<p>Medical schools don’t want to see that you tried to take the easy way out. If you want to take summer courses, take something that’s not a medical school pre-req. If you must take a pre-req in the summer, take it at your home institution. Don’t be a slacker. End of discussion.</p>
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<p>My child ended up taking one-semester worth of pre-req in the summer. At least he has the wisdom of taking it at his home intitution. Hopefully, he will not be considered as a slacker because of this unplanned “accident”.</p>
<p>The class is related to evolution/ecology, which he somewhat reluctantly took after he found out he could not avoid taking this class for his major. His academic advisor said that he took some of his courses in a reverse order, but luckily it works out fine in the end. He finished all upper division core courses for his major and then went back to take one lower division course he had skipped. This happens mostly because he sort of changed his major in the middle of his college career and the evolution/ecology course is not a pre-req for any subsequent course in both his original major and his current major. He is definitely not a good planner.</p>
<p>As long as your kid did the other semester during the school year and did well, that isn’t going to be a problem.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, mmmcdowe. He did well, but in the summer though. One thing he found out is that after he has struggled through many challenging pre-reqs, he has a much better study habit or work ethics. It is much easier to get an A when competing with those freshmen who are not so “experienced.”</p>
<p>mcat2,
This one does not sound like one of Med. School’s pre-req’s, although it is major requirement. So, it does not matter. My D. will have to take Biochem, which is required only by one school (if she will apply there, we do not know yet). She has to take it in a summer, she has no choice. But Biochem is not required by other schools on her very short list of about 4 schools.</p>
<p>Once again, a couple in the summer aren’t going to hurt you. Adcoms understand the need to sometimes do summer classes. Since biochem isn’t a traditional pre-med pre-req, I think they will understand.</p>
<p>It doesn’t look fishy to take one or two prerequisite classes at another institution. If you exceed that, then it starts to, yes. Many people do it because of scheduling conflicts, being closer to home and various other reasons. If it was seen as ‘the easy way out,’ then people who went to state schools and those ‘lesser’ institutions would have less of a chance of getting into med school than a stanford grad, based on that factor alone. This is simply not the case. The only way this would backfire is if the OP (idiotically) stated at an interview that he took orgo during the summer because he thought it would be mad easy and he’d ace it.</p>
<p>I had a single W on my transcript. Most people will say that a W doesn’t hurt you, I’m one of them. However, I WAS asked to justify that W in interviews, and they expected me to have a good reason for doing it. It isn’t a matter of state schools being easier, its a matter of them wondering why you did your pre-req instead of another course that wasn’t a pre-req (so that you could fix the scheduling conflicty). Such things are asked about, and I am just warning the OP to at least have a better excuse when they ask at interviews. We both to seem to be agreeing on the same thing but arguing. What I meant by fishy is that they are going to want to ask why at some places.</p>
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<p>Not true. You’re thinking that we are saying summer courses are easier at lesser institutions (for example, a state school rather than stanford). However, this is not what we’re saying, lol. We’re saying that if you take a summer class at somewhere besides your home institution, especially for a pre-med requirement such as orgo, it is looked down upon by medical school adcoms for several reasons, such as the course being “crammed” into a single summer, the student having less time for EC’s, and generally more time to study (hence being easier and less competitive than if you took it during the school year) since you only are taking one class at a time and can focus your sole attention upon it. I’m sure other users can think of other reasons to contribute.</p>
<p>It’s all advice in the end. It probably won’t kill your app one way or another 99/100 times.</p>
<p>I think orgo during the summer is easier than orgo during the school year, even at schools like Harvard. Some premeds at my school like to take orgo at Harvard because it is easy during the summer there.</p>
<p>I can only imagine the interview. “So, why did you take Orgo during the summer?” “I am double majoring, so I need to take some classes during the summer so I can graduate on time.” “Fair enough. But why didn’t you take an elective or a gen. ed requirement instead?” Pwned.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think it’s worth it to pay 2000 dollars + housing to take a class that you could have easily taken during the school year for no opportunity cost. You are not only paying money, but you are also paying with time. You could be hanging out with friends, working, volunteering, doing research, etc. during the summer.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP: regarding “This one (evolution/ecology) does not sound like one of Med.”</p>
<p>I think it is still considered as one, although many pre-meds seem to avoid taking it whenever they can (e.g., when they have an AP Biology score. What is that AP biology course called? Is it called AP Biology EM? Basically, the non-molecular one.)</p>
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<p>Maybe everybody is different here. But I think my child has much more face-to-face interactions with his friends during the regular fall/spring semesters than in summer. The reason is that most of his current friends are from his college, not from his high school. The life is much more boring if he has to take a class during summer, as there are usually very few friends on campus and there is no club activity.</p>
<p>So it looks like there are arguments for and against taking organic chem over the summer, and i suppose there are advantages and disadvantages to either option.</p>
<p>however, in the case that i take it, does anybody have suggestions as to where the best place to take it is?</p>
<p>if you don’t do it at your home institution then anywhere else is the same, unless its a local CC</p>
<p>Somewhere close to where you live or where you can live for free/cheap.</p>
<p>As an OOS kid with many OOS friends, my social life takes a bit of a dive during summer. Especially now, because everyone has graduated and moved away, even many of my in state friends.</p>
<p>Do you live in Arizona?</p>
<p>For another week, then I’m off to medical school.</p>