Guest mk Posted March 3, 2001 Report Share Posted March 3, 2001 Do most schools stress that the GPA is calculated on courses while taking a full course load. During one of my years (I had a high GPA that year), I took 8 courses Sept-April (4 courses each term) plus 1 course before September during the summer months and another course after April during the summer months. Any thoughts about taking summer courses in general? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jase133 Posted March 3, 2001 Report Share Posted March 3, 2001 I applied on the strength of my first two years. Both not full coarse load (5 courses in one semester, 4 in the other). I took summer courses. Got interviews. Don't know if I'll get beyond that. Hopefully I will though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EB Posted March 3, 2001 Report Share Posted March 3, 2001 most schools (certainly at the U of A) won't use your summer courses as part of your official GPA, unless it's a prereq course for med admittance... so, unless you're taking a summer class just so you won't have to deal with it for a whole term or year, summer classes don't really do much for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 4, 2001 Report Share Posted March 4, 2001 I did a number of summer courses, and looking back on it, I wish that I hadn't. The major reason being that the summer is the typical full-time student's only chance to really do something long-term without the disruption of school. In terms of getting into med school, the summer is a great time to go do some travelling, perhaps in concert with an international volunteer project. For those without the extra cash to spare, the summer can be a good time to do some research projects (hopefully paid) with the expectation of getting a good reference letter and perhaps a publication (both nice things to have in your application). For those people that might not have a great deal of health-care related volunteering, you could set up a few different jobs around town (eg. Emerg, neonatal nursery, geriatrics, yadda yadda). Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of patient-centered volunteering experience out there to be had immediately, but if you aren't afraid to approach doctors, you might be allowed to shadow them a bit. Amusingly enough, this is what I'm trying to do for this summer as a med student. I wish I'd been a bit more aggressive when volunteering during premed to make more doctor acquaintances; it would make setting up shadowing opportunities much easier. One last thing, just to echo EB: check to see if the med schools you are interested in use your summer courses as part of your overall GPA. I think there are med schools on both sides of the fence. Ian Can, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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