I disagree about weeder courses for premeds - some universities have them and others don’t. Weeder courses are designed so that students will fail - certainly, students who can’t/won’t cut it can stop their losses and re-orient toward another major, but the principle is brutal and baked into the design. Many universities don’t have "weeder"classes. It doesn’t mean students all get A’s - but rather that the curve isn’t brutal or there’s no curve at all, so that all students who reach a certain level get a certain grade, collaboration is emphasized, lots of help from the professor. A large percentage drop the premed track anyway because it’s too hard, too much work, etc - the academic rigor is there and the demands are the same, but there’s no percentage that’ll systematically fail every test, there are no “trick questions” inserted just to ensure more students will get a decent-but-not-med-school worthy GPA, etc.
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I’m not suggesting an extreme weeding process. There may be few Ds and Fs awarded. But the A’s will be limited and the B’s are limited. If a bunch are given C’s, that’s still weeding.
Genuine question - how do you know that this weeding process occurs everywhere?
It’s not “weeding” if it’s not designed to be - there’s always attrition in a class, it’s not the same as a class designed to be dropped or failed. Therefore, at “non weed out schools”, some semesters there may be a majority of A’s and B’s, and some years a majority of C’s. A weed-out class typically has mostly C’s, systematically, and the curve is set against the highest score with a percentage strictly marking cut offs (could be something like 10% As, 10% A-, 10% B+, 20% B, 10% B-, 30% C, 10% D and F, hence only the top 20-30% has a med school-worthy grade, but it can be harsher than this with 40% C, 30% D-F, and only 30% with B or A, hence only 10-15% students have a med school-worthy grade.)
It doesn’t mean premed hopefuls don’t realize they don’t want to put themselves through the classes, or won’t make it, or will get good grades. It means that the class isn’t designed to have a certain percentage of questions that will “trick” them, or will be almost undoable to freshmen except the most gifted, or will not include study guides or reviews…
Thank you so much everyone!!!
This helped me a ton! >:D<
I’ll definitely be looking at more LACs and researching more what each college/university might offer.