Senior year taking too much on?

[Lemon Mango]

Hello Everyone,

I am a non-trad student starting my last year of college next semester planning on applying to medical school after graduating. I am trying to demonstrate a strong and rigorous upward trend and have been taking "difficult" undergraduate classes for the past year. I am slated to take OChem II w/ Lab, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathophysiology, and General Pharmacology next semester. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a science GPA of 3.1 w/ a 3.76 GPA over the past year taking primarily science classes. MCAT is a 514. Significant shadowing hours. Significant patient interaction. 6 instate school options, 4 MD, 2 DO, 2 MD heavily favor instate based on MSAR data.

Question: Do you think this is overkill? I am doing this to try and avoid doing an SMP or post-bacc.

Any advice would be great!

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[Moko]

I am a non-trad student starting my last year of college next semester planning on applying to medical school after graduating. I am trying to demonstrate a strong and rigorous upward trend and have been taking "difficult" undergraduate classes for the past year. I am slated to take OChem II w/ Lab, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathophysiology, and General Pharmacology next semester. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a science GPA of 3.1 w/ a 3.76 GPA over the past year taking primarily science classes. MCAT is a 514. Significant shadowing hours. Significant patient interaction. 6 instate school options, 4 MD, 2 DO, 2 MD heavily favor instate based on MSAR data.

Question: Do you think this is overkill? I am doing this to try and avoid doing an SMP or post-bacc.

Definitely do NOT take OChem, OChem Lab, Biochem, and all those other classes together. Your GPA and trend is what matters as a re-inventor (see @Goro 's guide). You won't be given extra marks because you managed to cram in multiple high-intensity classes together.

It's better to take an extra year and get A's from hereon out, which will maximize your chances of getting into medical school, than to force the above schedule, do mediocrely, and then need to take multiple extra years to correct the blunder. Just my thoughts.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There are no bonus points for overloading your semester. In fact, you need to do a lot more to move that GPA upward from a science 3.1 even with your attempt at an upward trend.

It also doesn't make sense that you took the MCAT before you took biochemistry. You could have gotten a higher score if you mastered biochemistry had you waited.

 

[eigen]

Hello Everyone,

I am a non-trad student starting my last year of college next semester planning on applying to medical school after graduating. I am trying to demonstrate a strong and rigorous upward trend and have been taking "difficult" undergraduate classes for the past year. I am slated to take OChem II w/ Lab, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathophysiology, and General Pharmacology next semester. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a science GPA of 3.1 w/ a 3.76 GPA over the past year taking primarily science classes. MCAT is a 514. Significant shadowing hours. Significant patient interaction. 6 instate school options, 4 MD, 2 DO, 2 MD heavily favor instate based on MSAR data.

Question: Do you think this is overkill? I am doing this to try and avoid doing an SMP or post-bacc.

Any advice would be great!

If you have to ask, the answer is almost always "yes, you're taking on too much". Especially with coursework, it's one of the most common mistakes I see my advisees make. In your case, it sounds like you're taking a *lot* of classes that aren't required on top of some challenging pre-requisites.

The other thing that stands out to me is that you don't mention anything about community service, but emphasize shadowing hours. You need very few shadowing hours (and more doesn't really help), but you need significant amounts of consistent community service / volunteering hours for a successful application.

And the "worse" your academic side is (GPA), the more you need above average clinical experience and community service to balance it out.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hello Everyone,

I am a non-trad student starting my last year of college next semester planning on applying to medical school after graduating. I am trying to demonstrate a strong and rigorous upward trend and have been taking "difficult" undergraduate classes for the past year. I am slated to take OChem II w/ Lab, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pathophysiology, and General Pharmacology next semester. I have an overall GPA of 3.25 and a science GPA of 3.1 w/ a 3.76 GPA over the past year taking primarily science classes. MCAT is a 514. Significant shadowing hours. Significant patient interaction. 6 instate school options, 4 MD, 2 DO, 2 MD heavily favor instate based on MSAR data.

Question: Do you think this is overkill? I am doing this to try and avoid doing an SMP or post-bacc.

Any advice would be great!

I agree with the above. There will be no brownie points for taking more than you can do well in. You need to get the best grades you can, and overloading your schedule won't help you do so. Your priority should be high grades, not finishing fast.

 

[Lemon Mango]

If you have to ask, the answer is almost always "yes, you're taking on too much". Especially with coursework, it's one of the most common mistakes I see my advisees make. In your case, it sounds like you're taking a *lot* of classes that aren't required on top of some challenging pre-requisites.

The other thing that stands out to me is that you don't mention anything about community service, but emphasize shadowing hours. You need very few shadowing hours (and more doesn't really help), but you need significant amounts of consistent community service / volunteering hours for a successful application.

And the "worse" your academic side is (GPA), the more you need above average clinical experience and community service to balance it out.

Thank you for the help. My advisor told me to add on pharm and pathophysiology, unfortunately I need the others to graduate on time. I also forgot to put my volunteering hours, which is around 150 over the last year at a local hospital and 50 at a local food shelter, which I have volunteered at since highschool.

 

[Lemon Mango]

Definitely do NOT take OChem, OChem Lab, Biochem, and all those other classes together. Your GPA and trend is what matters as a re-inventor (see @Goro 's guide). You won't be given extra marks because you managed to cram in multiple high-intensity classes together.

It's better to take an extra year and get A's from hereon out, which will maximize your chances of getting into medical school, than to force the above schedule, do mediocrely, and then need to take multiple extra years to correct the blunder. Just my thoughts.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. My advisor wanted me to take them all together. This semester I took ochem I w/lab, Gen chem II w/ lab (repeat), exercise physiology, and kinesiology (4.0 this semester), which is probably why she recommended me to take all these classes together. I self studied a lot for my MCAT, which I took this summer, which set me up to do well this semester, but finals week was hell.