<p>i'm currently a freshman at emory, and i entered completely undecided about my major, and i still am undecided. however, i am considering the pre-med track, but i haven't taken any of the basic bio/chem courses that pre-med freshmen usually take. if i decide to go pre-med and take the required classes during my soph year, wouldn't i graduate at least a year later than the rest of my class? what options do i have to do pre-med and graduate with my class? because i really don't want to have to spend another year in college than i have to.</p>
<p>and this may seem like a stupid reason to not do premed, but i really despise chem (unresolved issues with high school chemistry...) and if i do decide to go pre-med, i think i might fail the course (the fact that my roommate dropped out of the chem intro class doesn't encourage me either). but i was talking to my father, and he says that chem is only a pre-req course that you take, but not the bulk of the pre-med track. is this true? if i'm horrible at chemistry, would it be unwise to pursue pre-med?</p>
<p>Pre med track is tough, you have to constantly be studying. The grades for pre-med class are also deflated. On my first Bio Test, the class average was a 80(I got a 93), the professor told us that an average of 80 was considered “too high” and he said he will make the next test so difficult that the class average will fall to a 60. He did this so that the averages on the two tests will be a 70. </p>
<p>You will probably need to double up in the sciences for 2 years, so you can take the mcat after your junior year and apply your senior year to medical school.</p>
<p>Doubling up in a science is really tough because you are constantly studying. I have to spend AT LEAST 4 hours studying a day.</p>
<p>Why are they deflating grades? Doesn’t that hurt the students more than help them? Studying for 4+ hours just to get a 70% on a test is not something that students who go to Emory is used to after 12 years of pre-college education. Also, when they apply to med school, the lower grades would be less competitive.</p>
<p>Even if the med schools take into account how hard and deflated the grades are at Emory they’re not gonna be like “okay, at Emory, 3.2 is the same as 3.7 in this X State School.”</p>
<p>^ I don’t know why, they are trying to weed out pre-meds. Around 400 kids every freshman year start off as pre-med, they can’t have all those kids applying to medical school, because medical schools won’t take all of them, so they make the classes so difficult that pre-meds drop out. The material is not hard, but me and other pre-meds think that the way the tests are designed make the classes difficult. If you study at least 4 hours a day, you should get solid Bs. Average in my chem class was a C+, average in Bio I think was also a C+. You can’t get into medical schools with C+s, (or too many Bs in the sciences). Lower grades do hinder pre-meds, so thats why we have to dominate the mcats, to show that our gpa is inconsistitent with our actual ability.</p>
<p>Is that another way of saying that you have to study 6 hours a day for 4 years straight in order to pull off enough As to balance the Bs in order to go to medical school at Emory?</p>
<p>Seriously, if that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if Emory students just transfer out to a state school in order to put more As on their transcript so that they can actually go to medical school while MAYBE even working less harder than when they studied at Emory.</p>
<p>Who has the sanity to do 4-6 hours of studying per day for 4 years straight? That’ll kill their extracurricular involvement and social life and screw them over in general and maybe even go mentally insane.</p>
<p>Now, of course, there are people who succeed in studying and having fun even under those situations, but not everyone can go past 12 AM studying without falling asleep. I’m one of them; no matter what I do to stay up after 11 PM it just doesn’t work. My brain dies after that.</p>
<p>^^ Sorry I meant 4 hours of studying for all your classes, inculding your 2 science classes. This will usually get you an (A-) to an A in your non-science classes and solid Bs in your science classes. I usually get out of class around 2, go to the library until 6 or 7, come back eat dinner and then the rest of the evening I can do whatever I want.</p>
<p>Studying 4 or more hours a day is not that uncommon for science and non-science majors alike. College is different from high school and Emory is a fairly difficult place to study (certainly not overly difficult or impossible). You have to get used to studying more than you currently are in order to do well.</p>
<p>It also depends on your science background. If you’re not that great at Chem or Bio, Emory provides weekly SI (Supplemental Instruction) sessions to familiarize you with the Bio or Chem concepts. I’ve never been to one myself but apparently the test score average for people who go to the SI sessions is higher than the test score average for people who don’t.</p>
<p>It’s not really about how much you study, but how efficiently you study. In one class this semester, I studied for hours and hours for the first test, but didn’t do all that great. Then I spoke with the professor about how to improve and made a new study plan, and I did extremely well on the next two exams, even though I studied less than I had for the first exam, because I was studying more efficiently. </p>
<p>Emory is a top school, and the science classes are very difficult, but also extremely rewarding. And a great number of the teaching science faculty members are absolutely incredible. I can tell you from personal experience and from watching a lot of my peers that it is possible to do well in pre-med classes, have extracurricular activities, and still have a life - it’s certainly not easy, but it’s possible. </p>
<p>Starting pre-med requirements sophomore year shouldn’t be a problem at all. I have a friend who did that and he is currently a senior, finishing up his requirements and preparing to apply to medical schools in the coming application cycle. I highly recommend that you speak with the advisors in the new Pre-Health Mentoring Office. They are extremely knowledgeable, and they should be able to help you plan out a schedule that will work for you.</p>
<p>^ The test scores for SI are not much higher. Take my Chem class:</p>
<p>Average gpa of kids who have NOT gone to SI: 2.7
Average gpa of kids who HAVE gone to SI: 2.9</p>
<p>That being said, with the amount of work I do, I managed around a 3.75 here with bio/chem/and 2 non-science classes. Its a lot of work and some luck. (I had AP credit for Bio from Emory but decided to forgo it in order to prepare for the mcats better.)</p>
<p>That’s nowhere enough to get into medical school, though. I’ve read that some have gotten into med school with <3.0 GPA but they’re outliersl no one’s willing to take the chance of applying to med school by deliberately getting <3.0.</p>
<p>^ I agree that is not enough to get into medical school, but thats just the average. If you really work hard and stay on top of your work, you can get grades that are higher than the average. A lot of it depends on personal preferences as well. For example, I hated Chem and really struggled in that class, but Bio which I enjoyed studying for, I did much better than the average. Its not impossible to maintain a 3.7+ gpa at Emory by doubling up in the sciences, but just be ready to study like theres no tommorrow. I am still in shock that I mainted a 3.75 while doubling up in two science classes, because I was really nervous I would do terrible at Emory.</p>