<p>this is directed at current/recent pre-meds at Yale or at people who know current/recent pre-meds at Yale</p>
<p>is pre-med at Yale overly cutthroat? is it better to go to another school where is might be easier to get a high GPA?</p>
<p>are you satisfied with your choice? are you ever upset you chose Yale?</p>
<p>I'm an '09 premed. I haven't found there to be a high level of competition at all. Upperclassmen tell me that this continues to be true in even intensely difficult classes like organic chemistry.</p>
<p>Overall, Yale is a great place to be a pre-med. Between 94 and 96% of Yale premeds will get into a med school. I've never regretted my choice. I think I would have been overworked and hyper-competitive had I chosen to go to a place like MIT which is considered to be better in the sciences but is also known for its lower premed acceptance rate (~70%) and grade deflation.</p>
<p>thanks so much...i was glad to hear your positive response.</p>
<p>if you don't mind me being a little cynical, is it possible that yale's high med school acceptance rate is because there are hard courses that weed out a lot of pre-med hopefuls, so in a way the med school applicants are self-selecting?</p>
<p>also, does yale definitely have some grade inflation then, even in pre-med classes? so it's not impossible to get good grades/high GPA? or do you have to study all the time and give up sleep to do that?</p>
<p>FWIW, I know several Yale premeds who went on to Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale and UCSF Medical Schools, plus one who went to SUNY Upstate to save tuition money. All of them loved their undergraduate program and none of them found their classmates to be overcompetitive or 'cutthroat." In fact, all of them have talked to me about the camaraderie of their classmates, the willingness of their classmates to hang out, share notes and study together, and the general positive feeling students have towards their classes, so much so that as alumni, they all continue to stay in touch with their professors and with each other. One of them even invited one of her profs to her wedding. I wouldn't be concerned about grade inflation or deflation, given that virtually all of the students graduating from there get into their top choice medical school. Considering the available statistics, such as the fact that the top medical schools are overrun with Yalies, Yale is probably the best "feeder school" in the country into the top medical schools...</p>
<p>Yes the pre-meds have lives (some of my friends are premed). Sure, they do have a lot of work, but so does everyone else. It really depends on you as a student, and if you can get your work done and study effeciently. I really don't know any other school that would grant you a higher GPA...state schools?</p>
<p>I am also an 09 premed, and I have had the same experience as iexpressgfp. I don't feel I am more overloaded with work than any of my non-premed friends. Their lit classes have just as much reading, if not more, than my bio ones.</p>
<p>Ditto to the sense of "competition" being almost nonexistent. In my general chemistry lab, my classmates were all very helpful both during lab hours and when working on the write-ups. There was always a lot of last-minute scrambling/calling/iming when it came to the night before the lab was due. A good number of people did lab writeups together.</p>
<p>Same for my calculus class--we often did problem sets as groups. Once the TA couldn't make it to one of the homework review sessions, so about ten of us took it upon ourselves to run our own little class the night before the homework was due. </p>
<p>I can't recall a single instance when I needed academic help and a classmate refused, friend or no friend.</p>
<p>The only complaint I have is that I think it's easier to get a B in a science class, which is usually graded more strictly by the numbers/tests, than in a non-science class, where there are more papers and chances to rewrite and improve. Even then, my Gen Chem class was 40% A's and 40% B's, so you still have ample room to get a decent GPA.</p>