Hi, I am going to the University of Alabama this fall as a pre-med student. I’m currently between microbiology, anthropology, and math as my major.
I have Bama bound (orientation) next week and I’ll sign up for classes there! For background, I took AP Bio junior year, got a 5, easily got a high A, and participated in bio Olympiad.
I was planning to take honors bio I because I’ve heard med schools don’t like to see AP Credit, and I wanted to make sure I knew the info. My friend (also pre-med, also took AP bio, neuroscience major) just registered for her classes at Bama bound and she signed up for honors bio class, but not the lab since she has lab AP credit. I would LOVE to do this because the lab is long, the one that fits best in my schedule looks like it’s at 8 am, and I could take another class or be more active on campus or with shadowing/volunteering. However, my mom is worried not taking the lab will look bad for med school. I will definitely take higher level bio labs. What do y’all think from your experience?
If Alabama will allow you to get lab credit from your AP without posting any other AP Bio credit on your transcript, then I don’t see why you shouldn’t.
However, I don’t see how this is possible since AP scores don’t separate out lab credit from class credit when it reports your score. AP Bio just reports one score and your university lists that score on your transcript according to their policy. Typically it appears as something like this" AP Bio 5 _____4 credits for BIOL 221/221 Lab
(You can check with the registrar to see how your AP credits will be listed on your transcript.)
What med schools don’t like is people repeating coursework they already have credit for.
So it all depends on exactly HOW that credit appears on your transcript. If the credit appear equivalent to Intro bio (regardless of whether it’s Honors Intro Bio or regular Intro Bio) and you take Intro Bio again–then it looks like you’re trying to game the system and artificially inflate your GPA by repeating classes. Adcomm don’t look at this favorably.
(BTW, if AP credit for the class appears on your transcript then you must mark the class as “Repeated” on your AMCAS application when you go to apply to med school. The rules require that. See; https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/11616/download )
EITHER you should not report AP credit to Alabama at all so the credits won’t appear on your transcript.
OR you report the AP scores, use the credit for Intro Bio + lab and move on to take the next course in the sequence.
Okay, thank you!
So to make sure I’m understanding:
Since AP bio is listed as giving me bio I and bio I lab credit, if I use it for the lab credit, they will have to list the whole AP class on my transcript. This will make the admissions people think I am intentionally retaking the AP bio equivalent just to inflate my grade. So, I should either use AP bio for credit for both the class and the lab or not use it at all.
Is that correct? If so, do you think it would be a bad idea to go ahead and use the credit and go straight into cell bio? I don’t know if they don’t want me to use AP bio to get out of bio I and II or if it’s just that I can’t use AP bio to cover all my bio classes.
Sorry if these questions seem dumb; none of my (many) relatives are doctors so I don’t know how to be a premed correctly! I’m sure my premed advisor will be lots of help, but based on people I’ve talked to, it sounds like the advisors are pretty useless for helping pick the first semester classes and I should come in already knowing what I want.
One of my sons is struggling with a similar issue, he has a 5 on the AP biology test and he feels ready for other advanced classes but is concerned that some medical schools require general biology be taken during college and won’t accept the AP credit. I’d be interested in any sources that summarize medical school requirements.
To ensure you’re well-prepared for any medical school application, it’s best to complete one year of college-level biology with labs. If your AP Biology credit counts towards introductory or general biology, then proceed to the next course in the sequence. Additionally, take an advanced biology course in another semester, such as microbiology, cell biology, anatomy and physiology, or genetics. That’s your safest option.
If your kid takes the AP course and uses it for college credit, then they should not repeat the same course in college. They should take a higher level course.
Of course, they could elect NOT to send the AP score at all, and then just take the course in college.
Just don’t forget and it’s different for each kid, but on a student panel at Col School of Mines, they recommended (the students on the panel) that all engineers forgo the math and science AP credit and take again. My son wishes he listened - had an issue with a calc 2 and WD’d at Bama. With a 5 in AP Calc AB, he wasn’t ready.
Different major of course - but similar in concept. If strong grades in bio are that critical, maybe take again so don’t report the score, ensuring a likely A to be seen in case you stumble at the next level.
Given you have the NMF full ride and other APs, you’ll have room to have taken this extra class without being held back - ie you can still graduate in the same timeframe.
Perhaps it’s over cautious but you are also dealing with your life’s plans and you don’t want to chance derailing them, especially this early.
Okay. my friend just told me every advisor at Alabama told my friend not to because the AP credit would show as pass/fail and an A in college bio would look better. That just doesn’t make too much sense to me if I end up taking a bunch of upper level bio classes; wouldn’t it cancel out? Oh well ig I’ll listen to them
Maybe consider Honors General Biology 1 with lab, Honors Biology 2 with lab, and another advanced course sophomore year. If you end up majoring in microbiology, you’ll have plenty of bio credits.
The resource you’re looking for is the MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements)
This is a database maintained by AMCAS that has the current requirements for admission at nearly every US MD school. (Note that I say current, as admission requirements can and do change–including famously one med school that changed its requirements midway through the application cycle which sent hundreds/thousands of students scrambling to find a last minute A&P class. )
Some/many med schools will allow a student to substitute an UL class in the same discipline as the AP credit. (IOW, bio AP should be supplemented with more bio classes; AP chem should be supplemented with more chem classes.) Some/a few med schools specifically prohibit substituting classes.
Please read this FAQ about AP/IB/CC credits:
In either case, it’s always best to contact the admissions office in writing and ask. (Don’t do it right now, the new application cycle just opened and staff is swamped dealing with thousands of applications. Wait until later in the cycle–maybe December?) Your child should save the email in case questions about the substitution arise later.
There are a number of med schools that have no prereqs at all. These are competency based programs, and they will consider multiple means for proving the required competencies. (USC and UMichigan are two examples of med schools using competency-based admissions requirements.)
In any case, for any student using AP/IB/CC credits for pre-reqs, it is strongly recommended that the student supplement these credits with additional UL coursework in the same department if they want to be considered a strong applicant for admission.
ETA: AP policies vary widely by med school. Some, like Harvard won’t accept AP credits. Others will only accept a limited number of credits (6 credits is the typical maximum). Some will accept AP credits only in certain subjects–AP Calc but not AP Lang/Lit.
Really AP policies are all over the place. You need to check each individual med school your child may be interested in applying to.
Adcomms are comparing students from a hundreds of different undergrads all with kinds of different majors. They like to compare apples-to-apple when looking at student transcripts so they typically look most closely at the pre-reqs first.
Many adcomms pick a few key classes (physics and Ochem are popular choices) to look at to get a feel for a student’s academic ability.
Adcomms do look at UL bio classes IF the applicant is a bio major. (Remember that not all applicants are.) And adcomms look at grade/GPA trends, but there is no such thing as any one class cancelling out another.
Another reasons adcomm aren’t thrilled with AP credits is because it doesn’t earn a grade only credit. This means a student could have score of 3 (equivalent to a C-/C/C+) on the AP and still get credit. Adcomms want to see how well (or poorly) students do in a class. (That’s why med schools will not accept P/F grades for any pre-reqs taken in college.) Adcomms also don’t like to see P/F grades in any science or math class–even those that aren’t pre-reqs. They would rather see an honest C grade than a P. (Also for P/F grading, a C- is passing and med schools don’t accept C- grades as passing for admission purposes.)
Thank you for the insight! I am slightly confused now though. My current understanding based on this thread is as follows:
Med schools don’t like people using AP credit because a pass could be a C- or an A+; they have no clue (understandable)
But…they also don’t want to see that you took the AP class in high school, passed it and got credit, then decided to retake it at the college level for a letter grade because that’s grade grubbing and just trying to get an easy A since you already know the material?
So you just have to be in the know that this is a thing and make sure you don’t report your AP score to your college? That seems weird and unfair.
Seems wise to me. You re-take. College is not high school. You make sure you learn the material - because the classes will get progressively harder - and if it’s a joke for you, well it looks great for med school.
It’s why I gave the example above from students at Col School of Mines. For classes in your major, it’s exactly what they advocated.
You may ace college but you may also struggle. It’s an entire different world from hs.
My stud student was a bit over his head first semester. He clawed out of it - but he went to a top high school - and college was 100 times faster.
So taking a step back may not be unwise - especially if it’s a “positive” look for the med schools.
If you somehow take that next level and find yourself unprepared, you’ve potentially set yourself up for failure med school wise before you even got well into college.
On the other hand, many students at many schools go on to more advanced college math courses after earning 5 in AP calculus exams. This includes many who complete AP calculus BC in 11th grade or earlier and take multivariable calculus at a local college while in 12th grade. So the recommendation always to repeat AP credit is educationally inappropriate for many students, in addition to being perceived as grade grubbing by medical schools as noted by many here.
A better way to determine readiness to move ahead with AP credit is to try the old final exams of the college course that can be skipped with AP credit.
The recommendation wasn’t to repeat all AP credit - but credit in the major. So in the case of a STEM major, you’d repeat math and science - but take the credit for English, language, social science, etc.
I know others on here (you I believe) say - get the previous final and see if you can handle it.
I get it - OP is a stud. She wants to continue on.
I’m just playing devil’s advocate - being cautious. If she did struggle with the next class, it could be game over for med school.
But if she repeated the class, it’s likely an easy A for her - and starts her on an assured better path because med school sees the grade, etc.
In the end, hopefully the pre med advisors at school will give her sound advice.
btw - it does seem like there is an option to take Honors Bio with lab - but the OP doesn’t like the time of the lab.
It’s college - sometimes you have to make sacrifices - but if the time were ok, it sounds like she’d take it - so she might need to just ifght through - even if it prevents from taking another class or getting as heavily involved. You don’t want to over involve first year anyway - involve yes but not over involve.