"General Chemistry for Majors"

LAConfedential
Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:02:10 +0000

Ahh… I hate hearing stories of exception students & such… I mean, I hear stories of students who accept AP credits and get hammered for it during their interview. I hear stories of students who transfer their community college credits and get hammered for it during their interview. Etc. etc. I just don’t want to risk anything. My desire for medicine has started since I was a kid, and I educated myself about it throughout high school and during high school is where all my wavering has occurred. The only thing I will waver from medical school for is either engineering or research; engineering I have crossed from my list (it took a lot to cross it out… I love physics), so I’m (hopefully) sure my wavering is done with. I’m not the typical student who is prone to cold feet because of his lack of knowledge in matters, though I guess everyone would like to say that. You said that it’s what you do with the later years of your schooling that sets you apart, and I absolutely agree as long as you’re speaking in terms of getting involved outside of class. From what I understand (and I’m sure it to be correct for the most part), medical schools generally don’t care about your course selection. They don’t eye ball it and examine the classes you took. They care about your performance - there are kids who get into MD/PhD programs, which are probably the hardest to get into, only taking ~12 credits a semester.

I’ll give you my analysis on why I’m not accepting AP credits:
+ med school doesn’t analyze your course selection, so advancing myself with AP credits would only benefit you as a person but not you as an applicant
+ given that they don’t inspect your classes, by giving up the AP credit and retaking the class, it’s an easy A - a GPA booster. Maximize your gains, and minimize your losses. I’m maximizing my gains by getting as many A’s as possible; I’m minimizing my losses by (hopefully) refraining from getting anything less than an A.
+ I’m not sure of your opinions on science AP courses, but I think science AP courses in general do not suffice for college level of the like. And then of course it can depend on your teacher. IMO, the only two AP courses that really meet college expectations are AP Physics C and AP Calc AB/BC. The rest don’t exactly cover things as well as a college course would - especially AP Biology. AP Chemistry can depend on your teacher, and my teacher was horrible. As well, the AP Chem curriculum does not cover as many things as a college curriculum does anyway. Now granted I did get a 5, but that was due to major cramming 2 weeks before the exam and cramming never* sticks.
+ med schools truly do not like AP credits. That’s not to say that it will completely hinder you from gaining acceptance, but it definitely (from what I’ve seen) can raise a red flag during your interview (as well as during their initial viewing of applications). I have read on a few medical school websites advocating against using your AP credits - they actually state that they prefer you to not use them. I read on some med school’s secondary application (not completely sure if it was a secondary or what, I forget) that explicitly stated that they prefer students to not have used AP credits, transfer credits from community colleges, and transfer credits from other institutions. NOTE: that when they wrote “transfer credits from other institutions,” they didn’t bother to specify that they meant “from other ‘lower’ institutions” which would be a logical specification. Rather, they simply said, from “other” institutions (I made note of this in my original post, I assume no one understood what I was speaking of due to its lack of context).
+ by retaking these classes, this just gives me THAT much more time to spend getting involved outside of classes and in research. I’m hoping to land a spot on a research project that is looking to design, engineer, and develop tissue that will mimic the functions of liver cells (SO COOL!). By being in classes where I would more often just review rather than study, I can spend a lot of time finding & obtaining opportunities elsewhere.
+ secondary, by retaking those classes, I am able to load on heavier schedules (if I need to, likely won’t). But in that respect, I will be able to take hard classes alongside it that otherwise would generally be unwise to do. By having a class that for most of the times I simply have to review rather than study for, I can enroll in other difficult courses/I can spend more time studying for other courses.

What do you think - agree/disagree? Suggestions on my analysis?



On the non-advice side, I guess I’ll bump my question again.
Can anyone explain, in detail, the differences between General Chemistry and General Chemistry for Majors?