<p>I know that taking a heavier course load in high school, while maintaining good grades, is looked upon favorably by college admission committees. Does the same hold true in college? I know that the normal course load at Yale is 4 or 5 courses, but would graduate school admission committees look A LOT more favorably on someone who took 6 or 7 courses per term, assuming all other things are equal (ie. same grades, same extracurriculars, etc. as someone with the normal 4 or 5 courses per term)?</p>
<p>That's difficult to answer. No two people will have the exact same credentials, especially because of the wide breadth of extracurriculars one can get involved in here at Yale. That being said, I'm actually overloading, but not so that I look better on my grad school application; it's challenging to maintain a high GPA taking 6 courses (which I have the past two semesters) but the reason I do it is because I genuinely love all my classes. </p>
<p>I know a guy at Yale Law School who took 6 courses every semester during his undergrad years at Yale and still maintained a high GPA. To answer your question, overloading might have helped him get into Yale Law.. to an extent, by showing that he could take on a demanding schedule and still attain academic excellence.</p>
<p>We should also keep in mind that for most of us mortal human beings, taking six or seven courses will have a significant and serious impact on our ability to do other things outside of class. As such, the question is never "should I take six classes or four in addition to what I'm doing now?" but "What do I need to sacrifice so that I can do well in six classes instead of four?" </p>
<p>There wil always exist a trade off between classwork and extracurricular activities. Remember that college is a time where we are doing so much more than learning from the books. While doing well in six or seven classes will definitely not detract from any graduate school application, it is also important, at least I think, to find things that you are truly passionate about and do well at those things, even if it means taking fewer classes, or even, again for me, sometimes sacrificing academic performance for your other interests.</p>
<p>Ooh! Ooh! "Opportunity cost." I've finally found a use for AP economics in real life :)</p>
<p>i've heard that med school admissions is much more numbers based and less holistic than undergrad admissions, and the only things they care about are GPA and MCAT scores. However, grad school admissions might be completely different.</p>
<p>I'm currently applying to medical schools right now, MD/PhD, which arguably cares even more about numbers than just MD. My conclusion is that numbers do matter, but they're highly overrated. I'm not saying go fail out of your classes or anything, but I think that after you reach a certain cut-off (i.e. 3.6-7GPA and 32-3+MCAT), you'll be fairly competitive at most medical schools and what will really make or break you is your letters of recommendations and your extracurriculars. Have you really devoted yourself to a few activities and truly excelled at them? Or have you spread yourself too thin over too many activities? Or are you a bookworm and haven't done anything besides earning that 4.0?</p>
<p>I'd also just like to say that the Premedical Office at Yale does a phenomenal job at taking care of its students :)</p>
<p>i think probably you wont get in</p>
<p>cottonass: who are you commenting on right now? I don't think the OP was asking about whether or not they'll get in someone place</p>