<p>Is it on a 4.0 scale? I’m somewhat confused since Brown practices pass/fail academic policy.</p>
<p>Yes, it is on a 4.0 scale.
Only classes that you receive a letter grade apply to your GPA.
If you take a class P/NP it will appear on your transcript, but it will be counted in your GPA.</p>
<p>Brown’s solution to this conundrum:</p>
<p>NO GPA!</p>
<p>As you can imagine, it has its pros and cons. Grad schools have inconsistent policies for determining a Brown student’s GPA. But on the other hand, it’s easy to calculate your own. I know my GPA based on the A/B/C grades I received, but am also able to simply include the grade I would have gotten in a pass-fail class had I taken it for a grade.</p>
<p>And I would like to reassert that BROWN DOES NOT CALCULATE GPA.</p>
<p>Are premed requisite courses such as Organic Chem, Gen Chem, Bio, and Physics part of those pass/fail classes? How would pass/fail system affect one’s chance of getting into med schools, where GPA is a crucial component?</p>
<p>Any course <em>may</em> be taken pass/fail. It’s generally in your best interest not to take med school requirements pass/fail, since the med schools reserve the right to assume you would have received a C in those courses.</p>
<p>Though Brown does not officially calculate one’s GPA , all grad schools will most certainly calculate it when you apply to their institution. Though the student may take classes S/NC at his or her own discretion it is highly advised that premed students not take their premed requirements pass fail…Brown has an extremely solid track record in getting students into highly regarded med schools…taking premed requirements pass fail is highly frowned upon in medical school admissions</p>
<p>I see. Thank you all for the info.</p>
<p>i dont know if anyone here can answer this, but I know that Brown is somewhat known for grade inflation. Does this still apply to pre-med requirements-basically organic chem, bio, etc?</p>
<p>I was told organic chem is on a bell curve.</p>
<p>The physical and life sciences have the lowest “GPAs” of all the fields (physical sciences are a bit lower than life sciences). I also don’t know a great deal of pre-meds with 4.0s. With that said, it’s not as incredibly intense as some other schools.</p>
<p>From what I heard, O chem was NOT on a bell curve. Which was actually one of the complaints: it’s a HARD class to get an A, B, and even a C in, because you have to show you know X in order to earn a specific grade. If my friends told me right, the professor said everyone COULD get an A (based on the grading system), but due to the difficulty of the material/requirements, few students hit that mark.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry is probably one of the hardest classes at Brown. Many really really smart kids fail. Some premeds end up taking organic as a summer course at their local state university/college.</p>
<p>And many Brown students go onto med school, which suggests to me that med schools have figured out Brown’s grading system. There is a premed adviser on campus who helps students with academic planning.</p>
<p>And since we are talking Organic Chemistry at Brown, i think this NY Times Article would be appropriate :)</p>
<p>**“Chemistry for Non-Dummies” **</p>
<p>By MATTHEW SCULT
Published: July 17, 2009</p>
<p>"Last year, I nonchalantly signed up to take second-semester organic chemistry, a k a Orgo. My friends thought I was a maso-chist. The class is reputed to be the hardest at Brown, and rumor has it that its sole purpose is to weed out pre-meds. Nobody else takes it except chemistry majors. I had come to the conclusion that I was not going to apply to medical school, and it was unnecessary for me to take the course for any other reason. Still, I figured I could always change my mind about the med school thing. And how bad could it be?</p>
<p>EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS</p>
<p>According to statistics posted by the Orgo professors, averages on the midterm exams ranged from 47 to 65 points out of 100; by semester’s end, half of the class got C’s or failed (there are no D’s at Brown). This does not take into account the large percentage who ended up dropping the class. I know many students who failed the first time and had to take it a second or even a third time. Others retook it over the summer at pushover schools like Stanford and waltzed out with an A+.</p>
<p>SUBJECTS</p>
<p>Orgo students in pre-med carry the textbook with them wherever they go, and they always seem on the verge of panic. The chemistry majors always have smiles on their faces, either because they relish the pre-meds’ pain or because they truly get a kick out of doing organic chemistry.</p>
<p>One of my friends is a chemistry major, and sometimes he would help me study. When I would ask him how to do a problem, he would just tell me the correct answer. He could never explain how he had found the solution, only that my answer was wrong and his was correct. This led me to conclude that chemistry students are born with an innate and nontransferable ability to understand Orgo.</p>
<p>PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ORGO</p>
<p>I sometimes found it interesting to study my own reactions as I sat in class or tried to do homework problems. I found that Orgo activated my sympathetic autonomic nervous system, more commonly referred to as the “fight-or-flight response.” The response is frequently activated when a creature is placed in a situation in which it needs to attack or run away. Unfortunately, it was difficult to “attack” Orgo, and running away did not seem like a useful alternative, either.</p>
<p>Here is an example of my thought process as I attempted a homework problem: O.K. N,N-dimethylbutanamide is hydrolyzed faster in aqueous sodium hydroxide solution than is butanamide itself. Why? Why would it hydrolize faster? I don’t even know what all those words mean; I shouldn’t even be taking this class; for some reason this is so much more difficult than the rest of my classes; maybe it’s just because I’m not that interested; maybe I should drop out and then I would have more time to spend with my friends; maybe I need to take more humanities classes; let’s see, what other work do I have . . . MATT, FOCUS, oh, right, I should just do this now, and then I can do other things, BUT I DON’T CARE. . . .</p>
<p>Perhaps an anecdote can best capture the hopelessness that Orgo induces in the human psyche. As the story goes, last year, about five minutes into the exam, a kid stood up. Everyone turned to watch as he shouted, “I can’t take this [EXPLETIVE] anymore!” and ripped up his exam before storming out of the room. Some people thought that it was staged, but I think the sentiment accurately reflected what most people were thinking.</p>
<p>SKILLS ACQUIRED</p>
<p>There are benefits in taking Orgo. One is that I became more creative as the semester progressed. On one exam, I spent 20 minutes drawing a cartoon of a little man army-crawling over a carboxylic acid to get to an acetylcholine.</p>
<p>CONCLUSION</p>
<p>The final week of the semester I did the calculations and realized I would need to ace the final to pass the class. I checked with the professor just in case, and he confirmed my calculations, suggesting I skip the final and take the class again next year.</p>
<p>Despite this advice, I was not ready to walk away with my tail between my legs. Because of Brown’s grading policy, my transcript would not reflect the class if I dropped or failed it. But by skipping the final — and thereby dropping the class — I would be admitting defeat, and Orgo would have won.</p>
<p>I had made it this far. If I was going to fail, I was going to fail with dignity. I decided to take the final.</p>
<p>I arrived at the large hall, with row upon row of worried faces, and calmly took my seat. I laid out my pencils on the desk, sensing the tension in the room but feeling distinctly separate from it. I thought about the students who felt their entire future relied on the outcome of this test, and I hoped that if I bombed I would at least bring down the average and help someone else pass the course.</p>
<p>The test was handed out, and the furious scribbling began. I slowly flipped through the 15-page exam, answering the two questions I knew, guessing on another and staring blankly at the rest. After about 15 minutes, I stood up and walked over to the T.A. at the front of the room. I said, “Thanks, I’m all set,” and handed him my exam.</p>
<p>Then 400 eyes turned to follow me as I walked out the door — and into the bright sunshine."</p>
<p>Matthew Scult, Brown, class of 2010, is a neuroscience major.</p>
<p>^A nice read, to say the least, MyOpinion!</p>
<p>my gpa is about the same with the s/nc grades as without. goes to show you…</p>
<p>I read that article a while back and when it asked the orgo question I was like “OMG I KNOW THAT!!!” lololol. Gotta love IB chem :)</p>
<p>That article made me smile.</p>
<p>I had a few pre-med friends who took Orgo, worked hard (and passed), a few unfortunate pre-med friends (who struggled to fail with dignity), and a few Chemistry-major friends (who succeeded brilliantly, not noticing the anguish of the others).</p>
<p>Last time this article was posted, we noted that comparing to a summer course, even at Stanford, is sort of silly because summer courses tend to be easier than their normal session counterparts.</p>