<p>It seems that those seeking a high GPA (for Med School entrance, etc.) use filler courses that are known to be good GPA boosters but are not really courses that expand a students horizon as much as possible. Isn't it a shame that Pre-Med students cannot really dive off into subjects that are risky to their GPA. I know that some can and do, but for the most part students play it safe and reduce the risk of hurting their GPA. Med schools do not look at much other than MCAT and GPA. How much more would the students all learn if that were not the case? A lot!</p>
<p>Cool story. Let me know when you run a med school and don’t reward GPA.</p>
<p>Exactly! It is a shame though, isn’t it. I guess Med schools cannot discern knowledge in a uniform way other than the way they are doing it. Just saying</p>
<p>Well, undergraduate admissions at universities does favor students who take the “most rigorous” possible courses at their high schools. In theory, medical and law school admissions could do something similar. Though they probably punt on that because the number of different courses they would have to weigh for rigor is much greater than the number of different courses at high schools.</p>
<p>Many schools allow some courses to be taken pass/fail or audited, so that a student may take a few classes outside his comfort zone without worrying about a gpa hit. It is also nice that a student may take any major with their premed requirements, so he/she can study a field that interests them outside of medicine or biology.</p>
<p>I was talking today to a physician who sits on the admission committee for the medical school located on our hospital campus. She made a point of saying that they really scrutinized applications for the rigor of course load taken. She said they go through the UG record semester by semester and take it as a red flag when someone appears to have taken an easy course load for the grades or took upper level science classes at a community or technical college to escape the rigors found in an university setting. When looking at applicants with similiar GPAs, she said that the one with a more rigorous course load gets looked upon favorably. She mentioned that it’s extremely important to know that someone has the academic ability to do the work in medical school, which is why science majors are still the most common UG degrees for people going to medical school.</p>
<p>She also said that while a high GPA and MCAT are necessary to get an interview but only a 1/3 of those people who have the high GPAs and MCATs get accepted, so obviously they are looking for other qualities that will lead them to believe someone will make a good doctor.</p>
<p>A friend’s son majored in a foreign language (won’t say which as he’s easy to spot :-)) and took various courses for Bio, Chem, etc as electives. No problem doing well on the MCAT and getting in to med school; another friend’s son majored in Chemistry and had to repeat numerous courses (from B to A) taking 5 years plus summers to get admitted GPA wise to med school. He did well on the MCAT as well but nowhere near as guy #1 GPA wise.</p>