Is it possible to take undergrad (prereq) courses while in grad school?

[mymeddream]

Hi everyone,

 

I am currently in 4th year and will be graduating in June. I took all the prerequisites for med school except English and Organic Chemistry. I have not yet written the MCAT and will be focusing on getting that out of the way in the summer.

 

The thing is that I have applied for graduate school for the Fall session and will hopefully be starting that in September. I am an Ontario resident but would like to apply to as many schools as possible in Canada and the States when I am in the last year of my masters degree. I am wondering if it is possible to take online undergraduate courses while being in graduate school. Is that even allowed? Has anyone done that and is it feasible (workload etc)? I am just worried that by not having these courses completed, I will be limiting myself to only a few schools (especially the OOP and US schools). What should I do? Would be worthwhile to take these courses? (I just don't want to do them in the summer and just focus on the MCAT to make sure that I get a good score).

 

Also, I have heard about Athabasca but has anyone done either english or organic chemistry online or through distance education from another school? Any recommendations on that?

 

Thanks!

[mymeddream]

Thanks Para_D for the input!

 

I could try doing english over a couple of weeks in the summer since I guess organic chemistry might be too much to get done in a short period of time.

 

I am not really familiar with how their system works....can you start the course at anytime?

 

Anyone else who might have done undergrad courses while in grad school? Any other inputs on the situation? Is it even worth it to have those courses done?

[iRSX]

I'm finishing my second year as a Master student at UofC. I actualy had the exact same question as you when I started. Athabasca is an option but only before you start your grad studies. I asked my graduate program administrator (GPA, lol) whether I can take an ENGL course on Athabasca, an acredited university, she said nope. Apparently UofC (and most likely many other universities) students are not allowed to be registered at more than one university at any one time. I don't know if that appies only to graduate students or undergrad as well. You should contact your future GPA about this question. Although...I've heard of people doing an English course on Athabasca while in undergrad. So maybe you don't have to let them know. No idea.

 

EDIT: You'd also have to make sure your thesis supervisor will allow you to take extra courses because it may interfere with your research. Mine was cool with it as long as I promised to not screw up my experiments lol.

[mymeddream]

Thanks iRSX for the response!

 

Well hearing about your experience and what many others have told me is that it may not even be possible to take those courses once I start graduate school. I will ask the graduate program coordinator and other administrative staff for the programs I applied for to see if that would be an option.

 

Right now, I am just debating on whether I should even bother to take them. Is it even worth the hassle at this point?

 

I could give english a try either with Athabasca in the summer or maybe even my own school (if they offer a condensed course in the summer).

 

What do you guys think about doing organic chemistry as a pass/fail basis? I was not able to do that while in undergrad because I am in a science program but if I go back in the summer (after having completed my degree), they will allow me to take it on a pass/fail basis. Would medical schools look down upon this in any way? (Again, the only reason I am even considering to do this course is because it is a prerequisite course for many OOP and US schools...I just want to keep my options open for the future). What do you guys think?