<p>I think the “friendliness” may have to do with the numbers.</p>
<p>I graduated with Chemistry and Biology from Stanford. There were 10 chem majors of which 4 were premed. There were several hundred bio majors of which 75% were premed. The Chem Chair had all of the chem majors at his house weekly in our senior year. Severl Bio faculty did for those students who stood out in their courses or came and worked with them in the evening for better understanding.
The point is in the “numbers” per degree, not the degree perse, I believe.</p>
<p>Inorganic Chem tradionally was a Senior Class taught by the senior profs - usually done at a restauant, lab or “bar”. Everyone got an A. Our senior year, the powers that be decided to make it a premed required course. We - of course - were scarred as we did not want to have compete with the redhots for grades. The Profs fixed that by convincing the rest of the class that it would not be fair for them to have to compete with us so we had a separate test and grading score and we all got As. </p>
<p>But, it did not matter if you were premed or not. It did matter that you were part of a small “club”. For the Bio profs or English profs that invited one over, it was because you showed an interest in the subject. </p>
<p>I got invited to dinner with Paul Berg, Arther Kornburg, Linus Pauling and others (all Nobel laureats) and invited to San Fran for special conferences with them as did some of my friends. I believe that is still true today. I now have students over for dinner who are “students” and not just “cramming for the A”.</p>