How do med schools view taking only 3 classes?

[KaleRG]

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Hey guys,

I tried searching for an answer to my question, but I couldn't find any posts about the particular situation I am in. So, here's the deal. To me this is a unique situation, but I'm not sure as to how unique it is to others. My sophomore year is coming up, and first semester I am taking four classes at 4 credits plus a 1 credit course. But, second semester as well as the last four semesters of my undergrad I am planning on taking only three 4 credit classes and a 1 credit course (choir for a fine arts requirement). My situation is that I came into my university with 52 transfer credits, so now at the end of my freshman year I have most of my core requirements for graduation and pre-reqs out of the way. If I were to take four classes a semester for the rest of my undergrad I would be able to graduate a semester early, but I don't really want to do that. So, that is why I am planning on taking three classes a semester starting after next semester. Is this situation viewed as unfavorable?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Ramp up your ECs that semester and you'll be fine. As long as you're keeping yourself busy with something useful, it doesn't really matter whether it's classes or ECs.

 

[MiniPanda]

I took two 3-class semesters, and no adcom member ever commented on it... anecdotal, of course.

 

[senorsquishie]

Have a "good reason" to be safe. For example time one with your MCAT studying, and the other your last semester if you have two.

Then again, you can always take random fun classes. Underwater Basket weaving😍

 

[NKChemEng]

No one will care in the least. The only reason 3 classes would be bad if you're already struggling to finish, which you are definitely not.

Take that time to make your application well-rounded and really make it shine.

 

[chronicidal]

The career services premed advisors at my school (HYPSM) tells us that taking a 3 class load just to take the mcat looks bad, so don't do it.

 

[NKChemEng]

The career services premed advisors at my school (HYPSM) tells us that taking a 3 class load just to take the mcat looks bad, so don't do it.

But what about to volunteer/research/EC stuff?

 

[TheMightySmiter]

The career services premed advisors at my school (HYPSM) tells us that taking a 3 class load just to take the mcat looks bad, so don't do it.

That sounds like crap to me. There's no way I'd risk doing poorly on the MCAT because some advisor told me to take a regular course load and I didn't have enough time to study. A low MCAT score looks way worse than a semester with three classes.


I think a lot of pre-meds make the mistake of confusing "good time management" with "no free time". You don't have to have 21 credits and 40 hours a week of ECs to show good time management skills. As a postbac, pretty much all of my semesters had three classes and 13-16 credit hours. I got great grades because I had time to study, and I volunteered and worked quite a bit outside of school. A 4.0 with 13 credits>>a 3.5 with 21 credits.

 

[KaleRG]

Thanks for the info and advice guys. I was planning on doing much more on the EC side as well as research during those semesters, so I think I should be fine. It will also be nice for when I do study for the MCAT 🙂. Thanks again!