is this considered gpa padding?

[BiologyMajor86]

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i am chem major and physics minor, 12 credits required for minor and realized that a lot of subjects overlap.

for example chem major i am required to take p chem 1-thermodynam/kinetics and p chem 2 - Quantum
and physics minor i have option of taking thermodynamics (physics version) and quantum mechanics (physics version)

will med schools frown upon this? they are all upper level 300+ courses

 

[mimelim]

GPA padding is where a student will take classes that they normally wouldn't take because they are known to be easy A's for the express purpose of inflating their GPA in an attempt to make them seem like better students than they are.

What you are talking about is simply a poorly setup university where the departments don't talk to one another.

 

[bearintraining]

Is the university even going to allow you to do that? Usually there are restrictions if course material overlaps significantly. Otherwise you're free to do it, but id like to caution you that it may not be "easier" to take overlapping courses, than to take other classes.

 

[Astra]

GPA padding is where a student will take classes that they normally wouldn't take because they are known to be easy A's for the express purpose of inflating their GPA in an attempt to make them seem like better students than they are.

What you are talking about is simply a poorly setup university where the departments don't talk to one another.

Question about this. To graduate, I have to take a certain number of electives. Currently I am taking golf, bowling, art. Would this be GPA padding?

 

[Mad Jack]

Usually such courses have a sufficiently different focus that they will still prove challenging. It isn't like you're taking English 103 and Sociology 101 to boost your GPA lol.

 

[Law2Doc]

1. Med schools don't care about minors. This at most is about making your parents proud.
2. In general if anyone ever asks the question "is this considered ... padding"? The answer is "probably yes" without reading further. That being said overlapping courses wouldn't be padding unless you are somehow taking them twice or trying to count them twice.
3. Your screen name is bio major and you are asking about Chem major issues, which screams troll.
4. Don't take difficult upper level courses for a minor that won't matter if your goal is med school. Take the easiest things that will let you get A's and fulfil your major and the prereqs. Everything else is about your own interests, not what med school wants to see.

 

[Law2Doc]

Question about this. To graduate, I have to take a certain number of electives. Currently I am taking golf, bowling, art. Would this be GPA padding?

No not padding, "winning".

 

[625233]

I don't get how med schools can differentiate between GPA padding and Gen Eds to be honest


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[mimelim]

Question about this. To graduate, I have to take a certain number of electives. Currently I am taking golf, bowling, art. Would this be GPA padding?

Most schools require a certain number of electives or other courses to 'broaden' student's horizons. This is all about degree. If you had 5 of those classes + 18 research credits, that would be one thing. But 3 classes nobody is going to even notice.

 

[625233]

Oddly enough, research at my school isn't an easy A. I took a B- to the face last semester.


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[Goro]

No.

for example chem major i am required to take p chem 1-thermodynam/kinetics and p chem 2 - Quantum
and physics minor i have option of taking thermodynamics (physics version) and quantum mechanics (physics version)

will med schools frown upon this? they are all upper level 300+ courses

 

[tantacles]

i am chem major and physics minor, 12 credits required for minor and realized that a lot of subjects overlap.

for example chem major i am required to take p chem 1-thermodynam/kinetics and p chem 2 - Quantum
and physics minor i have option of taking thermodynamics (physics version) and quantum mechanics (physics version)

will med schools frown upon this? they are all upper level 300+ courses

It isn't padding, and honestly, most medical schools don't particularly care whether or not you are GPA padding; they just care that you do well in your courses.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Question about this. To graduate, I have to take a certain number of electives. Currently I am taking golf, bowling, art. Would this be GPA padding?

At my school bowling was a notoriously hard class...your grade was directly determined by your in class bowling average and an A was a pretty high score

 

[LizzyM]

Padding: Intro to Golf, wine tasting, human sexuality... All in the same semester. To be fair, it might have met some gen ed requirements but it did look funny to me.

 

[Life2dmax]

Padding: Intro to Golf, wine tasting, human sexuality... All in the same semester. To be fair, it might have met some gen ed requirements but it did look funny to me.

Did it/would it have any impact on your decision? Currently taking a lower level math class my senior year since it counts for sGPA too, do you think that would be frowned upon? Or maybe even worth the risk considering it can bump up a sGPA by ~.02-.03 (could be significant)

 

[deleted482591]

Wish we had those classes. These must be the same schools that have "Communications" departments.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

Is there anything wrong with a semester of GPA padding classes before the MCAT in order to study for it?

 

[LizzyM]

With any given school needing to whittle down the pool of applicants by 80% or more, anything that makes you look weaker than the competition is not a good thing. I'm looking at a dozen applicants with a 3.76/316. I can interview 2. How do I decide which two? Are all 3.76s created equal... maybe not. What would I expect to see in terms of life experience? Is there something that makes me say, "Wow, this is cool!" ? How do I narrow the field to two?