I’m currently a sophomore in highschool. For my junior year i I want to take:
APUSH
AP Lang
AP Research
AP Macro/Micro ( 1 sem each )
Honors Pre calc
For my science credit should I take AP Chem or AP Physics 1? My school only offers AP physics classes and I’m currently in chem honors.
Note: I want to major in premed
Thanks!
If you haven’t taken physics yet, take physics. You can do AP chem as a senior
How many AP classes have you already taken?
This is not a contest to take the most AP classes. I think that you should be cautious about overdoing the AP classes. Your junior year you will have some other tasks to think about such as researching which universities to apply to, and visiting universities, and studying for the SAT or ACT exam.
We do not have any actual human doctor in the family. I do have a daughter who is more than half way through her DVM. If all continues to go well then she should be “Dr TwoGirls” in about 15 months, but her patients will be large, furry, and be very bad at describing their medical issues. Since in undergrad her required “pre-vet” classes were the same as premed classes, she does have a few friends who were premed (one of whom is now in their residency, one of whom is in medical school). While as far as I know they all took some AP classes in high school, my daughter and as far as I know most of her premed friends did not take a huge long list of AP classes.
Regarding honors precalc this will set you up for calculus senior year, which is sensible. My daughter took both physics with calculus and physics without calculus, and liked it a lot better with calculus. Having the additional math tools does make a number of things easier to understand. Harmonic motion and planetary motion come to mind, but there is more. My vague recollection is that electricity and magnetism for example uses calculus, or at least did when I took it as a freshman in university. However, physics with calculus can wait for university.
Mostly I would suggest that you take the classes that make sense for you, and be cautious about overloading yourself. A modest number of AP classes and a lot of A’s will help. If you are serious about being a premed student then I would think that you would want at least one high school class each for biology, chemistry, and physics. I did not notice biology in your description, but presumably you are taking a class in it at some point and it can wait until senior year.
One additional small nit: We occasionally see posts here on CC from students who have taken enough AP and other advanced classes to get to organic chemistry as a freshman in university. While I have heard of at least one case of this going well, in most cases this is IMHO a bad idea. Spreading out the toughest university courses (once you get there) and postponing organic chemistry until either sophomore or junior year of university is more likely to be a better approach. Again, you spread out the toughest courses and take them when you are well prepared.
Or at least that is my recommended approach.
Premed is not a major. It is an intention, it just means you’ll take the dozen or so classes required to apply to med school. People can do this with just about any possible major.
On a related note, why an M.D? When many HS kids become interested in a medical career it becomes “I’m pre-med!” and they embark on a path that will take 11+ years of school/training plus enormous debt. Doctors are far from the only ones in the medical field. It includes physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, to name but just a few as you can see on http://explorehealthcareers.org Unless you’ve carefully considered the alternatives and have spent time in a health care setting (which is an unwritten requirement to get into med school) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision.
As a HS student opportunities may be limited but you should try to get a job or volunteer position this summer and next school year in a medical setting (volunteer in a hospital, etc) to help you confirm that an M.D is the best fit for you.
Thank you so much for your feedback. When it comes to my future, I’m interested in taking the pre dental prerequisites and taking it from there which are very similar to the prerequisites for med school as well which is why I said pre-med. Although I’m not fully certain, I have already shadowed at many dental practices and I am definitely interested in this field of practice. However, I did not want to diss the idea of going into the medical field because my parents are both doctors as-well and the field also seems interesting to me. Sorry I did not include this full in context but I was just saying pre-med with the intention of knowing I would like to major in biology, chemistry, or another medical related major. 
My recommendation would be AP Physics 1, saving AP Chem for senior year – assuming you already took Biology Honors and chemistry Honors.
I would drop AP research and replace it with foreign language 3 or 4, unless you can take both FL&AP research and handle that or are currently taking AP Foreign Language.
Thank you so much! I’m currently taking year 2 of American Sign Language as an online course. Unfortunately there is no 3rd or 4th year which is a problem. Someone told me I could tell my guidance counselor and they could write it on my rec letter, however I know UF doesn’t consider rec letters. What should I do?
Definitely tell your GC to include that information on your transcript or school profile.
You could try to see if there’s a Level 3 offered through FVHS or some other provider.
My advice…enjoy your teenage years. You don’t have to overload yourself to get into a good college. There’s a WORLD of difference between now and when you graduate high school. There will be multiple worlds of difference between then and the time you graduate college. Get good grades. Live it up. Have fun. Just don’t blow up anything up
While this is usually the consensus on AP another factor is the teacher. I’d look first at who is teaching the class vs whether it’s labeled honors or AP. Also if a student has friends in the same level class it’ll be better for study/group work.
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