Should I be taking AT LEAST 15 credit hours?

[seherv]

When I was reading my course catalog, I cam across this,
"Most professional schools expect applicants to present at least a “B” average and to carry a minimum of 15 credit hours each term, with the exception of Summer term. "

I was wondering, how true is this? I plan on applying to competitive DPT programs like UF, NYU, Columbia, etc..
So far, I've was planning taking only about 12 credit hours for my spring and fall semester,s and making up for it by taking 9 credit hours during each summer. This is the best way that I could manage to get straight A's and maintain a high gpa..
However, I understand that pre health is competitive.
Are pt programs really gonna look at my credits each semester and expect me to be taking at least 15 per semester? I would still be graduating on time if I did it my way, so I didn't think it was a big deal but now I'm a little concerned!

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[Azimuthal]

I don't know about other programs, but Columbia does look at course load, among other things.

 

[scrawnyguy]

Do you think taking 15 hours at a time would cause your grades to slip? I'm sure a school would much rather see a 4.0 from someone who took 12 hours per semester than someone who has a 3.0 while taking 15.

 

[starrsgirl]

I don't think you need to hit it every semester but I do think it's important to show you can carry a full load. In dpt school you will carry 20 ish credits of hard sciences some semesters!

 

[ptlover]

It's important to show that you can have a course heavy semester -meaning two science classes in a semester or a science and math class in one semester. I personally had to take a 15 credit hr semesters due to a grant I received. Its doable but depends on the classes.

 

[seherv]

Well, my first year of college, I only took 4 classes each semester because I hadn't declared my major yet, so I feel like that messed things up a little. I took 3 classes this summer to try to makeup for not having a lot of credits lol

I do want to show a heavy course load, so I am planning on taking 5 courses per semester for all of sophomore and junior year. I will also be taking two summer classes in between.
And that leaves me with just about 5 electives left to take during my senior year. This means that I would graduate a semester early, which is kinda weird, doesn't seem right to me... Not really sure what to do with that, haha

 

[davidtheusername]

While some schools will factor in your course load, many don't look at it at all. Even for schools that look at it, GPA is much, much more important. If the extra hours don't hurt your grades then take them. PT school will be far more than 15 hours, so it's good to get some practice in. However, if your grades are going to be better with fewer hours then grades are more important.

 

[Phyline]

You factored in 5 summer classes, of course you're going to be able to graduate at least a bit early! 5 classes is a good load, depending on how tough they are. When I was taking 4, I felt like a slacker, so I upped to 5. Tried to take 6 next, ended up dropping back to 4, haha. Really, there's no magic number - do what you're capable of.

 

[engmedpt]

When I was reading my course catalog, I cam across this,
"Most professional schools expect applicants to present at least a “B” average and to carry a minimum of 15 credit hours each term, with the exception of Summer term. "

I was wondering, how true is this? I plan on applying to competitive DPT programs like UF, NYU, Columbia, etc..
So far, I've was planning taking only about 12 credit hours for my spring and fall semester,s and making up for it by taking 9 credit hours during each summer. This is the best way that I could manage to get straight A's and maintain a high gpa..
However, I understand that pre health is competitive.
Are pt programs really gonna look at my credits each semester and expect me to be taking at least 15 per semester? I would still be graduating on time if I did it my way, so I didn't think it was a big deal but now I'm a little concerned!

Some legit don't even care. The applicant volume is so high they cant fine tune it. My advice is take two science and balance everything to 15ish. Relax on the number. If you pick up a business minor or something and are at 16 one semester.....relax. Taking more than that is heavy. Also, three labs is heavy but do-able.

Also, contact schools directly. Don't rely on arbitrary metrics taken from a small sample of schools. Prehealth advisors have no clue what they're doing sometimes. you don't want to create arbitrary metrics to measure your future possible success on. It will unnecessarily stress you out.

 

[davidtheusername]

Like engmedpt said about some not caring, I know my school assigns points based on GPA/GRE/minumum hours/interview. No matter what your course load is, you'd get the same number of points for a given GPA. I don't think course load tells you a lot anyways. Someone taking 18 hours and not doing anything else isn't doing anything any harder than someone taking 12 hours but working full time or caring for a child or whatnot. Most schools don't have the time to really think about things like courseload/workload/etc. Most of them just want to quickly rank us by GRE/GPA/etc and move on.

I'd also second advisors not really knowing any more than you about programs.

 

[seherv]

Thank you all for your responses. 🙂 It's not that I don't want to take a heavy course load, its that I do want to be working, joining clubs, and gathering up a good amount of observation hours while still maintaining good grades. Taking a heavier course load would mean that I have less time to do these other things that I think are very important.
I am just concerned because I plan on applying to REALLY competitive programs like UF (1st choice), and don't want ANYTHING to lessen my chances of acceptance. I guess the best thing to do would be to contact them directly and ask them!

 

[engmedpt]

Thank you all for your responses. 🙂 It's not that I don't want to take a heavy course load, its that I do want to be working, joining clubs, and gathering up a good amount of observation hours while still maintaining good grades. Taking a heavier course load would mean that I have less time to do these other things that I think are very important.
I am just concerned because I plan on applying to REALLY competitive programs like UF (1st choice), and don't want ANYTHING to lessen my chances of acceptance. I guess the best thing to do would be to contact them directly and ask them![/QUOTE]

Precisely.....ECs also give you a life and an outlet from school. Pulling an arbitrary 18 credits will psychologically make you feel like all the you ever do is school. Make sure your volunteering is up and as for ECs....do something for you and be a person even if that's just parttime work (some people feel its a break compared to textbooks)

 

[seherv]

Sorry for all the questions, but, what exactly is even considered a heavy course load? Does it mean 15 credits or more?
Can it be 14 credits?

Lets say if I was taking:

Bio II with lab (4 credits)
Chemistry II with lab (4 credits)
Public Speaking (3 credits)
U.S Health Care Systems (3 credits)

That would be 14 credits total rather than 15, however, it does have two sciences.

 

[Phyline]

Credits are so arbitrary. You have two labs in that lineup, so that's good.
Go by workload, not so much by numerical credit value.

 

[seherv]

Credits are so arbitrary. You have two labs in that lineup, so that's good.
Go by workload, not so much by numerical credit value.

Yea, makes more sense that way. Thank you.

 

[Phyline]

My undergrad did things differently, so literally all my classes (no matter lecture or lab) translate into 4 credits on the standard scale. One lecture+lab bio class is even 6 credits. Like what does this even mean.

 

[engmedpt]

Senior year I had the minimum credit count and was in class for 20+ hours a week....It was literally 21 hours of really intense science. The lab hours and requirements were brutal but each got a 1 credit

 

[engmedpt]

Sorry for all the questions, but, what exactly is even considered a heavy course load? Does it mean 15 credits or more?
Can it be 14 credits?

Lets say if I was taking:

Bio II with lab (4 credits)
Chemistry II with lab (4 credits)
Public Speaking (3 credits)
U.S Health Care Systems (3 credits)

That would be 14 credits total rather than 15, however, it does have two sciences.

15 or more is what advisors will tell you because they give block metrics of rigor that relates to an average of multiple majors. It's basically an average.

2 sciences and 3 other courses is more than fulltime at many schools i.e. approximately 15. Labs are given a 1 credit count but have a huge amount of work for that credit count relatively speaking so 14 here is comparable to a full courseload. If easy, then you can up it to 5 courses. Take note that once you hit a couple of the 3000s and literally almost all of the 4000s, the workload gets significantly more intense so you may have to back off of E.C.s or 15+ courseloads if youre at that. Its a very relative scale that depends on your major and your institution. You might also have that professor who think s that you should memorize 300 powerpoint slides because they think theyre science PhD dissertion is the coolest thing since sliced bread. In that case you up your weekly hours to memorizing and mastering that material and decrease your hours on coursework that isn't rigorous.

You'll figure it out 🙂

 

[seherv]

15 or more is what advisors will tell you because they give block metrics of rigor that relates to an average of multiple majors. It's basically an average.

2 sciences and 3 other courses is more than fulltime at many schools i.e. approximately 15. Labs are given a 1 credit count but have a huge amount of work for that credit count relatively speaking so 14 here is comparable to a full courseload. If easy, then you can up it to 5 courses. Take note that once you hit a couple of the 3000s and literally almost all of the 4000s, the workload gets significantly more intense so you may have to back off of E.C.s or 15+ courseloads if youre at that. Its a very relative scale that depends on your major and your institution. You might also have that professor who think s that you should memorize 300 powerpoint slides because they think theyre science PhD dissertion is the coolest thing since sliced bread. In that case you up your weekly hours to memorizing and mastering that material and decrease your hours on coursework that isn't rigorous.

You'll figure it out 🙂

Thank you!!! Definitely feel a lot better about things now. You're right, I'll figure it out, haha.