<p>Wondiering if science majors from Mudd have lower GPAs than science mjors from Pomona, or is the grade deflation about equal in both places? Which would be the better place for a premed major? Or a future bioscience PhD? For med schools it seems GPA is more important than where you earned it. I'm trying to help my student who loves the 5-C's decide where to apply ED next year.</p>
<p>Mudd probably has lower GPAs. I would definitely recommend the student not go to Mudd if he/she intends to go to Med school. The core is far too large and will probably cause significant grade deflation. Also, Getting a 3.7+ at Pomona is likely a lot easier than getting a 3.7+ at Mudd because we take more classes, have a larger core, and have slightly harder classes.</p>
<p>If you are science major at Pomona, then chances are you are going to be taking a lot of Mudd classes. And based on what I am seeing in my physics classes right now, the Pomona students are often ill prepared.</p>
<p>Oh LORD. PLEASE don't go to a school which deflates grades for the premed option. If you're very sure about premed that is. I'd say avoid Berkeley [which at least has easy majors], and quite likely Mudd.</p>
<p>Or, go to Mudd and forget about the premed plan ;) [might be more fun that way!]. </p>
<p>I will cut myself off before I rant about premeds, prelaw-ers, and GPA. "For med schools it seems GPA is more important than where you earned it."</p>
<p>I can't imagine any other school in the Claremont system as a rule deflating grades as much as Mudd does, but I speak in complete ignorance, and am only guessing.</p>
<p>Med schools screen potential admissions by formula, with a small adjustment for rigor of undergrad college, but not enough to really compensate for HMC's average graduating GPA. This is unfortunate because it forces students to make a priority of high grades if they want an MD eventually--maybe by choosing a less challenging college, major and/or classes.</p>
<p>However, the grade deflation at Mudd does not appear to disadvantage students with PhD plans versus Pomona science majors. It looks like Mudd has more than double the percentage going into graduate school progams compared with Pomona. Or maybe lower GPAs are also an issue for grad school admissions from Mudd? Maybe a Mudder can shed light on this. </p>
<p>Does anyone know why a smaller percentage of Pomona science grads go for PhDs?</p>
<p>Sure, grad school is a different story, I think. The key to grad school is to convince the admissions committee that you can really do high level Ph.D. work. Whereas med school is strictly a numbers game in many ways. If you want grad school, sure it's a great place. I don't know that it's good to be so certain about something like grad school before you've even studied a ton of upper division college material, but all the same, you need not be deterred from hard schools if you want grad school. But it looks really self-defeating to be a premed at such schools.</p>
<p>I mean, nevertheless, if you love the school and want to be premed, go for it...but it's good to be warned.</p>