C3Baker

Our son is planning to major in Biomedical Engineering and then go on to medical school. He goes for Orientation and to sign up for his freshman year classes this weekend. Looking over the Plan of Study for BME, it has the students start out in General Chemistry II, but makes a note that many medical schools also require General Chemistry I. Our son has AP credits for Chemistry and is pretty strong in Chemistry, so I am not concerned about him starting out in General Chemistry II. Later in the plan of study, he would also be taking the required two semesters of Organic Chemistry and also a semester of Physical Chemistry.

My question is if he takes General Chemistry II, two semesters of Organic Chemistry, and a semester of Physical Chemistry, will this be OK for most medical schools? Or will they get hung up on the fact that he never took General Chemistry I?

Also, I know that PChem is a very difficult class (both myself and my husband are engineers so we are pretty familiar with the classes that he'll be taking in BME). Biomedical Engineering is not the easiest major to pick for a pre-med student, but it's what he's passionately interested in so I think he'll do well enough.

Thanks for your insight.

bluedevilmike

Yup. He'll be fine for the requirements.

drb

Similar question; having received AP credit for General Chemistry 1 and 2, can D fulfill med school requirements with Orgo and one year of Biochemistry (upper level course)? I've searched the board and think the answer is yes?

ginnyvere

I would assume that she'd be fine with that, but one of the other posters might know better.

curmudgeon

drb, some schools require general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochem. For those schools who do not accept AP credit for chem classes (and there are some) I might have a little concern with one semester course in biochem but with a year you're golden. Aren't prereq's/APs/DualCredits fun? D has to set her next semester's schedule and we STILL haven't got it all figured out BUT I do know that she has (or has plans to take) all her stuff for every Texas school and enough for ten or twelve other really good ones. The freaky ones for us are the year of Calculus (D has AP BC self-taught for a 5 and needs Stat for her major) and the year of English (D has AP LIT and a freshman writing course and two dual credit Brit Lit courses).

bluedevilmike

Curm is right that there could be some trouble, but I suspect those schools are probably pretty rare -- requiring biochem, not accepting APs. Your daughter will still have two years of chemistry, so I'm guessing she'll be okay almost -- almost! -- everywhere. Unlike the massive use of AP credits suggested in a related thread, this shouldn't seriously restrict her options.