Anatomy and Physiology or AP Govt/AP Macro?

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

Hello everyone.

We have to submit our senior course selection in 2 months and as I was looking over my options. This is what I currently have planned for senior year:

AP Literature

AP Physics C:Mechanics

AP Chemistry

AP Calculus BC

AP Stats

Anatomy and Physiology(A&P) or AP Govt(1st sem)/AP Macro(2nd sem)

DE Intermediate Spanish III/IV

I am going to be applying to top UCs and Ivy League schools including Stanford(I am a CA resident). I wanted to know if I should take A&P or go with AP Govt and AP Macro instead. For reference, I am currently in 6/7 AP courses including AP Microeconomics(semester course). If I take A&P, I would have to take US Government as a DE course or during the summer to fulfill high school grad requirements. Which is the best choice? I will be applying to double major in math and biology with a psych minor:)

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Your graduation requirements should be first priority. I wouldn’t shift them to summer or DE.

If you really want to take A&P, could you take it instead of Stats? Since you already have Calc BC on your course list, I am not sure why you also have Stats.

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I could but I really don’t want to change anything else from this schedule because these are the classes I generally want to take which happens to include stats. I guess the real question is, how valuable is A&P considering my schedule and how would colleges approach it?

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I agree that taking two AP math classes at once is not needed. Only do this if you are very strong at math and want to do it.

You are also signing up for a large number of AP classes. Are you sure that you want to take on this tough of a course load? Yes once you get to university all of your classes will be university level, but there won’t be seven of them at the same time.

This is not a race to see which students can take the most AP classes at once.

My recommendation is that you take what is right for you, and do not try to guess what admissions at Stanford or any other highly ranked university wants you to take.

And of course Stanford is not in the Ivy League. When I was there it was in the Pac 8, which later became the Pac 10 and then Pac 12. Now it is in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which to be honest makes no sense to me at all, but regardless it is not an Ivy League school.

I was a math major. One daughter was a biology major. These majors do not overlap much. A biology major will take quite a few classes that overlap with premed classes, which are typically quite tough. There will also be a number of lab classes, which can take quite a bit of time. Math students really should take some CS classes, which again can take quite a bit of time (it is amazing how long a simple bug can take to reveal itself). If you end up dropping back to one major that it entirely reasonable, but of course this is something that you can figure out after you have been in university for a while.

And I agree with @tamagotchi that you do not want to take high school graduation requirements over the summer. Completing your graduation requirements is the top priority. There will be time to take probability and statistics and/or physics with calculus and/or anatomy when you are in university (although taking some physics in high school is a very good idea).

Then it might be reasonable, as long as you want to work that hard. Of course if you do get to Stanford or UC Berkeley, they will also require a large amount of hard work.

I think that highly ranked universities expect applicants to have taken a rigorous schedule and done well in the classes. However, you do not need to pile up the tough classes to a crazy level. Take what is right for you subject to also completing high school graduation requirements and you should be fine.

And keep an open mind regarding which schools to apply to. You really do not need to attend Stanford or Berkeley or UCLA as an undergraduate student to do very well in life, nor to have a good career, nor to get to attend a university at this same level for graduate work if you get to that point.

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That’s a very heavy schedule. Can you handle would be my first concern.

I wouldn’t worry about what colleges think. You’ll have crazy rigor with even one less AP class.

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From the college admissions perspective, A&P is an elective. I wouldn’t suggest dropping any important courses to take it.

I do think you can safely drop AP Stats because you have a more rigorous math class already. AP Stats is also not calculus based, so it isn’t very important for what you want to do in college (you will need to take a calc based stats class anyway). You could replace AP Stats with any elective (A&P if you wanted) and I think you would be fine for any college admissions-wise. You already have a heavy schedule planned.

My daughter is taking Honors A&P at her HS, and she thinks it is a pretty chill class. Your HS may vary though. If it’s really time consuming at your HS you might want to pick a more relaxing elective :slight_smile:

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As a career choice, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do but what I do know is that it will definitely include math and/or science, whatever it may be. I am considering medical school to become a radiologist or psychiatrist as a back up plan. I’m just now sure what yet I exactly want to do. The requirement at my school is both a semester of gov and econ, so I would already have econ out of the way(ap micro) and I potentially could just take US Gov from my nearby community college and have it approved from my school. That’s a possibility. Considering I have already taken a DE Arts course to fulfill the art requirement that way.

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For college admission or med school, you don’t need anatomy. You need 4 years English, 3 years language, 3 lab sciences, social sciences and 4 years math.

Where you go - high rates or not - will likely matter zero to little for med school.

Based on your ?, true econ and gov bcuz they are required. Anatomy isn’t.

You don’t need a CC and another class when your schedule is already too heavy.

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Due to the selectivity of medical school and the volume of pre-med extracurriculars needed during college, medical school does not seem like a good choice as a “back up plan”.

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10

What is the purpose of trying to push Gov / Econ off your schedule? Is it because you do not want to take these classes, or because you feel it would look better to colleges?

If you are primarily thinking about how colleges view your schedule… in general, selective colleges prefer to see you taking a course from each core area in your senior year, plus whatever electives you enjoy and can fit into your schedule. Core areas include english, social sciences, science, math, world language. If you drop Gov / Econ, you won’t have a social science on your schedule.

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I wouldn’t be pushing it off my schedule as if it is approved, then it would be added into my high school transcript as unweighted :slight_smile: Edit: ap micro will be done this year and counted towards econ requirement

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I mean as a back up plan if I don’t have anything decided before entering college:)

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Most (>80%) frosh pre-meds do not complete the pre-med courses for whatever reason (perhaps a few C or B grades will do that, or realizing through pre-med extracurriculars that clinical work or serving the disadvantaged is not for them). Many of those who do complete them do not apply to medical school for various reasons (e.g. realizing that their grades or MCAT are too low, or no longer interested). Of those who apply, most do not get any medical school admission.

So anyone going to college intending pre-med needs to consider other academic and career paths in the likelihood of not going to medical school.

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14

Ah, I see. You are planning to take this class at the same time as taking 7 other challenging classes at your high school?

I agree with other posters that this does not sound like a good idea.

You probably also have time consuming extracurriculars planned in senior year?

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15

Don’t overlook the time commitment of applications when planning your senior schedule. The supplements for the selective schools you’re targeting take a lot of time.

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16

This is scary!, thanks for your perspective. I do realize how competitive med schools are so I see how important it is that I consider other paths.

17

If you like math and biology, check out computational biology and biostatistics. It’s an interesting field - need a fair amount of computer science as well.

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18

I believe I would take it over the summer so my senior year isn’t unnecessarily packed. I am part of Science Olympiad and am hoping for some higher positions in a couple clubs next year. I will also be participating in the USABO and AMC if possible.

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In that case, you would be missing a core academic area in your senior year schedule, which is less than ideal.

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Another vote to take AP gov/AP macro during the school year.

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