Course load advice during applications

[CognitiveCheese]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Well, I am about to graduate from my bachelor's with a dual degree and a good amount of research experience. Unfortunately, neither degree is in the sciences and I have few prereqs under my belt. While med school is still in my sights (and has been for a while), for now I am applying for graduate school in my current field of study.

I intend to complete my prereqs within 2 years, so I should be able to apply for medschool by the time I finish my Master's.

I am starting with Calculus this summer. So far, so good. Feels like a lower division class. I should get an A.

Next semester, I am applying for grad school, writing a couple of senior theses (one lit based, one experimental), and taking two classes that will have easy homework, an online grad requirement I can finish in 3 weeks, and one that I just need to show up for. My master plan was to have an easy course schedule so that I could focus on grad apps and senior theses. ...

But... I feel tempted to add Physics + Calc & Calc 2 into the mix. Is this a bad idea? I have had difficult semesters in the past, but my theses & applications need to get done. .... >_> opinions?

I guess my real question is will Physics with Calc & Calc 2 melt my brain?

 

[NorthOfBroad]

Are you just doing the master's program to finish the pre-reqs? If so that might be a little overkill to do a formal program just to knock pre-reqs out? Unless it is an SMP which I don't know much about.
Anyway onto your question: Is this a combined class or are you saying taking calc I and calc II as two separate classes at the same time. Aside from the facts I think you already took calc I and you don't need calc II for medical school, taking calc I and calc II as two classes at the same time is a very bad idea. But I honestly need more info about your classes and grad program to really help you out.

 

[CognitiveCheese]

I was intending to take Calculus based Physics, so I would also want to take Calc II in order to keep moving forward in the Calc based Physics sequence.

I work with statistics a lot, so some extra Calc courses will only help me. Calc doesn't intimidate me so far, but I have no concept of what Calc based physics is like. (The closest thing I took to Physics was an intro to Astronomy class.) I also heard Calc 2 is difficult, but don't know what makes it hard. I know there are lots of science majors here, so I thought I could get some help. 🙂

Edit: Well, honestly I am not too worried about my current courses... They are basically all GE courses I need to graduate that I selected to be easy - 12 units. They'll take time, but won't be too bad.

The things I am worried about making time for are my senior theses and grad apps, which can take as much time as I will give them. If I added calc and physics, would put me over 20 units. While I could handle that, I do need to dedicate time to applications and completing quality theses. So I don't want those things to suffer in order to keep my GPA up. I am just struggling with this decision.

 

[CognitiveCheese]

Rule 1: Take a Breath

1) Med schools want to see success not attempts. Taking harder courses/heavier course load puts you at risk for not doing well in several courses. You have limited time, energy and funds so plan them wisely
2) I have had several students say over the years that calc based physics was not as good preparation for MCAT as algebra based
3) If you are going for a masters, performance in which rarely helps but can hurt, plan your time for applications, secondaries, MCAT, etc
4) You will have to explain your commitment to getting a masters and then turning to medicine and will you be committed to that

Thank you for your reply. I will definitely make sure I will be taking on only what I can handle. I definitely hear you about having limited time/energy/funds.

The Physics class will be online (with the labs once a week on campus), which is why I think I might be able to handle it. Of course, since it's Physics w/ Calculus, I would have to take the Calc II class concurrently, which actually would make life harder overall. To be honest, I'm kind of in love with Calculus right now, which is the other reason I want to take Calc based Physics and don't mind taking another Calc class.

I never thought about a Master's actually hurting my application, but I can see your point. It would be difficult to do a Master's and some core science on the side than just taking a post-bacc and making the med school application look very good. It would be weird to ask for med school letters from my department. I am conflicted, but not deterred...