Any downfalls of being a premed at UT?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>I was recently admitted to UT Austin and am pretty sure I will attend. </p>

<p>I'm just curious though, are there any drawbacks to being a premed at this school? I was thinking that a huge campus/student body <em>might</em> be one and the +/- grading system might be another. </p>

<p>I'm a little worried about how well I will do there too. Looking for input regarding pros, cons, etc. of premed at UT.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>What is the grading system there?</p>

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<p>^^^^ Its the same way that AMCAS calculates it</p>

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<p><a href=“http://cns.utexas.edu/images/stories/health_professions/MedStats2009.pdf[/url]”>http://cns.utexas.edu/images/stories/health_professions/MedStats2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Is it just me, or is the 3.68 average GPA for accepted students a little high? Not exactly sure what an decent figure is. The 31 MCAT seems fine, or is that a little high too?</p>

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<p>Many UT Austin students complain that UT has changed the grading system to +/- while their major competitor, Texas A&M, does not do the same.</p>

<p>It is in general true that many “medical-school-worthy” students (especially those with a 3.8+ GPA) may have a higher GPA if they come from a school without +/- grading system. (Look at how many 4.0 students from Texas A&M each year !)</p>

<p>ViggyRam., Is the number 3.68 a TMDSAS GPA number (which still does not use the +/- system as of this year) or an AMCAS GPA number? Many UT students do not apply to any OOS medical school at all so they may not even try to calculate their AMCAS numbers.</p>

<p>I do find that many applicants from Texas colleges (including UT) tend to have a higher GPA but a relatively lower MCAT.</p>

<p>Off topic here: It appears to me that, for college admission, the private colleges tend to place more emphasis on the standardized test scores like SAT or SAT subject tests, while the public colleges tend to weigh the GPA/class rank more. This is likely because weighing the standardized score too much prevents these public schools from composing a more diversified class. If they do not have a more diversified class, they run the risk of being sued or their funding from the state government may be cut.</p>

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<p>Perhaps this is the phenomena that NCG refers to in regard to U of M’s GPA+MCAT table (higher GPAs and lower MCATs). That would then lead to me thinking that the rigor of premed isn’t as great as it proposed to be.</p>

<p>And I’m not sure if that’s TDMSAS or AMCAS. I found this on TDMSAS:

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<p>So, if this were used, how would it affect a person’s GPA if that person were applying to Texas state medical schools using TDMSAS out of UT? (Are A’s and A-'s both equal to 4.0? Are B+'s and B-'s then equal to 3.0’s?) I can’t seem to find what UT uses to figure out the average GPA of accepted students. Colleges00701 said something above about AMCSAS, but I’m not sure if he was referring to just the +/- system or the actual average GPA of accepted.</p>