Is it frowned upon if you only take one class a semester? My plan (and the only way I can take classes and stay employed full time) is to take physics 1 and 2 during the summer, then chem 1 and 2 over a year, then bio over the next summer and org chem 1 the second fall semester. I plan to take the MCAT while taking org 2 in the second spring semester. Thanks!
I hope not, because that’s what I’m doing. I was able to take two last semester, but this semester I have O-Chem II with two days of lab, and there’s no way I can fit that around my work schedule. Working full time, you do what you have to do. So many schools don’t offer much at night in the way of pre-med classes.
Sure hope they don’t look at it negatively. Because that’s the boat I’ll be in.
I’d like to hope they’d view any student favorably who goes back part time and maintains good grades while trying to juggle a full time work schedule and/or family commitments.
Couple with that trying to work in extra curriculars they might like to see (shadowing, Er work, etc), plus get ready to take the MCAT. I’d hope that kind of Herculean effort would be viewed positively -as a real testimony to the level of commitment a person has to pursue medicine.
But who knows??? It’s a great question
Anyone out there got any further insights???
Randy
I am not on an adcom and I am just regurgitating what I was told by one of my advisors…
I was told that it “looks better” if you are taking a full load for at least 2 semesters before you apply. With my particular situation, I was working full time and taking 6-8 hours per semester. My advisors told me that I needed to be in full time before applying…“just to show that I could do it”…
Honestly, I always thought that working full time and then going part time to school was more difficult than this… although this is more intellectually tasking.
anyway… that’s what I was told.
Honestly I’m SURE that there are people that have done both… and so I don’t know that any obvious consensus could be made… at least not with the information that we have.
We are told the same thing at the Columbia postbacc program. In fact you will not get their official commitee letter unless you go to school full-time for at least a year. They do count 9 credits and volunteering as full-time equivalency. Their rationale is that you need to demonstrate to the medical schools that you can handle a full-time science only course load similar to what you’d be handling 1st and 2nd years of med school. They claim that this full-time year raises a student’s chance to get into medical school. I too thought it would be harder to work full time and study part time. Oh well. I am not sure if I will be able to do the full-time year and I may end up having to transfer elsewhere if they insist. I know many people have been able to get into med school while taking their pre-reqs exclusively on a part-time basis. I guess it’s a matter of calling up the schools and inquiring about their feelings on the matter.
It seems to me that if you could show that your full-time job was intellectually challenging, this should count for something, especially if you are taking 8 credit hours, working full time, and volunteering/shadowing. I would think this is most likely an individual issue. Other thoughts? Anyone whose gotten in taking the classes part-time and working full time?
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…I was told that it “looks better” if you are taking a full load for at least 2 semesters before you apply.
As you would expect, there is no easy answer here. If you did well academically in your ugrad program, you might have some leeway in how many classes you take at any one time in your p/b program. But if your ugrad gpa is at all iffy, you need to be able to convince AdComms that you can do lots of science all at the same time, and do it well. Med school is no cake walk, and if you think you are busy working full time (or nearly so) and going to school more than one class at a time now…well, I’m sure Nat, Mary, Dave, etc. can shed light on this.
Certainly somewhere along the line you want to think seriously about something approaching a “full load” while you are in your p/b program.Cheers,
Judy
I agree with Judy’s comments. I think the fact that I worked 40+ per week, took an average course load of 12hrs, volunteered, and family duties were one of the key factors that got me in this year. I say this because my ugrad GPA was no fantastic 3.3 and my MCAT was mediocre at best. I think the fact that I could handle a relatively heavy load of nothing but science courses with all my other responsibilities proved to AdCom members that I had a good chance of being successful in completing a medschool curriculum. My suggestion, if you’ve got my same stats, is to not take less than 2 pre-req courses per semester. Heck, who knows what the magic formula is…it’s all a crapshoot anyways!
Hi chris,
I’m curious how you were able to fit 3 classes with labs and a 9-5 (is that your hours?) job? Did your school have weekend classes?
My workday is about 8 am to 6 pm or later, so that limits me to classes from 5:40 or 6:40pm on. I can probably speak to my manager and go to a 8am to 5pm schedule. I’ve looked at several schools in the NYC area and inevitably one of the labs or lectures conflict. I wonder who I can petition to add an 8th day to the work week 
EDIT:
I think my calculations on hours/class is wrong. I am thinking 12 hrs a semester = 3 classes. But, and someone please correct me: Lecture = 1 hr, Lab = 3 hr, Recitation = 1hr? That’d make for 10 hrs a semester with 2 classes?
Oki enough rambling
Depends on the class. My gen chem class had a discussion section, so it met seven hours per week: 3 for class (three 1-hour lectures per week), 3 for lab, 1 hour discussion, and offered five credits.
My organic chem class has no discussion section, and on my campus the first semester has NO lab, so 3 hours per week for three credits, and then the second has TWO days of lab, so 9 hours per week for five credits.
The chemistry department on my campus offers NO evening lab sections, which makes scheduling difficult. I’m currently taking only the ochem this semester. I doubled up on bio and ochem last fall and I’ll double up on bio and physics next fall, since both those subjects offer evening lab sections. Whee.
JoeP-
I was very fortunate throughout most of my undergrad that my supervisor and job allowed for extreme flexibility. The majority of my classes were taken during the normal morning hours. When I had a break between classes I had to go to the library, dial up to work (wireless), and catch conf calls and email. I would then go hit my afternoon classes/labs. If no afternoon classes, then I was off to work. So, somedays I might only get in 6-7 hours of employment work, but this was made up on days that I had low or no classes. I used the weekend to supplement for my 40+ per week as well. This schedule made for alot of late nights in trying to get in work hours and study time. It was time management at it’s best. But, yeah, my story is a bit different than most of us working non-trads and I was very, very fortunate and lucky that I could make my own schedule.
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It seems to me that if you could show that your full-time job was intellectually challenging, this should count for something, especially if you are taking 8 credit hours, working full time, and volunteering/shadowing. I would think this is most likely an individual issue. Other thoughts? Anyone whose gotten in taking the classes part-time and working full time?
Chad, in the ideal world, you are right. It DOES count for something. The risk you are taking is in assuming that someone is going to look carefully enough at your application at first glance to discern just what it is you’ve been doing. Some schools “only” get several hundred applications (but i bet they have few staffers in admissions). Others, like my school, get many thousands of applications. At such schools, the initial screening process may follow standard criteria that don’t allow for a look at these things that are a bit outside the lines.
So, my take on this is, you can do it, but you need to understand that there are risks. At least SOME schools are going to so rigidly apply screening criteria that they won’t catch those nuances.
(my own record: 1st p/b semester, 4 credits; 2d p/b semester, 8 credits; 3d p/b semester, 13 credits; 4th p/b semester, 9 credits. I kept my job for the first two semesters, then gleefully quit - I hated my job anyway -for the 2d two semesters.)