<p>I had to drop a class last term and ended with three classes instead of the usual 4-5 at my school. Will this be looked upon unfavorably by med schools?</p>
<p>Lower-than-normal courseloads are bad. Surely you didn't need us to tell you this.</p>
<p>To clarify, chronically taking small credit loads is bad, but once or twice isn't a huge deal. You need to be making progress. BDM comes from a school (Duke, obviously) where not graduating in 4 years was odd. I came from a state school where most people took 4.5 to 5 years and people getting done in 4 were a minority. Stick to what's normal at your school and you should be fine.</p>
<p>Yeah -- normal being the reference point. If graduating in five years is normal, then graduating in five years is fine. But the OP has said that this last semester was not normal.</p>
<p>I'm planning to take 6 classes next term to make up for that dropped course last term. Note: I come from MIT. Classes here tend to be very tough. A lot of people I know had to drop one or two classes every term. I hope that med schools would not look at that dropped class that unfavorably. It doesn't even show up on my transcript, but three classes look kind of bad. Do you think taking more classes next term would make up for last term's light courseload?</p>
<p>I think it will help if you do well in them. It's not worth it to take the extra class if it will hurt you in the rest of your classes.</p>
<p>At least I'm not the only one who had a school that had kids graduate in 4.5-5yrs either. I also go to a state and it almost seems like the school wants kids to finish that late, especially with the ridiculous amount of gen ed. classes they make you take.</p>
<p>If you had a good reason (family/personal issues and whatnot) they probably won't care (I took six classes freshman year, but for a very good reason, and I'm still on pace to graduate on time); if you took three classes just because you were doing badly in them that isn't great, nor is it a deal-breaker. However, as was said above, just take a regular courseload from here on out and you should be fine</p>