Take undergrad class while in med school

[jint83]

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Suppose I wish to take some quantum physics classes(for hobby) while studying at NYU SOM, will these class grades show up on my medical school transcript? If so, will that look weird/bad when I match residencies?

I guess MD/MBAs might have some experience with this since they have tons of business classes on their transcript. I wonder if they have two separate transcripts, one for med one for business school, or a combined one.

 

[Tiger26]

Suppose I wish to take some quantum physics classes(for hobby) while studying at NYU SOM, will these class grades show up on my medical school transcript? If so, will that look weird/bad when I match residencies?

I guess MD/MBAs might have some experience with this since they have tons of business classes on their transcript. I wonder if they have two separate transcripts, one for med one for business school, or a combined one.

Two possible things here:
1) Either you're so brilliant you could hang this, however, you probably wouldn't need an internet message board in that case to help you make your decision

or

2) You have no idea just how hard med school really is . . . .

 

[sirus_virus]

Suppose I wish to take some quantum physics classes(for hobby) while studying at NYU SOM, will these class grades show up on my medical school transcript? If so, will that look weird/bad when I match residencies?

I guess MD/MBAs might have some experience with this since they have tons of business classes on their transcript. I wonder if they have two separate transcripts, one for med one for business school, or a combined one.

I wish you would.

 

[jint83]

guys don't be hating, suppose what if I want to take some French or philosophy classes.

 

[xx216xx]

then why not just audit the class? attending an undergraduate class won't show up on your graduate school transcript, you'd have to pull up your undergraduate transcript to show you even took the class. On top of that what would it show? That you took a random class in physics or philosophy or english or whatever? And what if you fail it because it turned out you couldn't really commit to it? Why would you want to pay to take a class on top of paying for med school? And no, i don't think MBAs have tons of business classes on their medical school transcript, they have those on their graduate transcript with the business school that the medical school has an agreement with.

 

[DrJD]

then why not just audit the class? attending an undergraduate class won't show up on your graduate school transcript, you'd have to pull up your undergraduate transcript to show you even took the class. On top of that what would it show? That you took a random class in physics or philosophy or english or whatever? And what if you fail it because it turned out you couldn't really commit to it? Why would you want to pay to take a class on top of paying for med school? And no, i don't think MBAs have tons of business classes on their medical school transcript, they have those on there graduate transcript with the business school that the medical school has an agreement with.

Some medical schools allow you to take undergraduate classes for "free." Georgetown and University of Cincinnati for sure, probably others as well...

It all depends on you and how hard you find medical school. Seems like a lot of people on here find medical school really difficult. In my SMP program I haven't found it all that hard. I could probably swing one undergrad class if I really wanted to, but any more would be pushing it.

And no they wouldn't show up on your medical school transcript. The above posters suggestion to audit is a good idea though. Learn the info but without having to take tests, that removes some of the pressure... Good luck!

 

[jint83]

Some medical schools allow you to take undergraduate classes for "free." Georgetown and University of Cincinnati for sure, probably others as well...

It all depends on you and how hard you find medical school. Seems like a lot of people on here find medical school really difficult. In my SMP program I haven't found it all that hard. I could probably swing one undergrad class if I really wanted to, but any more would be pushing it.

And no they wouldn't show up on your medical school transcript. The above posters suggestion to audit is a good idea though. Learn the info but without having to take tests, that removes some of the pressure... Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but if I simply audit a class, I would skip all the homeworks and end up learning nothing. There are a few classes that I regret not having taken in undergrad and wish to make up my curiosity.

 

[Bartelby]

I suggest auditing as well. It's a great option.

If you are convinced you can take the class for credit, ace it, and still ace your medical school requirements as well though, how could that possibly look bad?

 

[HPSPpayissues]

With your free time, you should just go find a gf and explore your sexuality 👍

 

[canebob]

If anything, just ask the professor if you can sit in on the class without a grade

 

[Habeed]

Heck, at my undergrad, I eventually figured out that nothing stops you from just showing up, without permission, for free.

Literally nothing. You could walk onto campus from anywhere, and just go sit in in class. Most classes were so large that you could ask the professor 50 questions after, and as long as you looked like a student, they wouldn't even know you weren't enrolled.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

When/where/how would you fit this in?

It's not like you have a lot of free hours in your daytime schedule - your SOM certainly wouldn't want you signing up for a class when you're technically supposed to be in physio lecture

Are classes even on the same campus? How would you get back and forth

 

[confuse]

Auditing is great idea. Just in case you become too busy with med school work, you can always skipped a few lectures (this is for fun/hobby right?!). If you could pull this off, I would be so envious of you. Man, I really miss my undergrad education. Imagine taking photography, world music, ... those are the best days.

 

[socmob]

Also recommend auditing -it can be done @ my school easily. You can audit the class and still do the homework if you so desire *rolls eyes* but realistically, doing the full work for the class AND med school is often too much and you won't realize it till after it's too late and you're stuck w/ some crappy grade on your transcript.

 

[physics junkie]

Suppose I wish to take some quantum physics classes(for hobby) while studying at NYU SOM, will these class grades show up on my medical school transcript? If so, will that look weird/bad when I match residencies?

I guess MD/MBAs might have some experience with this since they have tons of business classes on their transcript. I wonder if they have two separate transcripts, one for med one for business school, or a combined one.

Have you taken a quantum mechanics or any upper division physics course before? How proficient are you with mathematics...meaning how well do you know your vector calculus? Have you taken linear algebra? ODEs? PDEs?

I know this isn't directly related to your question I'm just trying to get a feel for how difficult this course is going to be for you. I regularly put 15 hours a week in to my quantum mechanics homework(you don't get anything out of physics if you don't do the homework).

Personally I would recommend taking a course in general relativity over one in quantum. That way you can learn something new and actually have an intuitive feel for a new idea.

One semester of quantum isn't really much of anything. It only started to come together for me during the 3rd course and even then only after I made headway into understanding the mathematics by teaching myself linear algebra. Otherwise it seems like a symbol manipulation game at times. First semester you learn the wave formulation but there are no real strong ideas attached to it. Then second semester you throw out all the wave stuff and move to matrix mechanics(how its actually done) with operators. It still doesn't make any sense what you are doing and you don't learn anything that makes you think because you don't understand what the formalism is--you just calculate eigenvalues with matrices.

The reason I'm saying these discouraging things is that many people take quantum thinking it is going to be an eye opening course. It is in some respects but trying to get a conceptual appreciation from one quantum course would be similar to reading Ulysses in grade school.

 

[sprinkibrio]

Thanks for the suggestion, but if I simply audit a class, I would skip all the homeworks and end up learning nothing. There are a few classes that I regret not having taken in undergrad and wish to make up my curiosity.

Geeze, if you actually need grades for motivation to learn this class it doesn't seem like a hobby, does it?

BTW, you should definitely audit, because you never know when your medical school is going to stick in a required clinical experience or career lecture (my school has a TON of these and the only way to get out of them is to hope someone will switch times with you). Schedules change all the time in medical school so you can't always plan ahead for these things. You're not going to want to not be able to turn in homework or show up at a test because you have medical school obligations.

 

[physics junkie]

Geeze, if you actually need grades for motivation to learn this class it doesn't seem like a hobby, does it?

Give it a break. 🙄 Some people manage their time better when they have more going on--not less.

 

[sprinkibrio]

.

 

[amidoinitrite]

With your free time, you should just go find a gf and explore your sexuality 👍

I second this.