Taking summer online courses

[premedthroaway2134]

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Hi! I'm an undergrad at UCLA and recently realized that I could take UCLA’s online summer courses to complete some of my upper-division and minor requirements. Doing this would save me a significant amount of money as it would allow me to graduate a year early, and not have to pay for housing over the summer as well. I understand that there's some consensus to avoid taking online prerequisite courses as well as courses at outside institutions that may be considered less rigorous, but I was wondering if taking upper divs over the summer online at my home institution would be frowned upon by admission committees.
In total, it would be about 8 out of the ~35 courses I’ll complete at UCLA over a span of two summers, so before committing to that plan, I wanted to know:

1. Would taking multiple upper-division UCLA courses to finish my degree online during the summer be viewed negatively by admissions committees?
2. Are there any downsides I should be aware of?

Thank you in advance for any advice, and I apologize if I missed anything, this is my first post.

 

[nobadwaves]

This is becoming less and less of an issue.

For your medical school prerequisites, check with the MSAR or on individual medical school websites to ensure they accept prerequisite courses that were taken online.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

On the facts, it shouldn't matter. However, the context of what you might miss should be considered:

1) How are you accountable for your learning in an online summer class? Will you dedicate enough time to do well?

2) You are likely going to throw away a chance at a strong LOR. How will you connect with your professor during this time? What is involved in this class for you to connect with your professors?

3) Your preclinical courses are likely going to be small group but in-person because med school faculty are generally seeing disengagement if they keep courses online-only. Are you going to throw away another chance at showing you can manage working in small group courses?

We all understand the challenges of education costs, but it's always better to ask admissions teams before acting.

 

[chilly_md]

You can check to verify but for online versions of courses an undergrad offers to its students through the regular registration process, there often is no difference. They will mark it the same on your transcript.