Striving for innovation: physics, engineering, and medicine

dmsc93
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:22:41 +0000

plumazul:

It appears you chose to attend an undergrad college with very restrictive policies concerning AP credit.

Indeed, I agreed to this, but most colleges I had applied to had similar policies, and yet, I am not too concerned by the limited nature of the registrar’s policies. Orgo and Multivariable Calculus/Linear are definitely courses just at my level of chemistry and mathematics, respectively.



plumazul:

You state that you are only allowed “two credits” from AP classes( I assume you mean AP exams?), and that this is the max. they will enter on your transcript. Secondarily, do they then give advanced placement for your other AP classes? (IOW, they allow you to move on without giving you credit for the AP class). In both of these cases, you should not retake classes that you have already mastered (i.e. got a 5 on the exam). You should instead take a more advanced class. This is the advice from every MS admin/adcom person I have ever talked to in person.

Two credits means two of my school’s credits, which is two semester courses. They would enter the transcript like this:
Say I chose AP Biology for credit, then it would say something like “BIOLAP 1.0
The legend clearly indicates that the biology credit comes from AP – for most medical schools this would render useless, since they “do not accept” AP credit. Is that correct?”
If so, I guess I might move on towards more advanced chemistry, like Integrated Chem Lab, Advanced Organic Synthesis, Biochem, Organometallic, or P-Chem. For biology, though, given that my AP course was a long time ago, I might simply go for the intro courses 181/182 next year.



i&lt;em&gt;wanna&lt;/em&gt;be_Brown:

1. Definitely don’t have to take courses from the english department specifically, as long as they are writing intensive they will count (e.g. I used courses for my Classics major to satisfy this requirement).

Courses in depts like Philosophy are writing-intensive if they have a series of short papers and a final long paper, is that correct? Would that count?



i&lt;em&gt;wanna&lt;/em&gt;be_Brown:

2. See plumazul/your college’s advisor, every school has different AP requirements and all med school cares about is that you have COURSE CREDIT.

Course credit… so if I get the two semester credits for CHEM 141/142 from AP, which requires that I have a B or more in my organic chemistry courses, does that count for gen. chem?



i&lt;em&gt;wanna&lt;/em&gt;be_Brown:

If you want to go straight out, my personal recommendation is to just bang it all out summer after sophomore year (I guess it also depends on your EC/course loads during the school year because maybe some point during junior year is easier for you). The bottom line is you need to take the test by the end of the spring before your app cycle starts.

I heard the MCAT has a two-year validity time period. If I take it during sophomore year, I believe it wouldn’t serve a purpose since I would be applying to MSTP on my spring 5th year (at Columbia). Would taking it junior year work fine?



MiamiDAP:

Relax now, go to game, spend time with friends. Remember, you will have to go thru interviews at each stage of your life. they are looking for real people, who had some fun in their lives.

I am not taking this personally at all, but I’d like to share that I am enjoying college very much! Of course, I am maintaining a balance between academics and fun at college. I am doing intramural sports and have joined student groups (namely, dance crew)… and of course, I do enjoy college life on weekends and so on. I am doing this for my own sake, and to me, studying is an enjoyable learning process, but that does not mean I do not value direct, personal experience from simply spending time with other people!

Thank you for your advice. If you can reply, go ahead and please do! The more I hear, the better I’ll be able to sort it out!