Pre med and AP credit

[ucbalumnus]

@WayOutWestMom

However, schools that do accept AP credit expect applicants to supplement any AP/IB credits awarded with an equivalent number of of additional upper level credits in the same department.

Even for those medical schools that do not accept AP credit, wouldn’t substituting upper level courses in the same department be acceptable? E.g. physical chemistry instead of general chemistry, multivariable calculus or real analysis instead of single variable calculus, etc.

@WayOutWestMom

Example, if your AP Bio score gives you credit for Intro Bio 1 at your college, you can skip that class and take Intro Bio 2 plus another UL bio class with a lab to fulfill admission requirements. Things are bit trickier w/r/t chem requirements because you will need to supplement AP Chem coursework with non-organic chemistry classes. IOW you can’t just skip gen chem, take OChem and biochem and call it done. You’d need to take inorganic chem, analytic chem or physical chemistry (and their labs) to supplement Chem AP credits.

The most problematic AP credit for this purpose may be physics 1 or 2. That is because physics for biology majors and pre-meds (with light calculus or no calculus) may not have any upper level physics course that follows it, since it is considered a terminal sequence for those who will not take more physics courses. So a pre-med at a college where his/her AP physics 1 and/or 2 scores are credited against physics for biology majors and pre-meds may have to choose between retaking physics for biology majors and pre-meds (and having to mark the course as “repeat” on the medical school application, which looks like grade-grubbing) or taking physics for physics majors (which requires more math like multivariable calculus, and will have stronger-at-physics competition for A grades in the grading curve, though if the pre-med likes math and is good at it, the physics may be easier to understand with more math).