Don't care about rigor of major?

[sakky]

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1. The fact that MIT is an engineering school implies that the MIT kids have an extra burden to prove to the adcoms that they are more interested in getting into medicine than the engineering.

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<p>Which is what I’ve been saying all along, and is consistent with the generally accepted notion that med-school adcoms care more about grades themselves than about the ‘quality’ of the grades. Meaning a 4.0 in Leisure Studies from a cheesepuff community college really does beat a 3.0 in Quantum Engineering from the Incomprehensible Institute of Technology. </p>

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2. MIT kids may be overly obsessed with the grades as compared to other kids from other schools. MIT (as well as Caltech, to a lesser extent, CMU) tends to attract most science/engineering kids who may have a big ego in getting the best grades from the best science/engineering school, because they may perceive themselves the best class in this area. They pay too much attention to the grades in science classes at the expense of others – This may be the case even before these kids get into MIT. (This attitude may also be the reason why they are interested in going to MIT and get into MIT successfully in the first place.)

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<p>That then begs the question of why MIT students would be more obsessed with grades than would students from peer schools - after all, I think we can agree that Harvard students would also seem to be quite obsessed with grades, and more importantly, that premeds at any school, or at least the stronger premeds, tend to be obsessed with grades.</p>

<p>If MIT students are more obsessed with grades than are students at peer schools, I would argue simply that that’s because it’s hard for them to get good grades. You’re always going to be thinking about food if you’re starving. </p>

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3. It is well-known that Caltech and, to a slightly less extent, MIT, do not play much role in “social engineering” in their college admission. This may result in a less diversified student population. This is not a good environment for nurturing premeds. After all, because a future doctor needs to take care of patients from a well-diversified population, no medical school (and likely law school) would like to admit too many students from a less diversified population.

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<p>And I would connect that back to the grading environment once again. It isn’t merely a matter of who you admit, it’s also what you can learn at a school like MIT, and MIT is located in one of the most dynamic college environments in the world, where you can learn a wide variety of social skills. Heck, MIT itself runs one of the world’s most successful business schools, and business success is largely about schmoozing and networking. </p>

<p>Yet, if MIT premeds have not developed adequate social skills, I would argue that that’s a result of your points #2 (and #1) above: they don’t have the time to develop them because they’re constantly distracted by their grades. Like I said, when you’re starving, you don’t have the time to worry about how your hair and makeup look, as you’re constantly thinking about food.</p>