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The vast majority of the time nobody will ever notice. We don't typically read through/analyze your transcript and the specific classes you have taken. There is so much inter-school variation, there is no real point.

However, if someone has an asymmetric MCAT/GPA, say 29/3.8, some (certainly not all) adcoms will look at the transcript for explanation. If it is clear that that 3.8 mean very little because you have a bunch of low Bs and Cs in your prereqs and are being massively held up by fluff classes, it will leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Personally, I can't imagine wasting my time taking classes I'm not interested in for the sake of my GPA. Time is the most precious commodity and my time is too valuable to waste on an entire semester of class who's sole function is to raise my GPA.
 
Yeah, my non-science classes that I took out of interest (padding??) have never come up. I'm pretty sure, however, that they looked at my GPA.
 
@mimelim

Do you have any experience in situations where schools put class averages on transcript? If things turn out the way I want to them (and I am gonna work my butt of for it), there would be a strong upward trend from freshman year onwards. I don't wanna say that my later classes are fluff but they will be a combination of higher end science (orgo, biochem, etc) and some A/A- average classes, all of which I have a reason for taking. Would adcoms be more likely to look closely in that case? I go to a pretty well-known top school if that makes any difference (which I doubt it does tbh).
 
I sadly took many padding classes to try to guarantee, to the best of my ability, a high gpa. I wish I could only have taken difficult/rewarding classes I was interested in, but my goal of getting into medical school far trumped this desire. I believe it will have been worth it, for me at least. You need to find a balance that doesn't make you feel like a complete piece of s**t though.
 
RedStar7 said:
@mimelim

Do you have any experience in situations where schools put class averages on transcript? If things turn out the way I want to them (and I am gonna work my butt of for it), there would be a strong upward trend from freshman year onwards. I don't wanna say that my later classes are fluff but they will be a combination of higher end science (orgo, biochem, etc) and some A/A- average classes, all of which I have a reason for taking. Would adcoms be more likely to look closely in that case? I go to a pretty well-known top school if that makes any difference (which I doubt it does tbh).
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I'm not sure what you are saying. But, I want to re-iterate, people don't look too closely at transcripts unless there is so really obvious reason for them to do it (and even then some won't). We see the grade in your class, nothing else.
 
In contrast to my learned colleague, I like looking at transcripts to see how people do in Biology classes. I look for more rigorous ones and tend to discount fluff like like Ecology or methods or seminar classes. I also look for rising trends.

I have a colleague who want to see people take more "interesting" coursework to display intellectual development and growth.

So as you can surmise, there is a huge variation in what Adcom members looks for and value.


mimelim said:
I'm not sure what you are saying. But, I want to re-iterate, people don't look too closely at transcripts unless there is so really obvious reason for them to do it (and even then some won't). We see the grade in your class, nothing else.
Click to expand...
 
Goro said:
In contrast to my learned colleague, I like looking at transcripts to see how people do in Biology classes. I look for more rigorous ones and tend to discount fluff like like Ecology or methods or seminar classes. I also look for rising trends.

I have a colleague who want to see people take more "interesting" coursework to display intellectual development and growth.

So as you can surmise, there is a huge variation in what Adcom members looks for and value.
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What would you say for applicants who took fluff biology classes and focused heavily on rigorous engineering/physics/math classes?
 
Goro said:
In contrast to my learned colleague, I like looking at transcripts to see how people do in Biology classes. I look for more rigorous ones and tend to discount fluff like like Ecology or methods or seminar classes. I also look for rising trends.

I have a colleague who want to see people take more "interesting" coursework to display intellectual development and growth.

So as you can surmise, there is a huge variation in what Adcom members looks for and value.
Click to expand...

Ecology at my school is quite difficult! It was harder than genetics.
 
LFC85 said:
Ecology at my school is quite difficult! It was harder than genetics.
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Every school is different, but at mine (and most of my friends' undergrads) Ecology was seen as the upper-level biology class that was an easy A when compared to classes like Immuno, Pathogenic Micro, Biochem, etc.
 
My school: Genetics, Orgo, biochem at the top, followed by microbio, immunology. And then all the gen bios/chems are ridiculously hard to get above a B+ in because of the class structure.
 
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