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<p>Sorry, I had forgotten to put Chemistry on that class list in one of my previous threads. So, so far, in terms of science courses, I’ve taken:
<p>My freshman year of high school, I took physical science (I think) which is ordinarily a middle school science (again, I think) and that was because my school for some odd reason wouldn’t let me take Biology. SMH.</p>
<p>I’m no expert, but I think you need more science courses if you are aiming for combined BS/MD programs. Drop the speech or poli sci class and take a real science, assuming you have the background to do well in it. </p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think anyone is going to be the least bit impressed by a speech or poli sci course at a CC. Why are you loading up on English courses if you are interested in medicine?</p>
<p>Seriously, see a counselor. See if you can contact someone affiliated with one of the BS/MD programs and ask advice re course selection.</p>
<p>Ok–I started typing before I saw you have taken chem. I still think you should be taking a more advanced bio course rather than poli sci or speech. And no foreign language? MIT is about the only top school I know of that doesn’t want at least 3 years. From what I’ve heard, knowledge of Spanish is much preferred for medical schools these days.</p>
<p>I think why you are finding the DE classes more challenging is because your junior year schedule looks like a sophomore year schedule at the high schools many of our kids attend. As seniors, our kids are taking 2 upper level college classes at our flagship and 4 AP classes (BC Calc, Psych and Physics, Lit and Comp) with AP Psych being the sluff class on their schedule. Several kids in our high school are taking multi-variable calc this year. Our kids are not because our son would have to retake it in college anyway (math major) and our DD doesn’t need the class. Your class list looks like the class list of the kids that are headed to the lower end state directionals in our state.</p>
<p>Don’t bother with the AP Psych test if you are planning on med school. You will have to retake that in college anyway because of the new MCAT requirements. Your CC classes also won’t be looked upon favorably for med school. None of your DE classes will transfer credits to any Ivy and unless you get a 5 or some 4’s, your AP’s won’t get you any credits and none in your major.</p>
<p>@Steve I could have been taking AP Calc since I’ve already taken all of the pre-reqs, but did poorly on the college placement test and was put in Trig. Did I do a disservice to myself by taking Trig and not AP Calc?</p>
<p>I don’t really see how my classes are sophomore level classes? Is it because of m math classes? I could’ve been taking AP Calc AB and Bc junior and senior year respectively, but decided to do math at CC. My other classes seem normal compared to most juniors in high school. Where’s the discrepancy between what I’m doing and other Juniors?</p>
<p>I didn’t really understand your first sentence…could you rephrase that?</p>
<p>I think the lack of a foreign language is your biggest problem. Many of the Ivy League school require three years and prefer four if that or a BS/MD program is in the cards.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get penalized for college admissions for taking DE classes instead of APs, if your school doesn’t offer APs. But it’s true that you are less likely to get college credit of DE classes except in your local state university system.</p>
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<p>My guy falls under the new MCAT and he still got private U credit for his 5 on AP Psych. It allows him to skip the intro class and move on to better things. He does not need to retake the intro class.</p>
<p>Med school admissions we talked with said they don’t care if a prospective takes cc classes AS LONG AS they aren’t pre-req classes, so the OP should be fine - except, of course, than an A would have better in his math class (esp since he’s not at college level math yet if he’s talking about the Trig class - that’s a remedial (high school level) class most places just getting students up to college level math - even College Alg is sometimes not considered college level pending college though more accept that than Trig).</p>
<p>OP, have you read the FAQ on the Pre-med forum? Have you talked with a college pre-med adviser? If not, I’d start reading and make an appointment to see what you can do with your specific choices in school.</p>
<p>I’d also quit whining about which is better (AP or DE) as that’s not really a characteristic med schools will want. They want students who can see what they want and work to get there whether they have obstacles in their path or not. Life is not fair and med school admissions is not easy. One works to get what they want and right now, from your writings, it seems like you’re not even willing to work on your own to do much to supplement what you might not have at school. My middle son didn’t take an online course to do an AP. He self-studied them. He got books recommended (Teacher’s Editions when we could get them), read them, got Prep books, etc, and signed up at a neighboring Catholic school to take the tests. He wanted his path badly enough to work for it. He’s also doing very well in college now. Internally he has the work ethic and drive to do what it takes.</p>
<p>Asking questions of what to do isn’t wrong. Extensive complaining about things is. Go to those on the path you want, ask them, then do it (as much as you can with so little time left). Then you’ll have what you need to be competitive.</p>
<p>UnfetteredDreamz–your class list and when kids in our high school would take those classes: </p>
<p>College Trig (at college) --sophomore year after freshman year Geometry
Freshman Comp 1 (at college) -not sure what this is but probably same as our junior year comp??
Intro to Psychology (at college)–junior/senior year
Next semester (Still junior year): English Literature 1300-1800 Fundamentals of speech (or Political Science. Not sure yet.) --freshman year for all of these options
Precalculus Algebra–10th grade
U.S. History (at high school) --10th grade
AP Composition and Literature (online High school course)–junior year
Honors Chemistry (at high school)–sophomore or junior year depending on if a student wants AP Chem</p>
<p>Junior year our kids had:</p>
<p>Honors pre-calc
AP Chem
AP Lit
AP Euro/World
AP Spanish
Band
various electives depending on interest–our kids took a college planning class, a required PE class and something else that escapes me because I’m old and my memory is going (all trimester classes).</p>
<p>Sophomore year they had AP Bio, APUSH plus their required math, etc.</p>
<p>Creekland–this kid is talking about going to an Ivy, those credits are NOT going to transfer. The med schools admissions WE have talked to said that in no way would they accept a DE class taken in HIGH SCHOOL for any med school required class. If your son takes say, 100 level biology class summer after his freshman year in college at a CC, ok, they might take that but they are NOT going to take a Psych course taken as a junior in high school at a community college. I think you need to clarify WHEN classes are taken with whom ever you spoke with. We’ve talked to admissions people at 5 different med schools about this.</p>
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<p>NO! If you don’t understand the material enough to place into it, you’d have been seriously stressed to do well in Calc… Plus remember, you said you only got a B in the Trig class and were complaining about not getting credit for homework, etc. Calc is a TOUGH math class if one doesn’t solidly know the material before it. You might learn the Calc material just fine, but miss the Alg involved in the problems - leading to a low grade.</p>
<p>Get solid in the pre-reqs first with math, then move on to the college level math. It doesn’t matter what time it takes to do this, but it might not work out well with BS/MD. It’s ok if that doesn’t work out BTW. Most med school students don’t go that route and unless you have extensive medical experience from somewhere, you aren’t likely to get into one anyway. Med school admissions folks are looking for people with med experience who are 100% sure they want med school from that experience and not just because they watched Royal Pains, House, or Mash.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m done with my complaining, but have a few questions.
<p>Now, I know you guys can’t plan out my future, but some answers to these questions would be of tremendous help.</p>
<p>Also, where exactly can I find a pre-med advisor?</p>
<p>@Creek, I honestly believe that not all student’s who take AP Calc know all of the material that comes before it, as I’m sure you can attest to the fact that our education system is broken. Now, I’m not saying some kids would have gotten into Calc, but many would have had to go back and review some previous material (such as Trig).</p>
<p>Also, why is there such a high emphasis on math when I plan to do Pre-Med? Sure there’s Calc, along with another high level or two of math, but I’ll be finished with Calc by the first semester of freshman year.</p>
<p>SteveMA - I don’t think your experience is typical</p>
<p>My older son schedule junior year:
Calc BC (only 5 out of 650 students were this advanced)
AP Physics C (again he was extra advanced having taken Chem one summer and AP Bio as a sophomre)
Honors English (there were 1 or 2 sections of AP English Lang)
Latin IV (standard for bright kids)
AP US History (standard for bright kids)</p>
<p>Younger son schedule:
Honors Pre-Calc (took AP BC Calc as a senior)
AP Biology (had done honors Chem and regular physics)
Latin IV
Honors English
AP US History
Honors Orchestra
Regular Orchestra</p>
<p>Older son got into Harvard, but not MIT, Stanford or Caltech. Younger son didn’t get into any Ivies (nor did he really expect to), but did get into Tufts, U of Chicago and Vassar.</p>
<p>A lot is about context - my kids took what advanced kids at their schools took. My older son was slightly ahead of the standard most advanced track. At most schools kids are not taking only AP courses as seniors. The average MIT freshman has taken 5 APs total.</p>
<p>UnfetteredDreamz, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.</p>
<p>You say that you don’t have access to APs. College admissions officers will not penalize you for not taking something that isn’t available to you.</p>
<p>If you want to take dual enrollment classes, go ahead. They can be a good way to explore subjects not taught by your high school and to find something worth doing if you’ve pretty much used up your high school’s curriculum. In your particular situation (dual enrollment vs. standard high school curriculum without APs), I can’t see how taking dual enrollment courses could hurt. </p>
<p>The people who have more difficult decisions to make are those who have access to both APs and dual enrollment courses. But this is not your situation.</p>
<p>If you did poorly on the placement (Accuplacer, I assume), then you may not have as good a grasp on the material as you think that you have. I would have looked at your high-school precalc options - your high-school course might have been a better option than DE at the CC.</p>
<p>Passing the pre-reqs doesn’t mean that you’re ready for a course.</p>
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<p>My son tutored math, physics, biology and chemistry (and other courses) when he was in college. He told me lots of stories about the level of preparation and attitude of various students. Sometimes you have students that are bright with pretty good preparation and a good work ethic that just need a little help - that’s your ideal student. Sometimes he had a student that understood a fair amount of math but had a weak base in algebra so they made a lot of mistakes on exams - though they understood the material. Those folk could potentially fail more than once without fixing the base problem.</p>
<p>You also have some students that live and breathe math. They do problem solving on their own, participate in competitions, spend time working out interesting problems that they run into, read math books for fun, read history of math books, etc. They may have upper undergraduate or even graduate courses under their belt in their high-school years. These students don’t really forget things that they had before because they regularly exercise their talents and abilities. Your SAT score indicates that you are very bright but you may not have had the opportunities or innate desire that these other students have had.</p>
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<p>You’ll need to take courses in physics, chemistry and biology. I’d suggest grabbing a textbook with the title “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” - any author - work through a few chapters.</p>
<p>mathmom–around here that is a pretty standard schedule for college bound kids that have their sights set higher than state directonals. I would say that kids that are college bound that don’t have that schedule are outside of the norm here at all the public schools in the area with the exception of the inner city schools. There are 5 sections of BC calc this year, so 150 kids or so taking BC Calc in the senior class–and a 6th grader so 151 
(yes, they have a 6th grader in their BC Calc class). There are about 500 kids in their class total. Now, a couple of the kids’ friends that are headed to state directionals took non-AP classes in subjects they didn’t like or were not intending on majoring in college. Our DD took an honors level Social class last year because she hates history, DS took AP Euro because he loves history. Both are STEM kids though.</p>
<p>@Steve, I honestly don’t believe that the courses the students take where you live is near the norm for those aspiring high. Most kids here are not taking nearly as advanced courses as you’ve described and are doing well in terms of college acceptances. You had me scared there for a bit, but after reading some other responses, these fears have been put to rest - for now.</p>
<p>I guess it’s off to studying for standardized tests now…</p>
<p>@BCEagle, although I understand the importance of building and having a strong base (academically), I can’t stop thinking that taking Trig will really really hurt me in my pursuit of getting accepted to a BS/MD program or an Ivy. Although, I could’ve done AP Calc AB and IMO have gotten an A…</p>
<p>Should I just give up on these dreams and aspirations, or will colleges turn their heads away seeing trig. I guess I’m glad to be making sure my base is firm in math, but pretty depressed about the fact that this base-building could eventually be the cause of my fall…</p>
<p>Steve, that’s not typical around here either. My hs was a feeder to U of M and this was a “most rigorous” junior schedule: </p>
<p>Honors Chem or Honors Physics (didn’t offer AP for either IIRC… only AP Bio)
AP Calc AB
Language 4 (Spanish/German/French)
AP English Lit
AP World History
Elective</p>
<p>Out of my school of about 6,300 kids, only about 30 take BC in a given year. Our students seem to do just fine with getting in to Ivies, U of M, and other top ranked schools.</p>
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<p>Pre-meds don’t take courses taught out of that sort of textbook unless they happen to be majoring in a physical science or engineering. Those who major in the life sciences or other subjects take a less mathematically demanding physics course.</p>
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<p>That entirely depends on the college. D2’s college requires all life science majors (and any pre med wishing to be considered for a committee recommendation for med school) to take a full year of calculus-based physics.</p>