Is the 20 credits of science classes/3 semesters/3.5+ GPA rule an actual thing?

[PrinceAli]

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I'm a junior pre-med student and am applying to med schools after I graduate so I can use my senior year to boost my cumulative and science GPA. One of our main pre-health advisors was telling me that if I was to do that, one thing that schools look at is for you to have 20 credits of science GPA over 3 semesters with a total GPA of 3.5 or above.

I've never heard of this before, and after searching for it on the forums and through google I haven't come up with anything about it. And if I were to follow this rule, I'd have to max out both of my semesters senior year with science classes. I'm already planning on taking a few both semesters senior year, but to follow this rule I'd have to take about 3 more than I was planning.

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of this rule to find out if it is legitimate at all, and if med schools actually take this into consideration. If I'm going to be stressing myself out my senior year I want it to be for a good reason.

Thanks!

 

[mauberley]

I'm a junior pre-med student at University of Michigan, and am applying to med schools after I graduate so I can use my senior year to boost my cumulative and science GPA. One of our main pre-health advisors was telling me that if I was to do that, one thing that schools look at is for you to have 20 credits of science GPA over 3 semesters with a total GPA of 3.5 or above.

I've never heard of this before, and after searching for it on the forums and through google I haven't come up with anything about it. And if I were to follow this rule, I'd have to max out both of my semesters senior year with science classes. I'm already planning on taking a few both semesters senior year, but to follow this rule I'd have to take about 3 more than I was planning.

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of this rule to find out if it is legitimate at all, and if med schools actually take this into consideration. If I'm going to be stressing myself out my senior year I want it to be for a good reason.

Thanks!

I have not heard of this before. Doesn't sound credible.

 

[Disinence2]

Every school has its own criteria and special rules

It is possible this is true somewhere, and was passed on to the pre-health adviser by someone.

Its not bad advice, but certainly not a deal breaker everywhere.

 

[gettheleadout]

It's kind of irrelevant because you should shoot for a 3.5+ anyway but many people have been accepted that didn't meet that.

 

[deleted307836]

I've never heard of that... and wouldn't be surprised if your adviser made that up. I certainly wouldn't alter your schedule to fit in more science classes if that is your concern.

 

[vanillabear55]

I have not heard of this before. Doesn't sound credible.

yeah,

especially since if you aren't a science major...you really need senior year to finish off major requirements/gen eds since you donated ~40 credits already to to the prereqs the first three years

 

[235788]

I can see that rule as being true for the U of M medical college. But doubt your other state schools or other mid tier schools would live by that rule

 

[mvenus929]

With regard to the first two criteria... you should manage that anyway with the prereqs. At my school, gen chem and gen bio alone were 20 credits. Since you generally have to take organic chemistry after you take gen chem, you should be taking more than 3 semesters of science courses. At least, that's how I interpret that sentence. Sounds like you're interpreting it differently.

As far as the GPA, you should be shooting higher than that anyway, but people have been accepted with less, so that rule isn't as clear cut.

 

[Nomdeplume]

Every school has its own criteria and special rules

It is possible this is true somewhere, and was passed on to the pre-health adviser by someone.

Its not bad advice, but certainly not a deal breaker everywhere.

QFT.

I could certainly see this not being true at some of the medical schools that favor lots of humanities and social science coursework. Some schools even have a "required" or "recommended" number of hours of humanities / social science coursework that students should have.

Personally, I would not change my schedule to meet that requirement. Do try to keep your GPA above a 3.5 for every semester, though!

 

[TheMightySmiter]

My prereqs amounted to 36 credits, so the credit limit shouldn't be a problem. You also won't have a problem getting the three semesters, since it'd be nearly impossible to take gen chem and orgo in less time than that. Some med schools have a GPA cutoff, but I can't think of anywhere that it's as high as a 3.5. A 3.5 is, however, often considered the minimum for a competitive applicant. It sounds like the "rule" is really more of a guideline than an actual rule. Now why is the rum gone??

 

[PrinceAli]

Sorry for the confusion guys, I meant that my advisor was talking about the most recent 3 semesters for science classes. I've already fulfilled all of my pre-med prereqs and most of the classes for my majors. At this point I'm just taking extra upper-level science classes to raise my science GPA as far as it can go before I graduate.

I realized my stats at this point (end of my junior year) are too low to apply so I pushed it back one year, but I'm trying my best not to have to push it back any further. I'm not hoping to get into any top-tier med schools, but hoping that my upwards trend and good sophomore/junior/(future) senior year grades and my almost average GPA and sGPA when I graduate will get me interviews for lower tier and/or some mid-tier med schools.

This reminded me of another question I'm uncertain about. My advisor told me that in addition to cumulative and science GPA, apparently AMCAS also breaks down GPA/sGPA by year (fresh/soph/jun/sr) for med schools. Does anyone know if this is true too?

 

[Donald Juan]

OP, I think (judging by the replies made here) that there is some confusion over what your adviser is saying. Were you supposed to take 20 hours of sciences class in one semester, and then repeat this feat for two more semesters? Because that is ridiculous, most of us never take that many hours in a single semester.

Or, did he mean that you should take 20 hours of science over the course of three semesters and have kept at least a 3.5 gpa among those classes. While this latter task doesn't sound like anything I have ever heard of as criteria for any medical schools, it sounds like something that everyone who plans on attending medical school should have done at some point.

 

[PrinceAli]

My advisor was telling me that some med schools look at your most recent 3 semesters before applying, and look to see if you had 20 science credits over the course of those 3 semesters, and maintained a 3.5 GPA or above with those classes.

This isn't a particularly hard feat, but when I combine that with the upper-level english classes I need to take along with my distribution requirements (humanities, social science, etc) it translates to two fully loaded semesters. That's why I'm thinking if no one has heard of this, I could cut down on one of the science classes I was planning to take. That way I would only be at 17 science credits over three semesters but I don't think that'd be too bad.

 

[Narmerguy]

Every school has its own criteria and special rules

It is possible this is true somewhere, and was passed on to the pre-health adviser by someone.

Its not bad advice, but certainly not a deal breaker everywhere.

It's kind of irrelevant because you should shoot for a 3.5+ anyway but many people have been accepted that didn't meet that.

Yeah I agree with this big time.

My advisor was telling me that some med schools look at your most recent 3 semesters before applying, and look to see if you had 20 science credits over the course of those 3 semesters, and maintained a 3.5 GPA or above with those classes.

This isn't a particularly hard feat, but when I combine that with the upper-level english classes I need to take along with my distribution requirements (humanities, social science, etc) it translates to two fully loaded semesters. That's why I'm thinking if no one has heard of this, I could cut down on one of the science classes I was planning to take. That way I would only be at 17 science credits over three semesters but I don't think that'd be too bad.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure your advisor may have heard this somewhere and is dispensing it as general wisdom. Rest assured that many many nonscience majors get in having taken no sciences other than their prereqs. While it's reasonable for adcoms to look at your last 3 semesters of science, I'm willing to believe they all would look at this if you've taken some higher level science courses to see how you handle more rigorous science courses. However, I don't think they'll deduct you if you haven't taken at least 20 credits (or any number for that matter) over the past 3 semesters. I've been on SDN for a long time and I've never heard of anything like that before.

 

[mauberley]

This reminded me of another question I'm uncertain about. My advisor told me that in addition to cumulative and science GPA, apparently AMCAS also breaks down GPA/sGPA by year (fresh/soph/jun/sr) for med schools. Does anyone know if this is true too?

This is correct.

 

[camierz]

I go to the University of Michigan as well. I haven't heard that from the pre-medical advisors there. However, I have only talked to one of them. He suggested I raise my sGPA because he hasn't in a very long time seen somebody get in with below a 3.4 sGPA. Thankfully I am above that now, but he seemed pretty knowledgeable. Not sure if that is the same advisor. I only know of two main pre-med advisors there...