<p>To those that attend Columbia, with the Core and the emphasis on literature/philosophy/critical thinking for about 1/3 of the classes (my tour guide said the tour takes up about 1/3 of your classes)...if you are a pre-med student does Columbia prepare you well for the MCAT???
I have two cousins in Medschool now. One said that they had to study a lot for it,and without the studying would have failed his MCAT. The other said that she did little actual studying but just looked at a lot of old practice and knew most of the material from her undergrad years at her respective college.</p>
<p>To go to med school from Columbia or any other school, you need to take all the basic course requirements (chem, physics, bio, math, etc.). That's ALL you need to take; you don't need to major in the natural sciences. The MCAT tests your knowledge of the subject matter of the basic premed courses. It doesn't test graduate-level chem/bio courses. I can't see how you'd be any more prepared for the MCAT if you were at some other college.</p>
<p>Unless I'm missing something (which I might be, so someone correct me if I'm wrong), there are really only 5 courses you need to take to be pre-med, although they're all full-year courses, so I guess it's more like 10 courses (Calculus, Chem, Physics, Organic Chem, and Biology (the hardest course at Columbia, supposedly)). And the core doesn't take up that much schedule, from what I've seen so far.</p>
<p>My daughter is currently a pre-med senior at Columbia majoring outside of the sciences. It is very doable. The issue at Columbia is if you want to explore a bunch of other areas along taking with the pre-med courses and having a non-science major - the Core takes up enough of your schedule that you have less time. My D thinks that the Core has been well worth it.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that from the first semester (at all schools) students continually drop out of pre-med for a variety of reasons. When it is time to take the MCAT those left are students that are likely to do reasonably well. Columbia well prepares those that persevere. FWIW, All of her pre-med friends have taken MCAT courses before taking the test as a prep/refresher.</p>
<p>I can no longer edit my original post but I want to add that one of the OP's cousins taking a prep course and one not feeling the need is possibly more reflective of individual learning styles than the caliber of their respective undergrad pre-med experiences.</p>
<p>there are 15 pre-med required courses at columbia:</p>
<p>GChem 1 + 2
GChem Lab
Physics 1 + 2
Physics Lab
Biology 1 + 2
Biology Lab
Orgo 1 + 2
Orgo Lab
Calc 1 + 2 (or stats or any higher level calc)</p>
<p>That comes out to 46 credits. I am an engineering major and premed so almost all of these classes were covered in my requirements. </p>
<p>People tend to do well on the MCAT at columbia dont worry too much about that until a few months before you take it and yes, a prep course is worth it.</p>