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<p>I was unaware that it was the job of a college “science” class to prepare a student for a premed test.</p>
<p>Is it the lit/poli sci department’s responsibility to prepare a student for the LSAT?</p>
<p>(The lack of critical thinking skills of an college “journalist” still ceases to amaze me.)</p>
<p>I find this thread interesting because the default position of many prospective premeds (or their parents) is that the higher a school is ranked the better it will be at preparing students for the MCAT.</p>
<p>It is better because you learn the material better and are challenged to think critically at a school like Harvard more so than Podunk U. A Harvard education is much richer than a prep course but it was never meant to be a prep course.</p>
<p>IWBB stole the words right out of my mouth. If Harvard tailors it’s basic science courses as MCAT prep courses, even if my kid is fortunate enough to get admitted, I wouldn’t send him there. Harvard’s job is to encourage kids to think critically through their teaching and testing. I can’t care less about a pre-med’s assessment of the quality of Harvard’s curriculum.</p>
<p>I paid 55k per year for my kid’s education at JHU, because of the quality of their science programs. If I wanted MCAT prep, Kaplan and Princeton Review are much cheaper alternatives.</p>
<p>MCAT cannot be taken without prep. It has nothing to do with UG that you attend. Yes, you have to spend ton and ton of additional time to prep for MCAT and most do it while taking normal course load. Nobody (I do not have a single example of this and my D. is MS3) can take MCAT and receive a good score just relying on the class academics. So, Harvard has absolutely nothing to do with it. On the other note, I have no idea at all why pre-meds are paying for Harvard when most of them can go to state public for free. If one was accepted at Harvard, there is no doubt in my mind that they can find a state public that will give them either free ride or full tuition Merit. My D. did just this as well as many other pre-meds around her and especially those with MD parents who knew that paying for UG while planning to go to Med. School is completely pointless.</p>
<p>BTW, quality of science program is just fine everywhere and my D. is doing just fine in her Med. School class filled with grads from various Ivy’s, Graduate schools graduates, including MS from JHU and PhD from Harvard. She was told many times that she should just continue doing what she has been doing as it looks like it works. She also happen to just recieve a very good score for her Step 1. Nope, going to state public did not hurt a bit, in fact, she will always remember her UG years as one of her best life experience. In addition, she also noticed that many kids from “fancy” schools (her vocabulary, not mind, do not mean to offend at all, just an observation) lack in social skills and she personally was offended several times with their attitude but dismiss it as their problem, not hers. She definitely feel that she gain a lot in personal growth going to her UG and could have not had the same opportunities going to Elite UG. No regrets whatsoever, jsut very happy memories.</p>
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<p>I got one for you, but this kid is the ultimate outlier: 240/2400/36 as a Frosh in HS. (I’m guessing extremely high IQ.) College valedictorian, NCAA scholar athlete, etc.</p>
<p>MCAT = 40+, with only self-review; since he was already accepted into a top BA/MD program, he didn’t much care, but thought about trying. (Yeah, I know, hard to buy that story, but I believe it. I’ve watched this kid grow up, and he is the brightest I have ever met, by far.)</p>
<p>It is better because you learn the material better and are challenged to think critically at a school like Harvard more so than Podunk U.</p>
<p>I don’t think the comparison should sink down to Harvard vs Podunk U. That’s a bit ridiculous. </p>
<p>The discussions don’t typically include those two extremes. When people post that they think that going to a tippy top school will prepare them better for the MCAT, they’re usually comparing Tippy Top schools to another lower, but well-ranked school (not some Podunk U school that would likely be completely be unranked.) </p>
<p>People think that somehow the high ranking indicates that the school has been vetted and determined to be some kind of MCAT Prep Wonderland or some kind of free pass to med school.</p>
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<p>Guess I must be reading all the wrong threads, since I can’t ever remember reading such a post. :)</p>
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I haven’t either. I’ve been a longtime lurker that has gotten active recently. I have seen several threads where folks (including me) said that schools with great science programs prepare students well for medical schools not MCAT.
I can’t be that definitive, but yes, most folks do need to prepare for MCAT.
There are several well known measures of the quality of the science programs. However, I am positive that, how well a kid from a state school does at a medical school with kids from top schools also, is not one of them. I don’t think anyone gets confused comparing the caliber pure science programs at average state schools and HYPS. :D</p>
<p>This whole discussion shouldn’t be about where you take your college pre-med classes. Whether you take courses at Harvard, a public uni, or any other college is still not enough prep for the MCAT. You’d still need to prepare for the MCAT, whether that’s self-study or some MCAT-prep class.</p>
<p>So I think we’re all in agreement that Harvard sucks, right? :-D</p>
<p>I belive that the post #31 is correct. You need to prep. no matter where you are. It has nothing to do if Harvard sucks or not, completely irrelevant, totally differen topic. Some like to relate / discuss something strictly for entertanment, relating Harvard pre-med experience to MCAT score is pretty much for entertainment porposes. Who is attending Harvard? maybe this has more correlation to the MCAT score? I do not know, it is useless topic, MCAT score is related to the efforts preparing for the test. If not, how you exlain the 10 point difference before and after preparation?</p>
<p>Nobody (I do not have a single example of this and my D. is MS3) can take MCAT and receive a good score just relying on the class academics.</p>
<p>My son didn’t prep before the MCAT. He was threatening to have his score canceled when he took the test because he hadn’t prepared. While he didn’t have a super score, he scored high enough to get accepted to 3 MD schools.</p>
<p>he did rely on what he had learned in undergrad and high school (he had used his AP bio and AP chem credits and then moved onto the next levels). </p>
<p>The problem was that his MCAT date was the Saturday before final exams so the week before all of his engineering projects were due, including the day before, so he had spent those last few months fine-tuning his projects. I had wanted him to schedule at a different time, but I’m just mom and what do I know. :/</p>
<p>I do think that his ChemE background helped him with the thinking process needed for the exam. </p>
<p>Oh well, he’s in.</p>
<p>^Definitely, ChemE has helped. My D. did not prep. one section - Gen. Chem. She was an SI for Gen Chem prof. for 3 years, she said she knew material very well. Oh, yes, she was sitting thru the same lectures for 3 years (part of her job) and explaining material to a group that sometime was reaching 40 in the class. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with her particular UG. She spend a great amount of time preparing all other sections. She raised her score by 10 points comparing the first practice test vs real exam. She would not have enough at all if she did not prepare, not enough even for staying in her bs/md program.<br>
Your son is a great exception and you should be proud of him. He might have an easy time in Med. School. My D. has to work very hard. But she gets very good results from her hard working habits. She also realized that she is extremely busy with everything before taking MCAT. So, she started preparing much earlier than vast majority, she knew she would not have sufficient amount of time in few weeks before exam (actually few months).<br>
Everybody is very different. However, your S. is a very rare exception to the general rule.</p>
<p>I think my son learned his lesson and will always study/practice for future exams. He laments not studying because he knows he would have had a higher score. But, what’s done is done. </p>
<p>I also think that there are certain types of classes that help with the thinking process. My older son had a minor in philosophy and encouraged younger son to take some philosophy classes as well, particularly Deductive Logic…and so younger son, did. Personally, I think that EVERY student should take Deductive Logic…no matter what career is being sought.</p>
<p>^Unfortunately, most medically related academics is pure memorization, very little conceptual, which makes it so hard and for some people (like me), impossible, I would not even try. On the other hand, engineering is a complete opposite, practically all conceptual. Yes, it is much easier to pick up material that based on math formulas, trying to memorize tons and tons of drug names that are not anyhow related to any other vocabulary is very very hard. So, logic will help somewhat (maybe where Gen. Chem. is involved or Physics) but not much at all.</p>
<p>Luckily, he has a very good memory and is able to memorize large amounts of info and spit it back out.</p>
<p>My D took the Kaplan course-said it helped in learning how to take the test- if nothing else it gave her a psychological edge in that she felt prepared.One bit of advice she would have is to settle down and try to relax before starting the first section- it was her lowest score- so much of the test is learning how to tackle the questions, not what you know.</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, Could you share your sons score? My son did not prepare for the MCAT either and got a 31. His GPA is his downfall and I’m worried his MCAT isn’t high enough either.</p>