Special Educational Opportunities
Most liberal arts colleges offer special
educational opportunities that can enhance the
character of your program of study. These
programs not only improve the quality of
your college educational experience but also
increase the strength of your medical
school application and thereby improve your
admission chances. You should not arbi-
trarily utilize any of these programs but should
incorporate them into your program only
if you are sure that they will definitely help
you attain your career goal. The six special
programs discussed below are advanced placement
credit, honors courses, independent
study, graduate-level courses, pass/fail
courses, and summer school courses.
Advanced Placement Credit
When a student has acquired advanced placement
credit for excelling in a science on the
high school level, one or more required
premedical courses will be waived. As a result,
there will be a gap in grade information in
this area. It is frequently desirable in such cases
to substitute a suitable number of elective
courses for the waived courses. You should select
substitute elective courses carefully,
determining that your high school background is ade-
quate, and discussing the course requirements
with the instructor. You should also consider
auditing the basic science course from which
you have been excused in advance of taking
the elective; this would not only provide a
useful background but would also enable you to
develop a set of lecture notes that could prove
helpful for review when you are studying for
the MCAT. For example, if your general biology
requirement has been waived, you should
review the principles of biology by yourself or
audit a course if possible. This preparation is
essential, even if you do not major in biology.
In this case, your elective course grades will
serve to indicate to the admissions committee
your academic potential in this important
area. If you do major in biology, a good
grounding in its principles will serve you well for a
variety of electives you choose during the
course of your studies.
Honors Courses
There is no question that completing an honors
section of a course can strengthen your
admission potential. This, however, is true
only if you get an A in such a course. Receiving
a B grade may serve to depress your GPA (and,
where applicable, your science average)
even though in reality a B in an honors section
may be equivalent to an A in a standard
section. In some cases, however, grades for
honors courses may be weighted, in order to
provide an equivalency factor. Thus, before
enrolling in an honors section, you should
determine, by talking to the instructor and
students involved in the course, just how much
additional work it requires and how the grade
is evaluated. If you have the time and are
confident of your ability to master the
requirements, then enrolling in an honors section is
reasonable. In any case, the honors credit
should be noted in your application documents.
The course can be educationally rewarding and
provide a good source for securing an
impressive letter of
recommendation.
Independent Study
Another approach that can add significantly to
the attractiveness of your credentials is
satisfactory completion of an independent study
program. Such an undertaking can
demonstrate that you are willing and able to
accept the responsibility of a special educa-
tional challenge. Your motives must, however,
be sincere so that you will apply yourself
maximally in order to ensure that your research
is impressive and is completed on
schedule. As a result of such an activity you
will undoubtedly develop a special favor-
able relationship with your mentor, who will
then be able to strongly support your can-
didacy for admission to medical school at the
appropriate time.
Independent study should be undertaken only if
you are sure that it will not have a
negative impact on your educational
responsibilities as a whole. You need to be especially
careful in selecting a project that can be
realistically completed by the date you set. It is
best if you can complete any independent study
project before you apply to medical
school so that recommendations resulting from
this work can be submitted when they can
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