Is it Frowned upon by Medschools if they see you are only doing 12 creds/semeste

[csx]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Rather than stretch myself thin and do say 14-16 credit hours I decided to go with closer to 12 credit hours and get Mostly A's and a B or so.

Does this look bad?? Or do most applying students take 14+ credit hours and get A's/B's?

 

[askamsky51]

Rather than stretch myself thin and do say 14-16 credit hours I decided to go with closer to 12 credit hours and get Mostly A's and a B or so.

Does this look bad?? Or do most applying students take 14+ credit hours and get A's/B's?

Truthfully, I don't even know if adcoms look at course load. I could be wrong, but I feel like with 5-10k applications (or more even!) they more-less skim the letters beside the course name.

Maybe LizzyM could elaborate more--though I suspect if it's true she wouldn't dare propagate the thought that "lazy" behavior is OK.


edit: For what it's worth, I only took 12 my last couple quarters.

 

[rodmichael82]

They don't give a flying F

 

[Ismet]

Adcoms do look at academic rigor, but obviously they cannot analyze everyone's courseload and obviously it's not a very important factor. But it is also something that is not completely ignored.

Are you an incoming freshman or do you already have some semesters under your belt? A few 12-credit semesters would really not be frowned upon, but taking 5 years to get a degree because you can't handle more than 12 credits per semester for all your semesters (and you don't have outside extenuating circumstances like having to work or provide for a family) means something might be wrong.

Keep in mind that med school preclinical years are roughly ~25 credit hours at a time, so if you're struggling to keep up with 14-16 credits, try to assess your study skills now rather than later.

 

[darklabel]

Adcoms do look at academic rigor, but obviously they cannot analyze everyone's courseload and obviously it's not a very important factor. But it is also something that is not completely ignored.

Are you an incoming freshman or do you already have some semesters under your belt? A few 12-credit semesters would really not be frowned upon, but taking 5 years to get a degree because you can't handle more than 12 credits per semester for all your semesters (and you don't have outside extenuating circumstances like having to work or provide for a family) means something might be wrong.

Keep in mind that med school preclinical years are roughly ~25 credit hours at a time, so if you're struggling to keep up with 14-16 credits, try to assess your study skills now rather than later.

I agree, this isn't something to be neurotic about. I am sure adcoms will look at 12 credits of sciences/math the same as 14 - 16 credits, with a mixture of "fluff" and sciences.

 

[SoulinNeed]

They don't care, really.

 

[jm192]

I think if you're borderline, they might take it into consideration. It's easier to sell your ability to succeed with 16 hour semesters and multiple science classes.

But, as others have said, they aren't going through thousands of applications year after year combing for course load.

 

[UrbanRiver]

When i applied, I also had the same concern. I took the minimum units and took the max pass fail classes I could lol. Im sure some schools didn't like it.. but I still got into a top ranked school as well as mid tiers. Ehh sorry if I sound like I'm bragging. But just wanted to give u some real facts for u to make a decision. Protect that GPA. A great GPA with min course load is >>>> than low/avg GPA with heavy courseload. U know how u study the best.. also, make sure u take the extra time to do good ECs.good luckk

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile

 

[Gauss44]

Rather than stretch myself thin and do say 14-16 credit hours I decided to go with closer to 12 credit hours and get Mostly A's and a B or so.

Does this look bad?? Or do most applying students take 14+ credit hours and get A's/B's?

It might depend on what else you are doing. Example, volunteering, starting your own charity, etc.

 

[Aerus]

Grades>>>>>>course load.

Course load matters but enough to sacrifice your GPA. You shouldn't worry about course rigor until you're getting 3.8+'s, handling a good amount of EC's, and still finding some time to relax and enjoy yourself.

Of course graduating on time is important too, but I'm assuming you're not going to take 12 credits EVERY semester, right?

 

[metview]

Graduate in 4 years and no one cares.

 

[csx]

When i applied, I also had the same concern. I took the minimum units and took the max pass fail classes I could lol. Im sure some schools didn't like it.. but I still got into a top ranked school as well as mid tiers. Ehh sorry if I sound like I'm bragging. But just wanted to give u some real facts for u to make a decision. Protect that GPA. A great GPA with min course load is >>>> than low/avg GPA with heavy courseload. U know how u study the best.. also, make sure u take the extra time to do good ECs.good luckk

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile

Okay, what everyone's been saying makes sense. I've been taking summer classes (to get my language gen edu outta the way) and have AP credits so I have the luxury to do 12 credit hours per semester.

Now my biggest concern is, 12 credits was a TOUGH. I managed to get good grades but now I am concerned..will I be able to handle med school. Granted I have a boat load of EC (prob's more than 99% of students) but the only effect that has on me is that it forces me to segment my studying efforts.

 

[plumhill]

Graduate in 4 years and no one cares.

Even if you don't graduate in 4 years, no one cares. Its extremely difficult to come back from a low GPA (trust me, I've watched many friends try and get really frustrated/panicked/etc). Don't let that happen to you.

 

[FSU2013]

I think the only way it would matter is if you got a degree in a joke major or your grades were borderline. I took an extremely tough major and only took more than 14 credit hours once, didn't get mentioned.

 

[Microglia]

Wasn't borderline, but took at least 3 semesters of 12 credits. No one cared at all (at any school from top 10 down). Didn't get a Harvard interview (lol) but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it wasn't because of that haha. I think it's way overblown the extent credits matter; as long as you get good grades and have extracurriculars, it didn't seem like even the most competitive med schools cared.

 

[Microglia]

Okay, what everyone's been saying makes sense. I've been taking summer classes (to get my language gen edu outta the way) and have AP credits so I have the luxury to do 12 credit hours per semester.

Now my biggest concern is, 12 credits was a TOUGH. I managed to get good grades but now I am concerned..will I be able to handle med school. Granted I have a boat load of EC (prob's more than 99% of students) but the only effect that has on me is that it forces me to segment my studying efforts.

Another concern you should have is what your AP credits are in. Way more schools than I thought don't accept them at all or don't accept the most related ones like gen chem. I applied with just physics AP credits and it felt like it ended up limiting my application options somewhat significantly.

 

[csx]

Another concern you should have is what your AP credits are in. Way more schools than I thought don't accept them at all or don't accept the most related ones like gen chem. I applied with just physics AP credits and it felt like it ended up limiting my application options somewhat significantly.

My AP creds were in non-science related classes.

My biggest concern is...It's tough for me to get A's and B's just doing 11-12 credit hours of science classes. How am I able to tackle 20-25 hrs like you guys say medschool is like?!

 

[lcck]

I don't think adcoms scrutinize courseload unless there is a reason to. I imagine if you maintain 3.7+ GPA then adcoms won't even look at your courses. If you have a lower GPA then adcoms might look at your courseload to see if it can be explained by tough classes.

 

[amad01]

LizzyM said adcoms see amount of credits for the school year...

 

[beethousand]

From what I've heard it's recommended to keep your yearly semester credits above 30, but I'd guess if you've shown this with a year or two of science classes it should be okay? I was kinda wondering this myself because I've been taking 12 credits of prereqs during post bacc plus a bunch of ECs. Hoping that's okay.

 

[pachewisc]

Rather than stretch myself thin and do say 14-16 credit hours I decided to go with closer to 12 credit hours and get Mostly A's and a B or so.

Does this look bad?? Or do most applying students take 14+ credit hours and get A's/B's?

Depends on why you're doing it. I averaged around 14 credits per semester because I wanted to stretch out UG to 3.5 years instead of graduate a year early. I never heard anything about it throughout this app cycle.