Hello everyone! This is of course mainly to Boston University, though anyone can answer the quesiton. I will be attending BU in the following year, and I have heard the dreadful rumors of pre-med, ranging from the grade deflation rumor, to if you are good at science, and study daily, do your homework, you will do very well, B±A, is that true. I am currently taking a online course at Stony Brook and I find it ok difficulty, it is Bio,a nd I am getting an A, and this is of course in conjunction with AP Bio(to be honest, I find my AP Bio class harder, and stony brook is supposed to be hard). I have heard chem is near impossible, is this just due to everyone procrastinating, because it seems that those who do their work daily seem to do really well.
I’m not sure what your question is. I’m not a pre-med student but I’m friends with a lot of pre-med students and people who dropped pre-med. Here’s what I can say about pre-med:
A lot of people drop pre-med because of General Chemistry (CH101). They realize that they don’t want to have anymore classes like CH101 and can’t stand the hours of lab and discussions. It’s considered a weedout class because while the class teaches general chemistry concepts, they assign a lot of work. Also on the exams, no partial credit is awarded. You either get the problem or you don’t.
So here’s what you can do. If you’re taking or have taken AP Chemistry, try to get into the higher level chemistry classes that fulfill the chemistry requirement for premed. These classes are CH109 and CH111. These classes go over harder concepts, but they aren’t weedout classes and more manageable. But again, take these classes if you’re handling AP chem well.
If you don’t want to skip up to the more advanced intro classes but you’ve taken AP Chemistry, you’ll be fine in CH101. You’ll probably breeze through the course. The CH101 weedout factor usually hits the students who haven’t taken chemistry before or AP chemistry before. I have met people who had childhood dreams of pursuing medical school, only to completely change their career plans because of general chemistry. Don’t let general chemistry change your goals and keep on persisting!
As for grade deflation, it’s more about getting a score above the average for an exam. Personally I don’t think that grade deflation exists and even if it does, that shouldn’t deter you from doing well. Get used to seeing low scores on exams and don’t panic. The academic standards in college are different than that of high school.
I hope this helps. Be prepared to meet tons of pre-med students.
Thanks :), I am going to be applying to the MMEDIC program once I am in there. For that I need high grades in bio(not worried) and chem(pretty worried) since all I took was regular chem, I was great at it, but regular chem is not AP or college level. I am going to study chem over the summer just so I know what I am doing prior to it.
Sorry for the late reply! Yeah definitely review chemistry. They also have general chemistry work over the summer before CH101 to keep you prepared.
Gen chem and calculus for the pre med requirements at BU are BRUTAL. Truthfully, BU is a very tough school for pre med. The classes are very big for the intro classes and that makes it tough to really understand the concept. There is grade deflation and be aware that your final grade may be different than you expected for such classes. The higher level chem classes are very intensive and require more work and more difficult concepts but they aren’t meant to weed you out. HOWEVER, I know that the high level chem class fulfills a writing requirement as well since it’s so intensive on labs.
It’s manageable but only if you’re prepared to put in the effort. The GPA at BU is tough to earn but it’s meaningful. Mmedic is very tough because most students can’t obtain a high enough GPA by the time they apply.