Am i going to kill myself next semester?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Okay so I finished with first semester with about 13 credits, which wasn't bad. Since I feel like I'm more adjusted to college now, I decided to load up a lot more. More specifically, 10 credits more. That's not the full story though.
Okay so ill be taking the following general courses (i don't want to give specific names for all of my classes for fear of revealing which school i'm from):</p>

<p>1 gen ed with a fairly easy prof from ratemyprof.com (4 credits)
General chemistry (4 credits. No lab because I did that first semester)
1 gen ed---more specifically, creative writing with a pretty easy prof from ratemyprof.com (3 credits)
Basic Stats for Research (3 credits)
EMT course provided by my school (6 w/lab e-credits)
East Asia (3 credits)</p>

<p>So that totals to 23 credits. However, I need to make the "6 e-credits" more clear. E-credits essentially contribute to full time status (if the rest of the credits I have are less than 12, which isn't a problem for anyways.) They will not be contributed to my GPA/graduating credits. However, I want to become a licensed EMT and volunteer at a fire squad over the summer. I mean, hadn't it been for my university, I would still take this course but instead over the summer, when I would have to pay half a grand. This course is free for me b/c of its competitive selection process. So this is why I'm taking this course. So in terms of formalities, I will only have 17 official graduating credits but technically will be taking on the workload of 23 credits. The EMT course alone will be 13 hours/week. I am taking alot of gen ed's because I'm trying to get rid of my graduating requirements as soon as possible, so sophomore year, I can focus on the more important classes. I already came into school with around 40 credits, so i have alot of the graduating requirements done as well but still, I would like to get rid of almost all the graduating requriements as soon as possible. I'm a premed major. Is this courseload too much? Should i chop it down?</p>

2

<p>I’d definitely chop it down.</p>

<p>1) You’ll almost certainly be spreading yourself too thin, which means you probably won’t do as well academically as you would if you could focus on your individual classes more. Preserving/maintaining a high GPA is very important for a potential premed.</p>

<p>2) There’s no important reason for finishing gen eds by freshman year. If anything, it’s probably better to space them out so that you don’t load yourself up with a whole semester of very challenging classes in the future. You need some fluff in your schedule to keep your sanity.</p>

<p>3) I can see the argument that you’d like to finish your gen eds so you can take harder classes sophomore year. The reason I don’t like that train of thought is that it’s very high stakes if it doesn’t go your way–if you don’t do well in your gen eds, you’ll have quite a hole to dig yourself out of, and if you don’t do well in your premed prereqs next year, you’ll have quite a hole to dig yourself out of and a lot of explaining to do. Plus, you probably won’t be applying after sophomore year (for entrance after junior year) and graduating early because that’s 1) a bad idea for med school admissions and 2) really cheating yourself out of a great undergraduate experience (unless you have extenuating circumstances and need to graduate early, but you didn’t mention that). If you’re not graduating early, then finishing your prereqs year 1 is probably unnecessary. You can avoid a lot of these problems just by putting together a balanced schedule.</p>

<p>4) Going from a workable 13 credits to 23 credits is a really risky move because it will require much more balance and time management than you needed before. It also doesn’t make sense to judge your ability to be successful in a 23 credit semester by your experience during a 13 credit semester. It sounds like you’ve gotten a great start in undergrad, but you probably still have a lot of adjusting to do. It would be a huge bummer to see you crash and burn after you take too many classes (not to mention it would be a huge ego blow, and you need a lot of confidence to tackle all this premed BS). </p>

<p>5) You probably won’t have much time to get involved in anything else because you’ll be so busy with classes. This increases the likelihood that you’ll develop burnout for your classes, which increases the likelihood that you won’t do well in them (and I can only imagine you want to be a great student!). Keeping your mental health as stable and positive as possible is important for college students (including/especially premeds) because it helps set you up for success and keeps your motivation high too–and both are critical to being a successful premed.</p>

<p>I think one of the biggest tricks to getting into medical school is minimizing any strikes or potential strikes against your application. A semester where you were overloaded and thus not involved with anything outside of class and potentially had a worse GPA than previously could really raise some application red flags. Considering how hard it is to get to med school in the first place, I think it’s wise to do anything possible to avoid raising any red flags. And in my opinion, you’re playing with fire by taking a really intense semester this soon out of the gate.</p>

<p>If I were in your shoes, and I thought my first semester was WAY too much of a breeze, then I’d take maybe one more class and also find a cool way to get involved on campus–be it a hobby, research, shadowing, volunteering, playing sports, whatever. There are a TON of things you can do with your time in college besides academics, and I think it’s in your best interest (as a person and as a premed) to really explore them!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>This is a very good point. This is another reason why I want to take that EMT course at my school because it’s not just a course. It’s a whole different experience–kind of a like a part-time volunteering while training if you ask me.
Also, I understand the rest of your points and I agree with them. So if I take out East Asia (3 credits), I’d have 20 credits. Is that good?
The only problem here is that even though i would have 20 credits worth of workload, i would have only 14 OFFICIAL graduating credits. Combined with the 13 credits from first semester, this means that I’d have 27 OFFICIAL graduating credits. The recommended is on average 30 credits per year. Would med schools think my courseload’s too easy? The other part i’m annoyed about is the EMT course, even though it’s free and a great experience. It’s taking up almost half the amount of time I’ll be spending throughout the week attending classes.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, you are pushing it a little. I took EMT training over the summer. I went to a “premed oriented high school”–took TONS of classes that were meant to prepare me for medicine, but I still found the EMT course challenging. Not one person in the entire program received a solid A. Even though my instructor loved me and literally punched me when I told him I wasn’t going to paramedic school, I finished his course with an A-. If I were taking more classes in addition, that grade would have been much lower.</p>

<p>We covered about three chapters a day. LOL At the beginning of the semester, we covered all the anatomy we’d need to know as a paramedic in about 1/3 of the lecture. Luckily, I took anatomy in high school, but I still had a headache by the end of that unit. The course is challenging and very fast paced. About 1/2 of my class was gone after the first few weeks. It’s mostly difficult because you have to think critically and holistically. You have to make diagnosis for your patients and determine how you need to go about helping the patient and getting them to the hospital alive. My exams were set up so that everything that can go wrong, went wrong. I think every practical I did ended in me attempting resuscitation with the family member holding a gun (or some deadly weapon) to my head. I couldn’t imagine taking that class (for a grade) on top of 17 hours. </p>

<p>Clinicals are very difficult as well. The paramedics expect a lot out of you. I was treated like a member of the unit with every medic I rode with, and they are a huge component to your grade as well. </p>

<p>–Just take the class over the summer, you’ll have plenty of time to volunteer. Don’t sacrifice your GPA.</p>

5

<p>THis is a great opportunity for me though. I don’t have $500 to just spend like that on an EMT course. I’d rather get it done for free! Wouldn’t you?</p>

6

<p>I’d rather get it for free, but I’d rather not sacrifice a solid GPA and a nice collection of extracurriculars just for an EMT class.</p>

<p>Would you pay $500 for a great GPA at the end of the year? Assuming you’re a good student, that’s more or less what you’d be doing by taking the class later. </p>

<p>Would you rather be an EMT than an MD or DO? Some people will argue that getting your EMT certification isn’t “that” big of a deal for med school, and it is unlikely to distinguish you from the crowd (lots of applicants are EMTs, CNAs, phlebotomists, etc). But if you like all that EMT has to offer, and you may be interested in emergency medicine, go for it.</p>

<p>I think you should do 2 things: volunteer in a setting that’s fast-paced and exciting to figure out if you even really want to be an EMT, and get a part time job doing something that’s either really fun or pretty easy. You can easily save $500 in a semester–that’s about $35/week for 15 weeks. At $7/hr, that’s only 5h/week. At the end of the semester, you’ll have that $500 to pay for the course (no more worrying about $$), you’ll have something solid to do during the summer (take the course), you’ll have done something other than school during freshman year (volunteering and working), and you’ll have a more solid reason for wanting to pursue that EMT license (provided you like the volunteer work you do). And, if you end up not liking the volunteer work, you’ll have an extra $500 in your pocket and a summer free to do whatever you want. </p>

<p>In the end it’s up to you. I’d say stay away from a 20hr semester though. I might even say stay away from a 20hr semester at all costs…but I’m not quite to that point yet.</p>

7

<p>Although there are 23 credits, there is no hard/time consuming class except maybe creative writing. However, I am not familiar with EMT, not sure how challenging/time consuming EMT is. I do not think that 23 credits is a problem considering difficulty level of classes.
On the other hand, I do not understand 13 credits vs 23. Why not having it more even? Another concern, my D. was taking 2 and sometime 1 very hard classes/ semester with consistantly 17 - 19 credits total. the exception was senior year for 2 reasons: she did not have any to take and Med. School interview visits.
IMO, you need to have more hard classes in your schedule, so that they are evenly spread and you have enough upper Bio before MCAT to insure high score. The goal is to have couple hard classes/semester (taking into consideration heavy involvement with various EC’s both medically related and otherwise).</p>

8

<p>EMT (depending on the level and how its taught) is extremely time consuming. Tons of memorization plus mandatory hands on clinical experience–most of which cannot be scheduled entirely at your convenience.</p>

<p>I’d recommend skipping the EMT class unless you plan to actually work or do significant volunteer service. as an EMT. Simply having the class doesn’t impress adcomms. </p>

<p>BTW, you do know that after you pass the class, you’re still required to pass a state licensing exam before you can work or volunteer as an EMT–which will require additional study plus travel to the location where the exam is being offered. (Here, it’s an overnight trip since the exam takes up most of a day and the testing locale rotates every 3 months among 5 towns all across the state.) And while there is a voluntary national registry for EMTs, there are no national uniform licensing standards. (Like nurses have.) This means if you get a EMT license in one state, it won’t necessarily be valid in another.</p>

9

<p>The only way I could see you taking the class is if you dropped your course load down to 15 semester hours; however, the majority of the courses you are taking next semester are more beneficial than an EMT course. Just take it over the summer. Your GPA isn’t worth a $500 class. You can try it out, but be prepared to drop classes.</p>

10

<p>WowMom–yes i’m aware of the complications of this course and I’m ready to face them.
Are you guys all SURE that I can’t handle this?
I managed to drop one class, bringing me down to 20 credits. I just have a gut feeling i can do this. It’s like, I don’t really want to drop any of these classes. Well chem i HAVE to take. The others i’m taking from almost pure interest (with the added bonus of finishing gen ed requirements)…
I understand Kristin’s point about spacing gen ed classes to lighten the load throughout my four years. This point would only really be true if there weren’t say, at the least, 12 other relatively easy gen ed classes classes to take (assuming you take two per semester starting 1st semester of sophomore year). I go to a Big State School so I know that there’s definitely more than enough with me to spread out easy classes for the remaining years.</p>

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<p>Also, the clinical experience part will be on the weekends, when i Don’t have classes. I feel like i’m destined to take this schedule lol because everything fits in so perfectly.</p>

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<p>Also, I got a question about the writing requirements for medical school…
They say they want you to take a year of writing intensive courses, not necessarily from the english department but so long as they’re writing intensive as classified by the school.
However, what if you were to take two “writing intensive” courses within the same semester? Would that fulfill the year requirement or do the courses have to be spread in a way that they span a year (i.e. taking one writing intensive course one semester and then another writing intensive in another semester). The reason I put quoted writing intensive is that even though they’re classified under “APPROVED Writing Intensive Course List”, on rate my professor, these classes were given high ratings for easiness.</p>

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<p>The writing classes don’t have to be in separate semesters, as far as I know. Nor do they have to be related.</p>

14

<p>How do i get my Academic Dean’s permission for 20 credits? The max is apparently 18…I obviously have to talk to her …but how does she determine if im qualified to take 20?</p>

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<p>The reason i didn’t want 17 was to not jeapordize my GPA while adjusting to college. I had a feeling i couldn’t handle 17 while adjusting to a new environment. Since i’m more used to it, I’m doing more.</p>

16

<p>I mean, if it’s your hunch and destiny and you’re that hellbent on doing it, by all means, take the class.</p>

<p>Jumping from 13 to 20 classes is significant–so significant you must schedule a meeting with your dean to do it (not the end of the world, but typically reserved for serious academic matters). </p>

<p>The thing is, there’s a lot you have to weigh. Is taking this EMT class RIGHT NOW worth…</p>

<p>-potentially damaging your GPA? Having a GPA cushion is very nice because it allows you to take more challenging classes later (ie, you don’t have to worry about your GPA). </p>

<p>-sacrificing your friends, weekends, and social life? You’re a freshman in undergrad, and now is a pretty important time to be forming relationships. Additionally, spending the weekends in a clinical setting means you’ll have to complete all your academic work and any other obligations during the week, which is potentially very stressful. Are you prepared to take that on? </p>

<p>-going to make a difference with how you work or volunteer as an EMT? If you’re certified in your school’s state but not in your home state (or vice versa), is this a good investment of time, energy, money?</p>

<p>I think the point others are dancing around is that even if you could miraculously fit this into your schedule, that doesn’t mean you should or ought to do so. Balancing courseload with extracurricular activities with social things, friends, and family is a skill that is crucial to success as a premed and med student (and adult, probably). Are you prepared to jeopardize your ability to balance your life by taking this class at a less-than-opportune time?</p>

<p>The answer to those questions may well be resounding "Yes"es, and in that case, would be strong arguments in favor of pursuing this EMT training right now. But if any of them make you hesitate, I’d seriously reconsider loading on all those classes right now. I mean, it would really suck if you were the one posting “Help, I might fail this EMT class, will it matter to med school? I’m taking a ton of classes, they’ll appreciate that, right?” come April/May. </p>

<p>Bottom line is, I’d be leery of making any seriously risky academic moves if you’re intent on going to medical school. Sure, take some classes and explore your interests, especially if you have room in your schedule and a nice GPA cushion. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of room for errors with medical school admissions because the competition for spots is fiercer than you realize at this point. Minimizing the likelihood of academic errors is a wise move for any premed.</p>

17

<p>Typically the process of raising your maximum number of credits is based on several semesters of past performance. When I was in college, I had to demonstrate at least 2 semesters of good grades with 17-18 credits before I was allowed to increase to 21. I then had to demonstrate another good semester prior to going above 21. I ended up taking 23 credits one semester after that. I did it and got a 4.0, but it sucked. It was the worst semester of my college life.</p>