Pre-Med Help in Testing Out

[Jonathan Whatley]

Portage doesn't currently offer all the standard med school prerequisites: no Physics I & II with lab (only a self-contained 3 sh no-lab survey of physics hiding under their Mathematics tab), no Organic Chemistry I & II with lab (note, some U.S. med schools have dropped Orgo II as a prereq).

[bjcheung77]

My suggestion is to get a Bachelors of 'anything' and then a year of 'hard sciences'. It's usually best to get all the courses from a community college to save on cash instead...

[dfrecore]

Portage doesn't currently offer all the standard med school prerequisites: no Physics I & II with lab (only a self-contained 3 sh no-lab survey of physics hiding under their Mathematics tab), no Organic Chemistry I & II with lab (note, some U.S. med schools have dropped Orgo II as a prereq).

So Portage for the ones you can, then Logan or Doane for the rest.

[CanICode]

AFAIK, med school is going to want a GPA. And certain prerequisite courses cannot be an exam, they must be graded courses from an actual college or university. I would suggest contacting the school(s) you want to apply to and find out what they're looking for.

I have found some colleges specifically have started listing that they will accept CLEP coursework for prerequisite course requirements if it is listed on a college transcript. Here is an example. "AP/CLEP coursework may satisfy course requirements if listed on a college transcript."

I am digging into this topic at the moment. The thing is, everyone knows covid has inflated GPA. It is easier to cheat, it is easier to do multiple courses online. Colleges are not listing if a class was taken online or not. So the colleges are starting to care way more about your MCAT score than before. GPA and where you took courses is starting to mean a lot less. Here is a post that pulled data from 1500 admissions and found that if you score a 517 on the MCAT you have an almost 50% chance of getting into med school with less than a 3.0 GPA.

I'm not trying to give anyone false hope, you would have to be an absolute beast to get that score. People who score a perfect score on the SAT find that the MCAT is a completely different beast and scoring that well on it would require you to be in the 1% of the 1% of SAT takers. But even still, you can look at the chart and figure out what score could get you in and then see which colleges will accept clep for prereqs.

for example, UIOWA requires 14 total courses. These are the ones you can possibly clep:

Biology
Chemistry
English Literature
Calculus
Foreign language
Introductory Psychology
Introductory Sociology
I think you can find a 4th one to fit there 4th course requirement, maybe "Introduction to Educational Psychology"

So that leaves you with the remainder of:

Biology 2 courses - 1 intro & 1 advanced.
Chemistry 2 intro courses.
Physics 2 intro courses.
Biochemistry 1 advanced? course. Hard to understand what it is saying.

This is just one example of course. The point is, yes it would be better to have actually taken the course at a college for a GPA but there are some edge cases.

Edit: It is also saying they might accept AP courses? Does this mean modern states AP bio's would work? That would be kind of nutty. Of course you will have a hard time getting in, buuuut, if you crush that MCAT score, anything is possible.

Edit 2: Vanderbilt #6 in the country for medicine. For prerequisites the no longer even ask for them. Instead they give recommendations. They will take ANYONE who scores a perfect score on the MCAT. I read they had accepted 19 out of 19 who scored perfect on the GRE for their law school. You read those self reported stats here. The point is, there are definitely ways to get in and certain colleges .

[dfrecore]

Edit: It is also saying they might accept AP courses? Does this mean modern states AP bio's would work? That would be kind of nutty. Of course you will have a hard time getting in, buuuut, if you crush that MCAT score, anything is possible.

AP Exams are MUCH harder than CLEP exams.  It's also dang near impossible to take one after you've graduated from HS, because they are given during the school day on campuses, and they don't have to let you on campus to take exams (it's VERY hard for homeschoolers to take AP Exams).

So, yes, your chances of having AP Biology accepted for Bio 1 & 2 with labs is probably very high at most colleges, because there's a set curriculum AP courses must follow, and then AP Exams are notoriously hard.

[CanICode]

Edit: It is also saying they might accept AP courses? Does this mean modern states AP bio's would work? That would be kind of nutty. Of course you will have a hard time getting in, buuuut, if you crush that MCAT score, anything is possible.

AP Exams are MUCH harder than CLEP exams.  It's also dang near impossible to take one after you've graduated from HS, because they are given during the school day on campuses, and they don't have to let you on campus to take exams (it's VERY hard for homeschoolers to take AP Exams).

So, yes, your chances of having AP Biology accepted for Bio 1 & 2 with labs is probably very high at most colleges, because there's a set curriculum AP courses must follow, and then AP Exams are notoriously hard.

It might be possible that some places offer online digital AP exams.

"Offering Digital AP Exams at Your School

• Digital exams are optional. Schools make local decisions and choose to offer digital, paper, or a combination of paper and digital.
  
• Test previews will be available in the Bluebook app throughout the year. Students and teachers can explore sample AP Exam questions and try out the testing tools."
  

Edit: Derp this says AT YOUR SCHOOL. So not online, just digital.

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Edit: It is also saying they might accept AP courses? Does this mean modern states AP bio's would work? That would be kind of nutty. Of course you will have a hard time getting in, buuuut, if you crush that MCAT score, anything is possible.

AP Exams are MUCH harder than CLEP exams.  It's also dang near impossible to take one after you've graduated from HS, because they are given during the school day on campuses, and they don't have to let you on campus to take exams (it's VERY hard for homeschoolers to take AP Exams).

So, yes, your chances of having AP Biology accepted for Bio 1 & 2 with labs is probably very high at most colleges, because there's a set curriculum AP courses must follow, and then AP Exams are notoriously hard.

I am not sure how accurate this site is but you can use it to see who accepts CLEP.

[bjcheung77]

It's possible to get advanced standing or transfer credit with AP, but I would highly recommend getting the 'basics' under your belt with real time, butt-in-seat options instead to get your hands on with the labs. As an alternative, the online versions of these classes can work for those who have issues with butt-in-seat options.