Taking 'easy' courses to boost GPA

[Umyo]

Hello SDN,

I would like to hear your opinions on the following matter:

I have a scholarship at my university which pretty much pays for any course taken in my undergrad.

I was wondering how medical schools would view me taking Human Nutrition, Geology, and Kinesiology. (I believe I can get a 4.0 relatively easily in all 3)..

Since I am a Texas resident, I will be applying through TMDSAS, it lists these 3 courses as science courses and therefore they count as boosting not only overall but science GPA as well.

Will this be seen as an obvious ploy to raise GPA? Or can I wiggle my way out by saying they were interesting courses and that's why I took them?

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[Microglia]

Go ahead and take them. No one reads the transcript close enough to judge difficulty of classes, and it varies too much from school to school for them to accurately tell anyway. Honestly it seemed like most adcoms just glanced at my GPA and put a check mark, then moved on to the next bullet.

 

[inycepoo]

Sure, you can play the system like that, but if you're not interested in those subjects and are taking them only for the sake of making good grades, the only person that's being shortchanged is yourself. And whoever is funding that generous scholarship.

It's logically wise to strategize as such, but make sure you're not giving up your own preferences and likings in the process.

 

[Aerus]

Nothing wrong with that. But I highly recommend branching out and taking classes you find interesting too, and not just because they're "easy".

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello SDN,

I would like to hear your opinions on the following matter:

I have a scholarship at my university which pretty much pays for any course taken in my undergrad.

I was wondering how medical schools would view me taking Human Nutrition, Geology, and Kinesiology. (I believe I can get a 4.0 relatively easily in all 3)..

Since I am a Texas resident, I will be applying through TMDSAS, it lists these 3 courses as science courses and therefore they count as boosting not only overall but science GPA as well.

Will this be seen as an obvious ploy to raise GPA? Or can I wiggle my way out by saying they were interesting courses and that's why I took them?

There's nothing wrong with taking "gut" courses. At the end of the day as long as you fulfilled a major and took the prereqs, all they are going to see is the GPA. They won't take into account that you took art history with the football team. The caveat is that sometimes things that look like guts aren't if you don't put maximum effort into it. I know more than a few people who took psych because it was a pseudo-science and ended up with a bad grade.

 

[Mace1370]

Absolutely do this. Adcoms don't care and can't really know that they were easy classes as noted above. I wish I had done this more when I was an undergrad.

 

[Captain Sisko]

Lol my entire postbac was made up of easy courses. Bumped my total gpa up by. 06

 

[BlueLabel]

Sure, you can play the system like that, but if you're not interested in those subjects and are taking them only for the sake of making good grades, the only person that's being shortchanged is yourself. And whoever is funding that generous scholarship.

It's logically wise to strategize as such, but make sure you're not giving up your own preferences and likings in the process.

Haha I'm assuming he'd prefer and like to boost his sGPA

 

[inycepoo]

Absolutely do this. Adcoms don't care and can't really know that they were easy classes as noted above. I wish I had done this more when I was an undergrad.

That's not true.

 

[circulus vitios]

That's not true.

If it's true, it's only true after you make the GPA cutoff for the interview. Schools typically get 5000+ applications and interview 15%. You're crazy if you think they're going to analyze every one of those 5000+ transcripts to see if you've taken hard courses or easy courses, before they potentially offer an interview.

 

[inycepoo]

If it's true, it's only true after you make the GPA cutoff for the interview. Schools typically get 5000+ applications and interview 15%. You're crazy if you think they're going to analyze every one of those 5000+ transcripts to see if you've taken hard courses or easy courses, before they potentially offer an interview.

Sure; agreed for the obvious temporal reasons.

However, the only person you're selling short in the process is still yourself. I'd argue that anyone who needs to bank heavily (note: keyword is heavily, not every once in a while) on filler courses like nutrition to get a good GPA competitive for med school is not academically prepared enough for the grind of med school curricula. There's a reason GPA is so important; it predicts academic success in med school pretty damn well. What are you going to do, select your way out of histology in med school because it's too hard?

If you're not challenging yourself to a decently acceptable level in college, good luck in med school. I guarantee you'll be behind everyone else who did.

 

[Goro]

It's not what you take, but how well you do int hem.

But think ahead...don't you feel that taking anatomy, physiology, micro, pharm, biochem now will help you later????

Hello SDN,

I would like to hear your opinions on the following matter:

I have a scholarship at my university which pretty much pays for any course taken in my undergrad.

I was wondering how medical schools would view me taking Human Nutrition, Geology, and Kinesiology. (I believe I can get a 4.0 relatively easily in all 3)..

Since I am a Texas resident, I will be applying through TMDSAS, it lists these 3 courses as science courses and therefore they count as boosting not only overall but science GPA as well.

Will this be seen as an obvious ploy to raise GPA? Or can I wiggle my way out by saying they were interesting courses and that's why I took them?

 

[Umyo]

It's not what you take, but how well you do int hem.

But think ahead...don't you feel that taking anatomy, physiology, micro, pharm, biochem now will help you later????

Yes, I do plan on taking those courses.

The only reason I need a few buffer courses to help me out is because I decided to take honors courses in the core sciences. So I am taking honors chemistry, honors organic chemistry, etc.

These are very intense and the rate of people making A's is significantly lower than in the regular classes. I am pretty sure I could make A's if I went the "easy" route of just taking regular science courses like everyone else (at my university).

Thanks for all the replies, looks like I'll go ahead and take these courses then.

 

[inycepoo]

Yes, I do plan on taking those courses.

The only reason I need a few buffer courses to help me out is because I decided to take honors courses in the core sciences. So I am taking honors chemistry, honors organic chemistry, etc.

These are very intense and the rate of people making A's is significantly lower than in the regular classes. I am pretty sure I could make A's if I went the "easy" route of just taking regular science courses like everyone else (at my university).

Thanks for all the replies, looks like I'll go ahead and take these courses then.

In that case, you're using the right strategy. Everyone needs a break to keep their sanity. But I encourage you to look into classes in other departments as opposed to still going STEM in your "fun/chill" classes. You'll definitely find something you like in something social science and humanities.

 

[Law2Doc]

...
But think ahead...don't you feel that taking anatomy, physiology, micro, pharm, biochem now will help you later????

No they won't. You will take them again in med school, after you have forgotten all the substance, and at a totally different level/focus. No real benefit to take them earlier. You get more of a leg up receiving the easy A in modern salsa dancing 101, and maybe don't waste your college credits taking a watered down and superficial version of something you are still going to have to take again in med school. If you take all these premed classes on top of the prereqs, only to have to take them again later, you are actually cheating yourself out of a broad and diverse liberal arts education ( which BTW probably would make you a better doctor at the end of the day).

Think about it. All med school grads will end up with that same knowledge of those subjects and yet some also have managed to take some non premed classes along the way. so you are paying the same tuition for a fraction of the knowledge ( if you choose to double up on the stuff you'll have to retake again later.) And those guys are getting a bump in their GPA to boot. Whose getting cheated?

 

[487806]

But think ahead...don't you feel that taking anatomy, physiology, micro, pharm, biochem now will help you later????

Except for biochem, none of those classes will be of any help in the future (and I say biochem only because it's a requirement for many medical schools). Yes, people will argue by saying that physiology is essential for the MCAT, which is a valid point, but don't take that as an absolute truth. Physiology isn't a requirement for nearly all medical schools, so there must be some way for students who didn't take the class to do well on the MCAT and in medical school.

No they won't. You will take them again in med school, after you have forgotten all the substance, and at a totally different level/focus. No real benefit to take them earlier. You get more of a leg up receiving the easy A in modern salsa dancing 101, and maybe don't waste your college credits taking a watered down and superficial version of something you are still going to have to take again in med school. If you take all these premed classes on top of the prereqs, only to have to take them again later, you are actually cheating yourself out of a broad and diverse liberal arts education ( which BTW probably would make you a better doctor at the end of the day).

Think about it. All med school grads will end up with that same knowledge of those subjects and yet some also have managed to take some non premed classes along the way. so you are paying the same tuition for a fraction of the knowledge ( if you choose to double up on the stuff you'll have to retake again later.) And those guys are getting a bump in their GPA to boot. Whose getting cheated?

Solid post.

 

[jaybird117]

Take what you're interested in, because odds are, you'll get good marks in those courses.

 

[Dotally]

Sorry to bump this post but this is the most recent I could find and I know sdner's like to say "use the search function", but if I took Preparation for Gen Chem I two years after I took gen chem to prepare for the mcat is that going to be a bad idea? Will they look at it and ask me about it? I'm not taking the intro to Ochem since I'm taking that right now but it has been a long time since I took Gen Chem.