Gotcha! said:
Thats quite a lot for the UC extension
How about the state schools in CA?
Anyone have any info on them. I hear SFSU has a sort of informal postbac.
Would it matter that much if you go from a UC to a state school like that for GPA stuff?
State schools are more than likely cheaper. I have not actually looked at the cost though but based on traditional undergrad tuition between UC and CSU, UC is always more expensive. I should not matter taking classes at a UC vs. CSU in terms of getting your GPA stuff, or anything else for that matter. I chose UC Extension because I knew the classes, the teachers, and live down the street. I did consider going to a CSU, but due to it being a semester system (too slow for me), and the longer commute, I sucked it up and payed the tuition fees for Extension. Ultimately, as long as you take UPPER division courses, and DO WELL in them, the adcoms should not care. One might see some slight bias if you would compare someone taking engineering courses at Berkeley vs. UCSC. Nothing wrong with UCSC, but just more competition to get that A at Cal.
Beth_W737 said:
Do you think doing only 2 classes per semester will prevent someone from being accepted to med school if they do well in these courses and have a legitimate reason for taking a lighter schedule? (a medical problem, for instance.)? At least in my first semester, I don't want to take on too many courses, and end up doing badly, because I think that would look worse than taking less courses and doing really well. But your comments made me a little nervous, even though I have a legitimate reason for taking less courses - at least in the first semester. If I do well the first semester, I might try adding an elective the 2nd semester.
Beth
That can go either way. Although a medical problem is a legit reason, that may bring up another question about if this medical problem may persist into med school and require you to take less classes. It is OK to take less classes because of such reasons, but on the flip side there are people with similar reasons that continue to push on. Its a case-by-case basis. Of course it would look impressive if you were able to overcome whatever problem that may be, and still do well in school. Know your limits though.
Ultimately, in your case, it may depend on what you did as an undergrad. Did you take a full-time semester that included upper division science classes along with other classes? Showing a good trend may tell the adcoms that you have the ability, and now you are just finishing your pre-reqs. It is my impression that your major is not something in the biosci since the pre-reqs were not included in your degree requirements. Therefore you may have to consider taking upper division courses to give the adcoms confidence that you can handle such classes.
In a previous post, I stated that there is too much emphasis on pre-reqs. Pre-reqs only get you into the application game. Many other students will have upper division science courses (e.g.: biochemistry) to prove that they can handle it. In fact, UC Davis, and probably the other UC's require an upper division bio class as a pre-req. Since your first 2 years of med school will be mainly science classes, showing adcoms that you can handle a good load of upper division classes only serves to benefit you.
Remember though, the adcoms look at the whole application, so GPA is just one aspect. But at the same time, you don't want to bring any doubt to the adcoms about your academic ability to handle a heavy-load of science classes over at least a 2 year period.
