Undergrad Course selection

[BonIver]

Hey, I am in my third year and wanted to know how adcoms looked at first year courses taken in higher years. I wanted to take a 1st year astronomy course next semester and i'm reconsidering taking it incase it will look poorly on my application. Any thoughts? Thank you

[Vidhya]

Hi BonIver,

 

Due to the changes in the application, the only place they would consider the "level" of the course is in the 10% subjective assessment. The remaining 90% is based on either your personal attributes or set calculations. Therefore, this 10% plays a relatively small role overall and includes an assessment of ALL academic aspects of your application (GPA, course load, MCAT, course difficulty, etc).

 

Based on this, I suspect that taking one first year course will have a very small impact on your overall application. Given the importance of GPA, any negative affect of a junior course will probably be overcompensated by receiving an A in that course.

 

However, just keep in mind that Calgary may tweak the application again next year based on the results of the changes made this year. Either way, IMO I just don't see one course having that big of an impact.

[astrogirl]

I'm assuming you posted here because you're applying to Calgary, and not one of those Ontario schools that has a long list of rules about what courses you have to take and what years you have to take them in (if you are applying to those schools, then I have no idea what to tell you). If that's the case, then go ahead and take it. As long as you're not taking nothing but easy first year courses in your upper years (and 1st year astronomy is not generally an "easy" course - although it is very possible to get an A in it with a reasonable amount of effort, which is always nice), then I don't think you should worry about it looking bad. What it looks like is that you are interested in things other than obsessing about getting into med school. I think that's one of the whole points of going to university - to take some introductory courses in things that you're interested in but that aren't what you're planning on doing for your career. I took all kinds of random courses in undergrad - creative writing, French lit, Irish dance, archaeology. I may be a bit biased because it's an astronomy course you're talking about, but I think you should take it if it's something you're interested in and I hope you have lots of fun in it.

[BonIver]

Hey sorry for my late reply, I was busy with midterms(as I am sure everyone is). I am sort of in a bit of a loophole in regards to the fact that my undergrad program required me to take a lot of 200 level prereqs in my second year(my first year was all 200 level premed classes). All of my first year courses were 200 level and 6 of my 10 second year classes were also 200 level. Currently in my third year I have 2 400 level, classes one 200 level and the other 7 are 300 levels. I am contemplating switching one of my third year courses to the 200 level astronomy course. Does this information change anyones recommendation? Should I play it safe and just take the 300 level course instead of the 200 level astro class? (Btw is took astro 207 and got an A+ so I think I would really enjoy astro 209)