<p>I will be a college freshman this coming fall, and I am a Biology/ Pre-Med major.</p>
<p>In high school, the classes a student chooses to take greatly influence what college he or she will get accepted to. For example, a student who takes all APs and Honors will have a greater chance to get accepted into a top school. On the other hand, a student who takes regular courses will not have much of a chance to get into a top school.</p>
<p>Does that same thing apply to undergrads who want to go to top grad schools? If so, what courses in college are considered "advanced" and look favorable to grad schools or med schools? </p>
<p>I started off wrong in HS, and it cost me big time because my course rigor was probably my greatest weakness. I do not want to make the same mistake again at a bigger stage so please provide some input/advice.</p>
<p>Also, I have the option to opt out of Freshmen Writing and skip Biology 101 and 102. Should I? I heard taht med schools want to see that I took Bio 101 and 102 even if if got credit via AP exams.</p>
<p>As of now, these are my courses.
CHEM 103, Freshmen Writing, Honors Seminar, Calc I</p>
<p>You might want to ask this question in the Pre-Med forum. This forum is more about academic graduate programs, so the answers you get may not be strictly applicable.</p>
<p>Basically, for academic graduate programs, rigor is only an issue with courses related to the discipline you’re applying for. That is, if you want to pursue a Ph.D in history, nobody will care one fig that you took the easiest possible science classes for general education.</p>
<p>A baccalaureate degree is about increasing specialization, and graduate school is entirely about further specialization.</p>
<p>Graduate schools (i.e. PhD programs) care about the rigor of your coursework in your discipline - they like to see that you have a good understanding of the field, and having more advanced coursework under your belt is a good way of showing this.</p>
<p>Medical schools (MD programs), on the other hand, don’t care nearly as much about course rigor. All that really matters is your GPA, regardless of what classes you take (i.e. for applying to medical school, an A in general psychology would be better than a B in advanced quantum mechanics).</p>
<p>I want to go to med school right now so I guess I’ll take Biology 101 and/or 102. There is no need to skip them cause I don’t plan on going to grad school for biology nor do I want to pursue biology if I do not go into medicine or the like. </p>
<p>As for the Freshmen Writing course, do you suggest I take it? An upperclassman told me that the course gives a lot of work. It’s not that I am lazy but writing just seems ehhh to me lol…I also do not think I am a bad writer although I may be thinking wrong. I know writing is important but is that course really necessary?</p>
<p>Also, for med school or grad school, is it okay to take random courses I might have interests in? For example, I want to take Piano 1 because I want to learn piano lol. </p>
<p>Anyways, thank you very much.</p>
<p>Take the writing class, and take a few other writing-heavy classes.</p>
<p>It’s becoming more and more important for med school admission. You need to be a wonderful scientist, sure, but you also need to be able to put together words good.</p>
<p>College-level writing is a lot different than high school-level writing. It’s not a big deal, but you still have to adjust to it. That’s what the freshman writing class is for (most schools have them).</p>
<p>I decided to opt out of Freshmen Writing, but I will take other “writing intensive” classes for they are required for med school admissions.</p>