<p>Is it terribly difficult to earn a 3.5 at Duke undergrad for premed? b/c some people say it's better to just attend an easy state school and get a 4.0 rather than stress over grades in a prestigious college like duke.</p>
<p>I think Duke is an excellent institution but would the rigor of the courses jeopardize someone's chances of attending Med school just b/c they couldn't earn a 3.5 at a challenging university?</p>
<p><a href="http://prehealth.trinity.duke.edu/success/%5B/url%5D">http://prehealth.trinity.duke.edu/success/</a></p>
<p>Average GPA of those accepted to medical school is around 3.5 & the average science GPA (since those classes are notoriously difficult at Duke) is even lower!!</p>
<p>Med schools know that you are getting this GPA out of Duke.. so the competition is extremely rough.. and finally from what I hear, if you can do really well on the MCAT's, a lackluster GPA won't keep you out of of med school.</p>
<p>Don't worry--Duke has one of the best medical school placement percentages.</p>
<p>Depending on the state school, Duke is not necessarily harder. Just ask any students (there seem to be a lot of them) who transferred between Stanford and UCB -- they'll all tell you Stanford was easier.</p>
<p>In any case, I think a .5 GPA jump is pretty insane regardless. I don't think there's very many schools in the country that are that much harder than any other school.</p>
<p>*Omitting MIT and the military academies.</p>
<p>I agree with bluedevilmike - it really depends on the state school you are comparing with Duke.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I believe that med schools do know that you are coming from Duke and will consider that in making admissions decisions. Also, if you want more information about Duke statistics and med school applicants, I would suggest clicking on "Reports" in the link posted by CoolaTroopa above. Check out the 2006 Annual Report (or any of the past reports) and they have very specific data on accepted medical school applicants from Duke.</p>
<p>I believe i read that duke has a 85% acceptance rate of people who apply to med school. This means 85% of Duke people that apply will get in somewhere, but it may not be your top choice. I think the key to pre-med rigor is to not take on too much at a time. There is no real rush in getting all premed courses done rightaway. You can take summer classes, which are a little easier and now they offer the MCAT many times a year and they will be getting scores to you at a much faster rate. So you can choose to take the MCAT at a more convenient time. One of the advisers did tell me that about 25% of people that start out pre-med as freshmen do end up dropping out by senior year, but this may be due to doing really badly in the early pre-med courses or simply because they change their mind. So just make sure your semesters arent too hard and that you balance some of the harder premed courses like Orgo with some easier classes as well, so that you can do your best in those classes.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about your GPA as a premed. As long as you aren't taking a difficult major on top of it you should be able to pace yourself with the difficulty of your courses. </p>
<p>It all kind of depends on how set on premed you are and how much you value your other experiences. I am a BME premed which isn't a smart descision GPA wise (I have no doubt that it has hurt my GPA) because you aren't able to concentrate on your Premed courses as much as other people becuase other people can take a light load when they have to take something like Orgo where as a BME you have to take a really difficult load at the same time as stuff like Orgo. (like last semester my hardest class was a BME class and I was in Orgo II at the time) This is OK with me though because I value the fact that I am an engineer first and a premed second. I know I'm not going to get into the best Med school in the country and I'm ok with that because it's a tradeoff I am willing to make.</p>
<p>That said, I think it is safe to say that you will probably get a significantly higher GPA at a state school than at Duke. The work load may not be easier, it may be harder, but the end result will be higher. (I have a twin brother going to a state school with nearly the same apptitude as me and while he isn't premed he is an electrical engineer and he has about a .6 jump on my GPA)</p>