Undergrad courses Forum

[nyckid1]

I'm new to this site.

I have two questions regarding pre-law courses:

1) To what extent do law schools consider the rigor of your course load?

2) Are taking classes online frowned upon?? I'm considering taking 3 3-credit courses online in the summer. However, I fear that law schools will not like this. Will A's in these courses be the same as A's in full semester courses?


Many thanks!

[sublime]

..

[antiworldly]

Put it this way: if you were to take a random transcript from any school around the US and glance through it, how well could you evaluate rigor? If you pack your schedule with obvious bloat (aka "underwater basket weaving") they may notice that. Since so few transcripts will be seriously deficient in that way, that'll reflect really poorly on you. But if you want to take a class here and there that is an easy A, go for it, just don't overdo it or cluster them all in one semester.

The key here is to look at how many applicants are in each pool, and remember that they are mostly all from different schools. So if an admissions committee member looks at my transcript and sees "Gerontology" are they going to know that it was a really easy class? Probably not. If first semester senior year I had loaded up on 100 level philosophy classes? That they probably wouldn't take kindly to.

[Rigo]

Echoing what everyone else has said, rigor really doesn't matter. A high GPA is first and foremost what schools want out of your time in undergrad.

To answer your second question, it's normal for summer classes to be online since many people go home for summer and have jobs. Adcoms wouldn't look down on this.
Besides, they probably won't even be marked as online classes on your transcript. Mine weren't.

[mike0331]

I'm hoping more weight is given to my 3.2 in light of it being biology. I imagine if you are on the fence anything can hurt/help.

Mike

[Hat.trick]

From what i understand, rigor isnt anywhere near as important as the final GPA and is only used to distinguish applicants who have identical gpas. for example, a 3.9 in astrophysics is better than a 3.9 in Poetry. For you second question, i HIGHLY doubt your school lists your courses as online on a transcript. i know mine doesnt.