Scared of Failing!?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>Hey everyone! Congrats to all of those who were accepted to the class of 2015. Now, I really want to go to WashU, and it has been my dream school from the minute I saw the regal entrance intro Brookings Hall (7th grade). My possible attendance to WashU has been the single most important disseminating factor in all of my highschool endeavors; however, I am worried I do not have the aptitude to successfully pursue Medicine there. I've heard people who attain 3.4 GPA's are the above average students... is that true? Furthermore, I've heard it is impossible to even think one will achieve a GPA higher than 3.5. </p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>Any insight is welcomed :) </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>I’m a current freshman BME, and if I get my projected grades, I will have a 3.87 GPA after freshman year, so it’s completely possible to do well in the gen ed courses that are usually the biggest drain on gpa. I’m fairly certain that all the schools now use the system where A-=3.7, B+=3.3, so you aren’t ruined by being on the edge of a grade. Grading gets easier when you get out of the seminars into the smaller classes for your major, so if you get through those classes relatively intact, you should be just fine. Bottom line, don’t be intimidated, just because it’s a good school doesn’t mean you can’t do well.</p>

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<p>I’d just like to echo the sentiments of UChicagoplz; I intend on going into medicine and would appreciate any input current or past Wash U students can provide on the prerequisite classes for medical school (gen chem, orgo, etc). Thanks!</p>

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<p>I lived with a couple pre-meds in a suite last year. The exam grading curve for the intro pre-med courses is rather low… I think for some gen chem exams, it’s not uncommon to see a 40% be the mean score. However, that results in a 40% being equivalent to a B+ or something like that (actual pre-meds can further clarify this). </p>

<p>as with any school like wash u, the basic pre req classes for pre-med will be large, but they do have weekly discussion sections and small labs. Upperclass courses are rather small. There is a group called PLTL (essentially genius upperclassmen small-group tutors) which is very common for pre-meds to take advantage of. There are also review sessions before exams and other resources at the learning center. There are also other upperclassmen (called RPMs) that live in the res colleges for tutoring in certain subject areas, too. At Wash U, it’s not at all a stigma to take advantage of things like this… it’s really common, even if you’re getting straight A’s. The general culture here is really collaborative and laid-back (as laid back as you can get in pre-med, lol), and I’ve never heard complaints of people saying that it’s too cutthroat. Competitive? Yeah, but only in the sense that’s it is difficult, not in the sense that everyone is grade grubbing.</p>

<p>To help boost the GPA, some pre-meds take Physics or Orgo at another college. Note, though, that this is probably really obvious to med schools, so if you’re getting like straight B- grades at Wash U and then have this random A in Orgo or Physics at a less rigorous school, I’d imagine it raises questions for the med schools you apply to. Taking a course over the summer here at Wash U (in conjunction with doing research or something) is more encouraged, and it would lighten your load up a bit during the semesters. </p>

<p>Anecdotal evidence suggests that highly ranked med schools love Wash U pre-meds, to such an extent where it seems plausible that a slightly lower GPA from here carries more weight than a slightly higher GPA from a lower ranked college. I mean, a 3.0 from Wash U compared to a 4.0 from Random State University would not be equivalent, but smaller deviations in GPA will probably not be frowned upon. Either way, going to a highly ranked med school doesn’t really mean anything other than prestige, because all doctors really do the same thing and make about the same amount of money in each specialty. Having a Wash U pre-med under your belt will probably prepare you a whole lot more for the realities of med school even if you end up with a lower than average GPA, and that’s what should matter to you in the end. </p>

<p>You really do have to dig in and always stay on task. A fair amount of pre-meds quit pre-med after freshman year, either due to grades or because they found something else they liked, but I don’t think that rate is particularly any higher here than at other similar schools. So, if you really have passion to go to med school, have done your research, know what to expect, and really dig in, you’ll be fine. If you want to go to med school because you watch House, then I think you’re in for a huge rude awakening - especially at Wash U. </p>

<p>Regarding GPA… the average ArtSci GPA at Wash U is like a 3.5 exactly. I don’t think it’s any lower (at least not substantially so) for the sciences. </p>

<p>In the end, definitely worth it to go here, of course provided that you have done your research, ask for help, etc.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the great responses DJEureaka and Vball 90. That’s great to hear the average is 3.5 exactly. All this information leads me to another question: How much do you guys study on average a night? As in what all does your guys’ “homework” entail, and in preparing for a test how much studying is required?</p>

<p>Sorry for all these questions, but I’m just terrified of the idea of me going to WashU for premed and then either 1. Not being able to pursue medicine, or 2. having to transfer to lower caliber school.</p>

<p>Thanks Again!</p>

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<p>BTW, were you accepted? I can’t tell if you are thinking about applying or if you were accepted and are trying to make the decision to attend. (if you were accepted -congrats!!)</p>

<p>I’m not pre-med, but in my ArtSci majors I end up studying like 3 hours per day? This is mostly for class readings. It might be more on some days, and less on other days. Depends on the class and the day. I also make sure NOT to study on fridays or saturdays… I might have to do school work on friday/saturday around midterms/finals or if there is group work in a class. Sundays, I’ll probably do a little more studying because I took Fri/Sat off from it. But, generally, that’s how I plan my schedule. Some people like to do basically ALL of their work on the weekends for the week ahead. That just doesn’t work for me at all for various reasons, but you need to find what method works best for you. Hopefully you have some idea of what works for you now, but that also probably depends on what type of high school you go to. </p>

<p>Also keep in mind that the type of work you will do varies by which major you have. In the B-school, for instance (especially upperclassmen), like 90% of the work seems to be group projects in case studies, which take up a lot of time over a couple-day period several times per semester. In Engineering, there’s more of a balance between group work and individual problem sets (but even in Engineering most people work on prob sets together). Art and Architecture is like all studio time and you live in those buildings, but you’re around people 24/7. Art Sci is too varied because of all the different majors. However, for pre-med, you can probably expect slightly more work than 3 hours per day, once you include the help sessions, PLTL, peer mentors, etc. That’s just my conjecture based on my friends.</p>

<p>I personally don’t think a 3 study load is too bad… given you’ll have about 3 hours per class per day on average, that amount of studying per day still allows more than enough time for other college-y stuff. I think the fact that you are worrying about things now is good because it shows you aren’t cocky and know everything, but try not to worry about failing or studying 24/7… that type of cutthroat grade-grubbing environment is just not Wash U.</p>

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<p>UChicagoplz, stop worrying. You wouldn’t have gotten in if you weren’t qualified to come here.</p>

<p>The amount of homework is strongly influenced by the classes you take. I’m taking Math 233, Physics 198, MEMS 203 (Adv. CAD), Intro to Microeconomics, and Music of the Beatles. Calc usually takes no more than 1.5 hours a week. Physics by far takes the most time; at least an hour every Tuesday and Thursday night, and usually between 3-5 hours every Sunday night. CAD (Computer-Aided Design) is very easy and takes up no time outside of class. Econ takes up maybe half an hour a week for a quiz on Blackboard, and Beatles takes an hour or two once a week. I’m a mechanical engineering major, by the way.</p>

<p>I don’t study much and I do fine. I have a solid A in calculus even though I’ve only “studied” on two separate occasions–the night before each of the two exams–and that was for less than an hour each time.</p>

<p>You’ll be the same sort of student here that you were in high school. I rarely studied in high school and obviously did pretty well…same applies at Wash U. If you studied countless hours in high school, you’ll probably do that here, too.</p>

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<p>Pre-med classes generally have averages between 60-65% for tests, and they’re usually curved to B-'s for bio and B’s for chem. For premed classes in the beginning it might be generally harder to achieve a higher GPA, but it is definitely not impossible to achieve a 3.5 GPA or higher. In fact, I’m pretty sure at least 1/3 of current premeds in the freshman year have at least a 3.5, since slightly less than 1/3 of the students in the bio and chem classes seem to be able to get A-'s or above on tests.</p>

<p>How much study you do really depends on your studying style and how many credits you are taking. For me personally, I am on 20 credits (21 is max) this semester, which includes bio, chem, physics 198, an anthro course and seminar, and independent research lab (~around 12-14 hrs/wk). I have a pretty heavy science workload, and I study anywhere between 1-5hrs on weekdays and 2-8hrs on weekends. As you can see, it is a huge fluctuation, and it really depends on when I have tests or labs, etc, but I don’t find it too stressful.</p>

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<p>you also have to realize students from washu who have lower GPAs still get into good med schools. The fact you’re at washu already looks really good for med schools, so you shouldn’t worry too much about GPA, as long as you feel like you have a solid understanding of what you learned, because it will impact your later years</p>

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<p>My D is a senior double major in an area of science and a language and took the premed prereqs. She has a 3.8 gpa but has worked very hard for it. She came from a very mediocre public high school and really had to buckle down and study to do well. She studies many more hours than what is listed by other posters. She did PLTL, JIP and SIP programs for chem and orgo, and used tutors when needed. She has been accepted to medical school and will start in the fall!</p>

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<p>Well these responses are comforting.</p>

<p>and yes vball90 i did get accepted :D</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wustl-2014/882472-washu-premeds-questions-answers.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wustl-2014/882472-washu-premeds-questions-answers.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>thats a great thread for many of your questions. </p>

<p>also, you might want to check out [Wash</a> U’s pre-med mortality rate](<a href=“http://www.studlife.com/archives/Scene/2005/04/18/WashUspremedmortalityrate/]Wash”>Wash U’s pre-med mortality rate - Student Life Archives)</p>

<p>it’s a little old, but it’s very accurate (from out own paper). being a second year student after frosh chem and bio 1+2, i can tell you it’s really hard and stressfull at times. not easy and MANY drop just after chem 1…which sucks bc you have to take that before bio1</p>