<p>I want to go to medical school, but in case it won't work out, I'm thinking of majoring in engineering.
Can someone comment on how hard it is to do so? I've heard that medical schools care a lot about GPA, and since Cornell has grade deflation and engineering in general takes a lot of hard work, I'm wondering if it will be almost impossible unless you're a total genius... Do I have to sacrifice a lot of my social life? I really kind of want to have fun in college... lol
Can someone compare the average number of hours people at cornell spend on school work with those of pre-med engineers?</p>
<p>Premed engineering is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Engineering is a great backup in case you can't get into med school but it becomes that much harder to get into med school if you do engineering. That said, Cornell is not grade deflated. There are plenty of engineers (biomedical engineers) in med school. You'll just have to work a little harder than most other premeds.</p>
<p>How about if I want to do chemical engineering or operations research and engineering?
I figured that if I do ChemE, a lot of the pre-med courses would be part of the ChemE requirements... but it's not like that for OR&E?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have data on Cornell's pre-med acceptances?</p>
<p>You are in good shape as long as you can maintain a 3.4+ GPA. Your chances go down drastically if you can't.</p>
<p>thanks for the link!
So if I had a 3.4+ GPA, I would have a good chance of getting into medical school. But how about getting into the top-caliber ones such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Penn, and WashU? Do I need a higher GPA? I ehar that engineering is the worst major for pre-meds...</p>
<p>First of all, there's no difference in the quality of education from different med schools. Once you start premed, you will appreciate how difficult it is to get into one med school muchless a med school like Harvard or JHU. Do your best and when the time comes, if you have a competitive GPA (usually 3.7 or above) and MCAT score (33+), then you can think about the "top" med schools. The most prestigous med schools have acceptance rates of 2-5% so don't bank on getting into any of them.</p>
<p>I see... I appreciate the info!
Do you think it is a good idea to skip out as many intro science classes as possible with AP scores/summer classes? I heard that they are extremely competitive because of the amount of pre-meds there are.</p>
<p>Also, when people say that Cornell's grades are curved, what exactly does that mean?
Does that mean like only a certain amount of people can get As, Bs, etc. ?</p>
<p>There are going to be premeds in both upper and lower level science classes. If you skip out of intro science classes, you will have to take upper level classes to compensate. I've found the difficulty to be about the same. Upper level classes tend to have more generous curves (mean of B/B+ instead of B/B-) but the people in them are smarter and the material is more difficult.</p>
<p>Yea, curves limit the number of people who can get a certain grade. They typically help you in a class. For example, usually getting 80% on tests in a science class is good enough for a A.</p>
<p>Do the curves ever work against you? For example, if in a class of 100, 10% get As. There were 10 people who all got 100 on the test, and you got a 97. Does that mean you will end up getting a A-/B+?</p>
<p>I've never had a class curve down. Usually such a class would be uncurved and anyone who gets 93%+ would get an A.</p>
<p>i have a friend who's a chemE and biomed major and got into both harvard and jhu this year. she's getting married this summer so obviously she had a life outside of engineering and pre-med, so it's do-able to balance life with engineering and premed at Cornell.</p>
<p>Just be prepared to work hard, either way you do it. </p>
<p>A lot of people I know at Cornell dropped out of engineering, because of the intense workload. Does anyone know what the drop out rate is like?</p>
<p>i would say it is similar to any other. most would probably drop to CS or OR since it is usually considered the easiest in engineering, but i know people who've transferred out of engineering and into it.</p>
<p>Are "easier" engineering majors like the ones you mentioned, or "Industrial Engineering" considered to be havens for dropouts? Do they carry a negative association?</p>