I had to take honors physics first semester because I got a 5 on the AP Physics exam. Will it look bad if I go back and take regular physics second semester?
Going from honors physics to regular physics... looks bad for med school admissions?
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The answer is definitively no.
I doubt that they will even know. I took honors physics for one semester and there is no mention of it being honors in the course name, so no one can even tell that I took an honors course unless they went to my school's course website. Even if it's in the course name, just get high grades and no one will care about it.
The honors name shows up on my transcript. I have also heard that med schools don't care about minors. I don't understand. I thought medical schools wanted to see the total view of a person. Why do they pick and choose what they care about in terms of a person's education?
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They will note the rigor of your classes and the presence of a minor, but they don't have a preference whether you choose to take honors level classes or go for an additional degree or not. Holistic review is truly holistic.
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Honors v. non-honors is irrelevant. You learn the same material, just usually in a different format.
Calc-based v. trig-based matters, but even then only minimally. It would look pretty weak to transition from Calc-based Mechanics to Trig-based Electromagnetism. But again, that isn't something that would make or break an app.
Calc-based v. trig-based matters, but even then only minimally. It would look pretty weak to transition from Calc-based Mechanics to Trig-based Electromagnetism. But again, that isn't something that would make or break an app.
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Why would they care about having a minor?
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They don't care.
They pick and choose because they have to in the same way that you're picking to move down to a lower level of physics. You should be able to understand the answer to the question you're asking. If you don't, here's another question that might elucidate it:
Why are you choosing to drop down to a lower level of physics? Why do you feel you can pick and choose what you care about in terms of your own education?
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We don't care.
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@tantacles I am not picking and choosing. I am personally choosing to go to a lower level of physics and to take responsibility if it makes me look bad. What I am trying to say is why wouldn't med schools care about a minor? Why DON'T they care if a student have a very hard major? Why DO they care how many units you take? Why DON'T they care that hard majors have lower GPA's? Why DON'T they recognize that at a university like Princeton that has a lot of grade deflation, a lower GPA might have more meaning than a 3.9 at a state university or a small liberal arts college? Why can't they see the whole idea? At a lot of universities, a physics majors will typically have a lower GPA than an English major.
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I answered your question in my previous post. My question to you was rhetorical, but you absolutely are picking and choosing. Presumably, the higher level physics course would provide you with a more advanced education, and you, like medical schools do, are prioritizing something other than that education to some end.
Is it hard to understand why a medical school with 5,000-10,000 applicants might not be able to comb through every application to adjust for major? What if there are schools where that same hard major has an average GPA of 3.5? How would the school know that? Does your school report its average GPA? GPA within the major? Does it even report its average GPA to medical schools when you apply? In fact, do you even have any hard proof that engineering majors who apply to medical schools tend to have lower GPAs? In fact, how do you even know that your school has lower GPAs than others? Did your school tell you this? If so, how does your school know?
Do you see how one might not be able to answer the question of difficult GPA very easily? With representation from hundreds, maybe thousands of schools in the mix, there is no way to standardize this data; that's why we have the MCAT.
All I know is that in my school, honors classes were for people who wanted to major in that subject, so all of the homework problems were proofs. That class was so useless because it didn't help me at all in my upper level electrical engineering based classes. That's a really simple explanation if someone asks why you didn't continue with honor classes.
I think some schools like different majors. For one of my top choices, they brag about the number of different majors as it increases diversity. I really don't know why they don't give any boost to people with super hard majors with grade deflation.
I think some schools like different majors. For one of my top choices, they brag about the number of different majors as it increases diversity. I really don't know why they don't give any boost to people with super hard majors with grade deflation.
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Really? And so much emphasis is being placed on GPA! Do tell.
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Much more emphasis is placed on the MCAT because it is standardized. Compared to gpa, that has a wide variability of meaning based on the institution. That is why.
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It's rhetorical lol. The fact that there's such a weak correlation between GPA and med school performance goes to show that GPA shouldn't be so much emphasized
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Its a MUCH better predictor compared to gpa. Thats my only point, although the mcat also has its faults as you mentioned.
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Seriously, what's the difference between honors and not honors? I've always taken the regular and didn't see the point of taking the honors. I would guess that they won't care because it's the same class.
It depends on the university, but at mine, they were proof based, so honors physics had us derive equations or explain why something is true. I regret taking that class because I had no plans to become a physics major and it assumes that you already have a strong physics background.
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Science GPA does have a correlation.
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But is it strong?
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Nobody will care.
