AP Chem or AP Bio or Organic Chem?A

[amd123]

AP Chem and Organic Chem are the two hardest classes in my school. AP Bio is alot easier.
I wanna go to med school. What is the best class or should I take both/all 3? If i take any AP class, I'll have 3 APs (I'm taking AP Spanish V and AP Psychology). So should I just take o chem or just ap chem. Or go with one hard and one easy (AP Bio and AP chem (bad idea imho)) or do the other hard and the easy one (AP Bio and O Chem)?

I would just sign up for all classes but there is summer work and I don't want to do it only to drop out of the class in the first week.

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[MilkmanAl]

None of those will make much of a difference in getting into med school. It might be nice to get some exposure to organic before college, so I'd go with that and AP bio, assuming your interest in all the classes is equal. Barring that, take what you want to take.

 

[amd123]

keep in mind I have an 86.8807 gpa, should i just take AP Bio to boost my gpa and self study Organic Chem? My friend just got done with college and donated me his college books ( I got like 10 great books on physics/o chem/bio along with solutions manuals and some cds).

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'd take the organic class so you have some guidance on what to study. I don't know what a 86.9 GPA is (3.3?), but moving it a little bit in either direction isn't going to affect what kind of college you'll be qualified for and certainly will have zero effect on your med school candidacy. Again, take what you think you'll enjoy.

 

[niblet]

Is this for your senior year? If it is, I wouldn't pick a course based on how it'll affect your GPA at this point. Senior year grades aren't a terribly big deal (they only are if your really screw up and get your acceptance/scholarship revoked).

I think it boils down to how much you would enjoy learning them. Would you rather spend next year learning about cells, DNA, ecology, biological diversity, biochemistry, body systems, metabolism, etc.; electrons, chemical reactions, the ideal gas law, pH, etc.; or all the chemistry behind carbon-containing compounds? If you have an answer to that, I'd strongly suggest taking the corresponding class.

 

[Hiroshi]

Sort of a side question on the matter, if I can college credit for my AP Biology course due to my score on the AP Exam in junior year, should I skip these equivalent classes, or expose myself to them again?

 

[scattun]

Sort of a side question on the matter, if I can college credit for my AP Biology course due to my score on the AP Exam in junior year, should I skip these equivalent classes, or expose myself to them again?

You are most likely going to get some conflicting opinions on here, but for my 2 cents, I say skip the equivalent classes and take two upper division bio classes instead. Personally, I hate having to sit in classes that go over material I already know so I would much rather take two novel classes that actually sound interesting (sorry but taxonomy of invertebrates just doesn't get my heart pounding) like microbiology, genetics, or physiology classes. Unless of course you think you want to apply to California schools or Hopkins, since I have heard they are kind of psycho in terms of accepting AP's for their pre-req's. However, all the other med schools I have looked into (middle and upper tier on the east coast) accept upper division courses if you AP out of a pre-req.

To the AP, I vote for AP Bio and organic, fwiw. As I said, APing out of gen bio, lets you take some cool classes instead and I think the gen bio sequence are pretty common weed out courses. I APed out of bio and have never regretted it. Taking upper level chem classes on the other hand, for me at least, does not sound very appetitive. Like someone else said, an exposure to organic before hand certainly can't hurt. Of course, if your high school has some other cool non-science classes that you want to take, I vote for those. I wish more pre-meds took classes unrelated to medical school.

 

[bored]

ur lucky u get those ap courses at your school.. IM about to graduate in just 2 months, and i wish i had taken some AP courses..

Take them ALL, tehy will help u ace college science.

 

[sleepy425]

I'd take them all. It's a very good opportunity and you'll learn a lot from the classes.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Just to make sure this is out there, I strongly recommend taking the classes but not the AP credit. Especially for O-chem.

 

[GlamDoc]

Exposure to OChem before college OChem? I say go for it. You'll get used to the language that is so uniquely organic chemistry.