doing well in non-science and math subjects, such as english and history. It was important that students interested in succeeding in their pre-med studies maintain a high gpa in order to get accepted into college with good medical acceptance rates and top-notch advising. Besides all this, I was advised to volunteer at hospitals and places like that to get a taste of the medical environment clinically and volunteer in research labs or maybe do my own independent research projects to gain experience in the academic side of medicine.</p>
<p>I recommend taking the highest level of classes, such as ap, especially in science (bio, chem, physics) and english. Math will be helpful as well. It's important that he challenges himself so that he may be prepared for college and going pre-med.</p>
<p>AP BIOLOGY <deff. something u should take.. u can also take Medical Health Science dont know if its offered at ur school but at my school u take that in 10, 11, and 12 grade.. in 10th grade u learn about body parts and basic stuff (cpr.. how to take temp etc) then in 11th and 12th grade u go to a local hospital for 2 hours and work there..</p>
<p>Try to take most challenging science and math courses that your school offers. And most definately, AP Biology. Also, if your son's school offers Human Anatomy and Physiology, he should take it. There are schools that offer medical science courses that teaches you medical terminologies and such. Oh, and internship at the hospital is a good idea, too.</p>
<p>AP Biology and AP Calculus are practically a must. Make sure your freshman's current courses will allow him to take those 2 by senior year.</p>
<p>AS Northwestlover said, if your school offers any health related electives (human anatomy& physiology, genetics, etc) take them.</p>
<p>If he takes AP Physics in HS, he won't have to worry about it college--it's much harder to get a good physics grade in college.</p>
<p>I'm also a freshman. Basically, I've been instucted to take all the core classes (science,math,english, and social science) for each year of high school. One of the electives should have a foreign language for each year of high school, too. Then the remaining classes, should be a passion that they like.</p>
<p>Preferably, you should take BioAP, ChemAP, Physics AP, English AP, and Calc AP by the time you are done with high school because those are core premed classes. This is definitely doable. I took all of those except Physics AP (got 5's on each AP test) during high school without even consciously trying to take the most difficult classes in the school.</p>
<p>You will most likely end up repeating all of those classes in college because med schools discourage you from using AP credit for core premed classes. However, the AP credit is still useful in helping you achieve good grades in college and for placing you out of lower level classes.</p>
<p>I'm a possible pre-med student (i'm a hs junior now) and I say agree with the above advice, except it may not be possible to take all the listed above. I will probably have to choose between ap physics and ap chem next year since they're both double blocked</p>
<p>Right, there are a variety of reasons why you won't be able to take all of those but premed course requirements are typically: intro bio, intro gen chem, intro physics, 1 yr organic chem, some type of math including calculus, and possibly some sort of English so the more you take out of those, the better. If you use AP credit to place out of any of those classes in college, med schools will want you to take an upper level class. For example, you shouldn't just typically just place out of intro bio. However, med schools would find it acceptable if you placed out of intro bio to take an more advanced bio course (especially if you do well in that course).</p>
<p>I am a senior and I have wanted to go pre-med ever since I can remember. I have worked really hard throughout high school, and I am now a finalist for 2 accelerated medical programs (automatic admission into med school at the end of 4 years undergrad - NO MCAT'S!). I don't know if I'm in yet, but at least I'm in the running...
Anyway, of course your son will need to take a challenging course load - make sure to take plenty of honors and AP classes. Take as much math and science as you can but make sure to do just as well in things like English and history, because they are important too. Take AP Chem or AP Bio... or both if you are feeling ambitious! And try to get some experience in a hospital or research lab by volunteering. Hope this helps :)</p>
<p>I posted this on another forum, but I was wondering, if I volunteer at a hospital, would it be okay to bypass the internship offered by my school (not prestigious or anything) to take AP bio and AP physics, both of which I REALLY want to take. I mean, I'd like to do the internship, but, as it takes up 3 periods of the day and I really LOVE academics and my classes and the like, I'd prefer not to. It <em>might</em> be possible to do the internship + the classes through a zero hour, but I'm also heavily involved in theater, and I really don't want to die from stress (I'm guessing it would be pretty heavy). In addition two these two classes, I'd also be taking AP English, AP Calc, AP Gov't/Econ, and a few required classes for graduation. Would not taking the internship seem okay? Mind you, I am not planning on applying for a BS/MD program or a cut-throat premed school, although I plan to apply to a good school. Maybe Rice (which is EXTREMELY difficult for me to get into as I live in TX), UChicago, or a few LAC's.</p>
<p>wzzzz, does your son want to go into premed?<br>
If he does then I agree with everyone else, he should take the most challenging science courses available, and perform really well on the SAT IIs in such things like, bio, chem, and physics.<br>
But as a warning you should first make sure your son really wants to go into premed, because these classes are a lot of work and the last thing you want is to find out his senior year that he wants to be an english teacher.</p>
<p>I'm taking a class called "Diversified Health Occupations" and it basically tells about all the health careers and diseases, medical terminology and also the correct procedures for basic medical tasks. If his school has this class, I highly suggest it.</p>
<p>hey, i am currently a sophmore. I am taking alg 2 right now and next yr i get to take pre calc. if i wanna take ap bio, then i will have to drop pre calc and take it senior yr. is that a bad idea?</p>
<p>YES! don't drop math. If you absolutely can't move your schedule around, then don't take ap bio until senior year. Stopping math and then picking it up again are a bad idea.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. The thing about my full schedule is this, I love band, so i am taking band as an elective, in my senior yr, i could drop history and take ap bio, is that a good idea? cuz in our school, the requirement for history is only 3 yrs. I am taking ap us hist 1 this yr and next i will be taking ap us hist 2,</p>
<p>that's weird. At most schools ap us is just 1 year. If anything drop history to take ap bio, but don't drop math.</p>
<p>yes, in our district, the AP US history class is split into two years. Freshman yr is World history and there is no choice but to take that. For soph and junior yrs, you could either take academic us 1 and 2 or ap us 1 or 2.</p>