English Course Requirement?

[pyra]

I took 2 writing courses Pass/No Pass (2 quarters worth) at my university for GE but according to the requirements, the course must be taken for a letter grade. My school only offers the writing sequence for Pass/No Pass. However, I did take 1 quarter of English Lit last year for a letter grade. How strict are schools on the english requirement, will I have to take more english classes to satisfy the requirements for admission? My college doesn't offer "English" courses but only english literature courses--do these count? BTW, I have taken a couple of philosophy classes (ethics courses) that required writing essays, but my guess is that the adcoms will not count this as actual "English" courses?

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[gower]

Many medical schools interpret "writing" courses to include other than English Department courses while others are more restrictive. You should check with Ms. O'Neil, Career Services 0331. 858/534 4939.
She should be familiar with the English requirements and what UCSD courses will satisfy them. If she doesn't know details from memory/experience, the two of you can go through the MSAR together to find what each school you may be applying to has to say. Or she can let you do your own homework by looking at the office copy. Or by a copy of the MSAR yourself.

As a rule, AP credits in English will satisfy all or part of the requirement. Placing or testing out will not. But instead of retaking the basic English courses, you can take electives to satisfy the requirement.

 

[smileallison]

I gradutated from UCSD in '99 and had the same problem when I applied to medical schools this last year. Here's what I did, take it or leave it:

When I was sending back secondaries, I drafted a letter to the schools specifically requiring a full year of English explaining how the writing program worked (you are a Warren student right?) and the philosophy class tacked on to the end of the series. I also explained it was only offered P/NP. I even photocopied the catalog where it explains the program. Then I basically said that if the courses I had were not sufficient to fulfill their requirement, I would be willing to take another class.

My response to the problem was minimal. The only school I heard back from was Georgetown saying that the remaining credit was waived. Some of the other schools I got interviews at never mentioned it and I never heard about it from the other schoools that I didn't interview at. My guess is that with your Literature course, there will be no problem with schools counting your English requirement as complete.

 

[pyra]

Thanks for your advice. I shall try asking my premed advisor again. I did do this tho a couple years back but the person I talked to said he didn't know and suggested that I call each school and ask. (Very expensive to do)