by Sarah Heller

Created on: September 17, 2009

Choosing the right college preparatory curriculum is a challenging problem for many high school students. For students who want to pursue a career in medicine, the challenge becomes somewhat greater as they try to pick classes that will interest them while still maintaining a high GPA. The following classes are great choices if your high school offers them

Anatomy and Physiology This class is typically offered as a Dual Enrollment class with a local college or university. While the focus of this class is usually very broad, it will give you a good basis for your future college-level classes, as well as show a university admissions department that you are serious about pursuing a pre-med degree. If possible, try to take the class in your Junior year so that it will appear on your college transcripts for early admission.

Biology Most high schools have several levels of this class; take the highest level your school offers. Ideally, take Honors Biology in your Freshman year and AP and/or IB Biology your Junior or Senior year. If you are taking it your Senior year, be sure to make an A or B in Biology during your Freshman year, since this will be the only grade that a college will be able to see if you apply for early admission. Do not expect a college to give you credit towards a pre-med degree for any advanced high school Biology course; the Biology that you will take in college is a much more advanced course.

Chemistry As with Biology, take the basics or Honors level of this class your Freshman or Sophomore year, then take the AP or IB level your Junior or Senior year. If you have to choose, take this class after AP/IB Biology. Besides wanting to show where your true interests lie, AP/IB Chemistry is a very difficult class, and you do not want any grade below a B to show up on your college transcript, if at all possible. By taking it your Senior year, you will most likely only have to report you first semester or grades in the class, giving you a safety net if things get difficult during the last half of the course. Again, do not expect this class to earn you college credit; pre-med Chemistry is considered a weed out class, and very few colleges will let you skip it, but it will give you an excellent basis for your college classes.

AP/IB or Dual Enrollment Statistics Some kind of Statistics class is usually a requirement for any king of B.S. degree in medicine or science, but by taking it in high school as an AP, IB, or Dual Enrollment class you can avoid having to take it at some colleges. If you don't do well at math, this class is definitely the way to go; most non-Algebra people find Statistics easier to relate to. If you are good at Math and are trying to decide between this class and Calculus, only consider Calculus if you can take it one the AP or IB level and you need a similar class for the major you are considering (this will allow you to skip a Math class in college).

Of course, try to keep your grades as high as possible in all of your other classes. If you can, take as many AP and IB classes as possible; being able to clear a semester or two with transfer credits will help considerably when looking at your total tuition bill (and often the accompanying student loan debt).

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