Chemistry Prerequisites as Credit/No Credit

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AshPreMed

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Hi, I'm a University of Toronto student.

I'm interested in taking my upper year chemistry courses (orgo and inorganic) as a Credit/No credit basis (where the mark will not show; only Pass/Fail). I'm Canadian and American, and planning to apply to Canada and USA. My cGPA is a 3.2 so far, the past (3rd) year was a 3.75, doing MCAT this summer, and applying in October. Otherwise, I would prefer to do them after I graduate in the summer at another university on the basis of a conditional acceptance to a medical school (but I'd have only 4 FCEs in my last year, which might make some schools wonder why I didnt do the courses at UofT?).

Would Med schools accept the prerequisites without grades, and would doing so lower my chances of being accepted?

Lastly, on a side note, how necessary is research experience?

Thanks!

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Hi, I'm a University of Toronto student.

I'm interested in taking my upper year chemistry courses (orgo and inorganic) as a Credit/No credit basis (where the mark will not show; only Pass/Fail). I'm Canadian and American, and planning to apply to Canada and USA. My cGPA is a 3.2 so far, the past (3rd) year was a 3.75, doing MCAT this summer, and applying in October. Otherwise, I would prefer to do them after I graduate in the summer at another university on the basis of a conditional acceptance to a medical school (but I'd have only 4 FCEs in my last year, which might make some schools wonder why I didnt do the courses at UofT?).

1) Would Med schools accept the prerequisites without grades, and
2) would doing so lower my chances of being accepted?

3) Lastly, on a side note, how necessary is research experience?

Thanks!
1) Highly unlikely, except where typical prerequisites are not required (there are very few). Taking these classes P/F would be a huge red flag on your application. Considering your low cGPA, you need some consistent strong grades in sciences to prove you have what it takes. Call schools and ask where it is not explicitly stated on their website if you need to reassure yourself about their view of P/F grades for prereqs.

2) Yes.

3) About 73% of those accepted listed a research experience. If you don't have it, be sure you are particularly strong in some other desirable EC.
 
1) Highly unlikely, except where typical prerequisites are not required (there are very few). Taking these classes P/F would be a huge red flag on your application. Considering your low cGPA, you need some consistent strong grades in sciences to prove you have what it takes. Call schools and ask where it is not explicitly stated on their website if you need to reassure yourself about their view of P/F grades for prereqs.

2) Yes.

3) About 73% of those accepted listed a research experience. If you don't have it, be sure you are particularly strong in some other desirable EC.

If you have a relatively high gpa, would that compensate for having 1 prerequisite as P/F? I don't quite follow how having a prereq as P/F would affect you since you could easily retake it in the summer before matriculating if certain med schools had a problem with it.

edit: Sorry to hijack thread, I have one semester of prereq as P/F, but haven't specified on my primary I will be retaking for a grade this year. Will this be a problem?
 
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If you have a relatively high gpa, would that compensate for having 1 prerequisite as P/F? I don't quite follow how having a prereq as P/F would affect you since you could easily retake it in the summer before matriculating if certain med schools had a problem with it.

edit: Sorry to hijack thread, I have one semester of prereq as P/F, but haven't specified on my primary I will be retaking for a grade this year. Will this be a problem?

Prereqs are pretty standard across every school for content and grading so if you don't have a grade, it's difficult to assess your relative position. a C is passing. If you're looking for students who can master the material, what would you think of someone who took an important introductory science class pass/fail? Being a whiz at physics doesn't make you an expert in biology.
 
If you have a relatively high gpa, would that compensate for having 1 prerequisite as P/F? I don't quite follow how having a prereq as P/F would affect you since you could easily retake it in the summer before matriculating if certain med schools had a problem with it.
The OP has indicated a plan to take both OChem and Inorganic as P/F, not just a single term of a class.
 
But if I do the chemistry courses in the summer at another university after I graduate, I would have completed my final year with 4 full year courses. So if I did 4 FCEs would they ask me why I didnt do the year of chemistry courses during the year? The main reason is my university doesn't offer the lab component with the upper year Orgo and Physical course.
 
Can't you take the lecture portions of chemistry at your undergrad school and take the lab portion only elsewhere?

I feel compelled to point out that applying to US schools in October is not a great plan, being as that is so late in the season. Additionally, it would benefit your GPA if you had another year of excellent grades on your transcript before you apply, and having completed the prerequisite coursework would make a higher MCAT score more likely. This plan would have the further benefit of allowing your to beef up your ECs.
 
Since I had a course earlier, I started studying for the MCAT in mid June by The Princeton Review course which will finish in August 20th, giving me about 2 weeks to write the exam in September. Since I will write the exam in september, I'll need to be applying in October right, after my marks return? I have literally had no break whatsoever, even till the next year begins lol, but its okay, I love it! :) 3 days summer vacation is alright.

Next year would be my fourth year and if I apply during its summer I will have a gap year for the applications. In that case, as an alternative to rejection, I plan to be in graduate school for a Master's that may take 2 years at a minimum, during which I would also be enhancing my application by a higher MCAT score and ECs.

This is my only shot at applying to enter medical school immediately after undergrad. It would be bad to spend a year not doing a Master's instead of committing to one. I'm extremely interested in research anyway, cell and molecular research in biomedical sciences. It's something I want to dedicate my life to, so its just a matter of flipping some work chronologically in my life, although I would much prefer to do an MD first to gain better knowledge of the field before I start researching in it. So I want to research anyway, but I worry that researching after an MD would require another "2 years of Masters" to get familiar to the field.

So far my GPA: 3.0. 3.0. 3.75. cGPA 3.2
 
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With that GPA, you're gonna need good grades in upper level science classes to have any decent shot at an MD school. Can't do that if you're taking every science class as Pass/Fail. And it's also important to get used to the rigor of upper level classes early on. You don't wanna get to med school and start failing classes then.

Also if you really wanna do both medicine and research, go MD/PhD. Admissions to MD/PhD programs is very competitive though, so you'll need to get that GPA up first.
 
Oh, I have not taken any course as a Pass/Fail, I was only considering taking one now.

I had good grades this year (about 3.75) because I literally studied my butt off all the time. Problem is my university which has an average admission grade of at least 88%, keeps the class average FIXED (BELL CURVED) at... guess it.... in the 60%s even in the upper years (it peaks at 72% at the "easy" courses lol). The problem is this also applies to the Life Sciences where almost everyone (who had an 88%+ in high school) studies very hard to get a 4.0 GPA but rather the average is about a 2.4 due to the system that stubbornly doesn't allow an increased class average. So, what I'm saying is it is much harder for me to get the required GPA at my university due to the competition for the very limited spots of 80%+, even though I study about 5 hours every day, 8 hours on weekends (great times to study more! :)). If you put 100 Einstines in the class, the university would still strictly keep the average in the 60-70%, it's that ridiculous, sometimes they LOWER everyone's mark, literally, just to meet their special distribution. I agree that the grades of a student should be compared to his/her peers to differentiate him/her but when the class average is fixed that low, it simply becomes cruel, and our university doesn't care, students will still enroll because of its rank.

I hope the admission committees consider my university's class averages relative to its world wide rank, which would show that due to competition there aren't that many dumb or lazy students in the class, but the class average does make them seem so compared to average universities... So yeah, just felt like saying that because I think my GPA grossly doesn't reflect my academic capacities and so is unfair for admission decisions. Don't get me wrong, I will continue to improve as I have previously done, and I will never give up, but I just think that this should be considered for the better doctors of tomorrow... and that it's mean. :(

Right now, I'm just depending on my MCAT performance.
 
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