<p>Biology is likely the top 3-4 largest major at most of these schools that were discussed there. At one of the schools, 7.6 % of the class are traditional bio majors (excluding biochemistry - as mmmcdowe taught me not long ago: biochemistry is chemistry, not biology :-))</p>
<p>Regarding what sakky said “they don’t have the time to develop them because they’re constantly distracted by their grades”, I tend to believe there may be some truth in this. Even at many other schools, it is likely that many premeds dare not enjoy the club activities (unless it is medicine-related ECs) as freely as most non-premeds, because, as it was once posted on this board, premeds had better keep an eye, maybe even two eyes, on their GPAs. If a premed student is forced to compete with the physics/engineering student at MIT (I am not sure if this is true though, that is, I am not sure whether they have a physics class for premed – I think this may be the reason why the grade for freshmen at MIT is much lower), s/he may worry about the grade to the extent that s/he may ignore the development of other areas that are also important for a successful premed.</p>
<p>I know this is anecdotal: it appears that there are more premed students at Stanford who take physics at some state schools in summer. It may be no coincident that: 1) the engineering at Stanford is quite good (esp., their graduate school). 2) The GPA requirement for a California kid/resident is much higher. If a premed even needs to take a pre-req elsewhere, how can s/he spend a lot of time on joining clubs to develop his/her wholeness?</p>
<p>A million dollars question is: As a premed, is it more important to develop a person as a whole, in both science/academic and social skills/well roundedness? There may also be some truth that the medical profession prefers somebody who is more than a science nerd. There is a joke that goes like this: An engineering school needs to hire a fun czar in order to help organize an activity - because the students there lack this kind of experience, and they do not have enough time/opportunity to develop this.</p>