My school offers three introductory bio classes. Intro to bio, Intro to human bio, and intro to ecology. I know that these would be easy A's for me as well as good refreshers for the MCAT. Should I take these to help boost up my BCPM or would this look bad to med school admissions?
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What if i take a more advanced class and the beginner one at the same time? Any why not take it as a review for the MCAT. Alot of upper division classes aren't as comprehensive as the beginner ones. For instance, an upper division physiology course might only have enough time to go over 4-5 systems in detail while a beginner human bio class can touch almost every aspect but in a lot less detail.
Best way to boost your science GPA hands down is do research for credit. I've gotten 12 credits hours (4 "classes" each 3 credits across 4 semesters) of A's from doing research. And if you qualify, you can up your research to HONORS research for more awesomeness. Great EC, easy A's, great LOR's (you can get them from your lab head, since he is technically the "professor" of your research "class"), it's epic!
i agree with the research credits, it even gives you somethign to talk about durign interviews and in your amcas application.
i advise you not to take the intro classes for easy A's, even when combined with advanced courses because med schools will see this and it would not make you stand out.
good luck!
i advise you not to take the intro classes for easy A's, even when combined with advanced courses because med schools will see this and it would not make you stand out.
good luck!
yea the research at my university is graded satisfactory/ unsatisfactory. It won't help my grade at all. So does everyone think that taking easy bio classes is a bad way to boost up the BCPM?
i say take em and get A's...and then talk about your genuine interest in those subjects...nobody will give you slack for taking a science class and getting an A
- Dec 27, 2008
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ditto. If it's good review for the MCAT (minus the MCAT), then why not? Though I agree with Jurassic, take those upper levels as well. They rank higher.
I'm mad these are easy courses at your college, though. They dangerously hard at my institution. boo.
I would have to respectfully disagree with this statement and all other derivatives of it. I can say from experience that trying to take all these extra hard upper level classes just to "stand out" is pointless at best, and can prove detrimental to your medical school aspirations.
Take a look at my MDapps. You will see what will happen if you try to take upper level classes only to impress admissions committees. I am done with the process (Finally!) and can say that the admissions committee briefly screens the applications before they decide to give you an interview. They are not looking over every class, but rather looking at the overall BCPM and cum GPAs. If they look at individual classes, they look at the individual grades, not so much at the title of the class. So it is to your advantage to take the classes that you can do well in and boost that BCPM GPA. However, I do agree with taking research for credit.
If your goal is to stand out in the admissions process, I suggest identifying an overall theme about YOURSELF, not your grades or academic record. This could be a challenge you've overcame and how it relates to your determination, or the reason why you want to pursue medicine and how that has influenced your path (research, traveling abroad, extracurriculars, etc). You then need to push this agenda every time you can--in the personal statement, the secondaries, the interviews. Everything you write or say needs to tie back to your overall theme.
This is how you get into medical school. Not by taking extra difficult classes for no other reason but to impress committees. Because you will find that the majority of the applicant pool has taken these classes as well, so in the end you would look average anyway.
i thought research credits were only Pass/No Pass, if you want you can take astronomy or other physiology classes to boost that BCPM
At my institution, there's basically two tiers of research, pass/nopass and graded. The graded research requires you to write or present something (depending on your or the PI's department) vs. the p/np research, which requires less work hours and little accountability as to whether or not you're doing anything. I guess it's different for different schools? Maybe you guys should check with your counselors and see if there is an option for graded "directed research" or something of the sort.
Entry level classes can be EXTREMELY tough due to the ridiculous curve of lower div classes, insane amount of memorization likely necessary to do well, and the sheer number of premeds taking the course and willing to do this memorization. At my university, these so called "easy" classes can be notoriously harsh in grading.
Entry level classes can be EXTREMELY tough due to the ridiculous curve of lower div classes, insane amount of memorization likely necessary to do well, and the sheer number of premeds taking the course and willing to do this memorization. At my university, these so called "easy" classes can be notoriously harsh in grading.