Do Admission Committees look into course descriptions?

[s_r_e_m]

The answer to my question is likely no as that would be very time consuming, but I was just wondering if admissions committees ever scrutinize university course descriptions to make sure certain courses covered all the topics that they deem essential knowledge for a course. I have seen one medical school that does not accept courses from professional schools (e.g. nursing, allied health or pharmacy) as those courses are apparently structured specifically for individuals in a certain career. Is that a common trend or do most medical schools just focus on course names and GPA when reviewing applications? For example, I was looking into taking (Elementary) Introduction to Biochemistry and was wondering if should I worry myself with making sure all the necessary topics will be covered in that course or will its status as a Biochemistry course suffice for certain medical schools that require biochemistry. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or opinions if you would be able to share. Thank you!

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[Goro]

Gawd, no. I look at course names, your course grades and GPAs. And the rest of your app.

 

[LizzyM]

Some schools will provide some context in the committee letter, particularly to tell us that the course sequence was more difficult than the sequence typically taken by pre-meds. This is most common at a few of the Ivys.

 

[s_r_e_m]

Some schools will provide some context in the committee letter, particularly to tell us that the course sequence was more difficult than the sequence typically taken by pre-meds. This is most common at a few of the Ivys.

Thank you for your input! I will likely not be working with a Recommendations Committee as my university does not have one, so I'm a little bit curious how that might affect my application. Could the lack of context provided by a committee possibly negatively affect my application? Could my application possibly be seen as more ambiguous and less concrete than other applicants who had a committee provide context for their courses?

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for your input! I will likely not be working with a Recommendations Committee as my university does not have one, so I'm a little bit curious how that might affect my application. Could the lack of context provided by a committee possibly negatively affect my application? Could my application possibly be seen as more ambiguous and less concrete than other applicants who had a committee provide context for their courses?

Some instructors will do this ... they'll describe the course and its difficulty when describing your performance in the course itself. No one dings a student from Podunk College for not having a committee letter similar to one that comes from Harvard or Yale. It is not expected and not something that will negatively affect your application.