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Is it a good idea to take Prereq in Summer?


addam

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Im doing my undergrad at Queensu and am thinking about taking my Orgo prereq in the summer as an online distance course from Queens. I've heard that med schools like ottawa wont accept this as a prereq, and this worries me a lot... I dont want to get to the point of applying and find out my summer course is no good. There is also a virtual lab component instead of hands-on lab which sounds strange?

 

Which schools in Canada won't accept the prereq either because it is done in the summer or because there is a virtual lab?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated:)

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I know several people who have done their chemistry courses through Athabasca, which is distance education, who were accepted to various Canadian medical schools. Athabasca does have a lab component though - you have to attend one of their in-person lab sessions to do the lab work.

 

I also know several people in med school who did their pre-reqs during the summer, with no problems. At U of A, for example, a lot of people take organic chemistry during the summer, since U of A won't count summer courses as part of your cGPA. So many people take "difficult" courses like English or organic chem during the summer, so that it won't affect their cGPA.

 

So, in general, summer courses and distance courses are fine, as long as they have "real/live" lab components. The only problem I see with the course you want to take is the virtual lab component. If you can take organic elsewhere, with a "real" lab, during the summer, then it shouldn't be a problem.

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I would double check with the medical schools themselves since this is a science course that needs to be completed with a lab component to be of any value in terms of medical admissions.

 

However, I don't think that it actually says on the transcripts whether a particular course was taken online or in class (at least that is the case at my school where some courses are offered in the in class format as well as online format and the transcripts only state the course code, course name and the grades but such courses don't have labs...i.e. they are just non science courses or science courses that normally don't have any labs).

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Are you from the GTA? You could do it at U of T, York or Ryerson, just make sure to sign up as early as possible cause they can fill up fast (I was going to do orgo @ York last summer but couldn't cause course was full)...

 

And I believe most medical schools will recognize summer courses as pre-reqs but won't count them towards your GPA

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