DS (freshman Premed) is thinking about taking a calculus class this summer when he comes home. He intends to transfer the 4 credits back to his university when he completes the course. He took AP Calculus BC in high school. but needs to take a math class in college for med school requirement. So he is thinking about taking Calculus III at a four year college back home. The college is accredited but low ranking. DS thinks doing this will give him more time to study Org Chem next year.
Is this a good idea? Will SOM adcom view this negatively?
Adcomms won’t care one way or the other about it.
Remind your son he probably needs to take stats/biostats as well as another math. (Stats are on the MCAT and some med schools require stats for admission.)
He can do it as long as his own school will accept that transferred credit, make sure get it in writing.
AMCAS won’t care if the credits transfer to the student’s home school or not. Med schools won’t either. They only want to see the pre-req is fulfilled.
Now if he wants to use the credits to fulfill some school-specific graduation requirement, then he needs to get permission from his advisor and the college’s registrar in advance of enrolling in the class.
OP, there is nothing bad about your S’s plan to attend a class next summer, however, a caveat would be that just about anything else your S would do with that summer would be a better idea. The undergrad experiences that defined my successful medical school application cycle were programs I attended during the summer. There is plenty of time to take the classes you need during regular semesters/quarters, the summer is an opportunity to focus on something meaningful to the exclusion of all else. Good luck to your S.
Thanks to all of the above helpful comments. I will advise DS to get the proper paperwork and permission for the summer class.
@plumazul, your comment intrigued me. What types of summer activities should a premed do? DS had a great resume in high school with well rounded extra curricular activities. However, he has not started anything in college. I think he is a little lost being a freshman. We don’t have any family members working in the medical field so I am not sure how to advise him.
Typically pre-meds use their summers to engage in lab or clinical research (including competitive admission summer internships), physician shadowing, clinical volunteering and/or MCAT prep.
Just want to highlight that WOWMom was speaking generally, not implying that MCAT prep is an activity for summer after freshman year.
Also honestly, working at summer camps is a great activity too, particularly if one is interested in pediatrics.
Ugh, D hated everyday of PEDs, she is the bad one that wowm made the jokes about :)>-
@4beardolls, look up REU’s, also SPUR and see if your son qualifies for them. The apps for summer research programs are very early admissions, so you want to get a jump on them…I don’t know anything about the NIH programs, maybe somebody else can weigh in on them. My daughter did a spur program the summer after her freshman year, and it paid!! I think it was 3000 plus room board. Fast forward to med school and she had to pay more than that for a summer internship.
@4beardolls I want to second what IWBB said.
Any kind of public-contact service job is also a good idea for pre meds. Medicine is becoming more and more customer service oriented. (Patient satisfaction surveys, anyone?) Developing strong people skills is a valuable thing for pre-meds. Additionally, having personal experience as a wage slave/hourly worker may allow your son to better relate to his future patients.
D1 was a life guard at city public pools her first summer in college. D2 spent her post-freshman year summer selling gas and slurpees in one of the western National Parks. (It was the experience of a lifetime and one she wouldn’t trade for anything–not even a guaranteed admission to med school. Seeing an elk calf born 15 feet from your front door–priceless!)
@GA2012MOM D1 was “meh” about peds—kids were OK, but the parents made her crazy. D2 is angling for a peds subspecialty (peds cards or peds gastro) and D2’s BF will end up in peds EM (or so D1 swears–he’s too nice to do adult EM but he’s got the EM personality.)
I would like to send big THANK YOU’s to: @plumazul, @WayOutWestMom, @iwannabe_Brown, and @GA2012MOM. I started this thread in Jan asking about DS taking a calculus class close to home in the summer. You encouraged him to try finding summer internship instead.
Fast forward to April. DS searched and found a paid summer research internship at a hospital in our city. He applied, interviewed, and received the offer for the position.
I can’t thank you enough. Originally, DS was so set on taking a math class in the summer in order to lessen his course load next year. Now he is enrolled in the calculus class in the fall, secured the awesome summer research, I get to have him at home for the summer, and he gets to save his summer stipend for school next year!
I do have a follow up question for future reference. @GA2012MOM suggested REU’s, SPUR, and NIH up thread. When DS started looking, it was quite late in the game for those competitive programs. So he looked at the hospital in town instead. My question is that, in terms of summer research internships, is prestige of program important for medical school application? In other words, how would his local hospital paid research internship compared to the REU, SPUR, NIH, types of internship? DS is a freshman so he will be looking at this situation again next year.
Not really. You can go to the most prestigious program but if you were nothing but a set of hands for someone else it won’t mean anything. Sustained research (e.g. working in a lab at your school for an extended duration) is more impressive too anyway.
Thanks, @iwannabe_Brown