<p>I meant overrated in terms of difficulty (although probably as a career choice as well which is why 600 premeds wisened up and switched to another major by the time they're seniors).</p>
<p>You can see that in 1993, only 3 out of 295 Cornell applicants had a GPA of 3.9 or above. That was a time when it was an accomplishment to graduate with a 3.9+ GPA as a premed at Cornell. Now, with grade inflation, the achievement has been stripped of its honor.</p>
<p>I'm always happy when there's premeds in my classes, because that means I can do better than the mean. It's true, premeds are overrated.</p>
<p>well its a chem class, not every pre med taking that class is a science major whereas every engineer is an engineer major, so of course the avg engin > avg pre med in chem/science in general.</p>
<p>if i have a 5 in calc bc do i still have to take math in school? i researched some universities and most just say "require college credit in calculus" but i don't know if i still have to take it in university</p>
<p>cynicalbliss: see if that school has a policy on using AP credit. Some schools address that on their website.</p>
<p>The premed advisors tell you to retake all of your courses if you have AP credit in bio, chem or calc. I retook them, it was boring, and I don't know if you really need to. It is only a few select top med schools don't take ap credit, but a lot of really good ones do. I heard that med schools formulate this score based on your grades in certain courses and if you haven't taken those in your college they cannot calculate that score correctly. </p>
<p>I am sure they deal with AP all of the time though, and it is not a problem.. personally I think Cornell tells you to take these courses to try to weed kids out. </p>
<p>If I were you I would take one math class, like stats.</p>
<p>Is there premed screening? Like does the science department not let you get LORs if you don't meet a GPA/MCAT cutoff. I've heard of this at some schools, don't know about Cornell</p>
<p>there are no cutoffs for applying... but just know that if you waltz into med school adcoms with a 3.0 and a 29 MCAT, your chances are pretty bad</p>
<p>Of premeds you knew at Cornell, what are the worst creds you've seen in a student (GPA, MCAT, ECs) that was accepted to a U.S. Allopathic med school?</p>
<p>I don't see how the answer to that question helps you. Someone could theoretically get into med school with a 2.7 and a 27 if they're a URM with 3 publications in Science/Nature and happens to be the godson of the Dean of Admissions. You should be playing the percentages, not aiming for rock bottom. The stats are all online: </p>
<p>You are in trouble if you have lower than a 3.4 and/or 30.</p>
<p>last question i promise- do you know, on average, how many premeds there are in a given year? obviously less and less per grade per year, but nevertheless, any published info?</p>
<p>i doubt there is published info, because premed is not official.. no one surveys how many premeds there are. Definitely the biggest drop off is between freshman year to sophomore year.</p>
<p>There are probably 600 - 800 in a given freshman year. But then the term 'premed' isn't really a strict definition. Sure, there are people who have the mentality "med school or bust" and it would be easy to label them premeds, but there are people like me -- who are only considering medical school as one of the many post-undergrad options. Am I a premed? I suppose so, but you should see that how there isn't really a point in classifying who's a premed and who's not.</p>
<p>Also, I have heard some Cornell parents talk about how being "premed" is a distinction. I know that a mom whose daughter is a premed at Cornell thinks that premeds only take classes with other premeds, and only the best biology students are allowed to be "premed". Granted, that mom is a typical insane asian mom, but still, the misconceptions about premed and medical school seem to be overwhelming, even among some college students and their parents.</p>
<p>Just wondering how much competition there is. Granted, I bet a lot aren't really interested in medicine and are just doing it to impress their parents or whatever</p>
<p>But to you current Cornellians- Someone mentioned taking Chem 208 to fulfill the General Chem medical school requirement-but in the schedule it said something about placement tests in chemistry? Do I need to take a placement test to take Chem 208? I had AP last year although a bout of senioritis detrimented my ap scores. But I do have the background</p>
<p>AP Chem will only get you the credit for Chem 207, and you need Cornell Advanced Standing Exam (CASE) to skip Chem 208. I recently emailed my college's premed adviser, and he said it's perfectly fine for premeds to test out of Chem 208. So yeah.. more cramming for me right now.</p>
<p>^^^As I said in another post, your advisor is terribly wrong. Email Judy about this as I'm sure she'll give better advice. Unless you are a chem major (which you're not, otherwise you'd be taking Chem 215-216), you should not place out of gen chem if you plan to be premed.</p>
<p>Wait, so just to clarify-if I want to take the standard premed Chemistry I just sign up for it, do not need to take the placement test?</p>
<p>you don't have to take the placement tests if you want to take the class. You only need it to skip out those classes.</p>
<p>OK thanks a lot. I'm just trying to organize the deluge of information from Cornell.</p>