Courseload for current senior who will start postbac after graduating?

Started by gbvan
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

gbvan

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
How does a small courseload before beginning a postbac look to admissions committees? I finalized my decision to become a doctor after the add deadline for my school, so I wasn't able to sign up for any last minute pre-reqs to shorten my stay at a postbac program. So, I decided to drop down to the minimum units I could take (which, since I'm an honors student, is 8 units. That boils down to the 5 units that my honors thesis takes up, plus one 3 unit class) to give me more open availability to a) find a job and pay off some debt/save up some money before the postbac and b) have more availability to volunteer.

I actually have enough credits to graduate early (in fact, I think I could have graduated after the summer semester since I took classes then too), so I'm really only sticking around to do an honors thesis anyways. I just felt my time would be better spent working to save money and pay down bills instead of taking classes that I won't need.

My question is: will this look negative in the eyes of an adcom, and if so, how much? Does it matter that I could've graduated early but wanted to do a senior thesis, or that I wanted/needed to work to earn some money?

This is more out of curiosity than anything. I'll probably go through with this plan no matter what, I just want to get a realistic idea of how it will affect my standing.