<p>^^Not really. My niece was working with a prof doing research while she was taking her ochem summer course. Her hours were flexible. She worked there for a few summers and I am sure the LOR from that professor helped her immensely.
BTW, she took her ochem course her first summer right after freshman year. She was on the track team at the college so had to manage her time and classes more efficiently.</p>
<p>I’ve been very curious as to whether the advice to avoid summer classes is based on hard evidence. I’ve seen it often here. I looked on the pre-med advising pages at prestigious universities and they say it MAY be a bad idea. But what I’d like to see is a statement that it is a bad idea from med schools themselves. I did look on SDN and LizzyM of the LizzyM score states that taking summer courses at your school is OK. Starting out at a CC and transferring is OK. Taking courses needed to apply to Med school at a CC when you’ve already gotten a bachelors in something else is OK. But taking summer courses at a CC to avoid it at your harder college isn’t OK. She also says, as mentioned above, it is detrimental to your app if taking summer classes precludes getting necessary ECs.</p>
<p>My only anecdotal evidence is my D. At interviews, she was asked about the W on her transcript. She was asked about taking the MCAT 3 times. She was not asked about taking Physics during Maymester at a local college.</p>
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Don’t hold your breath. It will never happen.</p>
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If you really, want, we can play this game. Maybe if your daughter hadn’t had to spend the hours on ochem that summer she could have put in more hours and gotten a paper out of it - or an extra paper - or a presentation, etc etc. Now you’re adding that your D was a varsity athlete - a definite plus for med schools - again highlighting how it’s an overall picture, not a simple checklist</p>
<p>Mt Sinai, it is my niece, not my D.</p>
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<p>Yeah, so why say NEVER to take a summer course. Each case is different as you have acknowledged.</p>
<p>I agree being a scholar/athlete helps. My H did varsity track, was captain of his track team for 2 years.Got into a few med schools back in the early 1970s. Was also ΦBK.
My friend’s D was a varsity volleyball player at UCLA, got into UCSF and Harvard plus others.
Niece was on varsity track.
So perhaps ECs should include sports.Not only in the summer, but during the school year.</p>
<p>I am not playing a game…both of my kids have no remote interest in medicine. I feel your frustration or jealousy.</p>
<p>When you are in med school, all the students are competitive, smart, hard working and have some other passion (singing, sports, chess, music) that they are very good at. Get used to it now.</p>
<p>WHOA. What did I just stumble into. My apologies for confusing your D and niece, but it’s pretty immaterial to the point I’m making.</p>
<p>You’ve also obviously made some pretty big assumptions about me without bothering to look through my history. I have nothing to be jealous or frustrated by - I’m a 4th year medical student doing interviews. I also was a varsity athlete (tennis) - how do you think I know it’s a plus. People flat out told me while interviewing.</p>
<p>My point is summer courses are a negative. Sometimes you can do something negative that yields an overall positive benefit (e.g. some heart failure drugs actually shorten lifespan but because of their symptomatic relief, we still prescribe them because the patient would rather have a shorter life outside of their bed than a longer one unable to function). The vast majority of medical students do not need to do summer classes and should not do them. I never wrote one should “never” take them. I wrote that they are something to avoid. I stand by that statement and the fact that you know 2 successful med school applicants who took summer courses proves nothing - especially when it’s clear that they were very strong med school applicants to begin with.</p>