Undergrad Coursework

[mattandrusiak]

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Does course selection make any impact on your application aside from the obvious pre-requisite courses? If presented with the opportunity to take virology or english would either affect my application more positively or negatively than the other?

It should also be noted that I have a strong science background with numerous advanced science courses. Also I would be taking these classes in my final year and applying this cycle, so are they even shown on my AMCAS or are they simply going to be potential conversation during interviews?

Thanks!

 

[gbwillner]

Does course selection make any impact on your application aside from the obvious pre-requisite courses? If presented with the opportunity to take virology or english would either affect my application more positively or negatively than the other?

It should also be noted that I have a strong science background with numerous advanced science courses. Also I would be taking these classes in my final year and applying this cycle, so are they even shown on my AMCAS or are they simply going to be potential conversation during interviews?

Thanks!

No impact whatsoever. Don't let anyone else convince you otherwise.

 

[solitude]

No impact whatsoever. Don't let anyone else convince you otherwise.

I'll bite. FWIW I have heard MSTP adcoms directly say that course selection does matter. Of course they care if you take the bare minimum of med pre-reqs rather than a bunch of advanced science courses, because it will affect your preparation. In your case, since you have already taken a number of advanced science courses (from what I understand), I don't think one or two courses is going to have much effect, especially because they'll be in the year of application.

 

[Neuronix]

The impact of undergraduate coursework varies from school to school IMO... In this case I don't think it would matter much, but who knows?

To the op: You have to understand that your application will pass through many hands at every school you apply to. Could one of those hands conceivably look upon your app more favorably because you have that Virology course on there? Maybe.

My suspicion is that your average adcom says:
1) This person was a Biology/Chemistry/some other hardcore science major. They have good science background.
OR
2) This person was NOT a science major. I'm going to look at their app to make sure they have some amount of science prep (what satisifies that will vary).

So if you are a science major who already has advanced science courses, my guess would be it wouldn't make a bit of difference. But, I'm sure someone could come on here and argue the other way.

 

[mattandrusiak]

So if you are a science major who already has advanced science courses, my guess would be it wouldn't make a bit of difference. But, I'm sure someone could come on here and argue the other way.

I was actually thinking the added english may slightly diversify my coursework. Since I am getting a Biochem degree, there is minimal requirements for non-science courses. As opposed to tossing another science course onto the list (that they probably wont even notice), maybe the english class will draw some attention. Either way I am probably looking into this too much, especially since it is being taken during the application year.

Do courses that will be taken during/post-application appear on the AMCAS application anywhere?

 

[Jorje286]

I emailed one of the admocs about this. His response was that your preparation per se doesn't matter and that you have plenty of time to specialize during the grad school years.

However, taking advanced science courses and doing well in them will show that you're very interested in science and that you're good at it. That can't be bad, right? But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't courses that interest you. It will also show that you're not a one dimensional person.

So my opinion would be to take a few science grad courses and a few courses from other topics.