Taking courses only at the appropriate year level?

[glutam8]

Are you at a disadvantage when applying for US med schools if you take courses that are at lower levels than your current year of study? So if I'm in my third year of undergrad and take one or two credits at a 100 or 200 level, would I be at a disadvantage compared to applicants that took all year-appropriate courses?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm a Canadian undergrad and only really familiar with Canadian med schools, so I'm unsure of how this would work in the US. Here, the only requirement is that ~60% of your courses are taken at your current level of study, and that's only at some schools. Most other med schools don't care.

Could anyone please explain how this might work in the US? I'm interested in taking a few 200 level courses next year because I'm running out of interesting electives to pursue, but I'm worried they'll make me less competitive.

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[carpediem22]

It depends on the subject. If it is your major department and you're taking 100 or 200 level courses as a junior or senior, yeah it probably won't look great (like you are fluffing your GPA). If it is a new subject and you are just interested in taking introductory courses, go for it! I took a few lower-level courses in subjects as a junior and senior that were both A) not in my major department, and, B) not pre-med, science subjects, and it didn't impact my application at all. It's fun to try new subjects, especially since this is the last opportunity you'll have to do so!

 

[Link2]

The reason I'm asking is because I'm a Canadian undergrad and only really familiar with Canadian med schools, so I'm unsure of how this would work in the US. Here, the only requirement is that ~60% of your courses are taken at your current level of study, and that's only at some schools. Most other med schools don't care.

Where did you see this?

 

[wholeheartedly]

The only requiremt I've seen in the US is from the undergrad major program requiring a certain numbers electives to be at xxxx level or higher.

For medical schools I've just seen a general blurb on the websites suggesting that students also take some higher level science electives beyond the pre reqs.

 

[glutam8]

Thank you for the responses!

Where did you see this?

Completely forgot to mention that I was talking about Ontario (unsure about other provinces), but I was referring to the 3/5 rule.
Schulich (4th question): http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/medicine/undergraduate/future_students/faq.html

 

[BigRedBeta]

There's literally no way for medical schools to track this, let alone use it to separate out applicants. Maybe if you took nothing but 100 and 200 level classes, but most undergraduate majors have requirements that a certain number of hours in your major must be 300 or 400 level classes.

Further, outside of your major and a few select exceptions, it only makes sense that the majority of your hours are 100 and 200 level courses. The pre-med taking that intro level econ class as a senior because it's interesting...not padding GPA, just learning more about the world in a field that is outside their comfort zone - it's not their fault it's an introduction to fundamentals course so it gets a 100 level designation.


While in undergrad, I served on the curriculum committee responsible for approving new courses which included redesignations of course numbers, approving or removing pre-reqs, and changes to major requirements. At least at my undergrad, the numbers were largely arbitrary, and making a course a 200 level vs a 300 or 400 level had more to do with how often a department was required to offer the course. A 400 level course didn't have to be offered every year, a 200 level course usually had to be offered every semester - there were other considerations as well like number of prereqs required or trying to serve notice to freshmen that it wasn't a class they should register for (like the wine tasting course that had a 400 level designation), but a lot of our redesignations to higher levels were at the requests of the departments in response to poor enrollments. Some course numbers were remnants from years, even decades, prior when courses were first introduced. Regular old Biochemistry for example was a 400 level class when I took it as a junior but we moved it down to 300 level when I was a senior. Same class, just a different number. The Biochem department wanted it changed to reflect the fact that it was a prereq for more advanced topics for biochem majors, but when it was first introduced, it was literally the only biochemistry course and since it had numerous prereqs (organic chem and cell structure/function - both 200 level courses, and organic had its own prereqs), it got at 400 level designation. Years later, much had changed, there was an entire biochem department and it needed to be updated, so it became a 300 level course.

But how is the admissions committee at XYZ Medical School to know that it's the same course? Or that a 300 level course at School A is more rigorous than the 400 level course at School B? They simply can't make that detailed of judgement. If it's a question, ask it in the interview and if the student says "this is the typical 2 course biochem sequence at my school" what more can you do?