<p>I got into honors integral calculus, but I'm not sure if I should take it since I'm in Commerce, and also it'd probably dent my GPA. </p>
<p>Will that course make my resume look better or help me get into grad school? </p>
<p>Because I know many people take courses like philosophy, and linguistics just to boost their GPA. But, it seems kind of "cheap". Or maybe I'm just naive.</p>
<p>If it's not going to help your gpa, then don't take it.</p>
<p>What if it's a graduate course at the UMich med school and I want to go into medicine? I'm an undergraduate freshman.</p>
<p>If it's required for your major or you are immensely interested, then take harder courses.</p>
<p>augustuscaesar- to the title question: Yes, there is a benefit. It's called "learning more".</p>
<p>Hard courses are impressive. Don't worry so much about your GPA. A slightly lower GPA, but with hard courses, is more impressive than a slightly higher GPA, with easier courses.</p>
<p>If you are applying to grad/med/law school, take the GPA with an easier class. All of the adcoms have told me that gpa matters more than difficulty, and this is what I have seen as the general trend.</p>
<p>FordGT is right in most cases. The reason for this is simply that schools rarely have the time to scrutinize your transcript to approximate the level of difficulty of your courseload. They WILL notice more obvious things like a student taking an extra 2 yrs b/c he took the minimum number of credits each semester (fyi, in case you were unsure, that looks bad :-P).</p>
<p>I thought medical schools reviewed transcripts pretty carefully. Is this incorrect?</p>
<p>yes i've also heard that med schools care only about GPA.</p>