<p>Cornell claims 85% of pre-meds get into good med schools. I've also heard that although 1000 students start off pre-med, only a few leave that way. A number I got was about 60 last year had 3.8+ GPA's by the time they were applying for med school.</p>
<p>So why do so many pre-meds drop out? Do they just realize they don't want to head down that career path? or is it because of the difficulty of programs here?
If its the second, then what exactly is it that makes it so hard? Weed-out courses? Tough courses all around? Nasty MCATS?</p>
<p>And do any pre-meds or friends-with-pre-meds here have advice on how to stay on the track? Suggested courses to take & stay away from? Using AP credit vs retaking classes? etc.?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The attrition rate is high for premed at any school. The reason? Far too few people understand how difficult medicine is. They see the prestige, the glamour, and the money but they fail to see how difficult medical school admissions have become. Acceptance to even mediocore med schools is difficult. Out of the top 50 med schools, only 1 has an acceptance rate higher than 15%. If the weeding out process wasn't so harsh, the acceptance rates are even lower.</p>
<p>Medical school is extremely rigorous. Medicine is a profession that bestows upon you enormous responsibility. Frankly, I don't think the weeding out process is harsh enough because I still see too many subpar applicants coming out of Cornell. The good news is that if you are smart enough to get into med school, you are smart enough to graduate. The drop out rate of medical school is extremely low (around 4%).</p>
<p>This doesn't happen just at Cornell. Some of the pre-med classes are difficult and many kids decide, once on pre-med track, that it isn't for them after all. It happens with all majors. I don't have statistics to compare pre-med drop outs vs. drop out of other majors, but I understand that a good number of kids drop out of engineering as well (at all schools). Once in school kids get exposed to many areas of study that weren't on their radar before and these may turn out to be of greater interest than their original major (whether pre-med or otherwise). </p>
<p>I think you are wise to get info on whether it is better to use AP credits or retake the classes. For some things, and perhaps premed classes, it might be important to retake in college. Would probably help your GPA as well.</p>
<p>And if you think it's bad now, check out these numbers from 1993:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.career.cornell.edu/downloads/Health/accapp93.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.career.cornell.edu/downloads/Health/accapp93.pdf</a></p>
<p>3 out of 295 Cornell med school applicants had GPA's of 3.9+. THAT is Cornell at its best hehe</p>