How do med school view independent courses?

[2DEG]

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Hi all:

Asking for some advice again. I am not certain if I can get into two courses this fall (Cell Biology, and Gen. Microbiology). If I can't get into these two courses, I was thinking about taking two independent courses from BYU - Genetics, and Microbiology.

What I am wondering though is how would admissions people view independent courses? I don't want to have transcripts in 10 different schools. But I wanna take couple of courses this fall..

Thanks and have a good day.
shahab

 

[randallB]

I know that at my school, students were advised not to take core pre-med courses from other institutions of "lesser academic rigor". Basically, students who failed Orgo at our school took it at a nearby state school, got A's on their transcripts, and thought they were set. If you're able to take those courses and do well, that's great. I don't think anyone's going to look down on multiple transcripts. At the same time though, if BYU is a lower-quality school than your own, it might seem strange to be taking intensive biology courses during the academic year at a different institution. If BYU is "better" than your school on the arbitrary school ranking notion that everyone seems to have, then I wouldn't think twice about it.

I hope I didn't misunderstand what you were asking. Since they're not pre-med req's, I doubt it would be a problem, but it's good to know what to consider when doing these things. It might look better to take some non-sci courses at your school to factor into your GPA from your home institution than go outside of it.

Best of luck,

~R

 

[mr. sparkle]

what's preventing you from getting into those courses?

those classes sound pretty generic and should have large enrollments. even if they do get closed out for some weird reason, i'm sure you could talk to the professor directly and see if he can get you in...(they usually can).

if it's a pre-req issue, you may be a little more hard pressed, but if you show some enthusiasm when you talk to the prof. you should be ok.

 

[2DEG]

Thanks for your replies. I am actually more interested to take the courses here at NCSU because I study well and do so much better with interaction with faculty/students.

Right now, I am sort of in the waiting list. But the list is not that long. And especially in Cell biology, there are 150+ seats. So, professors know many will drop the course. So, I am reasonably optimistic about getting in.

I was still curious to know how med schools view that sort of things. Very much appreciate your feedback.

Best wishes!
shahab

 

[Jason110]

Hi all:

Asking for some advice again. I am not certain if I can get into two courses this fall (Cell Biology, and Gen. Microbiology). If I can't get into these two courses, I was thinking about taking two independent courses from BYU - Genetics, and Microbiology.

What I am wondering though is how would admissions people view independent courses? I don't want to have transcripts in 10 different schools. But I wanna take couple of courses this fall..

Thanks and have a good day.
shahab

I'm surprised these two courses have a waitlist. They seem like generic requirements for most bio majors.

Jason

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I'm surprised these two courses have a waitlist. They seem like generic requirements for most bio majors.

Jason

The wait list for my genetics course was 310 people. Luckily, I was one of the 350 that enrolled before the wait list took over. Wait lists of large science courses at UC's regularly surpass 100 people.