course load - full time or part time?

[dashrx1019]

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Hi everyone, I'm a post-bacc student in my 2nd and (hopefully) last year. I was a Gov. major in undergrad and doing a career changer post-bacc program.
I'm looking for advice about my schedule, I'm a little worried it's going to be too much and I'm thinking about dropping a class, but my advisor wants me to be taking 3 courses per semester..

I'm signed up for Orgo I, Physics I + lab and one upper division Bio course. I'm also a teaching assistant for a general bio course, I work 40 hours a week, volunteer at a clinic 6 hours a week and do non-clinical volunteering at an organization for youth with developmental disabilities 4 hours a week. I'm financially independent and need to work full time. The clinical volunteering is through a program and I made a commitment to them, so I can't possibly drop these things from my schedule.

I'm considering dropping Bio, so I will only be taking Orgo I and Physics I/Physics Lab, but my advisor told me not to do this, saying it looks bad for med school if you only take 2 courses.

My BCPM GPA is a 3.6, so I really can't afford to not get A's or A- in these classes.

Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated, thanks

 

[theseeker4]

Hi everyone, I'm a post-bacc student in my 2nd and (hopefully) last year. I was a Gov. major in undergrad and doing a career changer post-bacc program.
I'm looking for advice about my schedule, I'm a little worried it's going to be too much and I'm thinking about dropping a class, but my advisor wants me to be taking 3 courses per semester..

I'm signed up for Orgo I, Physics I + lab and one upper division Bio course. I'm also a teaching assistant for a general bio course, I work 40 hours a week, volunteer at a clinic 6 hours a week and do non-clinical volunteering at an organization for youth with developmental disabilities 4 hours a week. I'm financially independent and need to work full time. The clinical volunteering is through a program and I made a commitment to them, so I can't possibly drop these things from my schedule.

I'm considering dropping Bio, so I will only be taking Orgo I and Physics I/Physics Lab, but my advisor told me not to do this, saying it looks bad for med school if you only take 2 courses.

My BCPM GPA is a 3.6, so I really can't afford to not get A's or A- in these classes.

Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated, thanks

Getting high grades is MUCH more important than taking a heavy course load. Get the A's taking as many classes at a time as you can balance with your other daily activities. If you have the A's, your application will be read by an Adcom who will realize you had 50 hours of time commitments outside of school, as opposed to the college kid who maybe read magazines part time in the library in addition to his 14 credit hours. If you take a full course load, and bomb your courses, your application will never be read, it will be placed in the large stack of applications destined for pre-interview rejections.

In essence, get the A's while doing what you have to do to support yourself. If you can't take a "full" course load and get the A's, then don't take the full course load.