Prerequisites and Summer School

[marleymum]

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I've been advised against taking prerequisite courses over the summer for a few reasons–
- The course may be too difficult to take in a condensed time vs. it may not be difficult enough
- Medical schools like to see top-tier classes taken during a full-course load during the school year
- Medical schools prefer to see prerequisites taken at your base/main college or university

Currently, I am taking physics 2 at my local 4-year institution (not a CC). I've just completed physics 1 at that same institution during summer session 1, and I did very well. Next summer, I'm planning to take organic chem 1 and 2 there. Most likely I will have the same professor for all 4 of these classes, and that is one of the reasons I want to take these classes at this university. Doing this will also allow me graduate a semester early, saving a semester's worth of tuition. Believe it or not, the total cost of all 4 of summer classes are about 1/4 the cost of a semester's tuition at my main university. The classes here aren't really any easier, so that's not really a factor in my decision.

So, has anyone done anything similar to this? Am I taking too many classes outside of my main uni? If I do really well, does it really matter where I take the classes?

 

[mrh125]

I've been advised against taking prerequisite courses over the summer for a few reasons–
- The course may be too difficult to take in a condensed time vs. it may not be difficult enough
- Medical schools like to see top-tier classes taken during a full-course load during the school year
- Medical schools prefer to see prerequisites taken at your base/main college or university

Currently, I am taking physics 2 at my local 4-year institution (not a CC). I've just completed physics 1 at that same institution during summer session 1, and I did very well. Next summer, I'm planning to take organic chem 1 and 2 there. Most likely I will have the same professor for all 4 of these classes, and that is one of the reasons I want to take these classes at this university. Doing this will also allow me graduate a semester early, saving a semester's worth of tuition. Believe it or not, the total cost of all 4 of summer classes are about 1/4 the cost of a semester's tuition at my main university. The classes here aren't really any easier, so that's not really a factor in my decision.

So, has anyone done anything similar to this? Am I taking too many classes outside of my main uni? If I do really well, does it really matter where I take the classes?

I took a large number of prereqs during the summer and it matters a lot less than you think. Summer session courses challenge you to learn a lot of material in a short period of time as you will do in medical school and you can focus 100% on these courses during that time. I think adcoms can see that. I took most of my prereqs over the summer. do them at a 4 year though, CCs are looked down upon at several med schools, and john hopkins doesnt accept CC courses, so keep that in mind.