<p>How difficult are the courses?</p>
<p>How tough are the curves?</p>
<p>What's the average GPA of kids who get into med schools?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Being pre-med at Rice is extremely advantageous. It has great medically related opportunities and research programs.</p>
<p>As for the difficulty of the courses, I am not fully aware. I have been told by Rice students that organic chemistry is by far the most difficult course. Most students suggest that you take this course in sophomore year. Take Biology, Chemistry, and Physics first, perhaps even advanced biology courses before taking orgochem.</p>
<p>Rice has one of the highest medical school acceptance percentages in the country. If you put in the work you should be able to get into the medical school of your choosing.</p>
<p>It was something like 90% acceptance rate when I graduated, but I don’t know what the current rate is. I wouldn’t say that you’ll get into the school of your choosing, but you’d most likely get into A medical school if you work hard in your prerecs.</p>
<p>There are loads of premed students at Rice. I really didn’t deal with the premed office much; and just went with the flow. Every single person I knew who applied to medical school from Rice got in. Rice does not weed you out as a policy. Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Biochemistry are difficult and demanding courses. Organic Chemistry required a huge curve and the exams were not multiple choice but questions that required long answers. On one exam, a score of 50 was an A, 40 was a B etc. This can be disheartening if you received a 40, and don’t know if you will get an F or there would be a curve, but you still didn’t know by how much. But in a way, it was more fair since there was only one Organic Chemistry class, whereas at other universities different teachers have varying grading standards. Students there flock to the easy graders. Also full professors teach at Rice, not TAs.
Because of schedule conflict or because higher grades can be achieved at the nearby University of Houston, a lot of us took courses there. Rice also had only a few, costly summer classes. One Advanced Calculus class at UH had eighteen students, sixteen of them from Rice. The grades are factored into the AMCAS application GPA; but not for the GPA earned at Rice.
One dude in my class got a 42 on his MCAT, third highest in the nation that year. A suite-mate of mind majored in Chemical then switched to Electrical Engineering. His grades suffered, barely a 3.0. Yet several years after graduation, he must have done well on the MCAT or received some pull from the premed adviser (who sat on the Baylor admissions committee). He was accepted and has graduated from Baylor College of Medicine.
Some people say that Rice’s high acceptance rate reflects the many medical schools in Texas and the high chance of Texas residents getting accepted. While that may be true, plenty of students attend top tier non-Texas medical schools each year.
If you choose the correct major and take the right classes, it is not difficult to get a 3.75 GPA.</p>
<p>what major do you suggest? and what classes?</p>
<p>^ you will get the opportunity to talk to an advisor (or two or three) to help you answer those questions. You need to start though with knowing what you want… not choosing based on what you think should be “prescribed” or based on an “easy” GPA. </p>
<p>Work hard and you will be rewarded.</p>
<p>is it possible for me to be a computer science major, but then also meet the pre-med requirements in case i change my mind and want to go to med school or something??</p>