<p>Would it be a good idea to not take any premed prerequisites the first semester, since Wellesley has implemented this new pass/fail policy? I've called a number of medical schools, and while some said that it's okay to take prereqs first semester, most of them seemed a bit hesitant to say so, and one even flat-out said that all required courses need a letter grade to accompany it. </p>
<p>However, I'm worried that if I don't take any science courses first semester, this will sort of "throw off the balance," and I will end up having to take too many hard courses (some with labs) at once. Also, if I want to major in something like biochemistry (so many requirements!), then I can't even start fulfilling my major requirements until 2nd semester.</p>
<p>Has anyone had experience waiting until the 2nd semester to start taking math/science courses? </p>
<p>Maybe you should ask this question to W’s premed advising to see how the shadow grades will affect required premed courses.</p>
<p>@absentions </p>
<p>Looks like you have made up your mind and are going to Swellesley…:). </p>
<p>Good choice [You are glutton for punishment…
], you will be working hard but will come out with a great education.</p>
<p>Regards the shadow grading, as Txhandan suggested the best people to answer this will be the Pre Med advisor. Having said that, if you took the pre med courses in the First semester, it should not affect your chances for Med School, because Pre-Med/Med factories such as Swarthmore, MIT etc have had shadow grading for a long time and their graduates have a very high acceptance for med schools. </p>
<p>Wellesley started the shadow grading based on Swarthmore and other similar schools.</p>
<p>Also, I hear Swellesley’s students sometimes do not even decide [Your Biochem Major desire] on their majors until Junior year but still have the required courses [Pre Med Advising] for whatever professional course they want to take in the future.</p>
<p>@tamtiger, I assume you are at W for the Spring Open Campus. How is it?</p>
<p>@txhandan
Unfortunately I am not at Wellesley. I really wanted to go, but my D, is out there by herself. </p>
<p>She is already enrolled [we paid the deposit early April - hope it is the right decision, I hope she won’t come back and say, I hate Wellesley and I do not want to go there… then what do we do… ]. She is having fun. She seems to be enjoying the stay. </p>
<p>But it looks like Wellesley has swallowed her, because she is incommunicado except for a brief text session yesterday… She has not contacted us or communicated with us since yesterday morning. We will get the real scope later tonight when she flies back home.</p>
<p>Has your D decided where she is going to go? Is she at the Wellesley now? She has so many wonderful opportunities, must be a tough decision for her.</p>
<p>@tamtiger @ txhandan</p>
<p>I did actually try to call Sheila numerous times, but I reached voicemail every time. I read online that Swarthmore and MIT don’t actually withhold first semester grades to medical schools, and that they ARE sent to them. I was hoping the same would be true for Wellesley (although it does say clearly online that they don’t)/</p>
<p>Are either of your daughters planning on doing premed?</p>
<p>I am not sure what you mean by this -
. Everyone will send the grades as they are - pass/fail since no grades will be available for first semester, at least at MIT.</p>
<p>Plenty of MIT students go to med school, despite their first semester of pass/fail and also taking their required science classes in first semester (MIT does require everyone to take those). If a college adopts the policy as a requirement, the med schools won’t have much choice. OTOH, you can take an extra class later to make up the minimum requirements for sciences.</p>
<p>I read on several forums online (studentdoctor) that MIT uncovers first semester grades for med schools. Granted, these sources aren’t 100% reliable.</p>
<p>It seems like non-Texas medical schools are more okay with it than Texas medical schools. I called both BCM and UTSW, and they said that they required letter grades. I just emailed the Wellesley dean, and I’ll have to wait until he replies to me.
<a href=“http://www.tmdsas.com/medical/education_Requirements.html”>http://www.tmdsas.com/medical/education_Requirements.html</a></p>
<p>Send an email and ask how MIT applicants are dealt with (see if they come back with an answer stating they get the actal grades). MIT presentations are very clear that they refuse to provide a grade in transcript, even for scholarship recipients who need to have a certain GPA for renewal each year.</p>
<p>Baylor is part of AAMC and will behave same as most other schools that are part of national application.</p>
<p>The required letter grades is an issue if you don’t have enough grades to meet the minimum requirements for your application (1 year of everything or 2 years of something). They are accepting pass/fail for several lab classes already as part of those requirements. The link you provided is very clear - the specific requirements have to be met with letter grade. Most people take some extra classes in sciences if they are applying for medicine.</p>
<p>@absentions </p>
<p>Shiela [Pre Med Advisor] is bombarded with calls from parents and prospies [in addition to fielding calls from current students for advising] about pre med questions. It sometimes turns people off when the pre-med advisor is not enthusiastic in answering questions in this regard. This was not the case in schools like Cornell, Hamilton etc. where the pre med advisors answered questions enthusiastically [bad Wellesley Pre Med advisor, I hate you… :), I am guilty of calling her last July when we were thinking about Wellesley, and as a parent, I thought my D may want to consider medicine. She never responded, which put me off Wellesley, but I am not the one going to Wellesley, my D likes it so she is going to go there ].</p>
<p>Regarding Pre Med… in most incoming Freshman/woman class [atleast science] more than 60% are Pre Med hopefuls. The saying goes by the Junior year less than 10% or so, are still committed to Pre Med [for various reasons]. The advantage of Wellesley [LAC] is that it will give you other options that you may be good at, or that never thought about [being a doc is what most high schoolers think they want to be] and may be phenomenal in, rather than waste your talents being a doctor.</p>
<p>My D wanted to be a doc as a Fresh woman, Sophomore then she changed to languages [how does Arabic sound? - no connections to middle east… ], so I do not know what she will be at the end of 4 years of Wellesley. But I do know [I hope] that Wellesley will prepare her well and she will be a well read, hard working, thoughtful, insightful person who hopefully will succeed in life.</p>
<p>@tamtiger I thought your daughter was the same year as me?!</p>
<p>@texaspg I don’t follow. Are you saying that I must take upper level courses to fulfill those requirements if I choose to take intro courses pass/fail? But isn’t that the same as saying I can’t take prereqs pass/fail? </p>
<p>@absentions
Yes she is… when I said Fresh woman, sophomore, I meant in high school, not college…:)</p>
<p>You know what, I should actively discourage you from attending wellesley, because you will be a competition for my D for Pre - Med… 
>:) He he… [I hear that, that is how they think in Cornell… ROFL]. </p>
<p>@tamtiger Haha, oh cool! Hence why I decided to decline Cornell’s offer. I’m actually pretty set on medicine now though. My parents wanted me to be sure before starting college so I’m not lost or directionless during undergrad. I just hope the whole shadow grading thing works out! (The dean still hasn’t replied to me.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am saying you may not have a choice since you may be forced to take some of them based on the major you choose unless you are majoring in a disjointed area like Music or Art History.</p>
<p>You should also check on AP credits and whether any of your science AP credits disappear if you take the specific ones you are looking at for first semester. Texas allows AP credits for fulfilling requirements as long as your school lists them on the transcript. </p>
<p>Does Wellesley allow A- grades? They count as A for Texas but a B+ counts as a B.</p>
<p>Hi @absentions! This is going to sound creepy, but I have seen you around CC for a while 
I am really glad that you have committed to W over several other schools. You seem like a amazing, genuine and thoughtful woman with whom I could connect on a personal level (I am also a member of the class of 2018, and just committed a few days ago!) . I hope you are enjoying the rest of your senior year, and hopefully we will meet in August on campus :D</p>
<p>@absentions
There you go… here is your first friend. You were afraid about not making friends. The first one is reaching out to you, even before you entered the campus… :)</p>
<p>@fffightingdaisy Hi! Thank you so much. Your post really made me happy. I see that you also chose Wellesley over other amazing schools! I hope we can get to know each other next fall! Good luck with the last days/weeks of high school.</p>
<p>@absentions </p>
<p>I found some information about the new shadow grading policy and how it may affect pre med students. It is a 4 year trial program. See link below…</p>
<p><a href=“College in process of amending shadow grading policy: Policy intended to ease transition into college and foster exploration among first years - The Wellesley News”>http://thewellesleynews.com/2013/11/13/college-in-process-of-amending-shadow-grading-policy-policy-intended-to-ease-transition-into-college-and-foster-exploration-among-first-years/</a></p>
<p>But here is the excerpt that is most relevant to you…
…Quote… “One of the concerns raised by the new grading policy is how employers, professional schools and graduate schools will view it.
To address these concerns, Cuba and his colleagues have been working with the faculty, Medical Professional Advisory Committee and the Center for Work and Service to draft a formal explanation of the policy to these employers and schools. Additionally, Cuba confirms that the policy does not put any student at a disadvantage in applying for jobs, internships and professional schools. Students are free to share the shadow grades with anyone…” end quote.</p>
<p>BTW… did the dean or the pre med advisor respond back to you about this subject?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Here is the answer:</p>
<p>There will not be a letter grade for the first semester courses in the transcript, only Pass, Fail. See link…</p>
<p><a href=“FAQs | Wellesley College”>http://www.wellesley.edu/registrar/grading/grading_policy/shadow_grading_policy/faqs</a></p>
<p>Here is the letter that is going to be attached to the transcript instead…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/med-school-shadow_grading_letter_final.pdf”>http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/med-school-shadow_grading_letter_final.pdf</a></p>
<p>I guess the incoming or Class of 2018 will be the guinea pigs for this experiment. Absentions and others can post in 4 years and tell the prospies, if it is worth considering Wellesley, if you have Pre Med intentions…</p>
<p>Found this interesting read:</p>
<p><a href=“New grading policy unlikely to reduce emphasis on grades - The Wellesley News”>http://thewellesleynews.com/2014/05/07/new-grading-policy-unlikely-to-reduce-emphasis-on-grades/</a></p>
<p>"Additionally, for many pre-med students, grades are very important for graduate school admissions. First-year students may actively choose not to take any pre-medical requirement in their first semester as they will not have a grade to give graduate schools. As consequence, they may be more likely to triple-up on lab classes in later semesters. While students may request to have their grades released to the graduate schools, this creates an academic obstacle to recalculate their GPAs. This obstacle would likely deter students from exploring their interest in science until the second semester. Although this is not the most deterring of factors, students will be discouraged from engaging with this academic curiosity. "</p>
<p>Another view: <a href=“Shadow grading will promote academic curiosity - The Wellesley News”>http://thewellesleynews.com/2014/05/07/shadow-grading-will-promote-academic-curiosity/</a></p>