<p>Hey everyone,
This has been bothering me and hopefully I can get good feedback from everyone here like I normally do :)
So this semester (Fall of my sophomore year) I had trouble getting into my biopsychology class and ended up not getting in because of ridiculous waitlists. What this implies is that I am only taking 13 hours this semester (Ochem, genetics, physics, physics lab, and research credit). Last year I took 13 hours in the fall and 14 in the spring. How badly will my minimal hours hurt my med school application? Should I take the time to get permission from the dean to take another class?
Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>13 is no big deal, I think as long as you have 4 classes they won’t really pay attention and my DD who took 16-18 several terms to pursue a double major would have gotten No/zero/zip/nada bonus points for taking a killer schedule!</p>
<p>I have the impression that as long as you graduate in time, no serious harm will likely be done. If most students at your school are graduated in 4 years, I think you had better graduate in 4 years also, unless you have some special reasons to be graduated in more than 4 years.</p>
<p>However, I heard that in some career oriented majors like engineering, it is quite common for some students to graduate in 5 years. I do not know whether this can be considered as special cases and therefore can be excused for not being graduated in 4 years. (Statistically speaking, very few premeds would major in engineering anyway. But BME at some schools may be an exception, just because there is a word “medical” in the name of this major :))</p>
<p>mcat2: Yup this one class really shouldn’t affect my graduation in 4 years. I will just have to take it next semester.
somemom: thank you. and i wanted to say that Im absolutely sure that you’re daughter’s efforts did not go unnoticed.</p>
<p>Oh, also, I think taking 12-14-16 etc units is not a big deal if you do graduate on time and if you have a plate full of ECs.</p>
<p>If you take 10 units and do nothing else but play WoW, they may wonder, but if you are playing sports, shadowing, volunteering, Greek, working, etc, they can see your plate is full and you are on track.</p>
<p>My DD who took tons of units for a double major was not a pre-med, but in what I have read, I don’t think the hit she took on he GPA would have been made up by ‘bonus’ points for a tough schedule.</p>
<p>Figure out how many average credits you need per semester to graduate in four. An ideal candidate would never take fewer than that average, and would have a couple semesters above that. (Yes, he would have more credits than needed to graduate.)</p>