Jarven Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 Hey I was wondering how do medical schools view a course that you took on a credit or no credit basis (or a pass/fail basis). For those of you unfamiliar with what that is, it essentially means that you take a course and as long as you get over 50%, you receive a credit or a pass designation and it will have no affect on your GPA. How would medical schools view a course that simply says "credit" or "pass" on your transcript. At UofT we can only take 2 full course (or any equivalent) on a credit/no credit basis. I'm currently using 1 for my religion course in order to fulfill breadth requirements and plan to use one for English to fulfill most American medical school requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 Why not ask adcoms at U/T directly. It sounds problematic to me but I am not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justlive Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 These seem like the grey areas, together with the withdrawal status on your transcript thingy. I don't know if anyone can tell you definitively whether or not it would be OK... but I would try to stay away from them. Now it seems like a easy path to stay on with a high GPA, but when the time comes the interviewer might ask you why you opted for the pass/fail option, and you should have reasons better than "I want to stay with a high GPA" or "religion/english is to hard for me", and these kind of answers will definitely hurt you. Showing breadth of courses is great, but personally I would still do the regular marking routine even if you get a slightly lower GPA (and I am sure you won't do that bad... come on, it's religion, don't let the humanities scare you ) But if you feel not ready for a decent mark for whatever reason - say for english writing and grammar is a problem - you can choose to take the course in your 4th year or the year you apply. First of all, after 3+ years of undergrad science writing you should be familiar with normal analysis type of paper and your grammar and english writing would improve drastically. Secondly, it is the year you apply so the mark would not count towards your grade calculation. All you need to make sure is that it doesn't go down THAT much after acceptance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarven Posted July 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 One of the primary reasons I'm taking religion on credit/no-credit is simply because I need to focus my time working (I don't have a very flexible job and I'm currently working 40+ hours a week, need to pay off those debts). I feel if I took the course without credit/no credit than the grade I would receive would not reflect my true mastery of the material. I feel as if I might benefit from an English course since I generally can't write anything well (with the exception of lab reports and scientific papers). Currently I'm putting very little effort into my religion class. However, I enjoy the readings and the lectures and I'm currently gaining a general insight into the many common religions around the world. A very useful tool in today's religiously diverse world. Despite the low priority that this class has on my list, I'm probably getting around 75-80. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justlive Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 That's always tough, balancing school and full time work.... but like f_d said, should prob ask a adcom to see what they consider a credit/non-credit thing. Even each school might have their own thing towards this kind of courses. I had several 3.0 and 3.3s so I think 75-80 is a good enough mark (depending on your own level of comfort lol). These kind of things are really edgy and you really don't want to mess up your odds of acceptance by taking chances on these things. As of English.... I feel that many english courses are not about creative writing but much more on analysis type of essays, so to me that's close to scientific writing. Even for courses like Poetry, you are mostly asked to analyze the literary style/devices and meaning of the poem and things like that. You learn about the literary style etc. in class, and you can find a lot of the info/key points you need online through class forum discussions etc. And then there is also the class tutors and academic learning centers that can help you with organization and grammar. So English might be less intimidating then you might imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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