quick question about fluctuating units

[Je (Justin) Ko]

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Hi y'all
I have greedily taken 22 units (18 from my school and 4 from other) just to prove that I can handle lots of units. I'm really tired right now and I registered for only 13 units next quarter. My GPA so far has been superior (not trying to brag) because I've taken low units the last 2 quarters. Am I doing things right? I'm a junior transfer and my community college GPA was 3.92... I've heard that that doesn't count at all when it comes to grad school Med school or both. please clarify my understanding~😕
thank you so much~

Sincerely,
Justin

 

[DoubleDoctor]

I assume that units are like credit hours and you should never overload yourself just to prove that you can do it. It is better to have a consistent number of classes each semester/quarter but you have wore yourself out and now are taking less credits. You have proved nothing except that you don't make very good decisions. Yes, I had semesters where I had to take 20-21 hours because of my majors but it wasn't by choice and I took the usual number in the semesters following. To me, this will look like that you can do it once but then you have to slack off to recover and med school is about being able to consistently perform even when overwhelmed. Also, as a side note, some med schools have a problem with classes from community colleges so you should check into the schools( that you are interested in attending) for their policies on community college credits.There was recently a thread on here about this subject. Thirteen hours is pretty low but it wouldn't look as bad if you got it up to 15-16/semester. Good Luck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Neuronix]

I'd like to echo what DoubleDoctor said. How many units/credits you take per semester or the difficulty of the classes that you are taking in a given semester DO NOT COUNT. I have always taken light course loads and done other things on the side (like work, research, ECs, etc...). Nobody once has asked me why I only took 12 - 14 credits/semester or about the difficulty of all those Psychology or Anthropology courses I took. Meanwhile, the engineers in pre-allo are complaining about their 3.5 GPAs not looking as good as a 3.9 in Psychology. It sucks, but that's pretty much the way things are. Use it to your advantage.

As for your transfer from community college, your GPA from there does count. Community colleges are not discredited by med schools (well, except for Wake Forest...) and so as long as you do well on the MCAT and keep up your grades at your new institution, you will have proven to the adcoms that you could handle being a pre-med.

 

[DoubleDoctor]

Thanks Neuronix, I could not remember which school disses community college grades but I knew there was at least one.

 

[Je (Justin) Ko]

Thank you so much for all your advises.
Now I don't have to be ashamed (?) of my good grades with low units.
I have a finals coming up so I'll go study now.
Good luck to all of you.

 

[Sonya]

hey,

thanks for the assurement that medschools wont mind my 3.8 is b/c i only took ~13 units / semester. I always thought they would notice, but others say they don't. which, is in my mind very weird... (and i still hold great respect for those who can manage engineering majors, 3.9s, and 20 units, which seemed to be too many of my classmates...)

While directly, medschools do not look at Junior/community college GPA differently, i highly suspect, once they do ananlysis, and in depth looks at your GPA, which they do, they will focus much more on you GPA at a 4-year univ. Which, sucks for me, because the JC I went to was quite comparable to universities.

Maintain a good GPA by whatever means suits your styles, above all. If you work best with 20 units once, 10 units next semester, go for it. None the less, I think, in the long run it will be better for you to just go at a reasonable load all along. I think you'll end up happier that way, and be able to manage it easier.

if it's an issue of 10 units because they are really tough classes and 20 units because they are easy, no reason not to have that variation. It's normal, and if anyone asks, yo can explain.

Sonya