<p>I am interested in pre-med at Duke (as you could have guessed). In general, how is the program? It has to be very good, since it is Duke, but any other information would be great!</p>
<p>More importantly though, how rigorous and intense is it? Is there enough time for your studies and social life? Any other experiences you have had that you want to share would be great</p>
<p>Well, Duke doesn’t have a pre-med major, so how it works is you choose your major then take the core set of classes required for med school/the MCAT. Students I know in med school have majored in everything from Biology and Biomedical Engineering to English and Religion. </p>
<p>Your classes are naturally going to be tough (my personal favorites were Bio 25 and Physics 53/54…ick). Organic Chem, “Bio 118” equivalents, and Physics are going to be tough anywhere you go, and you’re going to have really tough semesters where you do a lot of studying to get those A’s. (Unless you’re just naturally a science genius like many I knew). It’s rigorous, but Duke in GENERAL is rigorous.</p>
<p>You’ll have enough time for a social life, don’t worry. There are going to definitely be semesters when you go out less than others, but we all have those. It’s kind of like what you make of it. I knew pre-meds who had NO LIFE and just studied 24/7, but knew plenty who had great social lives and went out all the time. All of them are going to med school. You have 4 years post-college to hole yourself up for an intense education…Duke will prepare you well while also allowing some room to breathe.</p>
<p>I think the med school acceptance rate at Duke is something ridiculous like in the high 80s or something…comparable to any other top-ranked school. Bottom line is if you do what you’re supposed to do (research/volunteer, get good grades, do well on the MCAT), you’ll be going to med school. Duke has a world class hospital within walking distance from campus, so you’re going to have tons of opportunities to get into the hospital, see what’s going on, work in clinical labs, etc. If you take advantage of the opportunities Duke has to offer, you’ll get a great pre-med education which will prepare you well for med school. Of course, the other great thing about Duke is you can do this with an Art History major, or a Cultural Anthropology major…not a restrictive “Pre-Med” major like some other schools offer.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for all the great information. That is incredibly helpful. Duke is definitely one of my top choices for schools. Do you think you could do me one more favor? Could you tell me my chances of being accepted? I posted that in the same section.</p>
<p>Thank you again</p>