Strength of Schedule

[Renaissance Man]

To use a football term, is an "easy semester" seen in a negative light to medical schools? I am trying to study for the MCAT and boost my GPA one more time before applications start next summer. I am registering soon for classes in the spring, and I want to take only one upper level science, one other 300 level class, and the rest an intro class and a PE class. Bad idea? Surely class difficulty is not a major factor in acceptances right?

Thanks guys

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Overall there's no problem with that. Unless you're doing introductory courses like trig and have already taken calc or something. As long as you're a full time student you'll be fine.

 

[hiyaman]

I think your fine, I mean i'm only taking one upper div bio lecture, and a couple of GE's that I need to finish to graduate, and I couldn't get into another upper div bio course I wanted to take, so I don't think adcoms are gonna hold it against me for taking a couple of GE's and only one upper div course for this quarter. I actually didn't intend this quarter to be light, my schedule just got messed up.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

it's more important to go undefeated, you dig?

 

[Renaissance Man]

Color me Boise State then

 

[wanderer]

it's more important to go undefeated, you dig?

Not only that, but strength of schedule is way down the list of tiebreakers so that it is only rarely, if ever, invoked.

 

[Poliscidoc]

Color me Boise State then

Ok smurf turf...

Roll Tide Roll=SEC=Real Football

 

[Richardh]

whats really important is your overall gpa (and science gpa too) and mcat score i don't think med school admission committee checks the amount of units or credits that you have taken during the semester/the quarter. achieve a strong gpa and a high mcat score

 

[lord_jeebus]

Adcom members have better things to do then try to figure out how tough the courses are at the hundreds of different schools from which they receive thousands of applications. That is why standardized prerequisites and the MCAT exist as equalizers. Besides those, playing the game correctly means only maximizing your GPA.

 

[Longshanks]

it's more important to go undefeated, you dig?

Exactly. It also allows you to have more free time to devote to ECs, which are equally important to admissions.

Just don't be Reggie Bush.

 

[wanderer]

Adcom members have better things to do then try to figure out how tough the courses are at the hundreds of different schools from which they receive thousands of applications. That is why standardized prerequisites and the MCAT exist as equalizers. Besides those, playing the game correctly means only maximizing your GPA.

I'd like to add that adcoms can see your total hours per year on the verified AMCAS, so if you're someone who takes something like 12-13 credits a semester that can easily be seen (unless you also took a lot of summer courses, in which case the summer credits get added onto the yearlong credits).

 

[WildEMDoc]

Color me Boise State then

Boise State just beat my school 59-0 this weekend.