Withdrawing from classes and course load

[snoopy69]

I’m a junior biology major that came into college with AP credit so I was a little ahead of the game. I had to withdraw from general chemistry 2 for fear of a receiving a bad grade and took it at a local college during the summer. I was wondering how much medical schools care about taking summer classes at other schools and how a withdraw looks on your application. Also, how much do they look at your course load? I’m taking the Kaplan prep course for the MCAT, and its almost like a class in itself so I was only going to take 8 hours. Is that a bad decision?

[bubabuggy]

I think that if the rest of your semesters/quarters were full-time or more than full-time i.e. 19 units and you did well, then that should prove that you can handle the course load and the current 8 unit schedule you have shouldn’t harm you. If the maximum units you have ever taken in a semester is 12 then it may look like that is the max. you can handle and you are making the 3rd class the MCAT review.

[y82benji]

Bubabuggy is right – it depends a lot on what the rest of your record looks like. Basically the less you challenge yourself and the less you succeed, the less competitive you are. Obviously, though, you could drive yourself insane worrying about that. The average student that gets into medical school takes at least 4 classes per semester and rarely takes a premed class at a community college. One exception to that (an easy semester, one class at a community college, etc.) isn’t too bad, but try to keep them from mounting up. One thing I always did as a premed when I felt like I needed to lighten my load one semester to make room for something else is to take an easy class to add in some more credit hours. Consider taking an easy class outside your major so that you can have something a little different that won’t take your knees out from under you.

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