I'm in trouble

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shaq786

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Ok im going to be a junior next year, but lets take a flash back to my early college days. Every college year(10-12 hours) I only took a few hours. I made up for this by taking lot of summer classes. I aced pretty much everything but on my transcript it shows a lack of hours(10-12). I have also taken alot of summer classes. So in my senior year, it will be slack year for me. I will only have to take 6 hours each for 2 semesters to graduate. Will that make my application look bad considering my lack of hours(10-12 and 6 each)? Keep in mind I aced everything and I hope I can still prove myself on the MCAT to gain respect from the admission committees.
 
No, I don't think med schools will care too much, as long as your grades are good. Personally, I had 18 credits both semesters my freshman year (i dunno why, i decided to be hard-core for a while) and then soph year I had a normal amount (16 and 15 I think), and junior year I only had 12. Since I have also taken a few summer classes and had AP credit coming into college, I am only taking 3 credits each semester this year, just one class each semester. I've talked to some people about that, asking if med schools would view me as a slacker, especially in my senior year, and basically I have heard that as long as I'm doing something productive with my spare time it's all good. I'm going to be volunteering more at the hospital and also working at my job 25ish hours a week. So I think you'll be fine, just try to get in some working/volunteering/anything other extracurriculars.
 
Shouldn't be a problem, especially if your grades are good. If you were working also, I think they would be more understanding.
 
It shows that you know how to think ahead and manage your time.
no need to kill yourself in undergrad, especially since med school is so demanding.
 
I don't this it reflects badly on you at all, but thats partly because you did really well.
If your grades were poor, I'd have to say that its different.
Maybe you want to throw an extra class or two into your current schedule this year and next year just to show them that you are a motivated student during the regular semester too?

Just an idea...good :luck:
 
Yeah, do a semester or two of 15+ units and ace the classes, so you demonstrate to the adcoms that you can do well even when the courseload isn't light.
 
shaq786 said:
So in my senior year, it will be slack year for me. I will only have to take 6 hours each for 2 semesters to graduate.

You know, you don't have to simply meet the minimal graduation requirements. I don't think you should slack just because you can. Take some classes that interest you. Or take all 12 hours at once and graduate early, if you have something you could do for a semester off.

That said, as long as you've done well and finished in a normal amount of times, I don't think they'll particularly care how your hours are distributed between fall, spring, and summer.
 
I don't think you're in trouble. I took 11-13 credits each semester without summer classes. As long as you do well you're okay.
 
dang what school do u go to, where u can get away with that and still graduate? ive been taking 5 or 6 classes a semester, and i still gotta take 12 classes senior yr.... in any case, i hear they care mostly about gpa, i dont think theyll be looking that deeply into your transcript to think that u were slackin
 
davedavedave said:
dang what school do u go to, where u can get away with that and still graduate? ive been taking 5 or 6 classes a semester, and i still gotta take 12 classes senior yr.... in any case, i hear they care mostly about gpa, i dont think theyll be looking that deeply into your transcript to think that u were slackin

Summer classes
 
med schools want to see at leats 4 classes per semester (at least thats what my premed advisor told me) regardless of how many credits they are
 
Just remember, at even the most laidback med schools you will have more than 12 hours of class each week.
 
Why is it that I spent an average of 3-4 hours per week in orgo lab and only got 1 credit hour? And then those ridiculous lab practicals. Man, I hated that class.

ha ha. Just wanted to throw in my comment after reading about the >12 hours of class in med school.
 
shaq786 said:
Ok im going to be a junior next year, but lets take a flash back to my early college days. Every college year(10-12 hours) I only took a few hours. I made up for this by taking lot of summer classes. I aced pretty much everything but on my transcript it shows a lack of hours(10-12). I have also taken alot of summer classes. So in my senior year, it will be slack year for me. I will only have to take 6 hours each for 2 semesters to graduate. Will that make my application look bad considering my lack of hours(10-12 and 6 each)? Keep in mind I aced everything and I hope I can still prove myself on the MCAT to gain respect from the admission committees.
dude, nows your chance to P/F all those courses that you have always wanted to take but couldnt for whatever reason. youre not going to get an opportunity like this again.

of course, if there is a monetary reason for taking less hours (dont know why, because youre planning on staying two semesters, instead of finishing up ASAP), then that's a different story.
 
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