I am a 15 year old girl going into my sophomore year of high school, but this is also kind of my junior year because I plan on graduating early. Right now I am scheduled to graduate with 26 credits, and with plenty of AP classes, as well as a broad spectrum of classes with the plan I have made up. I have good grades, and I do lots of activities, but I’m worried that all though I will be very far up in sciences, and have plenty of other courses, I’m worried since I want to go to into the medical field, and I will only have gone through Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus, and I won’t have taken Calculus. So I’m wondering if I will have enough math? and if it won’t really count against me to take Calculus in college?
It will hurt your competitiveness in the college admissions process at selective schools. It may hurt your college GPA- depending on where you wind up- because so many kids re-take calculus freshman year after taking it in high school. You should plan on taking a summer calculus class.
Would it be better to take Pre-Calculus next summer? And then just take Calculus my junior/senior year?
You could do it that way too. Why are you graduating early, and what are your goals for college admission?
Why are you graduating early? Seems like if you are missing calculus, you could still benefit from staying in high school. When you say “medical field” are you talking about medical school? I think the medical field in general values maturity.
@Oregon2016 @mathyone My goals are to go to a more prestigious college, and become a neurosurgeon. I’d like to graduate early because medical school takes a long time, and if I can graduate a year early I’ll get a head start. I don’t want to miss out on graduating a year early just for one thing, but I know Calculus is really important for going to medical school. With the way everything is set up right now Calculus would be my only class senior year.
You mean calculus would be your only required class senior year? Calculus is not required but you should think about a few things. To be honest, 26 credits is pretty minimal. Admission to prestigious colleges is highly competitive and you are putting yourself and a huge disadvantage. My kid will have 28 by the end of her junior year and she’s not graduating early, and she’ll be the type of kid you are competing with to get in. If you think you have the stats to go to your state flagship and would be happy to do so then it’s not as big a concern. Do you and your parents know how much college and med school will cost and how you will pay? Because you are also putting yourself at a disadvantage for scholarships. Not having taken calculus, you are also putting yourself at a disadvantage for college grades, which will be very important as a premed. Lastly, I don’t know the exact numbers, you should look this up, but many successful med school applicants are closer to 24 than 20. Like I said, they value maturity.
I agree with #6. OP, you sound mature and thoughtful, but please confirm that you looked at all the options offered by your high school to take classes at local colleges and universities, and online college level courses for credit your senior year. Our school district allows high schoolers to take classes not only at publics but also Reed and Lewis & Clark. That way the kids get a jump start on college credits without graduating early.
Another thought I had is that sometimes students think that because freshman year went well, that they can take on a lot more than they really should do. You should be aware that freshmen classes are usually significantly easier than what comes after. I’m wondering about what you said about being very far up in science. Are you really going to exhaust the science offerings of your school in 3 years?
Also, it’s quite common for young people to change their minds about what they want to do. Even many college students change their minds about medicine. Much better to get where you really want to be than to rush into something only to end up unhappy or misplaced. Have you done a lot of doctor shadowing or volunteered in medical settings yet?
I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea for the OP to take college classes while in hs, considering the plan to be a premed. My understanding is that those courses would count toward the undergrad GPA, which may or may not be a good thing. I’d certainly want to understand how those courses would be viewed by med schools before doing this.
@mathyone In the case of credits from Portland Community College and Portland State University, the course material and grading is (generally) way easier than what a high performing student will encounter freshman year at a more selective university. Pre pre-meds especially use this option to pad their college GPA and get prerequisites/distribution reqs out of the way.
@mathyone My school only allows you to have 7 credits a year, and up to one credit over the summer, so at my school most kids graduate with 24-28 credits at the max. Also I’ve taken writing classes this summer to make sure I’ll have my 4 English credits, which required 10-15 hours a day of work, and they were meant for Juniors/Seniors to take. I’m signed up for Chemistry H, Biology H, as well as principles of biomedical sciences this year… I also plan to take AP Psychology, AP Biology, and Human Anatomy my “Senior” year of high school. Right now I’m signed up to start volunteering at a hospital every week, which will give me more experience as well. Besides Calculus though I’m still highly competitive, and I’ve been looking at costs, and preparing for college, since I was in middle school. I will be ready in other aspects besides Calculus. I’m just wondering my options and how it will affect me.I don’t want to lose this great opportunity, to graduate a year early, just because of one class. I know there are options to take summer courses as well, so I could always take a Pre-Calculus course through a college, and than take Calculus my “senior year”. If you have any other tips, know of good summer school programs for Pre-Calculus (that aren’t extremely expensive), or have anymore corrective criticism please let me know. I really appreciate you taking the time to help question me, it was quite helpful and eye opening.
There are very few programs which strictly require calculus, and the ones I know of are elite engineering programs. But over 400,000 high school students are taking a calculus AP exam every year. There was a thread on this site about a student at a top LAC who was having difficulty in their calculus class, and it turned out that they were the only student in the class who hadn’t already taken calculus.
It sounds like you will also be lacking AP chemistry and you won’t take any high school physics at all? I’m going to be frank. This is not a strong preparation for a pre-med. I think you should worry more about even getting in to medical school than getting in fast. They won’t be impressed by your youth–to the contrary.
You’re barely out of middle school content. All these plans rest upon the idea that you are going to be competitive vs. kids coming out of hs with a much stronger background. And you haven’t even started volunteering yet? How do you even know this is the right path for you? Do you have standardized test scores yet? Those are likely to go up as you age up and are key to getting scholarships. Don’t underestimate how expensive all this education is going to be. Do your parents have any idea how much this all will cost, and how you will likely put yourself out of the running for big scholarships if you leave hs early?
I wouldn’t let my kid do this, but there’s no rule you can’t try. Med school is a very difficult and expensive path and I don’t see why you would want to make it all even harder for yourself.
First, make sure that when you graduate, you have the following:
- 4 years of English (including AP Lang)
- 4 years of social science and history, preferably Honors (if offered)
- one each of biology, chemistry, physics (preferably Honors), plus AP Chemistry; AP Biology is useful too if you can take one of the three sciences over the summer, but don’t try to double up AP Chem and AP Bio as it is very hard to do. If you must choose, AP Chem is the most important. (The Premed path requires 2 classes in biology vs. 5 in chemistry).
- Foreign language up to level 4 or AP
- Math up to Calculus (Honors or AP - AB is fine)
- Among your electives: psychology and sociology. You can take statistics to get a preview of the required college class. Although not required except in California, an art class can be a good addition too.
Start volunteering at a clinic and ask to shadow various professionals: a doctor as well as a nurse, an OT, and a PA.
See if you can be involved in a research lab at a nearby college - you’ll do grun work (rinsing out beakers and instruments, etc) but you’ll have an idea of what it entails.
Start working on standardized testing using Khan Academy.
@mathyone I have already taken Physics H, I was just talking about the future classes I was looking at taking. I have already looked over my schedule and I will have all of my English in, and US is planned to be AP. Besides the required 3 English classes for my 4th one I had Creative Writing and Media Literacy this summe. I’m t Also at my school you only have to graduate with 3 years of history, but history I have taken Civics H, World H, and AP US. I also already took Physics H, I’m taking Chemistry H, Biology H, and Principles of Biomedical Science. I’m taking AP biology and Human Anatomy my “Senior year”. As for foreign languages I have taken Spanish 1A, 1B, and 2. I also am scheduled to take Spanish 3 this year and take Spanish 4 my senior year. I took Algebra H and Geometry H already, I’m taking Algebra 2 H next year, and I plan to take Pre-Calculus my “Senior year”. I will also have AP Psychology my “Senior year”. We also are required to a fine arts credit so I’m taking beginning piano and basic art next summer. We are required to have a full PE, which I am taking the second half of my credit my “senior year” as a zero hour class. I’m also getting dual credit for Personal Finance this upcoming year as a zero hour class (these are the only offered zero hour classes at my school). Besides that I already have Public Speaking and career exploration (which I didn’t get to choose).
For outside activities, as I said I just signed up to volunteer at the hospital. I will also take your advice to start volunteering at clinics. Also my dad used to be an engineer for the hospital I’m going to volunteer for, and he’s close in contact with them so I can definitely get a job shadow, and I might be able to find a research lab. As for the things I’ve already been involved in I’ve attended monthly Saturday Morning Science college classes at Mizzou, I’m also a competitive dancer, I volunteer at my church every Sunday to teach little kids, I also work for my church 2 times a month when they have their monthly meetings, I’m involved in the ambassadors club (and I work all the hours of back to school night, as well as showing kids around), I also plan to join a club at my school called RBRO which allows kids to help out around the community, and I would personally want to volunteer at the nursing home with that.
As for ACT I’ve started studying and read lots of articles, and I bought several test books. I’m scheduled to take it in April for the free one with my class, and then take it in June again if I need too. My parents personally suggested that I don’t take it yet since I haven’t taken Algebra 2 yet, and they would like me to finish it out, or be close to finishing it when I take my ACT.
My parents realize how expensive medical school is, and I’m not planning to attend an Ivy League school, but I would still like to go to a prestigious school.
Hmm. Honors physics usually requires algebra2 at least as a co-requisite.
If you’ve been looking at college costs since middle schools then you would know that Ivy league schools are known for their generous need-based financial aid and are cheaper than state schools for many families. A few colleges offer fantastic merit aid for National Merit finalists and some schools offer large scholarships for students with high test scores and grades. But at your math level it seems unlikely that you will get the necessary scores.
Well your plan is not what I would advise but good luck with it.
Being young is not an advantage to applying to medical school.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321468/data/factstablea6.pdf
Average age of matriculants is 24-25 years old.