<p>For most people (nonBDM people…lol 
), there really aren’t any easy good colleges to do one’s pre-med curriculum and get top grades. However, it can be a good strategy to go to a good school where the grading curve is not cut-throat or too harsh.</p>
<p>My pre-med son is at his state flagship, which some might think would be easy, but it’s not been easy if one wants top grades. My son is a very bright young man, but he still works very hard for his grades. </p>
<p>I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating…Students with strong stats are NOT equally distributed across all majors at mid-tier schools. Students with strong stats are largely concentrated amongst 5 or so majors…mostly Eng’g, Bio, Chem, Physics and Math. So, even if your stats are high for the school (hence the merit scholarship), that doesn’t mean that your pre-med science/math classes are going to be filled with students whose stats are in the mid-range for the school. No. There may be some modest stats students, but they’ll quickly change majors. By the time you’re in OChem, your classmates are going to be largely students with good stats. </p>
<p>Last year, my son’s school gave out 500 free tuition scholarships to freshmen (largely to students with ACT 32+… 98th+ percentiles). It also gave out over 100 huge scholarships to National Scholars. These numbers have been consistent over the last few years so that the school has over 500 National Scholars and about 2000 students with free tuition. I should mention that there are also a very large group of kids who are awarded 2/3 tuition scholarships - those kids have ACT 30 or 31 scores…not idiots by any means…those kids are in the 96/97th percentile.</p>
<p>Those students are not equally distributed across all majors. I’ve seen the stats. Yes, there are some in nursing, business, and some humanities, but they are largely concentrated in the small number of majors mentioned in the previous para. </p>
<p>Yes, some would argue that this creates kind of a two-tier system at a school…a big group of smart kids and then everyone else. But, that’s not really unusual for a state school. Look at UCLA. The mid range goes down to an ACT 24. But, we know that those kids with those modest stats aren’t largely found in those difficult majors. Those kids would get bulldozed in classes with gunners after the first exam. </p>
<p>I took my SIL and my nephew on a tour of my son’s school a week ago. When they talked to one of the ChemE profs, my SIL asked if any kids with modest stats major in engineering. He said that yes, some try, but they’re gone by the time they would have been in any of his classes. The freshman engineering program and required course sequence weed out kids rather quickly. The same applies to pre-med. </p>
<p>My son went with a big merit scholarship to save money. We will be able to help with his med school costs since his undergrad has cost us very little.</p>