<p>Going to a top liberal arts college I just wanna know can I do it? I heard pre med is so difficult that usually every year a ton of students ditch the med school dream after freshman year. Help</p>
<p>Everyone is different</p>
<p>I found high school not that difficult som hard moments but not that bad . Got all A’s and took the hardest classes . I really want to know how it will translate into my future</p>
<p>Everyone, including their high school and college, is different. You control your future, not us.</p>
<p>For 95% of the country though (not counting the elite private schools) college will represent a big step up in difficulty and amount of work. Whether or not that translates into success is up to you.</p>
<p>It’s something like 70% of people who go into college pre-med end up “ditching” it, but you don’t have to be one of those people. A LOT of people finished high school thinking it was super easy and then found college super difficult. Also, at the risk of sounding cheesy, if you want to be a doctor you shouldn’t give up just because it’s hard work.</p>
<p>I completely understand it just that I want to be a doctor so badly. Theres nothing else I want and I will truly work harder than everyone else but I’m scared that my dreams won’t come true</p>
<p>Don’t be scared. College is going to be exciting! Pre-med programs can be challenging, competitive, and even cutthroat depending on what school you go to. But you sound like you’ve got the work ethic and the passion, and that’s the first step. Now you’ll either cultivate your skills and get into a good medical school, or you’ll discover entirely new dreams and passions within or completely outside the medical field. Either way, there’s a high chance that your dreams will come true if you’re driven and keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Thanks this advice really helps conquer my fears</p>
<p>
</p>
<ul>
<li>On average, approximately 20-25% of the matriculating Frosh at your college will be premed. Only a very small % of successfully negotiate the premed gauntlet to even take the MCAT, much less apply to med school.</li>
<li>STEM courses are curved tightly, with the exception of 1 or two grade-inflated schools. What that means is that many of your colleagues will earn the first C’s in their lives in Frosh Chem and/or Organic Chem.<br></li>
<li>They will then self-select to easier (for them) courses.</li>
</ul>
<p>So yeah, HARD.</p>
<p>
At some top chools (especially for those which attract premed students), I think this percentage may be higher.</p>
<p>One CCer once called this kind of school “premed factory”, for a reason. If you think a particular school is “good” for premeds, everybody and and his mom will likely think so too. I once hread that a particular school would rather not take in so many students who want to be a premed. This is likely because other departments need students too and a school would be too boring if it is overly populated with this kind of student (e.g., too many students started premed-centric clubs whose life time likely last until the moment that the founders get accepted into a med school.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yup, probably a third of the Frosh matriculants at Hopkins are premed. But I’m guessing that that is the extreme.</p>
<p>Not as hard as Med. School, not even in the same universe of challenge (according to my D. - MS3)</p>
<p>…in term of trnaslation, the only translation is that very hard work will produce result, the work will get considerably harder, from HS to college to Med. School. If HS was not that hard, if you did not work that hard for your As, then I have no idea. My own D. never had a single B in her entire life (so far). She had to work very hard for her As, but this is her approach. I believe that hard working ethic has served her well so far, but she still has 2 years to go, which will include many graded (finally, after p/f) exams. So, we will see. While there were some easy classes in HS and college, there was nothing easy in Med. School so far.<br>
One advice, have balanced schedule every semester. The goal is 2 hard classes with the rest being easy classes. that also has helped my D.</p>
<p>first, you can be premed with any major as long as you can make it in the science classes. You’ll be taking the new MCAT and the new med school requirements mean about 25% coursework should be dedicated to the humanities and social science.
Have you taken AP classes? If so which ones?
If not, you’re likely to find college hard. A good way to prepare is to check the college’s online bookstore to see what textbooks are required for the classes you intend on taking, then buying a much earlier version at cheap price (even the 2003 version 
- whatever is cheapest) to get an idea of the material over the summer. You’ll still have to buy the “real” textbooks but at least you’ll have had an idea. Don’t buy the “real” textbooks until you’re registered for the class though since odds are you won’t get into all the classes you want. Balance your schedule with a variety of classes, too - typically no more than one lab class, one “hard science” (math, CS, physics, any weed-out class in the sciences), and one heavy-reading class out of 4-5, to which you’d add one foreign language (the pace is going to be brutal but the work is manageable as long as you stay on top of it) and one art history/music appreciation class.</p>
<p>Ive taken ap English lit and comp
Ap English other one
Ap bc cal
Ap euro
Apush
Ap psych
Ap bio
Ap Chem
Ap macro
Ap micro
Ap gov
Ap Italian</p>
<p>Just be prepared to work hard and you will be fine. Do not worry now, enjoy your summer and few more during college, it will not continue forever. Spend time with friends, have fun. AP or whatever, everybody has to work hard if they want to see results and the best preparation for it as of now is to RELAX and ENJOY your free time.</p>
<p>its a cinch. i got straight A’s last semester yo</p>
<p>I just finished my freshman year with all A’s doing pre-med. The reason why so many freshman ditch the dream is because there not ready to work hard. The adjustment to high school to college is hard. Its really important to try and study a bit everyday/few days so work doesn’t pile off. For example waiting the night before to study for a bio exam that covers 10 chapters doesn’t work. As long as you keep on top of your work you will be fine! </p>
<p>All in all, if your willing to work hard and have good time management you will be successful. I was asking the same questions when I was going to college.</p>
<p>I’m did great my freshmen year and this is always what I tell myself and friends that worry way too much over grades: don’t focus on the results; put in the effort, believe, and everything else will follow. Test-stress and any other form of panic is simply not going to do you any good. You might want to be slightly worried if a bad grade comes out of your first exam, just to get your **** together, but it’ll probably be more for motivating you to ace your next exam, not to discourage you. </p>
<p>I recommend starting your first semester/quarter with a modest course load and just getting accustomed with the university. Explore the clubs, make new friends, find out what your campus has to offer. Then I would consider going into full gear and really toughening yourself for the rest of college. Take a heavy course load for the remainder of your school year and figure out what works best for you to get the highest GPA you possibly can with an intense workload. Chances are if you’re putting 110% into UG and not getting results out, I wouldn’t even think about going to med school. Having the heavy course load is for you to 1st get to understand what it’ll be like tackling upper division courses (at least the academic demand of such a schedule) and how to juggle many things. Later in college you’ll probably want to get involved in research, find leadership positions in clubs/activities you like (you don’t have to 100% dedicate yourself to pre-med related activities: I would like to imagine that leadership positions in any clubs count for some merit and would probably make your application stand out in a sea of people that are all heads of some volunteer club.), volunteer, or even do a senior thesis/independent research project. </p>
<p>All in all, don’t sweat the first year. You’re expected to mess up your life in one way or another in your first year of college, in terms of grades or not. And don’t stress GPA that much: if you get an A- in a class you really enjoyed, it was probably worth more of your time than an easy class you got nothing out of. College is probably the time in your life where you get the most freedom. After that, you’ll have med school, internships, jobs, family, etc. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>The degree of difficulty of pre-med classes at a given school depends on a variety of factors like the caliber of the student population, the number of pre-meds in a class, the grading policy, and the rigor - all of which of out of your control. There is one thing that is exclusively in your own control: your effort. If you have already selected a school, worrying about anything other than your own effort will be counter productive. Harsh curves at some top schools render a lot of pre-meds powerless. Those that persevere are the ones that end up being the applicants in the end. </p>
<p>
Actually, it’s higher than that. Hopkins admits ~1250 every year. There is a popular phenomenon called “Hopkins 500” which is supposed to be a euphemism for the pre-meds at JHU. You can say very high percentage of Biology majors, BME majors, Neuroscience majors are pre-med to begin with. Add to that a decent number of Writing Seminars, English, IR majors and even an occasional CS major (like my son)… You get the picture.</p>