How much does Course load matter for me and should I take this extra class?

[plutonic8]

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Hi everyone, I wanted to ask a question of you. I have been struggling with this decision for a bit now and looking for third party opinions.

The problem: I am deciding what classes to take during the second year of my post-bacc (on a quarter system). I have already finished a year of three classes each quarter of gen chem, gen bio, physics, and all their associated labs. This fall I am going to be taking ochem1, genetics, and some research which totals 12 credits. My question is will 12 credits look lazy and do I need to add another class such as micro for a total of 17 credits? For what it's worth I also work part time as a CNA (12 hour shift per week) and do 4-6hours of volunteering a week in addition to the classes and the research. I plan to add ~5 more volunteer hours per week once the English / GED program I am part of gets going. So far in my academic career I have solid grades from both my postbacc program and undergrad (4.0 postbacc, 3.8 undergrad). I worry that taking all three difficult bio classes could take too much of my time and potentially affect my GPA, but I also don't want to shoot myself in the foot by looking lazy to adcoms.

The last thing to add to this is that I currently plan on similar quarters for winter and spring, taking ochem2 / cell bio and organic chemistry / developmental bio, respectively along with a couple lab credits and am deciding if I need to add onto those as well.

If you have any advice I would really appreciate it, and if you need more information I am happy to provide it. Thanks!

 

[Rogue42]

I do not think credit hours matter as much as people make them out to. But that is just my opinion.

Adcoms would rather see you have a 4.0 in 12 credits while balancing work and life over a 3.5 with 16 credits.

But again, they are looking for a whole person and care less about credit hours; I took 12-14 credit hours per semester my entire college career and I am in medical school. But again, n=1.

 

[plutonic8]

I do not think credit hours matter as much as people make them out to. But that is just my opinion.

Adcoms would rather see you have a 4.0 in 12 credits while balancing work and life over a 3.5 with 16 credits.

But again, they are looking for a whole person and care less about credit hours; I took 12-14 credit hours per semester my entire college career and I am in medical school. But again, n=1.

Thanks for the reply! Did the number of credit hours come up for you during the application process? For me this would just be the last year of a postbac with 12 credit hours with an entire degree and a recent year of ~15 credits per quarter from before, which hopefully makes a difference. But I would like to find out if that is just wishful thinking.

 

[Rogue42]

Thanks for the reply! Did the number of credit hours come up for you during the application process? For me this would just be the last year of a postbac with 12 credit hours with an entire degree and a recent year of ~15 credits per quarter from before, which hopefully makes a difference. But I would like to find out if that is just wishful thinking.

I never had a single interviewer ever question me on my credit hours. I had a 3.6 GPA as well. So your GPA is better than mine in both undergrad and postbac.

I really cannot imagine it to be a problem for you.