<p>I was wondering how difficult the grading is at Vanderbilt (following a Pre-Med curriculum). I'm stuck on whether to apply Early Decision to Duke, Vandy, or Rice. I know I will get an excellent education at any of the 3, but I also want to get into a good med school, which requires excellent grades. From what I have heard on the boards, Duke is almost impossible to get stellar grades in, because some professors only give out a certain amount of A's. In the upper level biology/chemistry classes, is this frequent at Vanderbilt? Or does it seem like you usually get the grade you deserve, meaning if everyone deserves an A, everyone gets an A?</p>
<p>Regarding upper levels, I'm not sure. Lower level classes chem and bio are difficult and are designed to discourage people from pursuing the premed curriculum further. Basically they are weed-out courses, no matter what kind of bs the professors tell you about trying to stimulate and challenge your mind. Now if you study hard and meets the demands of the courses and earn an A, you will get an A. Chem 102ab, I know for sure, guarantees people who get a 90 or above for the course an A, and in biology they scale like woah.</p>
<p>Good, that is very nice to know. I'm not a big fan of grade inflation, but I sure don't like deflation either. From what I've heard and from your post as well, it seems like Vanderbilt basically has a fair grading system.</p>
<p>what does it mean that in biology they scale like woah?</p>
<p>The median scores on the exams in BSCI 110 are in the 40s and 50s. The tests are scaled heavily to give a good distribution of grades.</p>
<p>What do you think the median scores on the exams for calculus and chem are? are they graded as heavily as bio? thanks.</p>
<p>40s and 50s? do people who took ap bio (and got a 5) generally have a big leg up on the competition?</p>
<p>I just realized something....if I get 4s or 5s on all my AP tests, couldn't I probably skip all of the weed-out classes? Right now I am looking at part of the Vanderbilt website that says an AP Credit replaces 102ab and 104ab for 4 hours. Are those the typical Chemistry weed-out classes?</p>
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<p>Maybe. Just don't expect to be able breeze through biosci simply because of it, though. Biosci 110 is hard.</p>
<p> [QUOTE=LnkinPrk777] I just realized something....if I get 4s or 5s on all my AP tests, couldn't I probably skip all of the weed-out classes? Right now I am looking at part of the Vanderbilt website that says an AP Credit replaces 102ab and 104ab for 4 hours. Are those the typical Chemistry weed-out classes?
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<p>I don't much about 218, since I've never taken it. But the general consensus is that gen chem is the weedout chemistry course. Back when i was freshman, it went that if chem 102a didn't get ya, bsci 110a would in the spring. But now that chem 102a and bsci 110a are simulataneous, i really don't know, but i don't envy you guys. Just realize that they give bsci 100 credit for a 4 or above in ap bio; you can't get out of bsci 110</p>
<p>I'm sorry, you lost me with your description. feenotype, you said that bsci usually give a fair distribution of grades. ok. then you said something about chem and calculus having normal distribution. I don't think I understand that. also, why in the world do we not get to get out of intro biology 110 if we did well on our AP's and only bio 100 (which is like NOTHING)?</p>
<p>I'm sorry if I confused you. What I mean when I say "normal" is just that. The grades you get on your tests reflect well how much you actually know the material. If you prepared well, you'll probably get somewhere in the 80s and that'll be a B. Again, there isn't usually any significant scale. The same with math, you get what you earn, just like in high school. Biosci is different in that the tests are so hard that the scale of scores is more spread out and thus the scales are too.</p>
<p>ap bio doesn't get you credit for bsci 110 because the biosci department said so, it's really simple as that. they want all students majoring in biosci or in premed to study to take 110. now, if you're not gonna major is something were bsci 110 is required than bsci 100 credit is not worthless at all.</p>
<p>Its worth noting that Vanderbilt has changed its AP policy twice (to my knowledge) in the last two years. Initially they said you could have a maximum of 30 hours granted due to APs, then said it could be up to 60 must you still take 90 hours at Vanderbilt to graduate (thus stopping people from graduating in say, 2 years). Now it appears they've limited APs to only 18 hours of credit:</p>
<p>*AP Credit will not count towards any AXLE requirements. Students will be limited to a total of 18 hours earned by any combination of AP, IB, advanced international credit, and credit by exam that may count towards the minimum hours required for graduation.
<a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/ap.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/ap.html</a></p>
<p>The AP policy now sucks. Basically, all it does is allow you take more advanced classes (which doesn't even happen in all the cases; read: BSCI) and none of them count towards AXLE, so if you took, say APUSH and got a 5, you still have to take an American History class to graduate. The only good thing is that you only have to take 13 or 14 hours per semester without worrying about getting 120 hours, not that this even really matters if you double major or anything though.</p>
<p>I'm still a little confused. So basically, the AP exams are worthless at Vanderbilt except for the fact that they let us take more challenging courses. They don't allow us to "skip" certain subjects, as is the case at most other colleges?</p>
<p>right, they don't allow you to skip any of the 'required' classes because they "will not count towards any AXLE requirements." AP foreign languages will get you out of a language, though. At least, I think it does. AXLE is confusing.</p>
<p>Seems to me that all this confusion has defeated the purpose of scrapping the CPLE. It may have been mind-bogglind trying to account for all the exceptions for the rules, but at least they were hard and fast.</p>
<p>ok, so is this thought right: I can get out of calculus 155a and move to 155. my curriculum requires me to take four semesters of math (two for each freshman and sophmore years.) so if I choose to skip 155a (the beginning course) and start with 155b, I would still have to take a higher level math my second semester sophmore year???</p>
<p>i think if you were to go to 155b you would then have to take 175a (i think this is the next one) in freshman spring, then 175b in soph fall, then the next higher one soph spring. you should definitely check with your advisor though to see if your AP will give you credit or just placement.</p>
<p>ok, now I see the difference between credit and placement. hehe, so were you guys talking about credit or placement? :o</p>
<p>Engineering students don't do the AXLE program. :). Hello, 42 hours going in!</p>