<p>So...I'm taking all sciences and all my pre-med requirements basically at the same time right now...and because of that I dont think I'm going to be getting a particullarly high GPA. My roomate is only taking one pre-med class a semester and is probably going to be getting a high GPA. [I actually don't see her finishing a lot of the higher level sciences before the MCAT, but that's another issue). </p>
<p>Basically, is it better to take all your pre-med classes at the same time (showing Med. schools you can handle the stress) and getting a not-so-high GPA? or is it better to just take everything one at a time? Do Med schools even look at your courseload per semeter? Also, is only your science GPA evaluated or do Med schools look at your overall GPA?</p>
<p>Sorry for so many questions, thanks sooo much!!</p>
<p>Both your overall GPA and your science GPA are evaluated.</p>
<p>Higher GPA is almost always better than lower GPA; med schools don't much care about course load so long as it's representative of the workload the rest of the students at your school undertake.</p>
<p>They usually do not look at workload. Also, there is no reason to be worrying about taking upper level science courses before the MCAT - that test is not over complicated principles. In fact when I was an instructor for Kaplan, I routinely told students to forget everything they had learned as a junior or upper level courses beyond the one year in the necessary subjects, because they'd often think themselves out of correct answers by bringing outside information that wasn't in the passage.</p>
<p>so basically the MCAT is just gen chem, principles of bio and physics? no molec. cell, orgo, biochem, etc? </p>
<p>im really p*ssed about this GPA thing b/c my advisor is the one to told me to take all my science/pre-med courses at the same time...damn. im only a freshman, but I don't see my GPA for this semester being high at all.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure there's orgo on it too.</p>
<p>i don't understand why you would take all your requirements at the same time. this is one of the reasons why i have never even gone to see an advisor. you should have asked some older kids at your school instead. Anyways, you will need to take orgo before the MCAT, but for right now, just focus on pulling your gpa up by dimming down the load.</p>
<p>What exactly is your schedule right now?</p>
<p>thanks so much for helping!! </p>
<p>my schedule now is gen chem, principles of bio, calc and a core class. i thought this was standrard for freshmen pre-meds..but my roomate is just taking calc and she's so hard core about acing it b/c its her only pre-med class...while i can't focus so much on any one class b/c i have 3 pre-med ones (and my exams for them often fall on the same day). my advisor wants me to take molec. cell, orgo and intro to neuroscience( I wanna be a neuroscience major) all in the same semester next year..if I'm not doing so hot with just intro classes now, there's no way in hell i'm gonna be able to handle what my advisor has mapped out for me next year....crap.</p>
<p>That schedule really isn't that bad. Two sciences isn't that difficult to handle, considering bio and chem are arguably the easiest pre-reqs for med school. And Calc 1 is...Calc 1.</p>
<p>keep in mind that the difficulty of pre-reqs varies a lot from school to school; a lot of places make a specific intro class exceptionally hard as a weedout, and the first semester of bio and/or chem are favorites to do that with. The same is true for calc 1, which at my school is arguably the biggest weedout course on campus as almost all freshman engineers, premeds, business students, and non-premed science majors have to take it, and this is at an ivy league school. Point being, I would be very wary about making generalizations about the difficulty of someone's schedule when you know absolutely nothing about the particulars of the institution they attend.</p>
<p>yeah i know...but still. I'm not doing horribly, I just expected to have a high gpa i guess. I have pretty much the same grades as other students with the same course-load as me...but my roomie is def. going to get a higher gpa since she is only taking one real class. This is what my concern is...I feel like its not fair (sorry to whine)...</p>
<p>"it's not fair"</p>
<p>while it's unfortunate that your advisor told you to take so many classes, but you're also choosing a science heavy major. You're going to have many semesters with multiple science course loads. I'm sure there are plenty of people who look at BDM and myself and say it's not fair that we got in as Econ and sociology majors respectively while they were rocket propulsion brain science majors or whatever.</p>
<p>Rocket propulsion brains would be interesting indeed... I want one of those...</p>
<p>its def. possible to do chem and bio and a math all at once most kids at my school (which is full of pre-meds) do it all at once and do fine. its really just based on time management. what your roommate does has nothing to do with you because i doubt the med. schools are going to sit and take the time to figure out everyone's individual story. i mean its just your first semester so show and upward trend and do better next semester. this semester is over and you did what you could, just be positive for next semester and good luck</p>