<p>Does anyone know of a great institution (aside from UCLA and SMC) in the LA area that offers a good, 'easy' set of biology classes satisfying the bio requirement of med school apps?</p>
<p>The bio classes at my school (Ivy League) are notorious for being horrible weed out classes and I would like to avoid them if at all possible, since I have a heavy workload for next semester already.</p>
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<p>Why not withdraw then and attend a local juco where you can earn A’s?</p>
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<p>Premeds are everywhere, particularly in gunner-ish California, so the answer is that such an institution does not exist.</p>
<p>Well taking classes at some random low ranked school instead of your ivy is definitely the best way to demonstrate your commitment to academic pursuit and the difficulties of medicine.</p>
<p>What the heck?</p>
<p>And what are you going to do about Gen Chem and OChem and Physics?</p>
<p>Any decent premed prereqs are going to be a challenge. </p>
<p>What’s the deal. did you barely qualify for an ivy by the skin of your teeth so you feel that you can’t compete?</p>
<p>There is a reason weed-out classes exist. Not everyone who says they want to be a doctor is actually cut out to be a doctor. And just because it’s a tough class doesn’t mean you can’t hack it. I had heard (like everyone else) about how hard organic chem was going to be, when I actually took the class I found it relatively enjoyable. Shying away from the class I don’t think will help you in the long run. If you’re worried about fitting it in with the load you have for next semester, see if there’s a way to rearrange or take it a different semester. If the into bio course is a weeder, and you don’t go through that rigor, you also might not be prepared for the upper level bio classes that assume you have gone through that difficult preliminary course.</p>
<p>Many (ALL?) pre-med programs have weed out classes (including “easy” - LOL public state schools). Do not kid yourself, most (80% or so?) who started as pre-meds will never apply to Med. Schools, no matter what UG they attend. Looking for “easy” - choose different career. No easy here, but any UG is much mush easiER tahn Med. School, no easy time for Ivy (Harvard…etc.) graduates, no easy time for people with PhD and Masters of Science from JHU and such. There is no such thing as an EASY if you want to be an MD, does not exist.</p>
<p>…sorry, no EASY at some low ranked (lowest ranked) UG, will not find it…</p>
<p>*Quote:
The bio classes at my school (Ivy League) are notorious for being horrible weed out classes and I would like to avoid them if at all possible…
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<p>You’re at Stanford (which isn’t Ivy League BTW).</p>
<p>Why are you afraid to take your prereqs there?</p>
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OP, From your previous post, it appears you are at Stanford.</p>
<p>Biology core sequences at that school are indeed rumored to be rigorous, thanks to its well known associated biology PhD graduate school program. It likely does not help that school is the top school in California and it also has a top med school. A school like this naturally draws a higher percntage of gunners. The San Jose Mercury News once reported there were tons of students from Stanford who attended premed classes at University of Santa Clara in order to avoid taking classes at their home institute. Many Ivy League students may do something similar. It is also rumored that a certain kind of students (a large percentage of them are from a newly immigrated families, no matter what country of the origin their parents come from – if these students were not immigrated to US, all of them might be expected to study extremely long hours everyday so they do the same here) kind of own every med school prereq class at JHU, etc., or any hot majors at the top 2-3 BME programs nationalwide.</p>
<p>To be at a well-recognized school or a program is very different from being a top student there. A half of the class will be in the bottom 50% of the class. What is worse is that when you fall at any of this kind of school, there are no lack of people (including med school adcoms) who are more than ready to enjoy seeing your fall - as if the justice has been served.</p>
<p>So be aware this when you decide to attend an attractive or competitive school (like one of these schools with a well known affiliated med school) or program ( like a premed program anywhere.)</p>
<p>If you’re afraid of taking biology classes at your local institution (are you really at Stanford?), then how are you going to handle the rigor of medical school. Believe me, since I went to medical school, there is nothing easy about the route to becoming a doctor.</p>
<p>And are you just being lazy by calling Stanford an ivy league (instead of “ivy league equivalent” or “top 5 school” or “HYPS”) or do you not realize that Stanford is not actually an ivy league school?</p>
<p>You are asking to take the cake and eat it too. That is, you wanted a top school (Stanford?) because of its reputation, but you don’t want the rigors of that school. Sorry, but they go hand-in-hand.</p>
<p>My son goes to a top premed-school too. He didn’t have a great freshman year, but he learned from it and totally rose to the challenge. He is an incredibly happy where he attends. (well, he’s a happy guy anyway, but he loves his school.) It was a good learning process for him, and the experience shows he will be quite prepared for whatever lays ahead. I say suck it up and show you deserve to be in a top program. You may not get all As, but hard work will be worth a great education in the end.</p>
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<p>Not really the reason, which is generally study abroad. SCU is one of the few colleges that offers a full-year sequence of physics over one summer, so premeds who wish to spend a Jr semester (or year) studying abroad can learn enough physics for the mcat and still apply in a timely basis. (btw: study abroad is a “good” reason for taking classes outside of the four year and during the summer.) Ironically, the physics class at SCU is no “easier” since the majority of students enrolling are Stanford undergrads all driving up the curve. :)</p>
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<p>I’d guess, no way. The Ivy premed advisors recommend strongly against it.</p>
<p>^ my D. went to state public after graduating #1 from private HS.<br>
Sorry to dissapoint, but she had to make a huge adjustments to be successful at her State Public UG. Currently she has many from Ivy’s and such (the most represented UG is Berkely) in her Med. School class as well as few PhD (one from Harvard), few Masters of Science, lawyers. Nobody is having EASY time, she does not feel at all anyhow less prepared and UG programs cannot really prepare for Med. School anyway. She is dong just fine, great Step 1 score and we hope that she continue successfully. Every single student in her class is very very challenged and many times dissapointed after exam feeling that they fail (which is normal feeling at Med. School)that took enourmous errof to prepare. One group does have an easier time with one aspect - Anatomy. These are Msters in Anatomy. This group though consists of people who originally (might be several attempts) did NOT get accepted to Med. School, so they decided to get Masters in Anatomy. Good choice!! However, you do not want to spend that many additional years, no do not do it on purpose. It is a good alternative for those who were not accepted to Med. School but still planning to apply until they get accepted.</p>
<p>Stanford’s average GPA was 3.55 in 2005 according to [gradeinflation.com[/url</a>].</p>
<p>So an average Stanford student would have a decent chance of admission with an MCAT score of 31, according to <a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Stanford.html]gradeinflation.com[/url”>Stanford)</a> .</p>
<p>^ Keep in mind that the medical schools know the grade inflation reputations of the universities, too, and will take this into account when considering your GPA.</p>
<p>I would not aim at 3.55/31, not a very good idea at all.</p>
<p>nano,</p>
<p>You think medical schools question the strength of high GPAs from Stanford applicants? Nice try.</p>
<p>Having a sophomore registered to take the first Bio class in the series, I have heard lots of stories about it. I understand they use high school type of metrics without any curve which means there is an exact average for scoring an A, A-, etc. So if the class average for a test is 70, the ones who get 90 get an A and rest will get whatever grade based on their score.</p>
<p>So it is possible that only 5 or 10% get As if the class flunks the first test for example. But if everyone does well (very unlikely from what I have heard), they can all get As.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you can’t do ok in the college you go to and try to shortcut the medical school app by taking classes elsewhere, it might be a problem. So it is better to get a C at Stanford in one or two classes and continue on than try to take a whole bunch of classes outside.</p>
<p>If one cannot handle UG (Stanford or other), then rethinking of the MD path is strongly advisable</p>