<p>Currently, I am a freshman biology major at Cornell going on a pre-med track. I knew that coming in, the courseload would be difficult and that I wouldn't do as well as I expected and rightly so, last semester my GPA reached a level that I have never reached before. I came from a high school that didn't really prepare me for the rigor of the science courses. Currently, I'm taking both chemistry and cell biology and while I'm doing better and feeling a lot better about chemistry, cell biology is still giving me a lot of trouble. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any tips for doing well in biology? I try my best to keep up with the lecture readings, but come exam time, I really struggle to study properly and do well on the exam. The material just seems too in depth and I'm unsure of what exactly to study to be prepared. What exactly are my options to improve my biology grade? This class alone is seriously making me reconsider staying on a pre-med track.</p>
<p>I can’t give great biology specific advice (I only ever took 1 course at Cornell), but there are a couple things I would suggest.
Cornell has quite a few biology tutoring/resource centers. Take advantage of them to make sure you are learning the material.</p>
<p>2) Are you in the habit of “reading” your notes to study? That is a very poor way to learn things and a low percentage of things will stick. Try to figure out a study method that allows your mind to actively engage with the materia. Some suggestions:
If you are already taking lecture/book notes, before exams make notes of your notes. It will force you to think about what’s really important. At the very least, you can figure out a way to rearrange what you have to make learning the material easier. I used this strategy frequently for my econ tests and always tried to get everything down to the front/back of a sheet of paper (My sense is biology would require more).
I’m assuming all your textbooks have questions at the end of each chapter. Do as many as you can, especially the ones that weren’t assigned so that you are thinking more than recalling the answer from something you already did.
As you’re going through questions and looking over previous assignments, take note (and literally write it down) of what questions you were getting wrong. Focus on those topics and try to find similar practice problems. Having this list ready will be immensely useful if you take advantage of the tutoring resources/office hours.
Have you tried Cornell-style notes? [Somewhat ironically, I learned about this method in high school, not at all at Cornell] Basically, as you’re going through your notes, write questions in the margins. Then when you study your notes, instead of reading the notes, read the questions. Your notes will be there to guide you if you have trouble answering them. Even the process of trying to come up with good questions is a good way to study (even if you don’t end up answering them).</p>
<p>That’s all I’ve got in terms of studying advice. Especially as a freshman, don’t be intimidated to ask for help from your professors, TAs, study groups, and peers. It may seem like you are well behind, and it’s possible in some areas you are, but for most Cornell students, college is A LOT harder. It may seem like you are behind your peers, but keep in mind it’s the people that know their stuff and are confident that are speaking up. Don’t worry about them. There are always a lot more people not speaking up/looking smart who aren’t getting things right away. If your grades are behind the curve now, take immediate action to change your habits and you’ll be ahead of most students.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your very informative, detailed response mikeyc765. I guess what I was doing fit into #2 of what you suggested I shouldn’t do, which is to “read” my notes to study. I was essentially reading the textbook, taking notes of practically EVERYTHING in the book because I wasn’t sure what to specifically narrow down and then become overwhelmed later when studying for exams because I took too many notes (if that makes sense). </p>
<p>Cornell notes would probably be a great start I guess since it forces me to think of questions to ask and to eventually answer.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I forgot the obvious suggestion, but flashcards are great too. The act of making the cards alone counts as significant studying (at least in my book), then going through them and focusing on the cards you are getting wrong/having trouble memorizing. </p>
<p>I think Cornell also has a Learning Strategies Center which might give better advice regarding subject-specific studying advice. Starting out studying is always the hardest part because there really can be a lot of information to absorb. And yes, theoretically professors can ask anything and your only way to guarantee success is completely absorb every word in the textbook and lecture. Realizing that as largely not feasible, you have to figure out where to focus your time and as I said, read less and engage more. You’ll likely do better if you know 75% of the material really well rather than 100% of the material only kinda well. And if you know 75% really well, with that remaining 25%, you’ll be more likely to be able to figure the question out because you’ve been practicing thinking. </p>
<p>You also have to look for clues in lectures as to what will be emphasized. Know your professors well, but some good rules are:
take note of anything that’s repeated
take note anytime the lecture pace slows down</p>
<p>Like you, I frequently found myself taking too many notes from textbooks. If you are doing that, don’t stop there, Take a look at those long, exhaustive notes and try to summarize them. Then use your summarized notes as a starting point and if anything on them isn’t clear, look more deeply at that topic by reading your longer notes or the textbook.</p>
<p>Hi there. I’m a junior here majoring in Psych and plan on becoming a teacher. Do what you think is best, but I saw at least a dozen premed leave the first year when they saw the difficulty of the premed courses, the grading, and what they found out was real bad admit rates to medical college for cornell undergraduates. You are still freshman - consider a transfer to a school that grades better and has more success getting their students into medical college. From what I have seen here, in my opinion, cornell is not a good place at all for premed. You won’t have a great chance applying to med school from cornell. From what I’ve heard, small liberal arts colleges and some other ivys have terrific acceptance rates to medical school. Twin brother is premed at Amherst - graduating this year. He says he never heard of anyone not getting in to a good med school here in the states from Amherst or his friends at Williams. Then again, Amherst and the other ivys grade a lot easier than cornell so that could be the reason they do so well with medical school acceptances. Think about a transfer to a school that doesn’t grade so hard. This is just my two cents and you should do what is best for you. I hope it all works out for you. Lisa D.</p>
<p>Cornell123:
Would you like to share your view on how helpful and/or active is the Pre-Med Committee at Cornell? We visited Univ of Pitt and were impressed by the presentation given by their Pre-Med adviser. It looks like UPitt has a well charted advise for such students. Of course you have to maintain at least 3.7+ GPA and establish good report with at least three profs for good recos.</p>
<p>premed or prelaw committee is not that important
look at the acceptance rates. I’ve heard it it somewhere on Cornell’s web site
not sure if it is still there, but I heard they get in about 1/2 into med college
that is why so many premeds leave and go to other universities for their premed studies</p>
<p>TBH it was higher the years before. But that’s the national trend for you.</p>
<p>Anyways, yeah it is true that many, MANY premeds quit that path in their first year because premed classes can be so devastating. It is FAR from easy.</p>
<p>Interesting, the link says 2011, the chart says 2010.
But comparing it to what is being reported at some other schools, it is very low.
Colene, I’m not premed and don’t know if you are.
But if you talk to premeds here, the common complaint is that none of the other ivys have a problem like cornell with getting such a low percentage into med school.<br>
The chart you link shows that cornell is like the national average. Seems that a school like cornell would be far better than average. The OP talks about hard grades. I may not be right, but Yale, etc, williams, Amherst applicants get in at almost 100%, not because they are so much smarter than Cornell, but I think its because those schools give out like 85% As. At Cornell a 3.5 is good. At the others, it is real low win they give out so many As. I think Cornell is a great place to study as an undergraduate in the humanities. For Premed, I’ve seen too many lave and complain to think that this is a good place for premed. OP - do your own research and decide if a transfer is best for you. Go where you will get high grades…</p>
<p>Yes, other ivies with the exception of Princeton probably has a slightly better grade inflation overall than Cornell. However, NO school would give 85% A’s on their premed classes. If that’s the case, then nobody would get into med school because then everyone would go there for premed and med schools would never regard a curriculum that gives 85% As as rigorous preparation for med school material - they can’t pick candidates out from that. We’ve had this thread several times before, you posted the exact same stuff (off topic to the OP’s topic). Get off this forum ■■■■■ you really need to find something better to do. I wonder why they don’t just ban your IP instead of banning your accounts and letting you make new ones every time.</p>
<p>Also, 100% admittance to med school is simply ridiculous and pretty impossible to believe in. (unless you have 1 student applying a year to med school).</p>
<p>Back when I was in Biology at Cornell, I either didn’t pay attention in class or didn’t bother going cause its in the morning. Same goes for chemistry, organic chem, and physics (autotutorial…). I study almost straight from textbooks and I did fine. However, do review the lecture slides or notes because some things may be stressed in lecture so you’ll know what to focus on. </p>
<p>Don’t rely so much on the application chart Cornell has. Try to get as high as possible for both GPA, and MCAT. Note that other than having a high GPA and MCAT, if you want to go to a good school, GET THE PUBLICATIONS and also some leadership. Medical school is not easy to get into even with good grades and the courses are WAY more time consuming than Cornell pre-med classes. I go to a NY state school right now and I can tell you that the Cornell people here are very bright. From the several Cornell students that I know of here, the majority has over 3.8 and 35+ MCAT. Personally I had a 35+ and a 3.9+, applied to 22 schools, and was only accepted to 3 schools, all ranked in the middle. I’m from NYC and a lot of the top 25 schools I applied to didn’t even bother interviewing me (Mt sinai, cornell). </p>
<p>So definitely, aside from those grades, get those publications (i did 3 yrs of research but unfortunately wasn’t published), Do leadership stuff, and it’s better to have fewer hours of high quality clinical experience, than like 300 hrs of working in the ER if all you did was like fill paperwork, talk to a few patients etc. Seriously every applicant has that and it doesn’t make you stand out at all, esp coming from a place like Cornell.</p>
<p>Also I don’t know what race you are but do know that it matters a lot. URM is in full effect for medical school admissions. Again get as high as possible but definitely look up the stats for your race group and see if it’s better to retake MCAT (if you didn’t do so well, ie if you are asian and got like a 31 on your MCAT, etc)</p>
<p>I think that reflects inadequacies in your application, not the fact you went to Cornell. Med school admissions is more than just numbers. You aren’t owed an interview simply for having a good GPA and MCAT score. </p>
<p>I had a 3.9+ and 35+ from Cornell and I interviewed at 4 out of the top 10 med schools in the country and 7-8 Top 20 medical schools.</p>
<p>And the Amherst data is from 2000-2004 when med school admissions was easier. Over the same time frame, Cornell had acceptance rates of 76%, 79%, 81%, 76%, and 77%. Virtually identical if we’re comparing apples to apples.</p>
<p>Very helpful. The healthcareers adviser is top notch and very knowledgeable about med school admissions. I’ve found her advice to be spot on 100% of the time. Back when I applied (4 years ago), she would hold seminars on how to fill out the application, what to do if waitlisted, interview tips, etc. I never had any difficulty even getting walk on individual appointments with her.</p>
<p>Having a premed committee is a huge advantage because their job is to make you look good. Cornell does not prevent everyone from applying. So, how can Cornell write committee recommendation letters for everyone and still have it be worth a damn? By tailoring each letter to each individual applicant’s strengths. This prevents the letters from becoming generic and useless while still having each letter retain a positive tone. </p>
<p>Medical schools each have their own recommendation letter requirements but if you have a premed committee that writes a committee letter, almost all med schools will accept that letter in lieu of any other requirements they may have. This is tremondously helpful so that you don’t have to assemble 6 LOR’s just to satisfy the requirements of 20 different med schools.</p>
<p>norcalguy,
Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I am a RD guy and will come to know on 29th, and then if I am offered a chance, I will visit once more to get another close look before I commit. It looks like Pre-Med committee is quite helpful. As I expected the ball is in student’s court and it is up to the student to study well and utilize all available opportunities to embellish the resume.</p>
<p>I don’t know where that came from. I did not say anywhere that it was because I went to Cornell. </p>
<p>Also obviously like I said in my post, GPA and MCAT isn’t everything, not even close. Having a good GPA and MCAT is like the ‘required’ part of getting interviews from top places. There are many factors, including publications, Extracurricular, recommendations, race, when you apply, etc. </p>
<p>And regarding norcalguy’s comment about the healthcare adviser being topnotch, just remember that everyone has their own opinions. I’m not saying she is incompetent (I thought she was fine), but I do know ppl who did not like her and some of the advice she gave. So don’t just follow her advice blindly and do some of your own research too…</p>
<p>from what I notice, small but good liberal art schools (ie williams) do very well generally in getting into medical school. This isn’t because they are smarter than Ivy league students. This is because their classes are small, and they are well guided. They have way more faculty per student than in places like Cornell so it really allows the students to get to know the professors. Students from liberal art schools usually come out having good mentors, and very strong letters of recommendation. These are big boosts in addition to their good #s.</p>
<p>It came from reading numerous posts from you over the years lamenting how you only got a couple of interviews/acceptances despite having to work really hard at Cornell and how many of your med school classmates managed to coast through CUNY’s with minimal effort. Your implication was that you expected the Cornell name to somehow boost you over much of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>There are so many people from Top 20 colleges at top med schools that attending Cornell isn’t going to make you stand out. In fact, 70% of my med school graduating class attended a Top 20 university as defined by US News. Attending a top college is almost necessary but not sufficient for getting an acceptance to a top med school. 90% of admissions is still up to the individual. The fact you couldn’t score interviews to top med schools despite excellent numbers from Cornell does not mean that Cornell is not respected or is deficient as a premed school. It is an indictment of your application because I know many people, myself included, who received a lot of solid interviews.</p>
<p>I feel as if I’m intruding but can anyone give me advice on how to prepare for the mcat. I’m a senior in hs but it would be nice to know early. I would have liked to study early for the sat.</p>