Major and rigor of schedule...

[Mortal_Lessons]

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How important is the difficulty of your major and the rigor of your schedule when being considered for an interview? I believe these two factors are of the highest importance (considering good MCAT, etc.)...What do you all think?

 

[DoctorPardi]

I asked one of the dean's at UAB if the fact that I haven't taken 15 or more credit hours any semester would hurt my application and he said it would not matter, as long as I graduate in 4 years.

Also take into consideration, I worked 30 or more hours a week while in college and told him this.

 

[HristosKaran]

I'm no expert on the matter, but I'm pretty sure that class load does play some sort of factor in their admission decisions. Would you pick a student who constantly took 12 hours with a 4.0, or a student that took 18 hours and had a 3.8? There really isn't an answer to this question, but I would like to think that they at least look at your semester course loads...

 

[Tribeca]

what if you were working full-time or maybe half-time plus volunteering, research, and other EC's? Do adcoms take that into consideration?

 

[Centinel]

otherwise you'd never see any math majors or engineers in med school.

 

[novawildcat]

some schools do take it into account. university of wisconsin explicity states that they do on their website.

 

[Law2Doc]

How important is the difficulty of your major and the rigor of your schedule when being considered for an interview? I believe these two factors are of the highest importance (considering good MCAT, etc.)...What do you all think?

It matters, but getting straight A's always matters more. If you are doing this at the sacrifice of your GPA, you are making a mistake. The non-sci major with the light schedule with just the prereqs who gets the high GPA will do better in the process than the dual sci major, heavy scheduled person who is struggling for a B+.

 

[MD-To Be]

How important is the difficulty of your major and the rigor of your schedule when being considered for an interview? I believe these two factors are of the highest importance (considering good MCAT, etc.)...What do you all think?

Yes. It is a factor often considered when admitting people who pursue harder majors, i.e., math and engineering. It is a reflection of your ability to balance workload but they also conisder ECs in how much you took per quarter/semester.

 

[ADeadLois]

How important is the difficulty of your major and the rigor of your schedule when being considered for an interview? I believe these two factors are of the highest importance (considering good MCAT, etc.)...What do you all think?

It's important, but not as high as you think. It's more important to get the good grades.

 

[jbrice1639]

as people are saying, it is often a factor...but it's not an excuse. a 3.5 in chemical engineering is not going to beat out a 3.9 in creative writing. that's why advisors will always tell you to study something you like and do well in it...the major itself isn't going to open any doors and no is going to care if your classes were hard or you took a lot of them.

 

[jbrice1639]

otherwise you'd never see any math majors or engineers in med school.

that's absurd. most of the engineers i graduated with had way better grade points than i did. and i graduated from university of illinois, one of the best engineering programs in the country, so it wasn't a cakewalk for them. engineers just like to use their major as an excuse, but if they work hard enough, they can be successful...and still have a life. my engineering buddies were at the bar starting the weekends on wednesdays just like the rest of us in the fluff majors.

 

[dr_zippo]

that's absurd. most of the engineers i graduated with had way better grade points than i did. and i graduated from university of illinois, one of the best engineering programs in the country, so it wasn't a cakewalk for them. engineers just like to use their major as an excuse, but if they work hard enough, they can be successful...and still have a life. my engineering buddies were at the bar starting the weekends on wednesdays just like the rest of us in the fluff majors.

As a fellow Illini alum I hate to disagree with you, but I have to. Engineers at Illinois are definitely not using their major as an excuse. The rigors of engineering should not be underemphasized, and any engineer who graduates with a 3.5 has surely worked as hard as a bio/english/psych/communications major who graduates with a 3.9. Whether or not admissions committees take this into consideration is another issue altogether.

 

[Centinel]

that's absurd. most of the engineers i graduated with had way better grade points than i did. and i graduated from university of illinois, one of the best engineering programs in the country, so it wasn't a cakewalk for them. engineers just like to use their major as an excuse, but if they work hard enough, they can be successful...and still have a life. my engineering buddies were at the bar starting the weekends on wednesdays just like the rest of us in the fluff majors.

Yes, my comment was quite absurd. Of course it's impossible to compare majors across schools, or even to compare the difficulty of two engineering majors in the same school. But the point still stands: the difficulty of your major is one piece of an application that consists of many. Your committee letter will generally contain a line saying something like, "such and such student majored in XXXXX, taking some of the most difficult courses in one of the most rigorous courses of study available at our school".

 

[Spikester]

Taking a light load, semester after semester, will be a yellow flag to many adcom members. If the light loads are due to a heavy work schedule, explain it. If the light loads are taken so you can focus on a few difficult courses it will be obvious and will look bad. You need to do well in difficult courses while being very busy, either with a good 15 hours per term or a heavy workload.

 

[DesiMcatAcer]

As a fellow Illini alum I hate to disagree with you, but I have to. Engineers at Illinois are definitely not using their major as an excuse. The rigors of engineering should not be underemphasized, and any engineer who graduates with a 3.5 has surely worked as hard as a bio/english/psych/communications major who graduates with a 3.9. Whether or not admissions committees take this into consideration is another issue altogether.

👍 I am not an alum from Illinois, but i completely agree with the point made above!

 

[playmaker_90]

As far as majors go stats say liberal majors do better on the MCAT followed by Chem/Biochem, then engineering, last Bio. Also several Med school deans say that Biochem majors do the best in medical school b/c not only is it hard you have taken a nice dive into what your first education will contain. Finally I am aware you cant beat a 4.0 in four years but if two people have the same gpa with different majors they are proly going to pick the harder of the two.

 

[akademiks1989]

QUESTION!

What if I take 15 credits during fall/winter semesters, and then take 8 or 9 credits in the summer. Would that still be competitive??

 

[novawildcat]

As far as majors go stats say liberal majors do better on the MCAT followed by Chem/Biochem, then engineering, last Bio.

from what i remember from aamc, math majors out perform all other majors on the MCAT, followed byphysical science majors ,then humanities, then bio majors.

 

[lizt]

.

 

[Mortal_Lessons]

what is considered a light work load? anything lower than 15? or is it higher than that?

I think 15 is an average work load while anything less should be considered light.

I have to disagree with some of the comments above. Your primary concern as a student should be academia, not trying to impress admissions committees with 1000+ hours in volunteering. ECs should never be a cause for you to take a light work load. That is absolutely ridiculous. They are there for you to take outside the classroom; notice the 'extra' in extracurricular? Classes aren't the extra, ECs are the extra.

Also, a 3.8 in something like Biomedical engineering should blow a 3.9 liberal arts major right out of the water, especially if the engineering major took liberal arts courses and A'ced them. Let's see the liberal arts major ace the engineering major's core courses.

 

[premd]

If you take research for credit, can you take fewer classes?

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Unfortunately, not all med schools are this considerate.

Certainly, there are examples of Engineers, Physics majors who make it into medical school with a lower GPA, but for the most part, it's the person who takes an easy major but gets a 4.0 that will have better success (all else equal).

It's not fair, and some schools do take major and difficulty into account, but not all schools are going to take the time to take into account the rigor of one's schedule. Unfortunately, it goes with the territory of a process in which 1000s of people are applying.
-Dr. P.

 

[Wackie]

I think 15 is an average work load while anything less should be considered light.

Well, craps. I'm signed up for 13 this semester. But I work full time and do my regular four hours of volunteer work.
I'm switching schools too for this semester so I didn't want to go from a CC to a university full tilt. Next semester, hopefully I can crank it up a notch or two.

 

[playmaker_90]

funny that you quote aamc i think they are correct to a certain extent remember any stat can help you prove any point but thats beside the point however do something that you love and most of all learn learn learn for your sake

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Certainly doing well while taking a full/overload of classes will look good. I doub't you will be given special consideration if your GPA is a little low, however.

Your major may help or hurt you. Some schools (and individual ADCOM majors) look more favorably on certain majors, while some explicitly do not like some majors. On average I'd guess it pretty much all evens out, so that, on average, your major doesn't make a difference.

 

[jstuds_66]

I think 15 is an average work load while anything less should be considered light.

I think I get what you're trying to say, but this generalization is false. Last winter took 13.0. Physics (4.0), Bio (4.0), O.Chem (4.0), and tennis (1.0). Along with this extremely difficult workload, I was working part-time, shadowing a doctor, volunteering on Special Olympics committee, and studying for the MCAT as a newly wed. Anyone who considers those 13.0 credits a "light load" is an idiot, even if you don't take into consideration all the other things I was involved in.

That said, 15 credits is average. If you are going to take less than that, I would make sure you have a good reason to.

 

[_ian]

QUESTION!

What if I take 15 credits during fall/winter semesters, and then take 8 or 9 credits in the summer. Would that still be competitive??

I don't know how Dearborn works, but 9 credits in summer term is basically equivalent to 18 credits in fall/winter for Ann Arbor, since you have half the time to complete the courses.

 

[akademiks1989]

I don't know how Dearborn works, but 9 credits in summer term is basically equivalent to 18 credits in fall/winter for Ann Arbor, since you have half the time to complete the courses.

thanks ian. i didn't realize that...I'll look into it.

 

[45408]

I'm no expert on the matter, but I'm pretty sure that class load does play some sort of factor in their admission decisions. Would you pick a student who constantly took 12 hours with a 4.0, or a student that took 18 hours and had a 3.8? There really isn't an answer to this question, but I would like to think that they at least look at your semester course loads...

Does the school want to show that they accept students with 4.0 or 3.8? Think about it. It matters a lot less than you seem to think. Their averages don't indicate how long you took to finish undergrad. I took 21 credits one semester and 13 the following. I never heard a peep about it during my interviews.

 

[45408]

Taking a light load, semester after semester, will be a yellow flag to many adcom members. If the light loads are due to a heavy work schedule, explain it. If the light loads are taken so you can focus on a few difficult courses it will be obvious and will look bad. You need to do well in difficult courses while being very busy, either with a good 15 hours per term or a heavy workload.

How do you know it's a yellow flag? Has one told you? I think a lot of you guys are just guessing randomly.