Do adcoms put enough weight on courseloads?

[lady bug]

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There is so much talk about GPA, but i rarely hear enough emphasis on GPA vs. courseload.....at my undergrad school, our premed advisor won't even write us a strong supportive letter unless we've maintained a classload of atleast 15 hrs. per semester, cuz otherwise he doesn't think we'd be able to handle med school courseload. For some reason, I don't see adcoms putting enough emphasis on undergrad courseload. Here is a scenario of two people (in the same major) I know applying this year- one has a 3.5 having took 17-21 hrs. every semester, another has a 4.0 having took no more than 12 hrs each semester. Now the guy with a 4.0 will probably shine more in eyes of the adcoms.....not really fair I think.

 

[lady bug]

uuh, sorry it got posted twice, I dunno what happened. 😕

 

[efex101]

I think that the adcom's really do not have time to go through each individual application and see how many hours per semester someone took. So although it is commendable that someone took a huge load and possibly did not do as good as someone else with a lighter load, adcom's probably go for the better gpa with maybe a couple of less classes. Someone know for sure?

 

[Jalby]

Nope. One of my friends took 2 graded courses a semester, and he got into a great school.