Can you please comment on the accessibility of professors for extra help particularly on the pre-med course track? How large are the pre-med intro courses? Does the university have paid tutors? Are the professors in these intro courses there to weed out the pre-med or to really make sure the student succeeds?
I’ll preface this by saying that every professor is different. Some truly care about their students whereas others view teaching as a burden which must be overcome to maintain their research positions.
- All professors and TAs hold office hours for students to ask questions or seek extra help.
- Gen chem, gen bio, gen physics, calc 1&2, and orgo have between 150 and 300 students per lecture. These classes are, generally, the largest classes at Hopkins as everyone remotely associated with STEM has to take some subset of these classes.
- The Learning Den (part of the Office of Academic Support) has paid tutors for many subjects including the premed science and math requirements. Additionally the office of academic support sponsors the PILOT program, a collaborative group study session overseen by a "leader" who has done well in the course.
- It really depends on the class and professor, but none of the classes I've taken have been true "weed out" courses like you'd see in other schools. Some courses are difficult and some professor curve less leniently than others but this is more of a product of the professor's philosophy on teaching and grading than an attempt to restrict the number of premeds.