<p>I know med schools wouldnt like applicants padding their schedule to get a high gpa. I made a rough draft of what the rest of my undergrad should be and from first semester sophomore year, to second semester senior year I will be taking 14 credit hours a semester. I would still graduate with 123 credit hours. The reason for me having to take 14 credit hours is because I would in a typical 14 credit semester take: 2 sciences with 2 labs and 2 GE classes.</p>
<p>Basically i am just asking if my schedule would looked at in a bad light because of constantly taking 1 less than average credit hour.</p>
<p>heres my first semester sophomore year
Cell Biology w/ lab BIOL 3111/L3.
Principles of Chemistry lab Chem 1251 L
Psychology PSYC 1101
Introduction to Statistics I Stat 1222
Principles of Chemistry II Chem 1252</p>
<p>also, is it awkward to always be one lab behind in chemistry? My adivsor told me that each chemistry lab is a prereq to a different lab so i can take them with no correlation as long as I am ahead in the lecture.</p>
<p>Nobody will care about what order you took labs, but 14 credits every semester will most likely be noticed. This is something that has been mentioned many times during discussions with admins from around the country. It has also been explicitly mentioned by LizzyM over on SDN. You might what to add something. Do you have access to seminars or special topics classes that you might find very interesting? Can you join your university band? (usually good for 1 credit) How about an economics class? Are you a science major? If so you can always use more math, perhaps a fun course like number theory or logic. If you plan to do research then you should probably consider ordinary and partial differential equations and/or linear/matrix algebra. </p>
<p>I could have taken the min. 12 credits/semester and still graduated with room to spare, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about a broad range of subjects without the pressure of future life responsibilities. If you don’t take advantage of it, you might regret it.</p>
<p>I will be taking 14 credit hours a semester</p>
<p>that will look like you can’t handle a regular full load.</p>
<p>As for med schools “not liking” applicants padding schedules to get a high GPA…uh, where did you get that from? How would a med school know that you’re “padding your GPA” unless you took ridiculous classes…and even then they wouldn’t be BCMP.</p>
<p>I think it’s also the “quality” of the courses you’re taking that matter. That is, if you’re always taking introductory courses, that doesn’t look good. You didn’t say what your major is, did you? In any case, that’s probably an area where you’ll be taking higher level courses. Good thing. That said, I don’t think the actual number of credits per semester is nearly as good an indication of your abilities as the depth and range of the courses you persue. Also, as you can guess, many students graduate with far more than 123 credits, especially if they earned college credits via AP courses. BTW, I think my son is averaging about 18 courses per semester, plus he had 15 credits (5 APs) before starting college.</p>
<p>As long as you complete your major (lower and upper div req’ts), complete the pre-reqs, the other classes/electives can be whatever you want…including intro classes (which a lot of Gen Ed classes are anyway).</p>
<p>Agnes, there is a sticky thread at the top of this forum that discusses premed coursework. Also, rather than asking your questions on another member’s thread, please use the New Thread button to start your own thread.</p>
<p>1 (16)
Calculus I Math 1241
Intro to computer science I ITCS 1212 / L
Computing professionals ITCS 1600
Intro to geography ESCI 1101
American politics POLS 1110
English I English 1101</p>
<p>2 (12)
Calculus II Math 1242
Intro to computer science II (W) ITCS 1213
Logic and algorithms ITCS 2175
English II ENGL 1102
Arts and society: Music LBST 1103</p>
<p>Summer 1 (6)
General Biology BIOL 2120
Principles of Chemistryl Chem 1251</p>
<p>Summer 1.5 (5)
General Biology II w/ lab Biol 2130 /L</p>
<p>3 (14)
Cell Biology w/ lab BIOL 3111/L3.
Principles of Chemistry lab Chem 1251 L
Psychology PSYC 1101
Introduction to Statistics I Stat 1222
Principles of Chemistry II Chem 1252</p>
<p>4 (14)
Principles of Chemistry II lab Chem 1252L
Organic chemistry I Chem 2131
Issues of Health and Quality of Life LBST 2214
Physics for science and enginneering w/ lab PHYS 2101/L
Genetics BIOL 3166</p>
<p> </p>
<p>5 (14)
Organic chemistry I lab Chem 2131 L
Introduction of Sociology I SOCY 1101
Global and intercultural connections Lbst 2102
Physics science and engineering II w/ lab PHYS 2102/L
Organic chemistry II Chem 2132</p>
<p>6 (14)
Global Understanding Lbst 2102
Organic chemistry II lab Chem 2132L
Principles of Biochemistry I CHEM 4165
Introduction of Sociology I SOCY 1101
animal physiology w/ lab BIOL 3273/L</p>
<p>7 (14)
Ecology w/ lab BIOL 3144/L
Elementary French I FREN 1201
Microbiology w/lab BIOL 4250/L
Introduction to Creative Writing ENGL 2126</p>
<p>8 (14)
Elementary French II FREN 1202
Senior Seminar BIOL 4600
population genetics BIOL 4260
Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy w/ lab BIOL 4293
Western culture and historical awareness lBST 2101</p>
<p>I just decided to copy my schedule onto here. I think my semesters are pretty decently hard since there are typically a couple labs per semester. The numbers at the very top are the semester numbers and the number in parenthesis are the number of credits in that semester</p>
<p>edit: i am currently in semester 2 right now, i also recently switched to a premed and biology from computer science</p>
<p>Not sure about 14 hours. It is low. D. in her “slower” semesters when she was anticipating interviews was taking 15 / 16, normally, she was taking 17 / 18.<br>
However, you are only one who could assess your time mangement skills. Keep in mind though that no matter how much you will take in UG, it will be way way more material at Med. School. It is so much that students really cannot do it themselves at all, they are studying in groups, simply do not have enough time in 24 hours to complete all of it on your own. So, maybe it is a good idea to prepare yourself somewhat (still will be a huge shock) to the amount while in UG.</p>
<p>Yeah about the summer school, look at my other thread and it explains it. My premed advisor assured me that I wouldn’t be hurting my chances with summer courses.
Also I guess I could throw in a couple history classes into my upcoming years to get some of those credits back. I just felt like 2 classes with labs and 2 more classes would be equivalent to more than a 14 credit hour semester workload</p>
<p>OH, yes, big advantage of taking more every sememster is NO SUMMER SCHOOL. Take advantage of it in UG. In Medical School you will have only one summer off. Spend you summer with your frineds instead of tkaing classes. You will be re-freshed and more prepared for your school year.</p>
<p>I don’t think taking one or two light semesters would hurt you but planning on it for four years might. At my son’s school the average credits is 9 per year (classes are .5, 1 or 1.5 credits). He is currently only taking 4 credits this semester but they are Cell Bio (1), Orgo II (1), Orgo II lab (.5) and Spanish (1.5). Orgo and Cell Bio are tough classes and Spanish meets 5 days a week. I don’t think it will hurt him in the long run and preserving his GPA is most important right now.</p>
<p>If I want to stay on my track to med school right after UG then I have to do summer school. I would be taking 3 sciences with labs and I remember there was a semester where I had just 4 science classes in a semester if I tried to do everything in 2 years. It wouldn’t even be possible to take biochem before the mcat without summer school and be on the same track. On top of that, I don’t want to be home over the summer. My advisor assured me that summer school wouldn’t hurt my chances for med school so ill take her word for it. </p>
<p>Anyways the original question of the thread was whether it would be bad to take 14 credits a semester and I was wondering about this solution. I will just add a history class each semester since I love history</p>
<p>FWIW, I don’t think your schedule is that light except for maybe semester 7. I assume 120 credits is needed for graduation. That equates to 15 credits average per semester so you are just under the average and most of the pre-med requirements are tough classes Taking Physics, Genetics, and Orgo together isn’t weak by any stretch.</p>
<p>Couldn’t you take Psych and Stats over the summer allowing you to take the Bio and Chem together in year 2? You could bump Physics to year 3 allowing you to keep your Chem classes and labs in synch</p>
<p>"If I want to stay on my track to med school right after UG then I have to do summer school. "
-Who told you that? Many do not take summer classes. my D. (almost done with her second year in Med. School) did not take a single summer class.</p>