<p>PITT is one of my top choices and just recently got my acceptance letter. Im thinking about doing pre med.</p>
<p>Exactly how competitive are the pre-med classes at Pitt? Is there a lot of grade deflation? Since Pitt has a great Medical school I assume that the program would be extremely competitive. </p>
<p>Also if it helps: I plan on majoring in Finance or Management while completing the pre-med classes.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Bumppp?</p>
<p>In summary im just asking how competitive the pre-med program is. I know that every college has weedout courses but how difficult would it be compared to other colleges that are ranked the same. For example, Clemson or University of Maryland College Park</p>
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<p>The classes at Pitt are generally not competitive in my experience. Pre-med courses cover: Bio, Chem, OChem, Physics, Calc. All of these are basic (freshman/sophomore) level classes, so the classes themselves can be big (300+ students) depending on the section. In terms of grade deflation- I only took honors courses so I don’t know a lot about it, but because many students take these courses, not just pre-med students, I don’t think there is a lot of deflation.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. In my experience, the “pre-med courses” which I was in were filled with loads of nice students. Lots of group study sessions, homework groups, friends helping each other with homework and labs, etc. It’s a very collaborative environment at Pitt, which is different from other schools like Johns Hopkins or WashU</p>
<p>Competitiveness of classes from a standpoint of students not helping each other or not collaborating…such cut-throatness isn’t typically part of Pitt’s culture. You do find such a culture more prevalent at other some other schools, which in my opinion, speaks poorly to them. Med school pre-requisites can be challenging based on your background and aptitude, but no more so than most other places. Such pre-req classes are pretty standard fair across the board, although, IMO, Pitt has better offering of non-standard classes than many schools…such as courses offered through its Neuroscience program or History of Philosophy and Science program. I’m not familiar with grade deflation, or curving down, being any sort of regular occurrence at Pitt. The big advantage at Pitt over some other places is the ease of access to, quantity, and quality of extracurricular activities that are necessary for a competitive med school application: things like medical center volunteering, physician shadowing, and research projects.</p>
<p>I’ve stated this before, and it sounds blunt, but outside difficulties adjusting to the medium sized university or the urban setting, with all the resources available at Pitt, if an individual can’t make themselves into a competitive medical school applicant there, then they probably should carefully reevaluate medicine as a career track.</p>
<p>Thanks guys those responses were very helpful. The reason I asked this is that some colleges deflate their classes to a point where it is nearly impossible to have a competitive GPA for med school. However, this is usually prevalent at top 20 schools. </p>