# of Credit Hours make a difference?

[CANgnome]

So my program (M.Sc.) requires 36 credit hours to complete. I am taking 9 credits a semester (3 courses) for 4 semesters as opposed to 4 classes for 3 semesters because I was going to commit my extra time into research.

Now that i decided to become a pre-dent, Does taking 3 as opposed to 4 courses a semester of post-bacc matter to the admission committee? I will have completed 18/36 credits by the time i turn in my application. I am trying to use these courses to bring up my undergrad gpa of 3.1, so far i can say that i will get 4.0 5/6 of them.

I also noticed that some schools list their courses as 4 credit hours each? So doesn't it seem like i am doing very little if i am simply committing 9 credit hours a semester instead of 4x4 (16) or 3coursesx4hourseach (12 credits) credit hours a semester or do different schools do their credit hours differently?

thanks ahead of time.

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[SuperTank]

So my program (M.Sc.) requires 36 credit hours to complete. I am taking 9 credits a semester (3 courses) for 4 semesters as opposed to 4 classes for 3 semesters because I was going to commit my extra time into research.

Now that i am a pre-dent, Does taking 3 as opposed to 4 courses a semester of post-bacc matter to the admission committee? I will have completed 18/36 credits by the time i turn in my application. I am trying to use these courses to bring up my undergrad gpa of 3.1, so far i can say that i will get 4.0 5/6 of them.

I also noticed that some schools list their courses as 4 credit hours each? So doesn't it seem like i am doing very little if i am simply committing 9 credit hours a semester instead of 4x4 (16) credit hours a semester or do different schools do their credit hours differently?

thanks ahead of time.

AADSAS, through which dental schools will receive your GPA, will report each class and the number of credit hours to dental schools. Schools don't assume a class is a specific number of hours (I only had 2 4-hour classes). However, dental schools do take work load into consideration. If you are taking a few classes and doing alrightl, you won't be as competitive as someone who is taking a more demanding schedule and earning similar grades. However, if you are earning very good grades and are involved in research as well, I doubt dental schools will be as concerned that you are taking 9 credit hours instead of the standard 12 taken by students in your program.

 

[CANgnome]

my first semester's reserach involved reading and attending lab meetings and shadowing other M.Sc. students to learn my way.

in my second and current semester, 3/9 of my credit hours are actually from an independent studies course. However, since telling my PI that i will be attending dental school, he basically have not given me much to do and i am wondering if i can still receive an A let alone an excellent LOR.

So i am very uncertain as to how the committee will view this. It is actually rather common for people in this university to take 2x6 and 1x3 research course on their way to writing a thesis. I was originally a thesis student switched to non-thesis due to time constraints.

Such a bother.

 

[Vicviper]

Don't worry too much about the lower number of units - since you're doing research that makes up for it. I was taking like 11 units my entire senior year, but doing research, and the subject never even came up.

Also! You'll be happy to hear that all graduate work GPA is calculated separately from your undergrad GPA, so that nice shiny 4.0 will stand out, and make your undergrad GPA look a lot more insignificant. Good luck!