<p>So I'm currently attending Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and its reputation is known to be a technical-driven school with a lot of competitive majors, barring a pre-med program. Besides UPMC, which is down the street, I don't really know if any medical school really knows what the program at CMU is like for aspiring doctors. Add in the fact that I'm currently studying ChemE/BME, and not biology/chemistry/etc (although we do have a track for all students interested in medical school), I don't know how hard it would be to get into a medical school. I have contemplated taking a year off to work and get more experience at say, a pharmaceutical company, and volunteer at a hospital on weekends, but it still concerns me. My grades are decent, though not that great, and I'm aiming for a realistic 34-36 on the MCAT, and I'm not trying to get into Harvard Med School, but a decent one. How realistic is this expectation?</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a “pre-med” major. You can major in any field as long as you complete the pre-med requirements, usually two semesters each of calculus, general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, general physics, and English. Particular medical schools might have additional required or recommended coursework, e.g., biochemistry. Most “pre-meds” probably major in a bioscience field or chemistry, but majors in psychology, neuroscience, bioengineering, or even humanities fields, attract many pre-meds. I believe in 2015, the MCAT will change and the revised "pre-med requirements might include some coursework in social and behavioral science fields as well.</p>
<p>[Health</a> Professions Program](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/hpp/index.html]Health”>CMU - Health Professions Program - Carnegie Mellon University) from CMU.</p>
<p>What do you mean that it doesn’t offer “pre-med”? Pre -med isn’t a major…it’s just regular Chem, OChem, Bio, Physics, and calc classes…that everyone has.</p>
<p>There is not such thing as “pre-med” major. And 34-36 will get you to “decent” Med. School, although, again, ALL American Med. Schools are decent. Around 35 will get you into top 20’s if that’s what you mean, if you have high GPA and EC’s and if you are “decent” at interviews.</p>
<p>" My grades are decent, though not that great"</p>
<p>A GPA of 3.2 or 3.3 is “decent” but not “great”. If this is the range your GPA is in, applying to medical schools would be a waste of time and money since, unless you are a URM, it is very unlikely you would get even one offer of admission from a U.S. medical school. To be a strong candidate you will need a GPA of 3.6 or better as well as an MCAT score of at least 30. Medical schools will make very little allowance for the difficulty of your major or the selectivity of your UG school when evaluating your GPA. At many medical schools, an applicant with a GPA of less than 3.4 does not make it beyond the initial screening process.</p>
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<p>^^^ I am learning that is easier said than done. I feel like getting good grades isn’t that difficult to do, but scoring well on the MCATs is. I consider something to be difficult if I still can’t reach my goal after putting in A LOT of work. I went into studying for the MCATs thinking that with my diag. kaplan score of a 26, and a decent gpa in college, a goal of a 34 on the mcats was “realistic” but now after 6 weeks of studying and 6 weeks of studying still left to do, its starting to seem a little out of reach. Taking a couple of TPR practice tests started to sober me up…( I was extremely complacent in my studying these past 6 weeks).</p>
<p>My point is don’t just think a 34-36 is very “realistic”. Its not “realistic” for 95 percent of the country. Your going to be disappointed if you don’t hit that range. (I am not saying that you won’t hit that range, just remember is going to take A LOT of hard work and proper studying habits). Just work hard, and work on areas where you are deficient. This will prevent you from getting complacent when you are studying.</p>
<p>^ I believe DS’s goal was set to 32-33 (as he believed this is the score that may get him into one of the state schools), even after his Kaplan full-length practice test scores had consistently been much higher than that during the second half of his prep course (based on the “very generous” Kaplan curve though.)</p>
<p>Regarding TPR, I remember some CCer had some additional practices using its its “science source book.” She got very good scores in the two science subsections in the real test.</p>
<p>^^ Lol, Kaplan probably uses more generous curves in the second half of the prep course to make sure almost everyone is included in the whole “higher score guarantee”. I am not going to use the tests that they require students to take in the second half because of this. Just going to use other practice exams that I have access to.</p>
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<p>Its crazy how a difference in 2-3 points (32 and a 35), which can be 4-5 question on the test, can make the difference between being competitive for an average medical school and being competitive for a top 25 medical school.</p>
<p>^ This could explain why he got better scores in the second half of course, even though he was likely working harder in the first half. Even though he only took Kaplan practice tests, he still did not take enough Kaplan tests to meet the requirement of high score guarantee. He did practice tests using 4 or 5 “real” MCAT tests months later.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> there’s no such thing as a pre-med major</p>