/sci/ - Science & Math

They'll definitely be a lot easier. If you just put in a little effort you should get A's with no problem

If you pass the AP tests, why would you be taking them to begin with?

>>3922194
I want to be a doctor.
general bio and chem at college will be a gpa booster and will be great for my pre-req gpa. Also, college might go into more detail than high school courses.

I didnt take AP chemistry but I did take AP bio. The material is pretty much the same in college intro bio classes except they go a lot faster and may cover some more topics

>>3922199
Honestly, take different classes. If you pass the AP tests, don't bother taking the college classes. As>>3922205 says, it's pretty much the say except they go faster and cover some topics not covered, but will most likely be covered in higher-level classes.

If you're passing the AP tests in high school, you don't need to worry about a GPA booster, as college freshman courses are a fucking joke to begin with.

I'd honestly suggest taking sophomore or Junior level classes your freshman year. Look into your college and see if they offer an honors program. Many college honors program give you honors credits for taking junior level classes your freshman year. You're much better off doing this than some bullshit 'GPA booster'

>>3922217
Yeah I'd disagree with this completely. First, it can be useful to retake intro classes related directly to your major, to make sure you really know the material well, and to make sure you've covered all the topics that professors of more advanced courses will expect of you.

Plus, there's no reason to make freshman year of college harder for yourself, when you're already likely dealing with a big transition. And it definitely doesn't hurt to have a nice start to your GPA right off the bat, rather than jumping into advanced courses, ending up in over your head, and screwing yourself up before you even know what happened.

>>3922235
This is true.

I think it depends on personal preference, and what kind of medical school you want to get into. If you want to get into 1st-tier medical schools, you will NEED to take Junior level classes your first year and be doing RA work no latter the your junior year.

If you want to be going to a first tier medical school, overload yourself as much as possible and do as much as you fucking can.

If you don't want to go to a first tied medical school, do whatever the fuck you want.

>>3922286
well im a fucking senior in high school right now so medical school is a very long way away.. I basically just want to become an emergency room doctor.. Does it really matter if I go to a top tier medical school? I keep hearing that it doesn't really matter as long as you GET IN.

I took AP courses in high school and my courses at Oregon State are a joke in comparison.

>>3922289

I don't think so to be honest. My girlfriend's sister went to a small private religious college on the west coast. She graduated with a decent GPA and then moved out east. She became and EMT and got her masters at Drexel university. She's now going to medical school in Vermont.

From talking to her, what matters most are you MCAT scores and GPA more than anything else in order to get into medical school. And, from talking to her, your MCAT scores matter a shit ton. If you graduated from an accredited university with high MCAT scores, you should easily get into a mid-tier doctorate program. The reason she got her masters was because even tough she had a decent GPA, she just could not get decent scores on her MCAT. She did some research and found that getting a Masters from Drexel in Biology basically guaranteed her a spot in a mid-tier doctorate program.

So, basically, shit doesn't matter. You can get into a doctorate program, it's just a matter of how long it'll take you. It took her two extra years and getting her masters, and that's going to a no-name school with a decent GPA.

>>3922311
I'm hoping it's the same for me.
My school is fucking ridiculous, the AP teachers average a 4.5+ AP score in every class. Our school generates the most 5's on the physics AP exams than any other school in the world..

>>3922310

thanks for the advice man

>>3922199

Wow. Lots of UT threads over the past few days. And I'm on all the time, so I'm in every one. Hook 'em.

Anywho, genchem is really easy here. If you can take her, take sutliffe's class. Pretty easy and she has a cool british accent.

I don't know anything about intro bio, I exempted it. Freshman level classes are generally easy.

>>3922289
3rd year on rotations here

it depends on what you are wanting to do. ER is fairly competitive depending if you want to do trauma and what area of the country you want to live in. good grades from any mid tier public med school should be enough unless you have some specific high demand area you are 100% set on.

it's not nearly as bad as some of the hugely competitive sub specialties though, which is nice.

as far as getting into med school, good MCAT, high melanin content, plenty of volunteer/clinical work before applying, and decent grades are what matter, in that order.

>>3922341

One more thing. There's a special 311D class reserved for incoming freshman who made 5s on their AP bio test. Let's you move into genetics a semester early, without dumping you into it, which might be rough if you're not ready.

I don't know if they still offer that though. Like I said, didn't take it.

>>3922350
fuck at least i'm not asian. I love being white sometimes..

Honestly being an ER doctor is the only thing I've ever wanted to do. If I can't get into medical school I would probably consider myself a failure for the rest of my life..

I know I'll need a 3.7+ GPA and a 33+ MCAT to be safe. I've already got 700 volunteer hours at a local hospital that I can keep volunteering at throughout college, so hopefully I can get that number up to about 1500-2000 hours.

>>3922355

Pretty sure the average student applies with ~200 hours of volunteer work. And college will stress the time you have to invest in stuff like that.

>>3922355
you should be fine so long as you can make the grades. i got fucked by not having enough volunteer hours my first time and didn't get in even with a 3.71 (3.8 in science classes) and a 34. this was despite having 3 published papers from research and design work for engineering as well as working 20-30 hours per week during the school year. i 'hadn't shown enough compassion towards my fellow human beings' apparently.

one thing to consider when you get into med school, though things might change in the next 4-8 years when this matters, is that you don't necessarily have to get into an ER residency to work in an ER. a lot of IM and family practice people work a fair amount in ERs in medium to smaller cities/towns. if you are willing to live away from a big city a bit you can turn getting a difficult residency into something pretty easy.

also, depending on how your money situation looks like, consider looking into the military to pay for med school. my school is about $40k/year, and the navy is paying for all of that, 2k per month to live on, and gave a 20k signing bonus as well. all i owe them is 4 years after residency, which really doesn't involve too much of a pay cut to save a ridiculous amount of money. it's not for everyone, but it has been great for me so far.

will check back in AM if you have any other questions.

>>3922190
TAKE INTRO CHEM FROM DR. LAUDE YOU DISRESPECTFUL WHORE.

(Bio you can skip; intro Bio is retarded; Finklea's Genetics is the one you want)

if I end up having to do the retarded CAP program at UT Dallas will that fuck everything up?

>>3922415

OMYGOD FINKLEA IS AWESOME. But why Laude? His class has 500 students in it and he offloads most of his responsibility on his TAs. Only one is actually a grad student. It's not like he's a tool or anything, he's the fucking dean of the CNS.

>>3922419
Probably not. Work hard when you make it to Austin. I've heard (I started in Austin and there I remain) that UTD (and UTSA) and UTA are quite disparate in terms of difficulty, so be prepared.

I already have credit for PHY 302K, 102M, 302L, 102N from the physics B exam. Also I've got credit for RHE 306 from the language AP exam/SAT writing score.

I'm taking these classes right now (senior year)-

AP chem
AP bio
AP statistics
AP calc ab
AP english literature
AP macroeconomics

Would it be worth it to take all of these exams to get credit for -

BIO 311C, 311D
CH 301, 302, 204
EDP 371; or M 316; or STA 309
M 408C
E 316K
ECO 304L

even if I might have to do the fucking CAP program at UT Dallas freshman year? Also take into consideration that I want to retake a lot of freshman classes because of >>3922235 this..


I'll be sure to come back next year and ask you guys for more prof. recommendations.

Also- what the fuck? /sci/ giving better college advice than that gay college confidential forum?

>>3922514
also keep in mind my school would charge me nearly $400 to take all of those exams.

>>3922514
also i plan on majoring in biochemistry most likely..

god i sound like an annoying fuck right now, but this advice is priceless..

>>3922526
I'd take as many exams as possible to get as much credit as possible. At the very least this will allow you to graduate early. If you don't wanna graduate early this will free your schedule to do research and/or volunteer.

>>3922514

I just found out today that premeds are strongly recommended but not required to take calculus based physics. I took the physics B test too, got a four, didn't get me out of shit. Even a five will only get you out of the algebra based classes, which are for nerds anyway. There's a class for "pre-health" professionals but I didn't take that either so I don't know. I took (in E&M now) the sequence for physics majors.

I wouldn't skip C and go into D unless you're pretty solid in calculus. ECO will get you out of your social science requirement, but take physical anthropology if Kirk is teaching. Neat class, really easy. I love evolution though.

Derp.
http://cns.utexas.edu/academics/degrees-majors/current-degree-checklists

Degree plans are here.

Some more shit: if you want to go to a good med school, they often look for well balanced students, which means not neglecting the humanities. But that would be like a harvard or a john hopkins, that can be very very choosy about who they accept. I wouldn't exempt genchem. The lab is a great starter lab to introduce you to lab courses in general, the classes are easy As, you'll make good connections. Would exempt with bio. I did, and I do fine in bio.

CAP may confuse things. I would hold off on upper division courses until you make it to Austin. And there aren't that many horns on /sci/ I think. And prof recommendations don't mean much. You really only have to beat everyone else in the class. The only time that would matter is if one professor is SUBSTANTIALLY easier than the others. That rarely happens.

But the finklea thing is important. She's the best genetics teacher. She's also the hardest from what I know. But genetics is the foundation of everything that comes afterwards. If you can't make it through her class, because the material is too hard (wat) or because it's too much, you don't have a much of a future. You're not going to make it through undergrad, let alone med school.