Should I take 16 credit hours over the summer?

[Speedmeister]

Hello everyone,

I am currently enrolled in a community college and have 35 credit hours. I am taking 9 credit hours this semester and already plan on taking 9 credit hours over the summer so that will leave me with 7 credit hours left till I can meet the requirement for my associates degree. This means that I will only have 2 classes to take next fall. I feel like this would be a waste of time so I would like to already start taking classes towards my biology degree but I cannot transfer to a university till I have 60 credits.

The classes are Calculus 1 (5credits), General Chemistry 1(4 credits), Statistical Methods(3 credit), and College Physics(4 credits).

I do not have a job so I can devote all of my time to studying but I have never taken on such a heavy course load in a regular semester let alone an accelerated semester. On top of that I am not amazing with math. I'm not bad at it but like with everything I need to practice a lot since I tend to make silly mistakes here and there which end up costing me points. I believe I can make it out with an A in Chemistry and Statistical Methods but I am not sure about Physics and Calculus. I already performed very poorly my freshman year and a currently sitting at a 3.2 GPA. The way I calculated it, I can afford to make 4 more B's with the rest being straight A's and still make it out with a 3.7 GPA. I figured that adcoms will see the heavy course load I put on myself and take this into consideration?

So what would you guys do in my scenario? Try to finish in the summer or wait another semester and in the meantime get some volunteering done?

Thank you!

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[pioneer22]

do not rush the coursework. do maybe two classes over the summer and let the rest sort itself out

 

[Frogger27]

Adcoms don't take "heavy courseload" into consideration. They take the # they see as your GPA and the trend. Do whatever you need to do to get good grades. it is not a race.

 

[Speedmeister]

Yeah I was thinking the same as you. I have never taken these upper level math classes so I have no idea how I will do in them. I was not aware that adcoms did not take into consideration course load. In this case I will only take Calculus and Chemistry this summer and do some volunteering in the fall or take some humanities courses to boost my GPA.

And to answer your question, I would like to get to medical school as fast as possible haha. The road to become a doctor is already long, anything I can to to take off a year would be great. But I see what you are saying with quality over quantity.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Lucca]

Didnt read anything but the title: god no dont do this pls

 

[Ad2b]

Is your goal to get into medical school or to get rejected from medical school quickly?

There. Fixed it for you 😉

 

[Speedmeister]

I know I probably won't make it to an allopathic school but you know the saying shoot for the stars or however it goes. I'll probably end up DO or Caribbean or who knows but I am still going to try my best to go MD as this will motivate me to give it my all.

 

[WunderMay]

I know I probably won't make it to an allopathic school but you know the saying shoot for the stars or however it goes. I'll probably end up DO or Caribbean or who knows but I am still going to try my best to go MD as this will motivate me to give it my all.

With this attitude you won't make it very far. You have to believe in yourself! You have 35 credits completed with a 3.2 GPA. It's not over! You have a ways to go and you have room for improvement. Do not rush it.

Now, if I were you, I'd take a humanities course (1) in the summer instead of science or math. You said yourself that you don't know how well you will do in upper level math courses so save them for standard length semesters. As for science courses in the summer, do not do this. You do not need the pressure of an accelerated course right now when your GPA can be easily tanked if you do not do well. Now is the time to really grab that GPA by the balls and pound it with some courses that will boost your GPA.

ETA: I meant to say take 1 humanities course and work on volunteering/ECs or take 2 humanities courses.

 

[Speedmeister]

With this attitude you won't make it very far. You have to believe in yourself! You have 35 credits completed with a 3.2 GPA. It's not over! You have a ways to go and you have room for improvement. Do not rush it.

Now, if I were you, I'd take a humanities course (1) in the summer instead of science or math. You said yourself that you don't know how well you will do in upper level math courses so save them for standard length semesters. As for science courses in the summer, do not do this. You do not need the pressure of an accelerated course right now when your GPA can be easily tanked if you do not do well. Now is the time to really grab that GPA by the balls and pound it with some courses that will boost your GPA.

ETA: I meant to say take 1 humanities course and work on volunteering/ECs or take 2 humanities courses.

I figured it would be best to take Calculus in the summer considering I am taking trigonometry and pre calculus now so I would retain a lot of the information that I need instead of forgetting a chunk of it in 4 months and having to practice the fundamentals again. Perhaps I will sign up for a humanities as opposed to chemistry however or take calculus all on its own.

Also by this I mean that I am fully aware how difficult it is to get into any medical school let alone an allopathic medical school. I was just stating that I have back up plans should my grades take a turn or I can't score well enough on the MCAT. I nearly failed out of high school because of my disinterest in school and was forced to go to college by my parents. Last year I experienced something completely life changing and I have really turned my life around but I still can't help but be afraid and unsure of myself.

 

[prehealthadvisor55]

I don't know what the requirements for your AA are, but I would also caution you against splitting up sequences of courses between schools (i.e. taking gen chem 1 at CC, gen chem 2 at uni). If it's possible to save these sciences to all be taken at the same institution, I would do it.

 

[Ad2b]

No it was right the first time. A question you have to ask applicants:
Is your goal to get in to medical school or to get into medical school quickly?

Premeds are ALWAYS going to say quickly... which generally speaking means not at all due to trying to take 16 credits of science without a science background in one semester.

But okay 🙂

 

[WunderMay]

I figured it would be best to take Calculus in the summer considering I am taking trigonometry and pre calculus now so I would retain a lot of the information that I need instead of forgetting a chunk of it in 4 months and having to practice the fundamentals again. Perhaps I will sign up for a humanities as opposed to chemistry however or take calculus all on its own.

Also by this I mean that I am fully aware how difficult it is to get into any medical school let alone an allopathic medical school. I was just stating that I have back up plans should my grades take a turn or I can't score well enough on the MCAT. I nearly failed out of high school because of my disinterest in school and was forced to go to college by my parents. Last year I experienced something completely life changing and I have really turned my life around but I still can't help but be afraid and unsure of myself.

That is very unfortunate. Do you want to stay in college now or are you still doing it for your parents?

 

[Speedmeister]

That is very unfortunate. Do you want to stay in college now or are you still doing it for your parents?

Yes I want to be in college for two main reasons, I want to prove to myself that I can do what I set my mind to and I want to be a doctor (for several reasons, money NOT being one of them)

 

[JustintheDoctor]

Yes I want to be in college for two main reasons, I want to prove to myself that I can do what I set my mind to and I want to be a doctor (for several reasons, money NOT being one of them)

good for you dude! Money definitely plays a role in it for me. I wouldnt be in 250k debt and make $0 a year for it

 

[Speedmeister]

good for you dude! Money definitely plays a role in it for me. I wouldnt be in 250k debt and make $0 a year for it

Thank you! The money is definitely good but I see a lot of people want to do it for that but when you take into consideration the hours worked, stress, and time you have to spend away from working to study, it is not worth it. In my opinion doctors don't get paid enough!