<p>To current students: what do you think of pre-med at Rice? is it dog-eat-dog competitive? About how many people who apply to med school get in? Is it impossible to get a 4.0 or do the students typically struggle to keep up their grades? Thnx in advance</p>
<p>Rice has a very high percentage of applicants getting into med school, details can be found on their website.</p>
<p>Science/math courses are definitely challenging at Rice, there is no such thing as an unearned A. I wouldn't necessarily expect a 4.0, but you can still maintain a good GPA if you put forth the effort.</p>
<p>Neither the professors nor the students are what would be called "cutthroat" though. Unlike what you may find at some other universities, premeds are all willing to help each other out, the competitiveness that you find at Rice is people being competitive with themselves and their own expectations.</p>
<p>yes exacty...i asked the same question to a physics major (a very hard major at rice) and he told me the competitiveness was not like in High school...everybody helped eachother out since they werent competing for the class rank or anything. dont expect the classes to be easy but dont be afraid. u can take some pass fail classes I believe although they cant be in ur major.</p>
<p>Well, asking how tough it is to be a premed is kind of an open-ended question. Remember that medical schools require a standard selection of courses, like say expository writing, physics, organic chemistry, etc... Outside of those requirements, you're free to major in something that's not science. So, I would assume that you are asking about the difficulty of the premed requirement classes, because in the long run, I would say that it's significantly easier to go though college if you major in something outside of science/engineering.</p>
<p>So, let's talk about the premed requirements. I'm currently taking organic chemistry, organic chem lab, and physics E&M. These are just the regular courses and not the honors versions, so they are moderately difficult. The workload is certainly nothing to scoff at, but as other posters have mentioned before, you'll be getting plenty of encouragement and support rather than competition from your peers. There are also review sessions and TAs and professors that are helpful. I even get extra credit for attending physics review sessions for PHYS 102--and added bonus. Just remember that it's mainly a game of endurance (read the book, do the problems, and don't procrastinate too much).</p>
<p>As for organic chem, there is only one session of the non-honors class each semester, and since Rice churns out a substantial number of premeds each year, the class is pretty big (like 180 people), so the individual attention is limited to personally speaking to the prof after class. As for my grade, only exams count, so if you take the regular orgo course, you will probably have to study and do the suggested homework out of your own accord and discipline.</p>