<p>Hi, so I'm kind of struggling with courses right now...My college is extremely tightly packed course-wise...It's really hard to get into important classes especially ones required for med school since majority of the students are going into premed. My advisor suggests that I take a course or two (labs most likely) during the summer/winter sessions. Is this a wise choice? Because apparently medical schools views this as not competitive because I'm not taking it with a heavy workload of other courses... </p>
<p>So my question is will medical schools take my college into account and know that these courses are hard to get into, and wouldn't heavily punish me for it? Or will they view me as every other applicant and just completely throw my app aside?</p>
<p>We get these kinds of questions a lot. A couple of courses over the summer won’t hurt you as long as the rest of your application is good. Here is a list of things I consider to be “not good.” A few of these (3 or less) probably won’t matter but once they start piling up, they will hurt your application…a lot.</p>
<ol>
<li>Summer courses </li>
<li>Community college courses</li>
<li>W’s</li>
<li>C’s</li>
<li>Courses at inferior colleges</li>
<li>Low course loads</li>
<li>Pass/Fail courses</li>
<li>Retakes</li>
<li>Audited courses</li>
<li>Fluff courses like “Chemistry of the sky” or “Astronomy for english majors”</li>
</ol>
<p>If you have a 3.9/37, is the fact you took a summer course or a community college course going to hurt you? Probably not.</p>
<p>If you have a 3.5/30 and you have 2 summer courses, a W, a retake, and a 12-credit semester, is that likely to hurt you? Yup.</p>
<p>I might be taking them in my current college (2 days a week 3 hour commute). And yeah I’m only going to be taking the maybe a lab or two because they’re extremely to get into.</p>
<p>And thanks alot norcalguy, that clarifies some things up…I’ve not had any of those so far but my GPA is currently a little bit low, so I guess when I pull that up (and hopefully not pile up those bad things on the list) and I’ll be good to go!</p>
<p>^^^ I am surprised that no one started arguing with you about this. Everyone on this forum claims that “it doesn’t matter where you went to college, as long as it is a 4 year school.” So why should it matter if someone took courses at an “inferior college” that is not their actual college.
^^^^ Some of the other members don’t like the idea of one school being better than another…</p>
<p>My personal idea was to take some upper level science classes at my state school (I can’t fit them into my schedule at my current college, because I plan on double majoring in Economics/Political Science/and Studying Abroad for a Year), and from what I have heard from friends at this state school, it should be an easy A. And since where you went to college doesn’t matter, how can this hurt my application?</p>
<p>Noo. It will hurt your application. It doesn’t matter where you went to college as long as you take most of your courses there. If you try to take upper level courses at your state school which you think would be an easy A, then that will hurt your application.</p>
<p>Medschools are not stupid. They will know you are taking these upper level courses because you think it’ll be easier than the ones at your school (and even if thats not what you’re doing thats what they’ll assume anyways). Medschools want to see that you can handle the course load at your current university and not have to resort to some inferior school for an easy A because the courseload at medschool will be WAY heavier and harder.</p>
<p>^^^^^ No my point was, according to people on this forum, no school is “inferior” to another. In other words, Harvard, and the University of Houston are the same…</p>
<p>NorCalguy and ChemFreak posts imply that Harvard>>>>University of Houston, which according to the majority of CCers, it is not true…</p>
<p>
So why should it matter, if someone decided to take 1-2 courses at another school? I mean the person is still taking the “majority” his/her classes at their UG, but decided to take 1-2 classes at an inferior school back home. This would only matter, if you guys were saying one school is better than the other, and this forum always says that no one school is better than another.</p>
<p>I will probably be called out for “making fun” of the university of houston, but I am not trying to, I just picked a random school that I know back home…</p>
<p>
^^^ So in other words, kids who went to “inferior schools” struggle more in medical school than kids who went to HYPMS, because kids who went to “inferior schools” took ALL their classes at “inferior college”, whereas kids at HYPMS took ALL their classes at a “better school”? </p>
<p>I think you guys are digging yourself into a hole…</p>
<p>First of all, the old “it doesn’t matter what undergrad you go to” moniker isn’t true. I’ve said that many times. It matters. Unless you plan to do something extraordinary like get a Fulbright or Marshall Scholarship, it is much easier to get into a top med school from a top undergrad. </p>
<p>Secondly, “inferior” is a relative term. If you go to Stanford. You’ll get credit for going to Stanford. But, if you go to Stanford and take your orgo and physics at UC Santa Barbara, you’ll be at a slight disadvantage COMPARED TO YOUR STANFORD CLASSMATES but still at an advantage compared with a regular UCSB student. The other knock on an applicant who takes tough classes at substantially easier colleges is that there is the assumption that they’re trying to inflate their grades.</p>
<p>Thirdly, as I said in my first post, if you have a couple of things on the list, it’s usually not a big deal. No need to get your panties in a bunch because you’re taking a couple of courses at a crappy college. But, don’t think admissions officers are idiots either. People don’t appreciate the fact that application reviewers spend approx. 45 min- 1 hour per application. They’ll notice if you take a lot of fluff courses or if most of your “science” credits are research credits rather than from actual courses or if go to Harvard but conveniently decide to go to Tufts for your math and orgo classes. As someone who is on the admissions committee at my med school, that is just insulting to me ;)</p>
<p>Thanks that clears up a lot. =). Hahahaha…I don’t disagree with you, I was just trying to point out a commonly held belief on this forum that I disagree with.</p>
<p>
^^^^ Makes sense with the clarification. Its also really hard to judge, what adcoms might think of as “substantially easy college”…because you have to take in account how they view your current undergrad school and how “much lower” they view the school that you are taking summer classes at…</p>
<p>It’s my impression, and only an impression, is that Study abroad, particularly for a year, is one of the few (good?) reasons for taking coursework elsewhere, or in summer. Unless you attend a State public, (which offers most intro courses every semester/quarter), adcoms know that smaller colleges typically only offer Chem 1/Bio 1/Orgo 1/Physics 1 in fall (and Course 2 in spring), so study abroad eliminates the sequence for that year absent summer school, or taking somewhere else.</p>
<p>^^^ Yah, I have some scheduling problems, because double majoring in Economics/Political Science, as well as taking pre-reqs, and then spending my senior year aborad, gives me little time during the school year to get all my courses done…but then again, I might come off looking like the kid who takes courses at another school for an easy A (I don’t know if it will be an easy A, but that is what my friends say)…</p>
<p>It’s not an exact science which is why you won’t be penalized for having a couple of “negatives” or perceived negatives. A summer course or a 12-credit semester is okay. Even the best applicants have a couple of minor blemishes on their record. I had two 12-credit semesters in college. But, admissions officers aren’t going to suspect I can’t handle a full courseload when my GPA is a 3.94 as a science major at Cornell. </p>
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<p>There’s obviously good reasons for anything. A good application reviewer will figure all of this out. But, even if he is oblivious to the nuances of scheduling, docking you a tiny bit for a summer course is no big deal. Plus, study abroad is generally viewed as a positive anyway.</p>
<p>Reviewing applications for med school is not a precise science. Most places don’t use a point system like UCSD or UMIch used to use for undergrad. But, it’s also not so imprecise that “undergrads don’t matter,” “majors don’t matter,” “taking all your prereq’s over the summer don’t matter.” It goes deeper than you think. Engineering grads APPEAR not to get a break on their GPA not because we don’t know that engineering is harder than biology but because many of them are deficient in other areas and the only way they can make it up is in their GPA (which they tend to devote an extraordinary amount of time on). A engineering major with a 3.7 and a rockin’ application is going to be prized over a bio major with a 3.7 and a rockin’ application. Unfortunately, many engineering majors don’t have the social skills or the clinical hours that many other majors do. So, the only way we’d take them is if they demonstrate better academics and analytical thinking (which is where engineering majors tend to shine).</p>
<p>I would never advise someone to major in English instead of engineering solely for med school admissions. I see that advice given out all the time. Play to your strengths. If you’re a workaholic, have a good analytical mind, likes challenges, DO ENGINEERING. Those are great traits to have in a doctor. If you love to read, love to talk, likes to think about the “softer” side of things, DO ENGLISH. Those are also great traits to have in a doctor. Different people have different strengths and almost no one is without any weaknesses. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. If you need to take a course over the summer and you have good reasons, take the damn course! Don’t try to guess what the application reviewers are thinking.</p>