<p>Uhhhh yeah pre-med drop out rate is pretty high. Orgo/Bio is definitely the killer. </p>
<p>If you are considering coming to NU for pre-med, unless you considered NU a safety school, realize that you will probably be dropping pre-med. Just to reflect the statistics. Even if you considered NU a safety school, it will still be a challenge. If you didn't consider NU a safety school, even if you don't drop pre-med, your GPA will probably have suffered significantly. </p>
<p>But a lot of people come here and realize that their parents wanted them to do pre-med more than they wanted to, and find their real passions in life. </p>
<p>So who knows, either become a great doctor or find your true passion! Sounds like a win-win to me. Except for the low-gpa in the true passion department. So... win-satisfied.</p>
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Uhhhh yeah pre-med drop out rate is pretty high. Orgo/Bio is definitely the killer.</p>
<p>If you are considering coming to NU for pre-med, unless you considered NU a safety school, realize that you will probably be dropping pre-med. Just to reflect the statistics. Even if you considered NU a safety school, it will still be a challenge. If you didn't consider NU a safety school, even if you don't drop pre-med, your GPA will probably have suffered significantly.</p>
<p>But a lot of people come here and realize that their parents wanted them to do pre-med more than they wanted to, and find their real passions in life.</p>
<p>So who knows, either become a great doctor or find your true passion! Sounds like a win-win to me. Except for the low-gpa in the true passion department. So... win-satisfied.
<p>Yea, I think the median grade for our orgo is B- (I was told that's the case but when I saw how many were getting C+/C, I wondered if it was actually C+). Cornell's? B. Look who got grade deflation?!</p>
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Even if you considered NU a safety school, it will still be a challenge.
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<p>That's true for one of my HPME friends who could have gone to HYPS. He got B+ two times in a row; I don't know how he did for the 3rd quarter of orgo. This was a kid who took MCAT out of curiosity as he didn't need to and got a 36 on it.</p>
<p>Just for clarification, just as grade inflation means a B- gets curved up to a B+, grade deflation means that you get an A-, but so many people got As that your grade actually falls to a B+. In that respect, we don't have grade deflation, simply because the class is so hard that no one will get an A. So... it's not really deflation at all. It's just really really hard :-P</p>
<p>Also, to indie-jimmy - I'm trying to be realistic, but realize that practically a fifth or so of the campus is still pre-med, and many do go to great medical schools from here, so ... yes it's difficult, if you drop out, don't feel stupid, but know that you certainly can achieve here... it's just difficult. Be prepared to sacrifice.</p>
<p>well, i'm sufficiently worried about going the pre-med route now...</p>
<p>RisingSun - what kind of sacrifice are you talking about exactly?
also, aside from "people who had NU as a safety," what kind of people do you usually see succeeding with pre-med? and those that end up dropping it?</p>
<p>while i had it hard in orgo, i still managed to do well, so it is not impossible to do well. absolute scale has its share of merit of not getting screwed you over by the curve. i also have a lot of respect for my professor, he is definitely one of the best professors i've ever had in nu so far. it was a lot of work and cramming, but i really enjoyed orgo back then. in fact, i took it for fun.
i think at the end, if you survive, then you will develop this pride "our school does not even accept Harvard transfer credit for orgo." (people used to take it at Harvard during summer to make their lives easier) it is really something to be proud about, heck, you just survive/ace one of the hardest class in the nation.
to Sam Lee, i think people should have the right to know what they are getting themselves into. some people might actually be excited by the challenge.</p>
<p>Do any of you know if NU lets incoming freshman take courses summer quarter? I kinda want to take the 3 week each chem 102 and 103 before taking orgo in the fall.</p>
<p>I talked to a bunch of seniors who all dropped out of the pre-med track (one actually even took her mcats). This is basically what they told me</p>
<p>1) Orgo at NU is hard.
2) Many NU students take orgo at Harvard.
3) NU does not take credit for orgo at Harvard.
4) Med schools take orgo from Harvard - but they know you took it there because it's easier at Harvard.
5) Just take it at NU.</p>
<p>I talked to one of the pre-med advisors and she said generally a given class will start off with 400-500 students interested in pre-med, but she said only about 230 of those actually take the MCATs. And she said to not do bio/orgo at the same time. </p>
<p>Anyways. I'm not taking the ap chem exam and even if I place into a higher level class I am planning on taking chem 101. Is it impossible (or highly discouraged) for me to take that and physics 135 at once?</p>
<p>I think chem 101 and physics 135 together is definitely doable. Plus if you start out in both and realize you are in over your head, you can always drop one of them with no real consequences.</p>
<p>So saeraxD, according to this article, even if med schools know Harvard's orgo is easier, it's probably still better for some of the NU premeds to do it there.</p>