Heavy courseloading to boost GPA... hmmmm.

[EMDream]

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Lets say, theoretically, you have a year and a half to finish your BS, yeah, you have a few pre reqs to go and a few upper science classes to finish off your major req's. Your GPA is around 3.5-3.6 but, you're canadian, and you want into a US medical school so that's mediocre at best. You're doing your undergrad at a no name US University.

Would you take an average load and hope to push it to a 3.7? or really overload so you can pump it up a bit more than that. Sounds risky the second way, sounds like it could backfire. But isn't it risky enough being a foreign applicant applying to US medical school with a mediocre GPA?

Decisions decisions.

 

[45408]

Take interesting classes that are not overly difficult. You'll be readily able to explain why you took them, and hopefully you'll do well in all of them.

 

[dr_pepper]

Taking a heavy courseload usually means adding 1 extra course on top of what you would have taken. When you run the numbers, this 1 extra course will make almost no impact on your overall GPA. However, 1 extra course makes it much harder to do well in a given term.

It's easy enough to say that you'll load up on courses and get A's in all of them, but it's quite hard to actually do.

 

[swifteagle43]

Don't bite off more than you can chew. You just might just choke. 🙂

 

[blingblah]

Hey EMDream,
just my opinion but I would say take the average load and make sure you do well in them and then also build on the extracurricular profile of urs (and if you dont have it, get crackin) ... coz med schools care abt numbers, gpa and mcat and you have a pretty decent gpa... but it is my personal experience that great extracurriculars combined with a decent gpa and mcats can clinch the deal. Just my opinion mate... good luck with that.... planning is great...execution is better! 👍