Graduate Classes

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stookie

Slick Nasty
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Can I take graduate classes, like biology class and not be enrolled in a degree program? Would this fly with adcoms or not?

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stookie said:
Can I take graduate classes, like biology class and not be enrolled in a degree program? Would this fly with adcoms or not?
I am doing this now. Just a class or two a semester in biology and not in a degree seeking program. I dont see why adcoms would care, it prolly wont help you as much as post-bacc classes. Lets be honest , medical schools care about their g.pa. averages, and masters classes dont help that. So they may give masters classes less weight. IMO.
 
stookie said:
Can I take graduate classes, like biology class and not be enrolled in a degree program? Would this fly with adcoms or not?

If you are not in a degree program, what is the sense of taking graduate classes over undergraduate classes? They are not counted in your GPA.
 
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Sundarban1 said:
If you are not in a degree program, what is the sense of taking graduate classes over undergraduate classes? They are not counted in your GPA.

That makes sense, but I would like the adcoms to see that I can handle graduate course work. So should I just work on raising my gpa?
 
stookie said:
That makes sense, but I would like the adcoms to see that I can handle graduate course work. So should I just work on raising my gpa?

If you need to raise your GPA take post bacc classes or if you want you can even take upper level courses at the undergraduate level (genetics, molecular biology etc.) Taking graduate school classes with no intention of getting a degree is not impressive.

If you are in a special masters program that is a different story because you take classes with medical students. So, no I would not just take graduate courses for the hell of it. I would either look into special master's programs or post bacc classes.
 
how about taking grad classes as an undergrad?
 
Sundarban1 said:
If you need to raise your GPA take post bacc classes or if you want you can even take upper level courses at the undergraduate level (genetics, molecular biology etc.) Taking graduate school classes with no intention of getting a degree is not impressive.

If you are in a special masters program that is a different story because you take classes with medical students. So, no I would not just take graduate courses for the hell of it. I would either look into special master's programs or post bacc classes.

I do need to raise my GPA. Does anyone know how I can figure out how many credits I need to take to raise my GPA to a 3.5? I have a 2.86 GPA now, and by the time i graduate in May my GPA should close to 3.0. How does one go about calculating their GPA?
 
stookie said:
I do need to raise my GPA. Does anyone know how I can figure out how many credits I need to take to raise my GPA to a 3.5? I have a 2.86 GPA now, and by the time i graduate in May my GPA should close to 3.0. How does one go about calculating their GPA?

Your GPA is simply the amount of credit hours divided by the number of credits. Say for example you take one semester of genetics worth 4 credits and you receive an A in the course. Therefore, your GPA would be the 16 credit hours (because you received an A) divided by the number of credits (4) and your GPA is 4.0.

On your transcript you should have a total GPA with the number of credits and credit hours already calculated. Therefore, to calculate how many classes you need to raise to 3.5 (science or overall) just simply add factors of 16 to the number of credit hours you already have and also add 4 credits/16 credit hours to your total credits...I have a feeling it should be well over 40 credits (assuming A's in the classes)...so, you have your hands full. All of this is assuming you are going to be taking 4 credit science courses.
 
It seems like the OP is probably better off in undergrad courses. Also I don't really know how Adcom view grad courses & suggest that people speak to med school admission advisors.
But I'm in master program in Bio at CUNY Hunter. I know quite a few non-matrics. in our courses who are appling to med school. It just seems like the quality of education is significantly higher than undergrad courses. For some people I think it has to be a worthwhile option.
 
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