Hey guys,
I’m planning to study premed at CC, but I’m worried that it will be difficult to get high GPA (above the usual med school cutoff of 3.5), especially with the Core and bio major requirements (especially the intro bio course!). So how difficult is it to balance school and social life as a premed at Columbia, and what the approximate premed GPA? Thanks!!
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you’re concerned about getting a good grade in Intro Bio? Maybe re-think your career plans. Classes like intro Bio and Chem should be natural As for any serious candidate.
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“what the approximate premed GPA?” This is a non-question. People with bad GPAs remove themselves from applying to medical schools. Thus, only those with great GPAs at the end, remain in the pre-med track. Someone with a 3.0 GPA will have long ago left dreams of med school behind.
and finally 3) Stop saying you intend to study “pre-med” This doesn’t exist and is only a phrase used by the uninformed. Pre-med is an advisory track preparing students of all majors to ready themselves to apply to medical school at some point. You can be a History major on the pre-med track. No one “studies pre-med”.
Alright thanks for the reality check!
Traditionally at Columbia, premeds are miserable insecure grinds with no social life. In recognition of this stereotype, the band performs a concert in the library and then on the lawn outside Furnald Hall the night before the orgo final exam, by way of harassing the wretched premeds just before this make-or-break test. The band has been doing Orgo Night for decades.
Also a tradition, the strategy for acing your premed courses involves auditing some or all at least once before taking for a grade. Meanwhile, the easiest available major and elective courses are taken. However, with Core courses, premed requirements and major requirements, premeds don’t take many electives.
A common phenomenon is students bombing out of the premed track then suffering heavy career and life angst. (This is worst among students from high achieving families especially when one or both parents are doctors.) I suggest you have a backup plan in case it turns out you can’t cut it.
@T26E4 Wow, you’re saying that Intro Bio and Chem should be easy As for pre-med candidates? Think again. Intro Bio with Mowsh at Columbia is notorious for being ridiculously difficult and demanding, as anyone who has taken the class will tell you. I am a Barnard student, but having spoken to many people who took the class and read plenty of reviews about the differences between Barnard and Mowsh Bio, I can confidently say that both classes adequately prepare students for med school, but one involves an unnecessary amount of stress. @1minitennis It is perfectly ok to get a B in an intro class, especially if it’s in your first semester and you’re still adjusting to college. If you make a habit of getting Bs in pre-med requirements then yes, perhaps rethink your career goals, but otherwise don’t worry so much.
@philosophyzing I’m not saying they should be easy As – the core material isn’t a cakewalk, I agree. But they should clearly be in the student’s wheelhouse. I person who hates chem & bio or really struggles might take time to re-evaluate their career path. We had a black-humored joke about Chem 115 – it generated more Psych majors (who were previous pre-med candidates) than any class at the university.
Just as when applying to college, there’s no “cutoff” for GPA when applying for med school. There is a sliding scale of GPA and MCAT scores, where your chances progressively decrease the lower down you go. The overall acceptance for all Med school applicants in the country is approx. 40%. If your GPA is >3.8, the acceptance rate would be >80% for all comers, and will be essentially 100% for Ivy League grads. The national average for people with GPA of 3.0 is approx. 15% acceptance rate. Your chances from Ivy League will be somewhat higher but nevertheless, the odds would be against you. Those people who do get in with GPA of 3.0, whether from Ivy or not, have something to compensate for this: i.e. very high MCAT to start with, but more importantly, they will have a good explanation of why their GPA is less than ideal.
The above comments apply to overall GPA. But, the Med schools will break out a separate Science GPA of the core pre-med classes (General Chem, Organic Chem, Biology, Physics). It would be best, if this GPA is 3.5 or better, regardless of your overall GPA. So you could get by with 1 ( maybe 2) B’s in there. But again, this would be a sliding scale. Bottom line: although there is no distinct cutoff, you should be aiming for overall GPA >3.5 and Science GPA >3.5.
I would disagree with the unfair characterization of the Columbia pre-meds as “insecure grinds.” The pre-meds I met at Columbia were all very bright. There is plenty of time for studying and socialization. Maybe there were some not-so-bright people on the edges who had difficulty with the course work; but that would be a minority that exists at any college. If you have the combination of intelligence and work ethic which allowed you to get into Columbia, then you should be able to handle the work, and have plenty of time to socialize.
“… but more importantly, they will have a good explanation of why their GPA is less than ideal.”
I should correct myself in the above statement. The Med school will care about the explanation for low GPA to a moderate degree. But at the end of the day, the GPA is whatever it is regardless of any explanation. So they will just want to see something else that is very strong to make them care less about the GPA – such as very strong research or strong humanitarian activities, etc.
I am doing Pre-Med at Columbia and it is certainly stressful. I cannot understate this fact. Bio with Mowsh is very good because it makes you think (and I certainly learn everything well) but it is time consuming as heck and the tests may not be hard (if you do every problem she assigns) but you need to consider every single detail involved and it is easy to mess up. Gen Chem is not hard but not taught in the best way and the same is probably true for Orgo and Premed physics.
That being said, looking back, Gen Chem was hard because I was unused to how it was taught/how to prepare/unorganized and I sorta feel similarly with Bio (though I am hard on myself and always think I could’ve done better in retrospect). I think it is feasible and I have spoken with premed advisors and a few Bs certainly will not kill you.
I actually found the core classes ok in difficulty (they were also quite interesting) but there was definitely a solid amount of work and lots of reading. I take time to write papers - if you aren’t that kind of person it might be easier.
That being said I think the CU experience is overall really amazing and although there are pre-med struggles, many of my friends find it worth it overall. If you want to be a doctor and that is your sole goal then I wouldn’t suggest coming here for premed.
Thank you all for your informative replies 
Thanks ecouter11-I will keep that in mind when applying for colleges next year
morningside292 - where do you get all your statistics on med school acceptance? Very interesting.
the AMA reports these stats. You can google for them
Quick question for ecouter11: what classes did you take in freshman year? The people who I’ve spoken with have said that most freshman usually take 4 courses for the 1st semester, but I’m not sure if thats the case for aspiring pre-med students. Also (out of curiousity) what is your major? Thanks
The ones I quoted are numbers that have been surprisingly stable for many years. This is due to the combination of more applicants being offset by more Med School spots. But the specifics can be obtained on AAMC.org (Assoc of American Medical Colleges) under the Data&Statistic section.