<p>Is it bad to take the minimum number of required credits sophomore year? I don’t want to overload on courses since I have other activities I need to do like research and volunteering. I plan to take O-Chem, Physics, and Statistics, which will add up to the minimum. </p>
<li><p>Do Med schools want to see that I can balance a lot of courses or do they only care about the GPA?</p></li>
<li><p>Also, do I need to take O-Chem and Physics in the same year? Could I maybe do something like O-Chem, Statistics, and two humanities classes sophomore year? </p></li>
<li><p>Are there any drawbacks to taking physics later?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sorry about the long post. Some advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>i don't think your unit load matters much. they are mainly looking at ur gpa. I personally think that physics and ochem wouldn't be too bad a combo, but there's nothing wrong taking ochem and stats together.</p>
<p>Varies from undergrad to undergrad. AMCAS features your credit load prominently, so it's not as if schools would have to calculate it themselves.</p>
<p>The thing to look for is whether it's normal to take this low a load. My school has a min. courseload that's lower than our "normal" courseload, so taking that was considered a pretty serious red flag. On the other hand, I'm sure there are at least some schools out there where the majority of the students carry a minimum load, and in that case there's no reason for you not to.</p>
<p>We were also advised to spend at least one semester taking a heavier-than-normal load.</p>