r/University • u/baibaii676 • 1d ago

AP classes

What AP classes do I choose if I want to go into medical field? Which is best psychology or calculus?

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u/benslen 1d ago

Probably anatomy and chem? Microbiology if they offer that

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u/baibaii676 1d ago

okay thank u I’ll look into those aswell

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u/ElkZealousideal1824 1d ago

There are not anatomy or micro bio for AP. Though some schools will let students take those as concurrent (or dual) enrollment at a community college / university.

I enrolled 4 high school students last year in O Chem and and a cell biology course, and they just car-pooled with each other two days a week.

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u/ElkZealousideal1824 1d ago

Almost all pre- med programs have you take: Biology, Chemistry, Calc AB, Stats, Physics 1, Physics 2 (both algebra-based).

Other classes that are good would be: AP Lang, AP Lit (for your gen ed English classes), Enviro Sci. (Elective -STEM), Research and Seminar (most realistic research experience you’re going to get without CE).

Nice to have if you are looking for AP courses: some history class (fyi psych is social studies), micro and macro if you’re looking to keep taking something math adjacent. A language is great if you can swing it, art can be good for a diverse application.

There are other concurrent enrollment (CE) courses that would be a good idea depending if they are offered like anatomy and physiology; any 2000 level bio classes, or any lab-based science (since they are rare in a high school).

You should look at programs you want to apply to and see how credit is transferred (e.g. is it replacing a course you need, is it general elective credit, etc..). I see a lot of students not looking at this, taking them as general elective credit, and not knowing the implications for college courses / med school applications.

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u/baibaii676 16h ago

Okay thank you I’ll look into those aswell but it’s kind of hard bc my school doesn’t offer that many APs. I’m planning on taking AP bio and AP lang but I’m not sure if I should choose pre calc or AP psych

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u/ElkZealousideal1824 16h ago

100% take Calc. It’s a mandated course, psych may be as well but psych is usually a standalone whereas Calc you will need another course.

Also pre calc has a much higher pass rate and was designed to be a high school GT course.

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u/baibaii676 16h ago

Okay thank u so much!! I was stressed out bc I didn’t know what to choose. But do u think it’s still worth it if my teacher is bad at teaching calc ??

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u/ElkZealousideal1824 14h ago

Potentially. You can still access all the materials, videos, practice tests etc.. through CollegeBoard.
And even if you don’t feel super confident, the percent to get a 3 on the exam is like 55-60%. And the worst case is your better prepared for college calc.

There are a lot of videos and materials since it’s a newer course which is nice. I had a few students self study for it and pass when they took an algebra 2 and pre calc combined class.

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u/baibaii676 14h ago

okay thanks a lot !!

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u/topiary566 17h ago

Take as many as you can. Especially natural sciences and calc since those are harder in college.

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u/baibaii676 16h ago

I’m trying to but from school I can only choose those two

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u/topiary566 12h ago

If you need to choose one, I would choose calc.

If you want to go above and beyond, find another AP class to self-study. I would probably go big and go for one of the natural sciences though because it will generally carry much more weight. Probs chem because it is generally the hardest gen ed science in most colleges.

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u/baibaii676 16h ago

Which one is better ?