Schedule difficulty

[pwrliftr]

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I’m currently a freshman who is on a pre med track.

What is recommended for pre med students in the level of difficulty of classes they should take outside of their science classes? Like English, history and any other non-science class.

Should I take easy non-science classes so that my GPA won’t be affected by it, and I can give more time to my science classes?

And for science classes, is it recommended to take classes which are easier than others or look easier(on transcripts)?

How do med schools look at these things, in terms of science and non science classes?

 

[DNAJB6]

Pick the easiest classes you can without adding obvious fluff. I honestly don't think many adcoms care if you take the harder courses and are mainly looking for A grades which is unfortunate.

 

[907914]

I’m currently a freshman who is on a pre med track.

What is recommended for pre med students in the level of difficulty of classes they should take outside of their science classes? Like English, history and any other non-science class.

Should I take easy non-science classes so that my GPA won’t be affected by it, and I can give more time to my science classes?

And for science classes, is it recommended to take classes which are easier than others or look easier(on transcripts)?

How do med schools look at these things, in terms of science and non science classes?

Take classes that you are genuinely interested in at first, and if genuine interest leads to success in the grades department then keep on that route! If your interested in the subject but those essays just keep knocking you down...well....Switch to the easy grade classes.

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

There is a wide, wide world of fascinating, relevant, and important knowledge outside of med school prerequisites. As others have suggested, take classes that interest you. Treat them as important and potentially useful, not as annoying fluff classes that you need to get out of the way. Excelling in (and being able to talk intelligently) about academic material outside of science shows that you are a scholar with a true depth of academic abilities, not a box-checking premed.

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

What is recommended for pre med students in the level of difficulty of classes they should take outside of their science classes? Like English, history and any other non-science class.

Should I take easy non-science classes so that my GPA won’t be affected by it, and I can give more time to my science classes?

I'm a recent college grad/a premed, but I feel confident saying that to get into med school, you will need to write a personal statement, a lot of secondary essays, and you'll likely need a letter of recommendation from a professor outside of the sciences. This means that you need to 1) write effectively and 2) impress a professor outside of the sciences. You could BS your way through a mediocre English class and get an A, but at the cost of lacking the skills to write effective essays and having a tepid letter of recommendation.

Instead, I'll recommend the following. Each undergrad institution probably has a few iconic humanities professors who are known for 1) teaching great classes and 2) whipping students' writing skills into shape. The quality of the professor is just as important, if not more important, than the subject matter of the course. Talk to your peers and find out which classes they enjoyed but were also challenged and felt like they learned something. Take one of these classes with one of these professors. These professors also tend to be the ones who write good LORs, so show up to class, show GENUINE intellectual engagement with the material, and if you get your ass kicked on the first essay go out of your way to try and improve. Engagement with the material coupled with an obvious desire to better one's writing/critical thinking will net you a good LOR but more importantly, knowledge that you will use again in your academic and professional career.

You're probably worried about taking one of these classes because you're worried about your GPA. Fair enough, but at a certain point you need to take some risks, get out of your academic comfort zone, and try something new and challenging. You can structure your schedule so that you're not taking a full course load of difficult classes each semester. But if the idea of taking a class with a professor known for being a tough essay grader scares you, you should probably take that class.

 

[theKingLT]

I’m currently a freshman who is on a pre med track.

What is recommended for pre med students in the level of difficulty of classes they should take outside of their science classes? Like English, history and any other non-science class.

Should I take easy non-science classes so that my GPA won’t be affected by it, and I can give more time to my science classes?

And for science classes, is it recommended to take classes which are easier than others or look easier(on transcripts)?

How do med schools look at these things, in terms of science and non science classes?

My strategy was always find courses I was interested in and then go on ratemyprof.com (I think that's what it was called) and make sure the teacher wasn't a complete ***. I never actually dropped a course I was interested in due to a poor rating, but it was good assurance I wasn't getting myself into a rough semester, and I would have had any of the ratings come out particularly poor

Sent from my LG-H918 using SDN mobile

 

[pwrliftr]

I'm a recent college grad/a premed, but I feel confident saying that to get into med school, you will need to write a personal statement, a lot of secondary essays, and you'll likely need a letter of recommendation from a professor outside of the sciences. This means that you need to 1) write effectively and 2) impress a professor outside of the sciences. You could BS your way through a mediocre English class and get an A, but at the cost of lacking the skills to write effective essays and having a tepid letter of recommendation.

Instead, I'll recommend the following. Each undergrad institution probably has a few iconic humanities professors who are known for 1) teaching great classes and 2) whipping students' writing skills into shape. The quality of the professor is just as important, if not more important, than the subject matter of the course. Talk to your peers and find out which classes they enjoyed but were also challenged and felt like they learned something. Take one of these classes with one of these professors. These professors also tend to be the ones who write good LORs, so show up to class, show GENUINE intellectual engagement with the material, and if you get your ass kicked on the first essay go out of your way to try and improve. Engagement with the material coupled with an obvious desire to better one's writing/critical thinking will net you a good LOR but more importantly, knowledge that you will use again in your academic and professional career.

You're probably worried about taking one of these classes because you're worried about your GPA. Fair enough, but at a certain point you need to take some risks, get out of your academic comfort zone, and try something new and challenging. You can structure your schedule so that you're not taking a full course load of difficult classes each semester. But if the idea of taking a class with a professor known for being a tough essay grader scares you, you should probably take that class.

In my first semester I’m taking an honors level English class because I don’t consider myself a good writer at all, so I wanted to improve this part of myself. I went out of my “comfort zone” as some would say.

I spoke to the head of the English department and she said that the class is great for students because it will help you be more pursuasive in your writing(personal statement) and more pursuasive when speaking with others (med school interviews).

The only issue is that, so far I haven’t completed even 1 essay and have done 10+ readings....luckily the professor asked us if we would like to do more writing in the second half of the semester and most of us said yes.

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

I spoke to the head of the English department and she said that the class is great for students because it will help you be more pursuasive in your writing(personal statement) and more pursuasive when speaking with others (med school interviews).

I feel obliged, given the topic. It should be: "persuasive"

 

[theKingLT]

In my first semester I’m taking an honors level English class because I don’t consider myself a good writer at all, so I wanted to improve this part of myself. I went out of my “comfort zone” as some would say.

I spoke to the head of the English department and she said that the class is great for students because it will help you be more pursuasive in your writing(personal statement) and more pursuasive when speaking with others (med school interviews).

The only issue is that, so far I haven’t completed even 1 essay and have done 10+ readings....luckily the professor asked us if we would like to do more writing in the second half of the semester and most of us said yes.

I feel obliged, given the topic. It should be: "persuasive"

It's because they haven't gotten to the writing portion of the class yet 😉

Sent from my LG-H918 using SDN mobile