<p>Hey Corneja,
Notre Dame has FYS (First Year of Studies) which is basically a college within a college. One of the missions of FYS is to help students acclimate to the tough academic challenges at Notre Dame. They provide free tutoring, study groups, and support to help you get over those first year road bumps. They also have free stress and time management workshops which every premed should attend. </p>
<p>In addition, I can honestly say that ND is truly the ultimate student-friendly school. Whereas most top schools are centered around the graduate students, undergrads dominate at ND, and your professors will be happy to meet with you and go over troublesome material. In the beginning, your premed classes will be big (around 200 students), but this is nowhere near the size of science classes at other schools. Some classes at Berkeley have triple or quadruple that number. There will be enough TAs to go around, and there will be scheduled review sessions to go over difficult material. I personally never had trouble getting to know TAs/professors. If you put in the effort, anything is possible at Notre Dame. </p>
<p>If youâre worried about support, worry no more. Notre Dame is the most supportive academic environment I have ever experienced and is truly a place where if you are willing to make sacrifices and work hard, you can really soar. You will hear stories from your friends at other schools about âweed outâ of premed students. THis is common because the curriculum is very tough and will push you to your academic limits. But at Notre Dame there are so many support structures in place to help students achieve their goals; you really get the feeling as though the whole Notre Dame family wants you to succeed.</p>
<p>Hello, i am currently a freshman in high school. Notre Dame is my dream school and I am hoping to go there for premed because I am planning on being a surgeon of some sort later on in life. I was wondering if you have any advice for me on how to be successful later on, like what kind of things should I do throughout my high school career to maximize my chances to get into a school like Notre Dame senior year so I can move on to become a successful doctor? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Notre Dame lost half of its science majors in the class of 2012 to a twice failed attempt at aiming organic chemistry at second semester freshman. The original organic class dropped from ~400 to less than 200 this semester.There are about 50 people taking the class over the summer, but the rest of the 150 is gone. Sure itâs up to yourself to get help, and sure they provide help, but if you just look at those numbers, you just know something is wrong here. I donât know what they were thinking. My friend is a TA for orgo lab, and his section dropped from 18 students to only 6 currently.</p>
<p>It was a two year experiment, and for the class of 2013 they will be switching back to orgo sophomore year. Notre Dame has a high acceptance rate to med schools because only the best make it through the process. A lot of the ones who donât make it end up switching to business (which isnât a bad route either)</p>
<p>y8bbb6,
I actually think that dropoff rate is not that different than it was when I was premed at ND. I think that my freshman year there were like 800+ people on the premed track yet probably about 250 applied to medical school senior year. The biggest drop-off point was orgo. Premed is tough, and a lot of those people that dropped orgo would have probably dropped it as sophomores anyway. I almost feel like premed is a battle of wills to see how hard you will work to become a doctor. I wasnât a natural at orgo, but it was my priority and somehow I made it through. Others arenât as fortunate I guess. but most, in my opinion, decide itâs not worth it to them. </p>
<p>That said, I really do believe orgo belongs in the sophomore year. It requires excellent study skills to do well in orgo and ND should give students at least a year to get those skills. As far as âonly the best making it through premedâ, Iâm not sure thatâs such a bad thing if it is indeed true. I think itâs similar at most schools. Itâs also not clear that understanding organic makes you âthe bestâ. Doing well and sticking it out, though, does say a lot about your ability to handle rigorous subjects and to persevere, two things that one definitely needs to do well in med school.</p>
<p>The reason they tried starting orgo second semester freshman year is because it worked our well for the chem and biochem majors before they tried it with the premeds. And I agree with Princess, I think its good only the best make it through- you donât want someone who canât handle pressure to be your doctorâŠ</p>
<p>Hey futuresurgeon (how ambitious),
There really is no magic formula. You are so young (14 right?), that it might be too much pressure to be too focused on that end goal right now. Focus instead on doing your best in high school and building a solid foundation for success in college. Explore your interests, volunteer in community, do well academically, be a leader, etc. Iâm in med school (just finished my second year today), and it is still along road ahead for me. If you get too bogged down on a specific longterm goal, you might miss out on a lot of life along the way. If there are any accepted students reading this, perhaps you could post some ideas for futuresurgeon of what you did in high school that helped you gain acceptance to ND. </p>
<p>Just to add another plug for this: it is so important to network, network, network and it is never too early to get into this habit, no matter field you end up in. Meet as many people affiliated with the school (ND)/the medical profession as you can and stay in contact with them. I have gotten so many great opportunities with people I had met years before.</p>
<p>PrincessND, what do students who drop premed typically pursue? Do they continue for a science degree or do they switch to something like business?</p>
<p>Hi I am possibly going to Notre Dame this fall, and am not sure what to major in. I am <em>considering</em> going to med school eventually, but am not sure. I am interested in the sciences. I just donât know what to take that would be good for a pre-med track but also gives me other options?
Thanks for any help!</p>
<p>PrincessND, I will be attending ND in the fall, and I am planning to do ALPP with a major in Russian or perhaps Philosophy. I have 2 questions about freshman year. 1) Does the First Year Composition course count towards the med school English requirement? 2) I saw above that perhaps taking organic chemistry during the second semester might be a bad idea. Is there an alternate track that you would suggest?</p>
<p>Also, my Russian teacher has connections with a Russian orphanage where I have considered volunteering. Would that be a good idea for next summer, or should I aim for something more medically related?</p>
<p>Hi Claire,
Yes, FYC counts as your med school English requirement. From what I understand, orgo will be moving back to its original slot in the sophomor year, so you wonât have to worry about that. Volunteering at a Russian orphanage is a great way to spend your summer. Med schools will want to see that youâve engaged in helping others so that experience would be quite illustrative in that respect.</p>
<p>I havenât read over the whole thread, so maybe you corrected some of this already. But I did notice that you said ânot manyâ biochemistry/chemistry majors apply to medical school. I actually think about half of the biochemistry majors are going the med school route this year and a couple chem majors as well. There arenât very many of us to start with, but a good fraction of us are applying. Also, I donât know if you mentioned the physics in medicine program anywhere here, but that is another premed option.</p>
<p>Leparfait- I would definitely suggest majoring in the sciences. If you arenât sure what you want to do and think you might want to go the science route, an ALPP or SCPP degree wonât get you very far. With a biology, biochemistry degree or physics in medicine degree youâll get the same (if not better) preparation for medical school but will also have many other options. Pick whatever scientific field most interests you.</p>
<p>Are you sure about orgo? There was some info about ALPP on the CD that was included in the acceptance packet, and it gave a basic course outline which listed orgo during freshman spring semester.</p>
<p>I just checked InsideND and it still has all the sophomores taking the second semester of orgo in the fall except for the chemical engineers. However, they might be changing it for the incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>Yeah, you wonât be able to find out until they post the classes for spring 2010 anyway, which wonât be until the fall semester is well under way. But donât worry about it too much. Orgo will be rough no matter what, but youâll survive. :)</p>
<p>Your thread has been so helpful! I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me though?
Iâm a junior and Iâm pre-med. I was just accepted into ND economics. I was deciding between ND and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Iâm an Illinois resident so tuition at UIUC is one-fourth of what Iâd pay at ND and I was wondering if it was worth it.</p>
<p>I have already taken gen chem, gen bio, and orgo one and two. I went to Saint Louis University which i think would be a lot less competitive than both ND and UIUC. The stats at UIUC for med school is abt a 45% acceptance rate while at ND itâs much higher (but i think the caliber of students is much higher at ND though too).</p>
<p>Iâm just worried that if I go to ND since it is so competitive that I will not do very well even I do study a ton since ALL the kids are really smart. Does ND weed out many of its pre-med students? I know many schools like Northwestern and Cornell do that. Because in the end, i just want to go to wherever I can get a higher GPA and where I have a higher chance of getting into medical school. UIUC is still a good school but ND has the name value. What would be better for me in the long run? Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>I am really leaning towards going the pre-med track. The SCPP program sounds great for this, but so does the Biological Sciences. However, I heard med schools donât like Biology majors, since it it so common? I do like how it says, in my FYS packet, that the Biological Sciences âfacilitates studying overseas and still taking the MCATs on schedule.â I would LOVE to study abroad! So would this be my best option? Perhaps a minor in something more unique (I like environmental studies too)? (Is that possible?)</p>
I am possibly going to Notre Dame this fall, and am not sure what to major in. I am <em>considering</em> going to med school eventually, but am not sure. I am interested in the sciences. I just donât know what to take that would be good for a pre-med track but also gives me other options? 