Helpfulness of online courses

[2017MU2017]

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Next semester I’ll be a post-bacc student going back to take my prerequisites for med school. From what I’ve heard, in addition to the required courses for med school, genetics, anatomy, physiology, and cell biology are really helpful for preparing for the MCAT. I’m considering taking some of these online since they require less prerequisites and I’ll actually have time to fit them into my schedule.

Can anyone provide advice as to how useful these online courses are? What were he labs like? Any other courses you think I should take? Also, if taking online courses from somewhere else puts me over the credit limit to remain part time at my current university, would that be a problem?

I really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[Goro]

Many MD schools specifically do not accept online coursework. Invest in MSAR Online to find out which ones do, and don't.

 

[HomeSkool]

Many MD schools specifically do not accept online coursework. Invest in MSAR Online to find out which ones do, and don't.

Agreed.

Also, if you're just trying to improve your MCAT performance, you may be better served to take a commercial prep course (e.g. Kaplan or Princeton Review). Those will do a better job focusing on frequently-tested content.

 

[de Ribas]

in addition to the required courses for med school, genetics, anatomy, physiology, and cell biology are really helpful for preparing for the MCAT

I don' think taking so many extra courses will result in significant benefit for MCAT. General Bio and Biochem courses have more than enough. Taking these courses just for MCAT purposes will be waste of time and money. Take MCAT prep course or use prep material.

What were he labs like?

Varies. Some colleges have lab kits, some have simulation online labs, and some require on campus lab time.

Any other courses you think I should take?

These are great courses to take if you have time and money. Make sure you take biochemistry. Microbiology or Immunology is another great course.

Also, if taking online courses from somewhere else puts me over the credit limit to remain part time at my current university, would that be a problem?

Not sure if I understood what you mean.
PT and FT can be interpreted differently for different purposes.

 

[workaholic181]

A lot of MD schools wont accept online courses (some DO also).

IMO, taking those courses wont do a heck of a lot for your MCAT prep that couldn't other wise be achieved through self study. The above poster is right though, you will NEED biochem and microbio prior to your exam.

 

[Robin-jay]

Don't take pre-req. courses online. A lot of issues can come from that.

 

[2017MU2017]

Don't take pre-req. courses online. A lot of issues can come from that.

These aren't necessarily "prerequisites" for any of the schools I've looked at, but they are suggested courses. Would this still be a problem?

 

[2017MU2017]

I don' think taking so many extra courses will result in significant benefit for MCAT. General Bio and Biochem courses have more than enough. Taking these courses just for MCAT purposes will be waste of time and money. Take MCAT prep course or use prep material.

Varies. Some colleges have lab kits, some have simulation online labs, and some require on campus lab time.

These are great courses to take if you have time and money. Make sure you take biochemistry. Microbiology or Immunology is another great course.

Not sure if I understood what you mean.
PT and FT can be interpreted differently for different purposes.

Biochem is a prereq for the majority of schools I've looked at. Even if taking these courses won't necessarily help me on the MCAT, would they still increase my chances of getting into med school? Also, how would you rank anatomy, physiology, immunology, and microbio in terms of importance for preparing for the MCAT and getting into med school? Thanks for all the help.

 

[de Ribas]

Biochem is a prereq for the majority of schools I've looked at. Even if taking these courses won't necessarily help me on the MCAT, would they still increase my chances of getting into med school? Also, how would you rank anatomy, physiology, immunology, and microbio in terms of importance for preparing for the MCAT and getting into med school? Thanks for all the help.

Very little help or maybe even none. The way they may help is to refresh some basic bio material since most of these courses refresh bio material at first several chapters.
I don't think that having these courses increases your chances of an acceptance. If your GPA and MCAT is competitive, nobody will go to that detail to increase or decrease your chances. In fact, I would think most people would have these recommended courses completed anyways. It is not something that would set someone apart from the others.

If you need GPA repair, these are good courses to take and boost your GPA.

 

[jazzmetal]

Can anyone provide advice as to how useful these online courses are? What were he labs like? Any other courses you think I should take? Also, if taking online courses from somewhere else puts me over the credit limit to remain part time at my current university, would that be a problem?

I've taken several courses online including Genetics and Hematology. I thought they were great, and comparable in difficulty to my postbac in-person courses. Hematology was actually a lot more rigorous than most, although not as MCAT-relevant. I found Genetics very helpful for the MCAT as it covered a lot of more general molecular biology topics, plus more and more schools are at least recommending Genetics, and I recall that a handful require it (in which case make sure that the school would allow an online course to fulfill the requirement). I'm taking Physiology onine now and it's also extremeley MCAT-relevant. Of those you asked about later in the thread, I'd say immunology > anatomy > microbio, for MCAT, but then I haven't taken any of those courses so take that with a grain of salt. All this said, the best way to prep for the MCAT is with MCAT prep materials so if you don't need GPA repair or have a special interest in the course topic, you can skip the online courses and go straight to prep materials and practice questions.

As others have noted, most schools won't accept online courses to fulfill hard prereqs, but they're still considered undergraduate courses and will be included when AMCAS calculates your GPAs. I did not take any labs online so I can't speak to that, and for the credit limit question, you'll probably have to check with your university directly.

Good luck!

 

[2017MU2017]

I've taken several courses online including Genetics and Hematology. I thought they were great, and comparable in difficulty to my postbac in-person courses. Hematology was actually a lot more rigorous than most, although not as MCAT-relevant. I found Genetics very helpful for the MCAT as it covered a lot of more general molecular biology topics, plus more and more schools are at least recommending Genetics, and I recall that a handful require it (in which case make sure that the school would allow an online course to fulfill the requirement). I'm taking Physiology onine now and it's also extremeley MCAT-relevant. Of those you asked about later in the thread, I'd say immunology > anatomy > microbio, for MCAT, but then I haven't taken any of those courses so take that with a grain of salt. All this said, the best way to prep for the MCAT is with MCAT prep materials so if you don't need GPA repair or have a special interest in the course topic, you can skip the online courses and go straight to prep materials and practice questions.

As others have noted, most schools won't accept online courses to fulfill hard prereqs, but they're still considered undergraduate courses and will be included when AMCAS calculates your GPAs. I did not take any labs online so I can't speak to that, and for the credit limit question, you'll probably have to check with your university directly.

Good luck!

Great advice. Thanks!

 

[chemphysicsinstructor]

Next semester I’ll be a post-bacc student going back to take my prerequisites for med school. From what I’ve heard, in addition to the required courses for med school, genetics, anatomy, physiology, and cell biology are really helpful for preparing for the MCAT. I’m considering taking some of these online since they require less prerequisites and I’ll actually have time to fit them into my schedule.

Can anyone provide advice as to how useful these online courses are? What were he labs like? Any other courses you think I should take? Also, if taking online courses from somewhere else puts me over the credit limit to remain part time at my current university, would that be a problem?

I really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Go ahead and take the courses, if you can. The more you learn, the better you will be prepared. Also, by taking more courses, you get more practice at being a student and developing your study skills. After all, you want to have those study skills honed before you begin a professional school (med, dent, pharm, etc.).