Doing summer courses: good idea or bad idea?

[Bound]

To clarify I am not actually in University yet, but will have a very light load for my second (and last) semester of high school. The University I'll be going to has some courses available in the summer session that would fit in perfectly with my schedule.

 

I was thinking of taking Calculus II and Linear Algebra just to get ahead in terms of the math for the physics degree I want to pursue, however I read that med schools don't always like you taking the harder courses by themselves as they want to see that you can handle their rigor along with a full course load.

 

What do you guys think? It's not like I would simply cruise along with an empty block where those courses would have been in University, taking those courses will actually help tremendously in giving me more space to take bio courses in the very restrictive physics honors degree!

[jojoluvsu2]

It's not that schools want you to take the harder courses during the regular school year, it's more that you still should take a full semester of courses even if you have taken some summer courses. And during those semesters try to follow a normal progression towards upper year courses (ie. mostly 2nd year courses in 2nd year, 3rd year courses in 3rd year...)

 

It's quite common to take hard courses like O-Chem in the summer so that it won't mess up GPA but will still take care of any prerequisites.