Online Courses

[smarttee88]

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I am currently in the process of enrolling for next semester. I am thinkin about taking a couple of classes online through my school and I want to know the pro's and the con's of doing this and how adcoms view online courses taken concurrently with traditional "in the classroom" classes. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Ilovewater]

I have taken a few online courses and haven't had any interviewers question me on this. I think they're perfectly fine as long as you don't take the core courses (Ochem, genetics, etc.) online if they are offered. All of my online classes have been English, humanities, or social behavior classes.

Pros: I like online classes because I get to work on the assignments at my own pace. And if the class is easy and the teacher posts assignments early, you can finish the class earlier in the semester and not have to worry about it. Plus, you have more time to focus on the important classes when finals roll around.

Cons: Most online classes require too many essays! Yuck. Also, for people who are not motivated, it'll be difficult to keep up with the assignments, the reading, the discussions, and other stuff required by the class and not fall behind.

 

[justdoit31]

Check and see if the online course is even listed on your transcript as such. I took several (4-5) undergrad courses online and no one ever knew based on transcripts.

Pros- class when you want, I always felt like less busy work, no boring lectures

Cons- need to be motivated to do it

I took 2 Englishes (Comp 2 and World Lit), Sociology, an advanced history, and Criminal Justice all online. I felt the work was much less than a lecture class. Usually we would have 1 major paper for the course and some quizes/tests (which are open notes since you are at home). Most also had some kind of discussion forum with mandatory discussions each week. All in all I would have taken anything online- it was the best thing for me in undergrad- but I pretty much skipped lecture in all my classed then.

 

[Melicopter]

I took several online classes, and I had good and bad experiences.

Pros: As previously stated, it's nice to work at your own pace, and on your own schedule.

Cons: If you never see or talk to the instructor and he/she doesn't communicate well in writing, you can totally miss the point of an assignment. This happened only once, but it was an absolute nightmare. Completely failed a midterm project and had no idea why. Somehow I still got an A in the class... who knows what goes on.

Other than the single disaster, I'd say it's great for English classes/social sciences. I tried a math class this way, and that was pretty difficult.

 

[JJMrK]

I've taken a few; there is nothing on my transcript to indicate that they are online classes.

 

[sgtbrushes]

I've taken a few; there is nothing on my transcript to indicate that they are online classes.

Same thing at my school. Gen Ed courses taken online shouldn't affect med school app at all.

 

[red10]

If nothing else you can spin it as you're motivated and goal oriented and can take on self-guided-ish learning. I don't think most adcoms give a good god dang as long as you aren't taking them to weasel out of hard classes