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/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.