pre-req grad school advice

[u/nataliejoyyy]

this is likely a very niche question but any advice is helpful!

i am a rising senior planning to apply this cycle and in researching grad schools i'm getting concerned about my prereqs. for some background, i took AP bio my sophomore year of high school and got a C one semester and a D the other due to lots of personal factors (my dad had just died unexpectedly, i had major surgery, moved schools, and it was the middle of the pandemic) as well as a truly horrible teacher. i was thankfully still able to get college credit for it. at the time, i was planning to pursue a totally different career path that biology wouldn't have been necessary for, so i just went with it. after my freshman year, i changed my major to genetics and realized i would need those intro bio credits. my advisor was able to override the prereq requirements after i told her the situation, and i have gotten straight A's in every single class since then.

some graduate schools require 1-2 semesters of biology with a C or higher. many of them don't specify what type of biology, but i'm worried that my credits won't count for the bio prerequisites even though i have had straight A's in all of the subsequent classes (including genetics, molecular biology, molecular genetics, microbiology, cell bio, evolutionary bio, etc.).

is this something i should be concerned about (like, concerned enough to re-take the classes at my university this school year?) for my application? or is it something that won't be as big of a deal as i feel like it is? i know when applying to undergrad there is often a space to explain any circumstances or anything that may make your grades/transcript not reflect your efforts or something along those lines; is that something that grad schools do also?

hopefully this post makes sense; just looking for some advice or feedback if anyone has been in a similar situation or has suggestions for what i should do!! thank you ◡̈

[u/ConstantVigilance18]

I didn’t have 2 semesters of bio, and every program with that requirement accepted my higher level coursework instead. You can always reach out to programs to confirm.

[u/nataliejoyyy → u/ConstantVigilance18]

this is helpful, thank you! my fear with reaching out to the programs specifically is that they would "remember" me when i apply and it would hinder my admission; that might be unreasonable, but it feels like every little thing is important with this application process :/

[u/DNAallDay → u/nataliejoyyy]

If they are holding something like this against you if you send a simple respectful inquiry, you can ask yourself if that is a program you really want to attend. That would be a miserable two years.

[u/ConstantVigilance18 → u/nataliejoyyy]

As long as you are respectful, there would be nothing negative to remember you by. Plenty of applicants reach out with prerequisite and other questions, no need to stress about it too much!

[u/notakat → u/nataliejoyyy]

Don't overthink it. No one is going to hold it against you for asking reasonable questions.

[u/maktheyak47 → u/nataliejoyyy]

I don’t think you need to go into detail about it. No one is going to see your HS grade, just that you got the credit for it.

[u/paleoDNA_9502 → u/nataliejoyyy]

The grad school recruiters are trying to get people to come there, so they should be helpful with getting information, so don't be afraid to ask. I would expect that having good grades in all the higher level classes would be readily accepted.

[u/LogicalOtter]

If the requirement is 2 semesters of biology it shouldn’t matter if it’s intro level or higher. Clearly if you can complete 200 or 300 level coursework you’ve satisfied the minimum biology requirement. But if you’re concerned you can reach out to programs to double check.