At what point are the amount of non-prerequisite online courses suspicious?

[Round786]

Is it never? I honestly love online courses simply because it’s far easier to pace the course since all the materials are available to you at once. I obviously will take any prereqs in-person.

In spring I’m planning on taking medical terminology online.

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[LunaOri]

Will your degree be from a real university? If you are taking extra online courses for fun, it’s okay.

 

[Round786]

Will your degree be from a real university? If you are taking extra online courses for fun, it’s okay.

Yes! The courses are mostly miscellaneous tidbits of medicine and psychology. I’m interested in gerontology classes dealing with the psychology of death & aging, medical term, medical botany, etc.

 

[LizzyM]

Not going to hurt or help unless you get all As and use it to bolster a poor GPA in which case it looks like padding. Can you take these pass/fail so that they don't help the GPA and are just done for the love of learning?

 

[ab2701]

Not going to hurt or help unless you get all As and use it to bolster a poor GPA in which case it looks like padding. Can you take these pass/fail so that they don't help the GPA and are just done for the love of learning?

just to add to this, is it okay to pad your gpa with online classes from your school if you have already done well in the prereqs/upper division? Especially given how competitive it is now?

 

[Round786]

Not going to hurt or help unless you get all As and use it to bolster a poor GPA in which case it looks like padding. Can you take these pass/fail so that they don't help the GPA and are just done for the love of learning?

I have a 4.0 gpa in the prereqs I’ve taken so far and 3.9 overall. Since my gpa doesn’t really need help, should I take it on a letter scale? Or do you still you recommend P/F?

 

[LizzyM]

If you don't need the bump, no one will accuse you of padding. The courses seem a bit basic... medical vocabulary -- doesn't everyone learn that on the job or in med school?

 

[lno1999]

If you don't need the bump, no one will accuse you of padding. The courses seem a bit basic... medical vocabulary -- doesn't everyone learn that on the job or in med school?

It seems like just about every large school has some sort of med vocab/med terminology class that helps fit into the pre-med/pre-health professions minor or certificate.