<p>I'm a High School Junior and have my eyes set on a career in medicine. Cornell is definitely one of the universities I'd love to attend. </p>
<p>Does anyone know what pre-med at Cornell is like? Is it harder, easier, than other universities of Cornell's standards/prestige? Also what about grade inflation/deflation, what classes are like, and if it is hard to maintain a high (>3.7 GPA)?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Most premeds at Cornell have never been premed anywhere else of Cornell’s prestige so it’s difficult to compare.
I’m not a premed but I took the premed classes and a biology major and I found them very challenging. I probably struggled due a combination of laziness and lack of intelligence, but I was a great student in high school, so my issues didn’t show until I reached Cornell. Other people who use this board had a better time of it with these courses, were premed, and went on to medical school. I do think it’s fair to say that most people find the curriculum at difficult and time-consuming, even if they do end up having a completely adequate or even high GPA in the end.
Most of the classes are large lectures with 100s of students. There are also quite a few required lab classes which will have ~20-40 students and TA.
I think that wide selection of upper level biology courses at Cornell is excellent and they would be really beneficial to a future doctor.</p>
<p>I would say that Cornell premed is appropriately difficult. Cornell premed courses are harder than HS courses but not even close to med school courses/rotations. It is very difficult for a college to prepare students for the extreme difficulty of medical school but Cornell does as good a job as any school in the country. I would say that it is equally as rigorous as its peers (this is based on looking at GPA/MCAT correlations b/w various colleges) and from anecdotal info from classmates.</p>
<p>Whether it’s hard to maintain a 3.7 GPA will depend on the major. Certain majors are much more grade inflated than other majors.</p>