taking genetics at a different college

[phillips101]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I was thinking about taking Genetics this coming Fall at my university, but after thinking about it, I thought it may be a better idea to take the class at another local (also accredited) university instead. The reason being that my current school is a well-known pre-med undergraduate institution, and thus MANY classes are weeding classes. Furthermore, the class will contain ~300+ people, and I want to take the class to learn the information...not to compete with the curve. From my experience with past classes that big at my school, the professors tend to focus more on how to weed out the weak from the strong, rather than to teach everyone on an equal basis. Now the other local university is not as "up there" (a state school vs. a top 15 school). I'm not trying to go into the whole "ranking system" and which school is better than which, but since that school isn't as known for pre-meds, I was thinking it won't be as competitive. Maybe I'm looking for an easy way out, but again, I want to take a class to learn the things correctly, and pass/fail based on my own abilities, not because it's some weeder class just discourage certain pre-meds from med school. Do you guys think it'll "look bad" that I didn't take a certain class at my own school? Or will the adcoms won't care? So far, I have a 3.27 in my science GPA, and doing whatever I can to improve that with my last year at college (I'll be a senior). Please give your serious input, thanks! 😳

Oh, just to give an idea about how many pre-meds there are at my school, out of my orgo class of 400+ students one year, you can bet that almost all of them are pre-meds, and aren't just taking orgo for fun- and each graduating class only contains ~1100 students.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

Take the class wherever you want, but don't shy away from weeder classes. Personally, I think you should just suck it up and take it at your own school. It will make you a better student.

If you're scared of a ****ing undergrad genetics class, how do you feel about the classes you're going to have to take in med school?

I went to one of the most notorious lower-division science class weed-out universities on the face of the earth. Some of the classes were really hard, but I am now a better student for having taken them.

 

[phillips101]

Thanks for your thought, actually it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. It's too late to register anyways, and I'm going to be taking it at my actual school. I know what you mean by "it'll make you a better student". But when you apply to med school, they don't look at C's and go "hmm, this student didn't do well, but I'm sure they learned from it". That's what pre-med does to some people, it goes from "I'm taking this class because I like the subject" to being "I'm taking this class because I'll most likely get an A". Sadly, it's the second mentality that gets you into med school-now how WELL you do in med school, that's a different story- but getting in is the first step. I "sucked it up" with Orgo 2 and ended up with a C- AND didn't learn anything. I retook it with a different (better) professor, and yes worked my ass off, and ended up with an A. What I'm trying to say is that not all professors are as good as the other, and not all professors are out to teach students to their best ability, and just "sucking it up" so you don't look stupid doesn't make it any better. I wasn't trying to take the class at a different school because I was "scared" but because I wanted to LEARN without worrying about the CURVE. The second orgo course I took was NOT curved at all...if you get a 50, it stays a 50, if you get a 100, it stays 100. Yet, I did 3x better than the "curved" class. At least I know I earned that A based on my hard work, not earning a C because I can't work as hard as my other classmates.

I have a friend who attends a state school in the mid-west, (again, I don't want to get into the prestigious school names thing), and I attend a pretty well known school- esp for premed. He was the one who failed all his AP's even after studying for it every day, and I was the one who aced my AP's hardly studying for it. Now, he's acing all his classes, without even studying at his college, and I have to bust my buns to even get a B. So you can't really say "he's smarter, so of course he'll do better". If he were so smart, what happened on his AP's & SAT? So yes , I'll emerge as "the better student" because I'm learning how to work and how to study, whereas he's drinking his way through college. But then again, when it comes time to apply to med school, are they going to take the A student or the B student? Or are they going to think "the student with the lower average worked harder so he'll be better in med school". Nope, it's the numbers that get seen first, and so it's the numbers that are what pre-meds care about.
I asked that question just to see if people have done it before, and whether it will "look bad" not as a judge of my character.