As a potential Biology or Neuroscience major, I would like some help in choosing my courses. Here are my classes:
First Semester:
Literature Humanities
Frontiers of Science
Organic Chemistry for first years 3045 (did well on placement test)
Physics (either 1200 or 1400; HELP in choosing)
Calculus III (got 5 on BC)
Second Semester:
Same but switch Frontiers for University Writing
And switch Calculus III for Intensive General Chemistry Lab 1507
I am a pre-med student in Columbia College and I have satisfied my language requirement. So I plan on taking my one year general physics requirement and get it out of the way. I don’t need to take 1400 physics since I’m not engineering. But should I? 1200 will probably be brain dead easy. Or should I go for the 1200? Do medical schools really only care about GPA and nothing about course difficulty like 1200 vs 1400. Thanks.
Also, thoughts on freshman orgo?
Medical school admissions is nuanced. Assuming your GPA is high enough to get past the initial computer screen, then all kinds of factors get considered.
Do adcomms care if you’ve taken difficult classes?
Yes, they do because they want to see applicants who have challenged themselves intellectually and academically.
Will they cut you some slack on your grades and GPA just because you’ve taken tough classes?
No. But one weak grade is a fluke & forgivable in the larger context if the rest of your record is strong.
Or you can look at it this way–
Did my kid get props and extra consideration from the adcomm just because she aced graduate quantum mechanics with the highest grade in the class when she was still an undergrad? Not a chance. Did her grade in that class help tell the story about her academic achievements and about her growth as a student who earned Bs and Cs a as a freshman? Heck yes.
Add drop period is over, but 1400 has a better curve than 1200, which is largely populated by premed sophomores. Zajc is teaching 1400 and he is a pretty nice professor, but I don’t really feel like I got a good feel for physics from the 1400 sequence. It might have been marginally better than 1200, but I think there are limited gains from 1400 intellectually and I don’t know if you’ll get brownie points for taking the easiest engineering physics. If you took 2800, maybe.
At Columbia, courses, even the core, IMO, get harder as you move forward, so I would advise trying to do as well as possible freshman year.