question about the 1yr english requirement

[mdcurious]

I go to a UC and have taken 2 quarters of English. For my last quarter (to fulfill 1 yr) I am taking an online English course that is not UC transferrable. I don't need the credit to graduate from my university, just for medical school. Will med schools accept an online English course that my university will not??? Thanks.

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[oldtown]

Of course for a definitive answer, you'll want to check with the med schools themselves, but i found that the med schools weren't too stringent on the english requirement, as it pertained to what type of course. i graduated a few years ago and only took one semester of english, so i still had one left to take, so i took it at a junior college. i do believe it was UC transferrable, however. Anyway, i called two of the schools i got accepted at to see if this creative writing course would suffice, and they really didn't delve all that deeply into it. Basically, they said "Is the class called English something or other?" Yes. "then it's fine".
The schools know the english requirement is pretty worthless, and you should be ok as long as this online course isn't a complete joke (like ESL if you're fluant in english). Again, check to make sure, because you wouldn't want to have any trouble with an acceptance in june of the year you're supposed to start because you dont have the prereq.

 

[nygirl6464]

i would say it probably does count ---i took 2 quarters and i took 1 quarter of linguistics and i applied and there was no problem as far as i know.

 

[rebaj]

I will have to kind of disagree with the above posters. It probably won't be a problem, but be prepared for it to possibly be a hassle, and think about preparing for that now.

My story: I took 1 semester of English at Vassar as an undergrad, which filled the school's req. I was a drama major, so I then took a two year sequence of dramatic literature classes, and also a dramatic literature seminar, in which I churned out a literary analysis paper equivalent to many English major theses. I enclosed notes explaining this with my secondaries to all schools, but a couple STILL wanted documentation from Vassar saying that the work I did could be considered equivalent to a year of English. For one of them, the letter I procured from the head of the Drama Department wasn't good enough - I had to go back and get a letter specifically from the English department. This held up my file being considered 'complete' at at least two schools, and as we know, being pushed back in the queue is bad.

So, I would advice you to think about doing the online course carefully, and if you go ahead, make sure that someone at some school will vouch for it, and if they will get it in writing BEFORE you start your applications.

 

[abw]

Make sure you ask your pre-med advisor about this too and not just medical schools. I was the happiest person alive when my AP English credits transferred in to satisfy my graduation requirements. Although this would have been ok for some of the schools to which I applied, my pre-med advisor told me the committee could not and would not recommend me unless I took two more classes at an approved college somewhere. I'm sure this won't be your case, but it doesn't hurt to cover your bases.

 

[closertofine]

uh oh, I haven't really thought seriously about this...but I haven't taken any English classes in college, and I don't have AP credit... my (easy) state school just gave me credit based on my SAT II Writing score!

I do have a lot of humanities courses, though...many of which involved a lot of writing...like philosophy, psychology, foreign-language literature classes...but will these count? If not, I'm in a mess, since I'm a senior and haven't planned to take any additional courses. Somehow I just figured that med schools would be as lenient as my university with the English requirement...is this true (hopefully)?!

 

[kidsmd]

Originally posted by karen44
uh oh, I haven't really thought seriously about this...but I haven't taken any English classes in college, and I don't have AP credit... my (easy) state school just gave me credit based on my SAT II Writing score!

I do have a lot of humanities courses, though...many of which involved a lot of writing...like philosophy, psychology, foreign-language literature classes...but will these count? If not, I'm in a mess, since I'm a senior and haven't planned to take any additional courses. Somehow I just figured that med schools would be as lenient as my university with the English requirement...is this true (hopefully)?!

Hm... I'm not quite sure.... I know that even though I had the AP credit and a good SAT II Writing score, my counselor still advised me to take a year of ENglish (What the heck?)... I guess it'll come down to the individual schools and what they think. Did the course numbers for these classes indicate that they were writing intensive? Because I know that that will work as well.

 

[abw]

Originally posted by karen44

I do have a lot of humanities courses, though...many of which involved a lot of writing...like philosophy, psychology, foreign-language literature classes...but will these count?

I don't know if this is specific to my school or not, but the course title/number had to be "ENG" (english) to count for english. I had taken a cross-listed course that was american studies and english, but took it under the american studies number. I had to go and petition to get it changed before it counted.

 

[Allygator89]

Also make sure that you include any speech classes you have taken. I only had AP credit, but the schools seem to be counting my speech classes to fulfill my english requirements.


BTW, do they use AP credit to fulfill a full year (although you only get three or four credits for it?)

 

[Desdemona]

I had AP credit for English literature and tested out of general writing. But I wasn't sure if this would be okay with med schools or not, so I took general writing at community college one summer. As it turned out, I decided to do a classics minor where I did end up taking more English classes, so in the end I didn't even need the general writing course. Also, keep in mind that if you take a class at another school, it will be a real hassle, because you have to send in an official transcript to AMCAS and list it as a school you attended. Then when I was on interviews, I was asked why I transferred to community college. I was horrified! I had to explain that it was just one summer class. In the end, it worked out fine, but I would strongly suggest just taking the class at your own school.