Online Classes & GPA

[calliMD]

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I'm considering taking some extra classes online through UCBerkeley Extension and was wondering if they are counted towards your AMCAS GPA in the same way that on-campus courses are? I know that some schools dont accept prerequisites taken online, so I was only thinking about some extra English classes or perhaps an Organic Chem class (taken as a brush-up.. already took a class-based one a few years ago) or like an Immunology class.

Thanks,
Calli

 

[medicalbound]

I'm considering taking some extra classes online through UCBerkeley Extension and was wondering if they are counted towards your AMCAS GPA in the same way that on-campus courses are? I know that some schools dont accept prerequisites taken online, so I was only thinking about some extra English classes or perhaps an Organic Chem class (taken as a brush-up.. already took a class-based one a few years ago) or like an Immunology class.

Thanks,
Calli

Yep, all must be reported even if it does not satisfy requirements. 🙂

 

[calliMD]

Okay so getting an A in an Immunology online class would raise my GPA just as much as an A in an on-campus class -- as far as AMCAS is concerned?

Any negatives about taking an online class (as long as it's not a prereq)? It just seems like such a convenient way to raise my GPA while balancing work and family, that I'm thinking there has to be a down-side.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

As long as you're a relatively disciplined person and good at talking in discussion threads there really isn't a downside to online classes. I'm taking a ton of my physics minor prereqs online (ie. comp sci, tech writing, calc 3 and diff eq). The main difference is that you do all the learning on your own, but when you run into problems you just post a question to a discussion or email the prof instead of meeting face-to-face. The other big difference is that you'll generally have more "busywork" to do for an online class vs. a classroom-class. You'll likely need to make a weekly post and responses to others posts in the discussion but when you actually do them is up to you so long as you meet the time deadline for the week. Often your quizzes/exams will be open book (but some classes require you to do that stuff at a campus testing center or thru a proctor), but they are definitely not easier for the most part. For example, my calc 3 class is kicking my butt because our exams keep asking questions that are nothing like what is covered in the chapter, but it is open book/notes/internet and we get to take each exam twice with the higher grade counting. My two computer science classes in a classroom would just be exams and turning in programs but for online we have to do a weekly discussion question and respond to at least 2 other posts. Hopefully you get a class that is really helpful when it comes to questions. My C programming class sucks at this so it's turned out to be a major pain because I can't get my questions answered easily, but my java class is more than willing to help you out when you run into trouble.

For me, the benefits of not having to be on campus at a certain time sitting through lecture or taking a test far outweigh the occasional online class that isn't very good at answering questions (so far C programming has been my only class like that and I've taken a lot of my gen ed classes online as well over the years in addition to the stuff I'm doing now)

As far as your other question, yes an A in an Immunology online class would raise your gpa just as much as an A in an on-campus class for AMCAS purposes. However, adcoms are likely to recognize UC-Berkeley Extension courses as being online courses because they use a different numbering system than UC-Berk traditional so there may be a bit of wariness about the quality of your course from that but it won't affect your overall gpa. Make sure you sign up for one of the classes that are for credit thru UC-Berk Ext tho because they offer a bunch that aren't for credit too.

FWIW I'm doing my stuff thru ccconline.org. They use the same numbering system as the Colorado Community Colleges (you get your transcript from whichever CC you choose as your home school for ccconline) and the transcripts don't say anywhere that they are online so there's no difference between an online or classroom-based course in my situation.

Good luck!

 

[relentless11]

Okay so getting an A in an Immunology online class would raise my GPA just as much as an A in an on-campus class -- as far as AMCAS is concerned?

Any negatives about taking an online class (as long as it's not a prereq)? It just seems like such a convenient way to raise my GPA while balancing work and family, that I'm thinking there has to be a down-side.

Personally I would endeavor to take more in-class courses. Although it is understandable that work and family must come first, I am concerned that an adcom may consider online classes as inferior. We all know that some schools already consider community college courses as inferior, and that at times is far from the truth.

Its great that you are doing well, however if a school does not accept online classes, then despite them not being pre-reqs, your GPA will not be calculated using the good grades you got in those online classes. AMCAS isn't the issue, its the actual school that I would be worried about. SOmeone mentioned in a thread in the allopathic forum that UC Davis does not accept ANY courses taken online. I'm at UCD, so I am going to try to confirm this in the coming days. ANyway, at this stage, I would want to get the most bang for my buck in terms of classes. It wouldn't be too fun if the $$ you spent on your online courses were to go to waste since a school didn't count classes taken online. But if it turns out that there is no discrimination between in-class courses vs. online courses, then more power to you🙂.

 

[calliMD]

Hey relentless -- please let me know what you find out about UCDavis & online classes. It didnt occur to me that schools might not accept online classes at all.. I figured if they were calculated into AMCAS, then that's all that mattered (GPA-wise) as long as I stayed away from taking prereqs that way.. I suppose I'm going to have to call or email every school I'm thinking about applying to... blech. 🙂

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Relentless - While you're asking whomever about all this ask them how they would know whether it's an online course if the transcript doesn't say it's online (or distance ed) and it is listed exactly the same as the regular classroom course on a transcript. I'm curious what the powers that be at Davis will say about that. (Not that I would ever get in there since I'm OOS and won't be nearly competitive enough when I do eventually apply lol).

 

[calliMD]

I emailed UC Irvine and they accept even pre-req classes taken thru UC Berkeley Online. So it appears that I'm going to have to contact every single school I'm applying to just to double check. *sigh* 😛

 

[relentless11]

It'll be another week until I can get confirmation from SOM, but if you are in a rush, I can always ask our own advising office which should be up to speed with our schools requirements..haha.

 

[tdkneo]

that's what im wondering right now too.....is there a way to know if certain classes satisfy the prereq requirements for all schools? i mean, chemistry, biology and maths are pretty obvious as which of which to take.......but physics and the rest of the other prereqs are a little bit confusing, there are so many types of physics being offered at my school, and other classes i need tto take are split up............do you just call each school to confirm or is there something else i can look into instead.........

 

[albaniandoc]

I love online classes for the simple fact that I can log in and do the work at any time during the day. I don't have to leave the house or make arrangments to leave work. Plus, there is no young snots taking loud or letting their cell phones ring in class. I do however find the online classes harder. I do much better with auditory and visual learning, so showing up for a class is so much better for me. I can usually pick up a lot of info in class and study very little for tests. On the other hand with online classes it takes so much more studying, like reading the books and writting in the discussion board and writting papers. It can get quite busy. I wish there was a happy medium. I don't think that transcripts mention where the class was taken so unless it comes up during the interview I wouldn't mention anything.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

that's what im wondering right now too.....is there a way to know if certain classes satisfy the prereq requirements for all schools? i mean, chemistry, biology and maths are pretty obvious as which of which to take.......but physics and the rest of the other prereqs are a little bit confusing, there are so many types of physics being offered at my school, and other classes i need tto take are split up............do you just call each school to confirm or is there something else i can look into instead.........

Pretty much if it's a class that biology and/or chem majors take you'll be fine. At our school we have 3 sequences (actually 4 now) for physics. The lib arts intro to physics class, the biology major - Physics for Life sciences class (alg. based physics), the engineering/chem/physics/math major class - General Physics (calc based), and now the Honors General Physics for physics majors (and advanced students). I took both the alg based and the non-honors calc based because I decided I wanted a physics minor after having taken the bio major requirement.

If by other prereqs you mean biochem and stuff like that stick to the ones that the biology/chem majors need (don't take the ones that nursing students take). At my school for biochem that meant either a one semester class that bio majors can take or a 2 semester sequence that bio majors can also take and is required for chem majors. The nursing biochem is a combo biochem/organic course and a lower-division instead of upper-division.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

I love online classes for the simple fact that I can log in and do the work at any time during the day. I don't have to leave the house or make arrangments to leave work. Plus, there is no young snots taking loud or letting their cell phones ring in class. I do however find the online classes harder. I do much better with auditory and visual learning, so showing up for a class is so much better for me. I can usually pick up a lot of info in class and study very little for tests. On the other hand with online classes it takes so much more studying, like reading the books and writting in the discussion board and writting papers. It can get quite busy. I wish there was a happy medium. I don't think that transcripts mention where the class was taken so unless it comes up during the interview I wouldn't mention anything.

Yeah it definitely depends on the classes you take whether it'll be harder or easier, but it will almost definitely be more time-consuming. I've always kind of been an independent learner - grew up figure skating so spent a lot of my time at the rink instead of in class or in after-school tutoring or whatever, but there are definitely some subjects that I need to be sitting in a lecture for. Thankfully so far my most time-consuming online classes have been english classes which would require papers regardless, but we do seem to have more busy work (ie. our discussion questions are basically another full writing assignment in addition to whatever we have to turn in weekly), and then calc 3 which would have been just as time-consuming in a regular class other than the fact that our exams online are ridiculously long (we have a 6 hour time limit fwiw, and it takes me on average 2.5 hours to complete them), and not the least bit easy although we get to attempt them twice (it's only 25 questions but a total of 5 hours every week taking an exam sucks).