Number of Courses per Semester

[quantum]

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How many courses per semester do most premeds take, 4 or 5? I'm thinking about only taking 4 courses this semester since it is rather science heavy. However, I'm not sure if adcoms will view this simply as laziness without taking into account the difficulty of the courses.

 

[BooMed]

How many credits per course?

At my undergraduate school, normal courses were worth 4 credits. I often took only 12 credits of academic classes and then added on some yoga/music/fun stuff. I really don't think ad coms are going to think you're lazy for only taking four classes. It's not like you're only taking one course per semester and graduating in 10 years 😉 . Getting bad grades because you're trying to do too much at once, however, will definitely hurt you.

 

[HessExpress]

How many courses per semester do most premeds take, 4 or 5? I'm thinking about only taking 4 courses this semester since it is rather science heavy. However, I'm not sure if adcoms will view this simply as laziness without taking into account the difficulty of the courses.

5 is ideal. 4 is fine, especially if it's mainly science.

 

[fpr85]

There are many circumstances to take into consideration.

For example, I work 40+ hours a week and am taking 2 courses for a total of 8 credits.

 

[HessExpress]

There are many circumstances to take into consideration.

For example, I work 40+ hours a week and am taking 2 courses for a total of 8 credits.

Indeed. If one is working full-time, even taking 1 class can be tough.

 

[alansda]

Can you open two polls at once? I'd like to vote, but I'm in the quarter system.

 

[veenut]

There are many circumstances to take into consideration.

For example, I work 40+ hours a week and am taking 2 courses for a total of 8 credits.

slacker

 

[Centinel]

I like the conspicuous absence of '3' courses as an option. Take enough courses each semester so that you will graduate in a reasonable amount of time. I took a front heavy (20 credits / semester) first two years. That gave me a breadth of education. Now I am taking fewer credits (12-16/semester) but gaining depth in areas that I find particularly interesting. Just hearing someone say, "I'm taking 5 courses this semester," tells me nothing unless I know something about their course history and plans.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Psst, I hear adcoms don't care about the number of credits you take a semester. Just do well and don't worry about how you got there 🙂

 

[andi_cvr]

Take only as many as you can handle. I have taken 17-18 hours each semester (about 6 classes). Looking back, I think this was a mistake. I'm glad I got to take all of the classes, but my GPA is in a sad state because of it.

 

[Risa]

At my school, 4 classes per semester is the expected courseload. The system won't let you register for more than that until add-drop at the beginning of the semester, so that extra courses have to be approved by your advisor.

 

[erin682]

Your GPA is more important than the number of courses you took. If you can get a great GPA with 5 courses, extracurriculars and you really want to take 5 then go for it but there really isn't any benefit. Otherwise just take the hours that you need. I'm an MS-2 and took at least 3 semesters of 12 hours in undergrad b/c of AP credits. It didn't seem to hurt me a bit.