As a transfer, is taking pre-reqs at my previous university ok?

[roadhogmain]

Hello, I transferred to Cornell from UMass Amherst. I'm currently a sophomore. I am currently taking physics, and plan on taking organic chemistry 1 and 2 (lectures only) over the summer at UMass. My plan is to take Cornell orgo lab during junior fall, and also biochem/genetics/etc at Cornell. Is this ok? My logic is that prestige doesn't matter, and that my Gen bio/Gen chem/stat/calc 1 grades are already from UMass.

Here are a few more questions I have:

1) Theoretically speaking, would it be looked down for me to take even more pre-reqs beyond orgo lecture over the summer at UMass? what's the limit?
2) Would it be bad if my GPA at UMass is way higher than at Cornell? (like 3.9 at umass but like 3.5-3.7 at cornell?)

My logic is that admissions committees (for the most part?) don't care about prestige, and pragmatically, Cornell is significantly more rigorous than UMass. And you are probably wondering why I transferred--it's 15k cheaper a year for me to go to cornell (more than full tuition off).

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Hollow Knight]

I could be way off base here, some of the other adcom members may say something different, and if so, listen to them.

But if I was reading your app (I'm actually sitting here now reading applications to my school and rating them), I wouldn't care about any of this

 

[LizzyM]

If you go back to UMass for the summer after taking courses at Cornell, you will be judged more harshly that your fellow students who took the same courses at Cornell.

If you delay your transfer to Cornell until after you've taken summer classes, you might be judged less harshly than the above scenario but considered second rate to someone who did all 3-4 years at Cornell earning the same overall GPA that you'll have.

 

[roadhogmain]

If you go back to UMass for the summer after taking courses at Cornell, you will be judged more harshly that your fellow students who took the same courses at Cornell.

If you delay your transfer to Cornell until after you've taken summer classes, you might be judged less harshly than the above scenario but considered second rate to someone who did all 3-4 years at Cornell earning the same overall GPA that you'll have.

while im sure there's an observation here to be made about a Schrödinger-esque prestige/rigor component to what you're saying, my goal is just to get into umass for med school.

also, a 3.9 at umass vs a 3.9 at cornell is far more than just saying you'll get a 3.9.

at cornell, it means you study for hours every day (i already do tbh), never going outside, and barely interacting with the student life. sure, there might be exceptions, but consistently scoring at the top of the curve (in orgo) against world-class students presents an admission benefit that seems minuscule to the difficulty and my overall well-being and satisfaction in college.

 

[LizzyM]

while im sure there's an observation here to be made about a Schrödinger-esque prestige/rigor component to what you're saying, my goal is just to get into umass for med school.

also, a 3.9 at umass vs a 3.9 at cornell is far more than just saying you'll get a 3.9.

at cornell, it means you study for hours every day (i already do tbh), never going outside, and barely interacting with the student life. sure, there might be exceptions, but consistently scoring at the top of the curve (in orgo) against world-class students presents an admission benefit that seems minuscule to the difficulty and my overall well-being and satisfaction in college.

Did you come here to get confirmation of the choice you've already made or did you want honest opinions?

 

[roadhogmain]

Did you come here to get confirmation of the choice you've already made or did you want honest opinions?

i made this thread to ask questions, and im glad i'm getting answers. i'm not trying to be snarky. but answers aren't exactly clear. how harshly am i going to be judged? is it worth the rigor? is it worth having to take a gap year over? (big one right here)

that then ties into the idea of, will i be judged as harshly if I mention that it was necessary for me to not take a gap year or to graduate on time (i.e. not pay extra money).

there's a whole world of nuance which i'm not being let onto here. if taking courses at umass is second-rate, then what is its equivalent? going to umass? in this case, why does prestige not matter? your answer implies that it does, but then this leads to other questions.


to reiterate, i came here to get honest opinions, and im thankful for them. but its hard to distinguish between the conflicting opinions im getting.

 

[LizzyM]

If you are trying to avoid rigorous coursework, you will be judged as "less than" an applicant who embraced the rigor and did very well.

You are a sophomore and you are asking about having to take a gap year over?? Now I'm confused.

You can get into medical school from UMass. You can get into medical school from Cornell. Some schools will give a slight bump to the Cornell grad whose GPA equals that of the UMass grad with the assumption that Cornell is more rigorous.

 

[roadhogmain]

If you are trying to avoid rigorous coursework, you will be judged as "less than" an applicant who embraced the rigor and did very well.

You are a sophomore and you are asking about having to take a gap year over?? Now I'm confused.

You can get into medical school from UMass. You can get into medical school from Cornell. Some schools will give a slight bump to the Cornell grad whose GPA equals that of the UMass grad with the assumption that Cornell is more rigorous.

To answer the gap year question, the way my major (bio sci) works is it would force me to take a 5th year to finish my major requirements if I don't take orgo over the summer and take it next year. That then might go into a gap year, as I'd probably need time to polish up my application. According to the pre-health office, 94% of cornell grads applying to md schools take at least take one gap year, and 66% take at least two gap years.

I don't know what questions med school applications ask (would adcoms actually know this from prompts I can answer ), but would it be seen as avoiding rigorous coursework if I need to take orgo over the summer to graduate on time?

 

[LizzyM]

Taking o-chem or physics at a "less rigorous" school is a red flag for some application reviewers. Any other coursework doesn't raise the same red flag but those weed-out courses are a measure of an applicant's willingness to step up and work hard. Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger.

If there is no way around it and you have to take o-chem in the summer at UMASS due to expenses, you do that. There won't be a place to explain that on the application but maybe some schools won't notice or will notice but not care. (I'm at a T20 school that isn't your target school.)

 

[eigen]

while im sure there's an observation here to be made about a Schrödinger-esque prestige/rigor component to what you're saying, my goal is just to get into umass for med school.

also, a 3.9 at umass vs a 3.9 at cornell is far more than just saying you'll get a 3.9.

at cornell, it means you study for hours every day (i already do tbh), never going outside, and barely interacting with the student life. sure, there might be exceptions, but consistently scoring at the top of the curve (in orgo) against world-class students presents an admission benefit that seems minuscule to the difficulty and my overall well-being and satisfaction in college.

Given all of this, I'm left wondering why you transferred at all? I can't imagine Cornell being cheaper (although maybe they gave you a great FA deal), and you want to be at UMass for medical school...

Transferring (presumably for the better academics) and then going back to take classes where you transferred from looks weird, and kinda undermines the point of transferring?

This is especially true given that it seems like the transfer (major + post-grad goals) has set you behind in time to graduation?

 

[roadhogmain]

Given all of this, I'm left wondering why you transferred at all? I can't imagine Cornell being cheaper (although maybe they gave you a great FA deal), and you want to be at UMass for medical school...

Transferring (presumably for the better academics) and then going back to take classes where you transferred from looks weird, and kinda undermines the point of transferring?

This is especially true given that it seems like the transfer (major + post-grad goals) has set you behind in time to graduation?

15k cheaper per year -> 45k cheaper. since all ivy leagues have need-based aid and i have more than full tuition off you can imagine that im not that well off. theoretically if i did a 5th year it'd still be overall cheaper than umass

if i choose not to do premed or experience setbacks, the cornell name can help me a lot in getting jobs in other fields

legacy for my kids is an added benefit despite it being controversial. im not rich and im first gen

 

[eigen]

If you're doing this for financial reasons, then do what works for you.

If you're doing it to avoid challenges, then don't do that.

I would also strongly, strongly, strongly, strongly advise against taking OChem lab and OChem lecture at different schools. There's no way that isn't going to be a nightmare. I would also heavily recommend against splitting any "1-year" sequence of courses between schools. Almost all programs are (somewhat) unique in how they split up work between semesters, and this always leads to a less-than-smooth experience.

My final piece of advice is that I've almost never seen students truly successfully learn organic chemistry over a single summer accelerated course. Most students completely underestimate how intense those are. Most condense an entire 14 week semester of material into 4 weeks, which usually means you're learning just under a month of content each week, and having the equivalent of a midterm each week to study for. Given the learning curve for most students in organic chemistry, this is (nearly) always a disaster. There are rare students I've seen succeed, but most of them say they wish they hadn't.

 

[Stuaccount]

Hello, I transferred to Cornell from UMass Amherst. I'm currently a sophomore. I am currently taking physics, and plan on taking organic chemistry 1 and 2 (lectures only) over the summer at UMass. My plan is to take Cornell orgo lab during junior fall, and also biochem/genetics/etc at Cornell. Is this ok? My logic is that prestige doesn't matter, and that my Gen bio/Gen chem/stat/calc 1 grades are already from UMass.

Here are a few more questions I have:

1) Theoretically speaking, would it be looked down for me to take even more pre-reqs beyond orgo lecture over the summer at UMass? what's the limit?
2) Would it be bad if my GPA at UMass is way higher than at Cornell? (like 3.9 at umass but like 3.5-3.7 at cornell?)

My logic is that admissions committees (for the most part?) don't care about prestige, and pragmatically, Cornell is significantly more rigorous than UMass. And you are probably wondering why I transferred--it's 15k cheaper a year for me to go to cornell (more than full tuition off).

What’s your major?