Anything wrong with this plan to graduate a semester early?

[bea524]

Will medical schools look down on this? (NOTE: I have read the requirements for most of the medical schools I'm interested in, and they all clearly say you are not at a disadvantage for taking "prerequisites" at a community college. I can only assume this means I won't be at a disadvantage taking gen ed courses there too).

Basically I want to graduate a semester early and use that free semester to devote entirely to work and MCAT studying. After this spring semester I will have completed junior year with 90 credits.

Then I plan to take 12 credits over the summer but only 3 of these credits are at MY university. I'm not sure how it works at other colleges (I assume the same way) but where I go only courses taken at my university count towards my GPA. So basically I just plan to blow off 9 credits (since it won't count towards my GPA but does count towards graduation credit requirements) and only study for 3.

This would leave me with 18 credits remaining during first semester senior year and I plan to kind of do the same thing - take 12 credits at my university which will count towards my GPA and 6 at another community college (blow them off and get maybe a C or a B) just to reach 120 credits.

Is this a stupid idea for a wannabe medical student or do they not really care as long as your GPA from your university is solid?

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[DAPI]

Is this a stupid idea for a wannabe medical student or do they not really care as long as your GPA from your university is solid?

Yes, medical schools will count the "blow off" credits towards your cGPA and/or sGPA which could bring them down significantly.

If you took those courses seriously and did more than just work and study for the MCAT during that free semester, like continue volunteering or shadowing or research, then it would probably not be a problem. I would however be prepared to answer why you chose to take that final semester off in an interview though.

 

[massmocha]

Are you taking any pre-med requirements at the other school? If so, it might be viewed as you trying to avoid a heavy load of classes to focus on a hard class... my advisers told me not to take any pre-med reqs during summer session.

 

[bea524]

I want to emphasize that all the prereqs have been taken at my university. I'm talking about mostly gen eds.

So medical schools count grades that my university doesn't even factor into my GPA?

 

[flatearth22]

I want to emphasize that all the prereqs have been taken at my university. I'm talking about mostly gen eds.

So medical schools count grades that my university doesn't even factor into my GPA?

Yes your school GPA =/= your AMCAS GPA

For example if your school has A+'s they get truncated to A's. Also AMCAS goes 0.7 to - grades and 0.3 to + grades whereas most schools do 0.67 and 0.33

Furthermore, if your school does not accept transfer credit for a grade from any 4 or 2 year university (even those taken in HS) it will not affect your school GPA but will affect your AMCAS GPA (they want a transcript of any class you've ever taken at college or uni to be factored in their GPA)

 

[massmocha]

When you apply AMCAS recalculates your cumulative GPA and calculates a science-only GPA based on all classes. I believe that includes gen eds taken off-campus. But, I don't think they calculated my study abroad classes.

 

[bea524]

What if the gen eds at community colleges follow the pass/fail system? How does AMCAS recalculate this?

 

[raltima07]

What if the gen eds at community colleges follow the pass/fail system? How does AMCAS recalculate this?

I believe with no grade, but why don't you take classes you can do good in?

 

[chidoman]

.

 

[torshi]

I took "big" classes every summer and noone from admissions ever questioned it.

Same, I'm taking Physics 1, gen Chem 2, during the summer at a CC
Before I transfer