I am not sure if I should take stats 2 or Math 1A, or something higher? I took AP Calculus in high school and got a 5 on the test which I think satisfies the requirement for my major MEB, but it’s so confusing to find which medical schools require calculus (I am trying to choose between medical school and veterinary school at the moment). I really hated calculus but I also rather take it now since right now I’m taking Bio 1B and next semester I would take chem which might be harder for me.
Don’t classes start tomorrow?
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One piece of good news is that as far as I know the required classes for premed and the required classes for pre-vet are the same classes. One daughter was pre-vet (she is now studying for her DVM) and knew a lot of premed students mostly because they kept being in the same classes. She did take some optional classes that were very pre-vet specific (but she was not at UC Berkeley).
The description for math 1A states: “Students with AP credit should consider choosing a course more advanced than 1A”.
Have you looked at the course descriptions for 1A and 1B to see how much of this you have already covered?
I am pretty sure that my daughter who is in a DVM program took both calculus and statistics at some point (as well as calculus-based physics).
I probably should add: While the required classes are the same (for MD and DVM programs), the clinical experience that you will need will be very different.
Here are the recommended UCB Math courses to take for Vet school and Medical school as posted by the UCB PreHealth advising website.
Vet school:
Mathematics/Statistics, 1-2 semesters
Math 16A, 16B OR Math 1A, 1B OR Math 53, 54 OR
Math 10A*, 10B* Math 10B does not fulfill the statistics requirement for most vet schools.
Statistics (not all vet schools require stats)
Stats 2 OR Stats 20 OR Stat 131 or PH 142
Med School:
Math and Statistics
Requirements can vary greatly- from no requirement to a year. Unless your major requires 1 year of calculus, you can plan to take 1 semester of stats and 1 semester of calculus to satisfy this requirement for medical schools
- Math 1A & 1B
- Math 10A & 10B**
- Math 16A & 16B
- Math 53 & 54
Common stats courses at Berkeley:
- Stats 2
- Stats 20
- Stats 131A
- Public Health 142
- Data 8 (must take a connector course to count as fulfillment of stats requirement)
*The Math 10 series fulfills both the math AND statistics requirement for medical school admissions including Texas medical schools.
AP Calculus AB or BC gives credit for Math 1A or 16A
AP Calculus BC gives credit for Math 1B or 16B
However there are some Medical schools that will not AP credit for Medical school pre-req courses (not sure about Vet school).
My daughter did run into a problem where one DVM program that she applied to did not accept a required class since she had done it as an AP course in high school (with a 5 on the AP test). They wanted her to retake the class in a community college. Since this was her lowest choice program that she was applying to, she just withdrew her application to this particular school.
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This may be a bit late for you, but…
Repeating your AP credit can look bad on medical school applications, so it would be preferable to take a more advanced course (e.g. Math 1B after 5 on AB, or Math 53 after 5 on BC) or something that may satisfy medical school preferences but is not strictly a repeat (e.g. Math 10A and 10B).
However, you can defer the math course choice to a later semester if you are unsure now.