<p>I'm a first semester freshman at a top-20 university, and for various reasons/programs that I'm a part of, I must take Organic Chem (4 credits), 6hr/wk Orgo lab (2 credits), Intro Biology (4 credits), 3hr/wk Bio Lab (0 credits), and a freshman seminar class (4 credits).</p>
<p>That brings me up to 14 credits. Most people take 16. The max you can take as a freshman is 18. My question is, should I take another class (probably Spanish) and bring myself up to the 18hr max? I'm very concerned about doing this with Bio and Orgo. Also, do med schools look down on underloading first semester?</p>
<p>I think 14 credit hours would be fine for your first semester. That gives you a chance to get adjusted to college, involve yourself in some activities, etc.</p>
<p>in a related question, how bad does it look to take 13 hrs (orgo, physics, writing) for both semesters of my sophomore year? would i be better taking 16ish even if it gave me a lower gpa? thanks</p>
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in a related question, how bad does it look to take 13 hrs (orgo, physics, writing) for both semesters of my sophomore year? would i be better taking 16ish even if it gave me a lower gpa? thanks
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I heard that it is better to take 16ish to show that you are taking a rigorous corseload, but i'm not sure if its worth adding that one class if it might jeopardize your GPA. sorry if that didnt really answer your question.</p>
<p>13 hours at 3.8 is better than 15 hours at 3.6. But it is possible that neither of them get accepted because there will be plenty of people with a 3.8 at 15 hours. Obviously, this may be a little overdramatic but that's kind of our point here.</p>
<p>The average among med school applicants is 15-16 hours/semester and the median GPA of matriculants is 3.7. Schools probably aren't going to scrutinize transcripts closely enough for one or two semesters of 13 credits to make a difference. However, keep in mind, med schools are looking for reasons to reject you. How much a low courseload will hurt will depend on how strong the rest of your app is.</p>
<p>I actually think I know what school/program you are talking about. I had to do the exact same thing, taking 14 credits instead of a full 16. Now as a junior I regret it because i have to make up for it now. It all worked out in the end for me, but if I could go back I would probably choose differently.</p>
<p>A single semester or two (or three) of low total hours is not any sort of issue at all. It simply won't matter good or bad. If however, you take every single semester at 13 hours and it takes you 5 years to graduate because of it (when everyone else at your school always graduates in 4), then it might be an issue, albeit, in my opinion an extremely minor one.</p>
<p>The biggest thing is that you don't want to be an outlier in your cohort. There's a wide variety of "normal" but it'll raise flags if you're outside that range. So take an easy semester if you need to, but realize you'll need to take a couple harder ones or courses during the summer so that you stay on track.</p>
<p>How about if a student is taking an average of 15-16 hours but takes 4 1/2 or even 5 years to graduate? My daughter has never taken less than 15 hours but her major requires 127 hours (doable in 4 years if no additional classes are taken) but some classes that are not required for her major are recommended for grad school or medical school which would increase the hours. Plus she is very interested in doing a semester abroad which would make 4 years impossible in her major. Also she has a strong interest in some classes outside of her major so she is thinking of adding a minor - mainly because it is an area of interest to her. Would going over 4 years be a negative in those circumstances?(assuming her GPA is staying high).</p>
<p>My advice would be: if it's extremely unusual at her school, it's a bad idea. If a lot of kids at her school seem to do that, it probably doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Only about 1/3 of students seem to graduate in 4 years according to their Stats so not unusual at all. Probably for different reasons to hers though. Something else to think about. If she does the study abroad program she is interested in it will be almost impossible to finish in 4 years unless she overloads on classes some semesters. I guess she needs to have a talk with the premed advisor.</p>