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<p>This may help explain why the freshmen grades at MIT are lower. I have met many many EECS graduates from many schools, and have almost never met one who enjoyed srudying biology, or at least the way the introductory biology is typically taught. When you force all these students who tend to be lopsided toward physics/math to take this kind of introductory biology class, a natural consequence is that many of them will likely not do very well on it. There may be some EECS students who could also be good at this. But I bet a majority of them would not enjoy it and are therefore not willing to spend too much time on this subject.</p>
<p>We all know that it is very important to have balanced scores on all sections on MCAT. Similarly, to get a GPA as high as possible, it is also important to get high grades on all four science pre-reqs (BCPM). Some lopsided students are not good at all these subjects. On the pre-med track, you can often find students who are very good at B and C (at least at the introductory level), but not so good at either P or M (or even both). When a student are good at all 4 subjects, you call him/her a good premed student (in terms of grades only) – I would think both norcalguy and BDM are one of those who are good at almost all of these subjects.</p>
<p>I think (but I am not sure) that MIT tends to recruit lopsided students. Lopsided students may be extremely good at one or two subjects while may not be so good at others. The well-rounded nature of the pre-med course sequence and ECs (except the research maybe) may not appeal to this kind of student. This may be one of the reasons why the pre-med success rate at MIT is not that high.</p>
<p>It is said that Einstein was a lopsided student when he was a student. He failed his first attempt to get into the university, and was graduated almost the last from his class (the last one was his first wife who was unwed and pregnant at that time.) If Einstein were a premed, do you think he would be a successful/happy one? One professor even called him a lazy dog or something. He could not get a recommendation letter from any of his professors. He is definitely neither a good father nor a good husband. He is not a good grandfather. He is likely not a good doctor, IMHO. Luckily for him and for us, he is a physicist.</p>