Advanced Placement (AP) Credit for Science Prerequisites
Students frequently ask if they can use AP credit in lieu of taking the prerequisite courses for a grade and credit at UMBC. Pre-health students should not rely on AP credits to fulfill professional school prerequisites. Not all professional schools accept AP credit, particularly for the science prerequisite courses, even if UMBC accepts AP course credits for those same courses. Each professional school has the final say if a student meets its admission requirements and every professional school has different policies regarding AP credit. In order to prepare students to meet the requirements of as many institutions as possible, it is advisable that UMBC students complete the science prerequisite courses at UMBC for a grade and credit and not rely on AP credits to fulfill prerequisite coursework. This is particularly true for the chemistry and physics sequences. First-year students with AP credit in chemistry and physics are urged to begin science coursework at UMBC at the introductory level (with CHEM 101 and PHYS 111 or 121).
Also, CLEP (College Level Examination Program) course credit, long-distance, or online courses are generally not accepted by professional schools toward fulfillment of the prerequisite courses.
Advanced Placement (AP) Credit for Non-science Prerequisites
Each professional school sets its own standards, but generally, most professional schools are more accepting of AP credit for prerequisite courses in mathematics, English, and the humanities and social sciences than they are for the science prerequisites. For example, most professional schools will accept AP credit toward fulfillment of MATH 151 or ENGL 100 as long as the AP credit appears on an official transcript from an undergraduate college or university. However, students who use AP credit as part of their plan to completed requirements should also plan time to take additional coursework prior to entering professional school, in the event that a school on their final list does not accept AP credit in lieu of college coursework.
An example of an exception to the aforementioned generalization is the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (VMCVM). They stipulate that AP credit for English may only be used to fulfill one of the two semesters of courses in English required for admission to their program. The second semester must be fulfilled by a course, not test credit. If a pre-veterinary student has an AP score that qualifies them for credit for two ENGL courses, they should plan to take at least one ENGL course at UMBC (either a repeat of one of the two ENGL courses that they received credit for, or a new course in ENGL) in order to fulfill VMCVM’s admissions requirements.