<p>If there are any current or past Emory pre-med students out there, I would appreciate some input. My son (a HS junior) is very interested in Emory (sister goes there now, liberal arts major, does not know any pre-meds personally). He has a 3.85 unweighted and SAT of 2060 (first time),lots of EC's including newspaper, band, varsity sports, so perhaps he will get in. Anyhow, he is interested in pre-med, possibly majoring in science (chem or physics, neurosciences). As a physician myself, looking at colleges, I realize that pre-med experience can be very different depending upon the school you go to. Many colleges (like Cornell) use their intro courses to deflate grades and to weed out pre meds (these are kids who are very bright, after all they got into Cornell, and would probably have gotten A's at other schools). Some have very cut throat student population making the experience very unpleasant. Some (like Hopkins) make it difficult to get a letter from the pre-med advisory committee, discouraging applicants who have what they consider less than optimal grades (3.2 or so) even though these students are bright and motivated and would probably succeed at medical school. By doing this they inflate their medical school acceptance rate. What is the pre-med experience like at Emory as far as the above issues? Are grades in pre-med courses curved to deflate grades and causing many to drop out of pre-med? What are the chem, physics and neuroscience dept. like? Is faculty and fellow students helpful? I know that Emory does not allow you to take summer courses outside of Emory (just freshman summer P/F) which for a pre-med forces them to stay at Emory in the summer unless you want to double and triple up on science and math courses. Thanks, any opinions would be welcomed</p>
<p>I'm a freshman at Emory right now, so I just finished up my first semester. It seems like nearly every student at Emory comes in either wanting to be pre-med or pre-business. A lot of people who come in pre-med end up changing their minds, but it's not necessarily because they are "weeded out." I already have several friends who have decided not to be premed simply because they have found other things that interest them more. It's also true that the introductory science classes are very difficult, and some students don't do as well as they would have liked. With that being said, Emory offers tons of academic resources, from study groups to tutoring sessions, and from my experience, those students who really put in the effort come out with decent grades. Most professors are extremely approachable and generally will do whatever it takes to help students do well. I have not found students to be cut throat at ALL. I can't even count the number of times I got together with different groups of students to help each other study this semester.<br>
As far as curving goes, my introductory chemistry class was not curved at all, while my biology teacher stated that she would only curve "up" if the test averages were lower than she expected, but would never curve "down" to deflate grades.<br>
It is true that Emory requires students to take summer courses at Emory after the first year. Most premeds, especially science majors, do have to double up at least once if they don't want to stay for the summer. I took bio and chem together, as did many of my friends, and although it was very demanding, it's doable. Lots of students opt to stay for the summer as well, simply to lighten up their course loads during the academic year. From what I've heard from upperclassmen, it seems that most people really enjoy the summer courses, and financial aid is available during the summer.<br>
Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology is rumored around campus to be the best (and hardest) of the science majors. The chemistry and biology departments are also top notch, with some really incredible faculty on board. The general word is that physics tends to be the weakest of the science departments at Emory, but I wouldn't know from personal experience since I haven't taken a physics course yet. But you really can't go wrong with any science at Emory, because science (along with business) is really where the school shines.<br>
Up until this year, Emory was one of the only top schools that did not offer a pre-med committee to write committee letters for medical school applicants. I questioned this when I visited the school last spring, and one of the pre-med advisors said that he (and the rest of Emory) did not feel that it was his place to tell students whether or not they could apply to medical school just to raise the school's admission rates. Emory has realized, though, that the lack of a committee was hurting the appilcations of Emory students who wanted to go to medical school. For that reason, a committee system will take effect this spring. This is a very good thing, since it will definitely help medical schools get a better understanding of Emory students. I don't have any concrete facts on the way the committee system will work, since it hasn't officially started yet, but based on my conversations with staff in the career center (and believe me, I've had many), I can't possibly imagine that Emory would take the Hopkins route of discouraging borderline applicants simply to make the school look better.<br>
All in all, I think Emory is one of the best schools in the country at which to pursue a pre-med track. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you or your son might have. Best of luck to him with his college applications!</p>
<p>I'm currently a senior neuroscience major at Emory. I agree with most of the things rer678 said.</p>
<p>"Are grades in pre-med courses curved to deflate grades and causing many to drop out of pre-med?"
I would say that grades are not curved down for the most part in pre-med classes (not bell curve). Most teachers in those classes will only curve up if the avg. is very low. Chem 141/142 and Physics 141/142 are easier when compared to bio 141/142 and orgo, but this obviously depends on the student's interest and background.</p>
<p>"What are the chem, physics and neuroscience dept. like?"
Chem dept is solid, with lots of great research available. Great professors for gen. chem and orgo also. Physics department is not that great and is not as strong as the other sciences. The intro physics (PHYS 141/142) has not been taught that well, but most students managed to teach themselves. I feel neuroscience is also a solid dept. that encompasses biology, psychology, anthro, philosophy departments. It also has a great variety of courses in which to choose from. See my post also in the Emory board, under the thread What's so great about emory neuroscience for more information.</p>
<p>"Is faculty and fellow students helpful?"
Yes, extremely helpful, professors are available in office hours. Many students set up study groups and work together. Tutoring is also offered for free from a service called EPASS. Most of the pre-med classes also have supplemental instruction sessions (SI) about weekly. These are student led sessions where they solve problem sets. Usually these are very helpful.</p>
<p>"I know that Emory does not allow you to take summer courses outside of Emory"
You still can take classes outside of Emory, you just won't get credit from Emory. If you do this you just need to submit a separate transcript to AMCAS when you apply to med schools. Taking pre-med classes over the summer can be a good and bad thing at times. Most of these classes will cover alot of material in a short time period.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other specific questions.</p>
<p>Thank you rer678 and soup05, that was very helpful</p>
<p>Hey guys i have a question.</p>
<p>How much harder are the introductory science classes for Pre Med at Emory compared to AP or IB science classes taken in high school? </p>
<p>Also, what kind of credit does Emory give for AP or IB scores as far as science if i wanted to major in Pre Med?</p>
<p>Zlakhani1:
First of all, there is no such major as "Pre Med." Typically, pre-med students decide to major in some sort of science field since the requirements for these two tracks overlap more. However, it is impossible to declare a major in pre-med. Introductory science classes at any college are going to be more intense than AP/IB science classes taken in high school. While these high school courses may cover similar material, there is just a greater intensity at the college level (especially with the mandatory labs that accompany most science courses).</p>
<p>Credit-wise, Emory is changing their policy with the implementation of the new GER's, but I believe Emory will only give credits for 5's: four credits for Physics, Biology, and Chemistry for these AP courses. However, I would be wary taking all of these credits since medical schools generally like to see that students actually take science courses. Only accept the AP credit if you plan on taking upper-level science courses in these fields.</p>
<p>I'm just a freshman also, but I took chem 141 and bio 141 also last semester. I took AP bio in HS and got as 5 on the AP test but chose to not skip bio 141, as I figured that I needed a solid foundation in bio for my major (NBB) and for the MCAT, as opposed to taking a higher level course later on to replace the pre-med requirement for an entire year of bio.</p>
<p>I had Spell for Bio141, and in comparison to my AP Bio class, it seemed to focus much more on cellular level biology and chemistry and almost nothing except side notes about plants and anything not bacteria, yeast, or humans. In all, it seemed like it was geared toward those looking to study health or research than AP Bio, where I spent a bunch of time on higher-level non-humans like birds, fish, etc. Which is appropriate seeing how it seems pretty much everyone is pre-med in the class. But as far as rigor, it going to depend on how interested you are in that sort of bio. Personally, I thought bio 141 was pretty reasonable. I spent only maybe 2-3 hours studying powerpoints for each test and came out with an A-. But for whatever reason some people find it easy and some otherwise really brilliant people struggle and study 4x that and have trouble getting Cs. </p>
<p>Chem 141 with Mulford I thought was a notch easier than bio, but again, some people seem to catch on with little work, and others get their butts kicked. I never took AP Chem, spent maybe 3 hrs per test to study, got an A. I think class averages tend to be around Cs for chem, and maybe C+/B- for bio? I'd recommend both Mulford and Spell. </p>
<p>And doubling up on sciences isn't anywhere as bad as some make it out to be, though labs can be a pain, esp. bio lab.</p>
<p>I am not pre-med but from everything I have seen the intro science classes are considerably more difficult and time consuming than classes in other departments. There is homework, tests, and finals for both the class and its 3 hr/week lab. Every pre-med student I know has much less free time than the average liberal arts or business student. This disparity between work loads weeds out potential pre-med students, but to my knowledge there is nothing like what you describe at Hopkins or Cornell.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info Emory pre-meds...this is all very helpful</p>
<p>Just curious, jmw123, what was your GPA and SAT and SAT subject scores?</p>
<p>I honestly don't remember exactly, but I was somewhere in the upper range (1550/1600 SAT, 35 ACT, 3.9+GPA, didn't take subject tests, emory doesn't require them)</p>
<p>But if you're trying to use high school as a gauge of whether somebody is going to do well, it doesn't always work out that way. I know some valedictorians who had very high SAT/ACT scores who didn't do very well and vice versa. It depends more on how much you enjoy science and even different sciences here are easier for different people (chemistry is almost nothing but problem-based calculations and formulas, biology is comprehension and synthesis) I think I'd flunk out if I had to take some of the lit and philosophy classes, but that's just because everyone is better at certain subjects than others. I'm sure your son already has a feeling whether he's "good" at these kind of subjects.</p>
<p>jmw is a genius. I worked my butt off in gen chem and got a B+. I told my gf to take it because she said she got a B+ in the first semester without trying, even though she took AP chem. She almost failed the second semester as a senior.</p>
<p>Bio used to fail out 25% of the students, but Victor Corces, a professor from Hopkins who really cares about the students, is working to push the weeding out process up to Orgo. I earned an A- in bio both semesters, but I also had the second highest grade in AP bio at my HS and perfect scored the SAT II for bio.</p>
<p>Emory tries to convince you that you have come to the realization that you don’t want to become a doctor after all, but really they just weed you out.</p>
<p>PS Interestingly, your info tells me how Hopkins has an 85% med school acceptance rate. Those bastards.</p>
<p>If you take Orgo from Dr. Soria, buy a book from Barnes and Noble called “Organic chemistry 1 as a second language”. Proceed to ignore Soria. He doesn’t give a **** anyway. </p>
<p>If you can get old tests somehow, this gives you an enormous and unfair academic advantage.</p>
<p>Dr. Green: Cornell’s competitiveness is over-rated; the mean graduating gpa is ~3.4. Premed at ALL colleges is extremely difficult. For the best gpa chances, look at Brown which has a 3.6 gpa (can you spell grade inflation!). hahahaha</p>
<p>^^^^ I know understand QQminusS’s post, are you saying Emory does weed out kids?</p>