What actually makes it difficult and does anyone know if the actual classes at JHU are harder or if they’re average gpa is lower because more people are majoring in the sciences there than at other schools?
I think that as a premed at Hopkins you get a lot more professional support than you might at another institution with a smaller premed population. There are also many premed-focused courses in every field (humanities, public health, robotics, computer science, etc.), as well as help resources like PILOT and the Learning Den, which provide free tutoring for many popular classes including the premed requirement classes.
Hopkins classes are definitely rigorous, and there is grade deflation because there aren’t really any regulations on how professors teach and/or grade. The difficulty of your courses really depends on the professor and the compatibility of his/her teaching style and your learning style.
@notarobot124 : I suspect that it is a mixture. I also suspect that it is partly because more instructors at Hopkins outside of STEM have maintained higher grading standards than the amount at comparable schools. What OnMyWay2013 said about instructors for STEM is very true especially at elite schools. I looked at STEM courses at elite schools and some elite schools for certain STEM courses (and even departments) had more instructors where they truly challenged the student body and graded on a curve and some had more professors that pitched courses at a “standard” level (as in material was a normal level of theory and exams were straight-forward not really asking students to solve new problem types or deal with curveballs. Definitely covering more content than less competitive schools, but not really asking for students to do much more than understand at some basic level or regurgitate) and curve less or not at all. Interestingly, it seems that all the major D-3 private schools (Emory, WUSTL, JHU, and Chicago…with the first 3 being giant pre-health factories having the same characteristics described above with pre-health related courses being offered in lots of even non-STEM depts) tend to have more of the former (lots of teachers pitching the course at a higher level or at least more students enrolled in such sections) especially in things like chemistry and biology. I suspect it has a lot to do with student and teaching culture on those campuses which differs from some comparable caliber D-1 research universities. D-3s seem more academically focused and the teaching reflects it.
More instructors at these places probably feel more comfortable making their STEM courses more challenging/higher than standard level because students are typically more focused on academics in the first place (as in, yes as college students, we all want a great social life, but a person electing a D-3 school is probably more comfortable having their nose in a book and are thus able to pass on big sporting events and even parties) and are less likely to complain and just are more likely to rise to the challenge. In the end, I think this is a good thing. The types of instructors I describe prepare you better for things like the MCAT for example which is more “aptitude” based (I went to Emory where several sections are offered for each pre-health STEM course and there appears to be a correlation between the instructors students chose for pre-med core courses vs. how well they handled the MCAT. The difference at JHU appears to be that such maneuvering is not as easy because there are less sections and lazier or weaker students are unable to avoid the high level instructors). As in, MCAT is passage based, so you usually must learn concepts or ideas on the spot, call upon fundamentals in some core area of STEM training, and put it all together under a time pressure. More professors at the places I describe are more likely to put problems requiring the same skills on their assignments and exams, so you have to be kind of creative and able to think your way out of a box under pressure. By time you get to MCAT prep (or prep for some of the more difficult STEM GRE subject tests), you’re used to the scenario. It is typically a change from HS (where even the more challenging courses were known for heavy content and workload more than cognitive complexity of tasks), but the support services mentioned will definitely help if you are concerned. So don’t worry about the intensity of a school like JHU, welcome it and do your best. You’ll probably find that some of your more challenging instructors are actually the best instructors and care more for students (both personally and in terms of their intellectual development) than others.
Average GPA of the graduating classes is usually between a 3.3-3.4 if you wanted a quantitative answer. From what I’ve experienced premed grading is generally the same as everything else (average is a B/B+, rarely a B- depending on the class) and most of the time a lot better than some of the engineering courses I’ve taken. I’m sure it’s like this at most schools that you’ll win some and you’ll lose some but that it just really depends on the professor to be honest.
Coming from Hopkins is that GPA enough to get into med schools?
@arubadude : That is about the same range as most elite schools and most have solid admit rates, as does Hopkins:http://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/preprofadvising/pre-medhealth/medical-school-application-trends-outcomes/
There used to be data suggesting that lower GPA brackets than “normal” would be admitted in higher numbers from JHU than many other places.
When I talked to the premed advising office they said that you need a 3.5+ GPA to be competitive for med school. So, with that in mind, you should be slightly above average at Hopkins undergrad to be a really competitive applicant.