<p>I have a pretty good gpa right now at jhu and i am a declared pre-med going into my sophomore year. I was wondering if it would be a bad decision to go ahead and minor in mathematics, something i am very interested in, even though the courses are difficult and time-consuming. There are no 'easy - A' math courses by any means, and they would probably hurt my gpa in the long run. Would it be a bad idea to do this? Is it so necessary to play the pre-med 'game' of taking easy classes outside of the premed requisites? Would minoring in math even increase my chances or do they just look at gpa and science gpa without regard to how you achieved those relatively arbitrary numbers, in my opinion. As a pre-med I find it hard to play the pre-med game and still take the courses I am passionate about that may hurt my stats. Thanks for any input.</p>
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As a pre-med I find it hard to play the pre-med game and still take the courses I am passionate about that may hurt my stats.
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I think you have analyzed the situation correctly . This is one of the realities of your desire to attend professional school. While your classmates who aspire to a B.A. are free to take that extremely difficult but terribly interesting mathematics class taught by the visiting professor whose immediately preceding appointment was sitting at the right hand of God, you will always have at least one eye on your GPA. Probably both eyes. The best you can hope for is a cast iron set of huevos. Hopefully they will see you through to taking some of the courses you would otherwise take. </p>
<p>The whole system is designed to discourage exploration and risk taking and IMO it does a mighty fine job of it. Take the MCAT before you are completely overprepped and ready? Uh-uh. Not bright. We don't give "Mulligans". We won't just take your top score. This isn't UG. Major in engineering or philosophy? or a philosophy , physics, math triple major? So what ? What's your BCMP? (BMCP? Whatever.;)) Went to ________ who wouldn't give a diety a 4.0 ? Get back in line with the great unwashed, you GPA sinner. So you live for science and research and loaded up on it in UG because you genuinely love it? Go stand in that looong line. This "Express" one is for music theory and art history majors. </p>
<p>Stay as true to your desire to your passion as you can. Take what risks you feel you can get away with . You'll never hear anybody who understands the system complain about the practical decisions you have to make. Well, nobody who counts anyway. ;) Good luck.</p>