<p>Im a prospective pre-med student, and i was wondering how hard it really is to get A's at Cornell.</p>
<p>is there simply no Curve? or is the curve just hard? how much competition is there amongs pre-med applicants?</p>
<p>To put it simply, A's can be earned if you're willing to put in the extra time and effort. It's definitely possible; you just need to work harder. If you do only what's necessary for the class, you can slide by with a B a lot of the time.</p>
<p>In general, there are curves for prelims and exams. Some classes won't have curves though. The curves for classes like chem and bio can be tough since you're going to be with other pre-med students and possibly engineers.</p>
<p>I'm not pre-med, but I know a lot of pre-med students. Seriously, everyone knows at least 10 pre-med kids since there are so many on campus. Obviously, everyone wants to succeed. Some kids go over-the-top with their sense of competition (like if they see someone studying for the same prelim/exam, they feel threatened,) but I think most people just strive to do their best. It's all based on how much pressure you put on yourself.</p>
<p>ok, being premed, here are rough stats. Over 1000 freshmen start off as being "premed" as in taking bio and chem. By sophomore year, there are around 600 people taking organic chemistry, meaning there are around 600 "premeds". Then by junior year, about 250 people take the MCAT. And when it's time to apply to medical school about 200 apply. Out of those over 80% are accepted into one medical school.</p>
<p>The reason for this precipitous drop-off? General chemistry and intro bio all have means of B-. This does not mean they don't curve, the classes are just curved less. Thus, half the class will end up with a B- or lower, which for you gpa is horrible since a B- is a 2.7 and with either chem or bio, that's 4 credits. Consequently, one can estimate that maybe 40% of people in chem and bio get a C+ or lower. And as one knows, a C is definitely not something that med schools like to see, it pretty much kills your chances...</p>
<p>In terms of competition I have definitely heard of people contemplating messing up someone else's bio lab, but I don't think that it has ever happened, it's more out of frustration that only 2 people in each bio lab section will get an A, and only 2-4 more will get an A- out of around 32 people in each bio lab section. However, I think everyone is really nice that is premed, they work on problems together, study together and generally try to help each other out. Being premed is hard to begin, you really shouldn't worry about competitiveness, you just have to be really hard-working and dedicated. You really have to decide early on that you want to pursue medicine and thus you will have to apply yourself to try and aim for a high gpa and work hard in the intro science classes. Well, unless your smart and naturally talented with a photographic memory, then you should fly by. :)</p>
<p>Premed's competitive but not cutthroat or anything.</p>