<p>Hey guys</p>
<p>I am currently attending stanford and i am premed. I wanted to take organic chemistry at an easier school over the summer, since i've heard horror stories about orgo in these tough schools.</p>
<p>What do you guys recommend as to schools in the bay area that offer relatively easy organic chemistry courses over the summer?</p>
<p>I have been looking into them and so far, Santa Clara University seems to be the best place for me to take this course...</p>
<p>Well, if it’s easier you won’t learn it as well right? Then it’ll come back to hurt you on your MCATs.</p>
<p>I understand Stanford’s a competitive environment, but if you can’t handle basic General Orgo (which I thought wasn’t that bad and you’re probably smarter than me if you’re at stanford) then how are you going to handle Med school? My Med friends tell me Orgo was easy-breezy compared to some of the stuff they learn.</p>
<p>Anyway, why don’t you take it at a local State U if you feel Stanford will be too competitive?
But Orgo probably won’t vary much from college to college. The Santa Clara students taking it will be science majors as well, and also competitive.</p>
<p>alix, </p>
<p>it’s not that i can’t handle orgo, but rather that orgo is from what ive heard, the most important course you take in undergrad for med school (ie. med schools will consider your orgo grade independently). and therefore it is important to maximize your chances of doing well, or at least that is my understanding</p>
<p>If they see (if they can tell) that you took it at a school other than where you went, won’t that raise red flags?</p>
<p>as long as you’ve taken it at an accredited 4 year college, ive heard that’s not the case</p>
<p>Taking a REQUIRED pre-med course over the summer is going to be detrimental to your application when you apply to med schools. Especially when it’s not at your home institution. This will also hurt you when the time comes to take your MCAT.</p>
<p>Nice to see that you’re confident about your own abilities… </p>
<p>pre-meds… <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>But if you’re really this desperate about getting a good grade in orgo, just go audit a class in the summer, doing all the necessary assignment, and then go take the actual class knowing everything the class will teach. Repeat 3-4 times if necessary.</p>
<p>Of course, if you really want to impress med schools, a summer spent on Organic Chemistry is not the way.</p>
<p>ray, </p>
<p>what do you mean by “Of course, if you really want to impress med schools, a summer spent on Organic Chemistry is not the way”…then what should you do?</p>
<p>and out of all the courses you take, isn’t it important to get an A or high B in organic chem?</p>
<p>Research, internships, volunteering, etc. </p>
<p>Y’know, stuff that differentiates you from all the other thousands of people who got A’s in organic chemistry, not to mention the people to get A’s in honors/advanced organic chemistry. </p>
<p>If you spend a summer on Orgo you’re going to be in a competitive disadvantage regardless of what grade you get.</p>
<p>If this is just your freshman summer it’s likely you have plenty of time to stand out in the following years/summers. Grades and MCAT scores will be most important anyway. And I think you will find out shortly if taking Orgo at a state school really hurts your understanding of the subject much (I doubt it will).</p>
<p>What’s more troubling is that Stanford is freaking expensive. You WENT to Stanford so it would be a challenge, right? So you would push yourself and be surrounded by peers who were not merely your equals but were actually better than you? Taking a class at a different university 'cuz you heard the one at Stanford is “hard” is just a stupid cop out. Don’t you feel ashamed for paying so much money just so you can avoid the “hard” classes? Students at every university hear horror stories about orgo but they take it and they get through it. I don’t see why just 'cuz you go to Stanford you are exempt from the normal pre med jitters. Well, I see now what kind of students elite universities are full of…people with way too much money (you can afford 50K a yr and a summer class?!) who will do anything to look good on paper, even if that means shopping around for the “easiest classes” (outside of your own university, which so many people would kill to have the opportunity to attend, mind you!) so that your precious GPA will not be marred. I think some grad school admins should look at this thread and be warned that Stanford degree =/= better degree. Heck, the kids at Stanford are taking all the hard classes at the UCSC anyway!!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Nah, that’s just the pre-meds. They’re all the same, everywhere. I doubt any Stanford engineers would stuff like this.</p>
<p>^^*referring to umcp11: whoa whoa, calm down there…I can assert that not all students are like the OP… I am extremely excited to take Chem 33 (orgo) my freshman year, and I am also premed.
And also: OP, your past posts suggest that you go to washu. What are you trying to pull here?</p>
<p>Legen, Ray192 and umcp11 are all exaggerating by a lot. Normally, preMeds and Science majors who have to take Orgo simply take it and get over it. No one makes a big deal out of it or tries to worm out of it. If you’re majoring in Engineering, Physics, Chem, Bio, Neuro, or Biochem, you’ll take classes that are much harder than Orgo. I’m honestly not too smart but I’ve taken Orgo and it wasn’t bad at all. I thought it was more interesting than Chem, but involved more memorization. </p>
<p>Well I guess you can take it at a UC over the summer if you don’t want to do it at Stanford. I suppose it’s more competitive at Stanford and harder to beat the curve. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking summer classes at a different college. My college is expensive so I took Calc II at a CUNY because it was free ($5k at my college). I doubt the class would have been harder at NYU - same subject, same textbook. I bet Orgo won’t be that much easier anywhere else.</p>
<p>Good luck with the class! I suppose you and omgitsover will be taking it together if you’re at Stanford. maybe y’all can be study buddies.</p>
<p>lol premeds are such grade-grubbers. and i thought engineers were bad . . .</p>
<p>^ can you blame them? about a quarter of premeds make it to med school…cause the acceptance rates are arounf 3-5%, so most people don’t get accepted at all…it’s kind of sad actually. but like I said, the premed classes are just basic sci classes so there’s no need to flip out about them. And i’m guessing this guy is pretty smart since he’s at Stanford. unless money is a problem, i’d just take the class at your regular college. I noticed many students complaining about Orgo in my class were liberal arts majors, because for them, it’s a really hard class. if you’re studying science, you’ll have harder classes - and you can’t take all of them at santa clara obviously.</p>
<p>I don’t think engineers are grade grubbers. most are just getting a Bachelor’s so they don’t have to worry about getting into grad school. If engineers had to go to grad school in order to work, I expect they’ll start to have similar concerns about gpa lol. but those kids work hard enough already imo.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I guess grades mean less to them (them, lol . . . I am one). But a lot of them play the “try to get a good grade in the subject without actually understanding the material” game.</p>
<p>Well, if GPA was so big of a concern that he can’t even take a “gateway” class at his own school I’m just wondering why he went to Stanford then :P. Seems like state uni would have been cheaper and more A conducive? Although I heard elites had pretty big grade inflation (Harvard anyway…I dunno about Stanford!)</p>
<p>Are you a conceptual learner, or are you good at learning facts? You might find that ochem isn’t bad at all. I thought ochem was incredibly easy, barely studied, and did great on the ochem part of the MCAT-- but I’m good at recognizing patterns. (On the other hand, I struggled a lot on non-standardized multiple choice tests because I’m not particularly good at memorizing specific details). Also, I took physics over the summer, and it definitely hurt me on the MCAT. We didn’t finish all of the material, and one of my passages was over a topic that we had skipped. I would highly recommend taking the class during the school year and staying on top of the work. There’s no shame in asking for help if that’s what you need to understand the material.</p>
<p>Orgo is orgo. It’s not necessarily going to be any easier at -------- State University than it is at Stanford. Keep in mind that many state schools curve grades in the basic sciences to an average grade of C and many privates, including some elite schools, have grade inflation.</p>