<p>
</p>
<p>Cal Berkeley has the same grading policy in several premed courses. But, don’t drink the kool-aid and put on your critical thinking hat. In such a system, the prof can easily adjust the rigor of the tests such that only a small % earn a 90+. Outside of perhaps Brown, there is almost zero chance that 50% of students in Frosh Chem will score than high. It is a conflict the DNA of the STEM profs to award that many A’s.</p>
<p>“It is a conflict the DNA of the STEM profs to award that many A’s.”
I lol’d haha</p>
<p>I think the fact that you use the word “percentage” illustrates a fundamental difference in the structure of classes between Cal and Vassar: state university classes (from what I’ve heard) are massive (100+ people), whereas we average 14 people per class. In intro bio and orgo, it’s capped at 14-15 students(in lab too), so you’re not just a number. The professor knows every single student’s name within a few weeks. And in higher level courses, for example quantum mechanics or modern algebra, you have 6-8 students in the whole class and they tend to study and do problem sets together outside out of class. Other classes, like intro chem and physics, are capped at 30, still reasonable. In all of them, I’ve never heard of a professor making it impossibly difficult. With so few students, it’d be hard to just limit it to 1-2 students getting As. If 8 of them deserve one, they’ll get As.</p>
<p>Not nearly as hard as living in the real world.</p>
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</p>
<p>Hypotheticals are meant to be tested in the science method, correct? </p>
<p>How many times has it occurred that 8 out of 12 earned an A in a a standard premed prereq course, i.e., not a specialized seminar? Heck, how many of Vassar’s standard premed courses only have 12 students?</p>
<p>And no, it’s not a public-private school thing. Dartmouth has a B/B+ average, for example, for premed prereqs. Ditto Emory. Ditto Vandy. Ditto Boston College. Ditto Berkeley. Some a little lower, some a little higher. But outside of Brown, but no college that I have found has a A- average.</p>
<p>These grading policies can be very annoying and very helpful at the same time.</p>
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</p>
<p>Wow, that’s impressive. Just curious, does that mean you have like…TONS of sections? Or just very few students wanting to take those classes? I imagine if there are multiple sections of 14 person classes, the overall effect would be similar to a larger class (ie, 10 sections of 14 kids would be similar to one section of 140). Just a guess. </p>
<p>For reference, I went to a big state school in the midwest–my smallest class was 17, largest was 600 (2 sections of 300); most intro-level classes were 150ish, most upper level classes were about 50.</p>
<p>I am not sure if it relates to original topic, but having unrelated minor has helped my D. to maintain very high GPA. It was her time to be away from her science classes, to be on a different mind set. Although her minor actually sligtly lowered her GPA, since she got 3 “A-” all in her minor, overall it has helped a lot (according to her, it was her R&R). All science classes in her major were very challenging, except for Gen. Chem which is her “easy” subject. Everybody has classes that are less challenging for them, very few lucky geniuses will have easy time being pre-med.</p>
<p>Bluebayou, I mixed up a couple of the class sizes (particular, orgo and physics) and the numbers do vary somewhat from year to year, but you can look at the sections and class sizes for yourself here:
<a href=“https://secure3.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/courses.cgi?session=201103&dept=&instr=&type=&day=&time=&submit=Submit[/url]”>https://secure3.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/courses.cgi?session=201103&dept=&instr=&type=&day=&time=&submit=Submit</a>
As you can see, different profs tend to teach the different sections so they’re not just mindlessly giving the same lecture 3 times in one day like high school teachers do.</p>
<p>Kristin, it is impressive =) One of the reasons I love Vassar so much. And no, it’s luckily not like having a big class class split into 10 sections. For one, the only class with that many sections is intro art history, but those are only 12-13 people a class and each one is taught by a specialist in a different area. Since it’s several sections taught by different professors, there is absolutely no comparison of grades between the different sections. If at a university a 200-person class’ top 10% was assigned As, it would not be the same as for us having 10 20-person classes. We wouldn’t only assign 2 As in each section. Depending on how the students do within their section, there could be anywhere from 1A to 7 or 8 depending on how smart the class is. It’s really about students showing the professor how much they’ve learning and that they deserve a good grade. I don’t know why Bluebayou is so skeptical of this…</p>
<p>
Whoever has had some direct or indirect experience with a “premed factory” school (it could be a private school or a public school) will likely think most of these kinds of schools have some mechanism (by design or just by accident) in place to make sure not many As are handed out, percentage-wise.</p>
<p>What is a “premed factory” school? If more than 30 to 40 percents (or even 50 percents) of freshmen may be interested in going the premed route, it is likely a premed school. If a school has an affiliated medical school or has a medical school nearby or in the same city, it is likely one also, IMO.</p>
<p>So maybe some of the “7 sisters” are successfully in diverting their students to other career paths – so that the atmosphere is more pleasant?</p>
<p>Most top colleges (either a flagship state school – especially its honor program part, or a private one) are a premed factory school. You will see a lot of neurotic premeds there.</p>
<p>kgb:</p>
<p>I’m skeptical bcos you haven’t provided any proof. I’m not questioning whether Vassar or any other college has a bunch of small classes covering the same topic, such as Calc 1. (Indeed, I’ve seen it first hand at Emory, a school known for a large premed population. Emory caps most Intro classes at 30 with a Professor. Thus, Calc 1 is taught starting at 9:00 and the course is repeated every hour with 30 new students.) I’m not even questioning whether half the students in one section can earn A’s. But I do question it on a college-wide basis, and the facts bear me out. Vassar only has a ~3.5 mean gpa, (lower than Brown and Yale). </p>
<p>Since we are speaking about the science curriculum, let’s follow the scientific method and look for data. Consolidate all of Vassar’s Calc I classes, or Bio 1 or Chem 1, and run the grade distributions. (Note, quantum physics is not a premed prereq.) Have you seen such data?</p>
<p>I will bet big money that it is the rare premed prereq course that has 50%+ A’s in total, when consolidated. Sure, there maybe one (or two), since Vassar has a 3.5 mean gpa school wide. But that math (3.5 gpa) indicates that plenty of B’s (or worse) are being earned. And since hume/lit Profs tend to be more generous graders everywhere else, it is hard to believe that Vassar profs would be any different. If true, then logic (and simple math) dictates that science grades would tend towards a B and not an A. Perhaps it’s only 30-40% (7/8 out of 20), but it is not 80%, and never will be. And that ~35% becomes the de facto curve for Vassar, which is similar to many other top schools, public and private, with “curve” and without curve. If it was not so, why would the numbers not vary, year after year after year. It has to be by test design, not by accident. </p>
<p>The beauty of such a system is that a Prof can tell the class that they aren’t competing with each other, just the “test.” However, the Prof can easily adjust the rigor of the test such that over time, only 7/8 out of 20 earn an A, and in the aggregate, ~35% earn an A.</p>
<p>I still have a lot of trouble believing profs would do that. None of them say you’re not competing, it’s just crystal clear that academics are virtually not at all competitive. That being said, Vassar is by no means a premed factory. Aside from JHU, I wasn’t aware any schools had anywhere near 30% of their students interested in premed. I see that as good, for the US needs a lot of doctors. But also, we’re AT MOST 15% premed, and even then that’s by a long shot. I’ve attended a general meeting for freshmen interested in premed, and ~30 kids showed up, and you can add/subtract some who didn’t show up (or those like me, who were curious but aren’t actually gonna do premed). Professors realize most(>50%) people in their “premed courses” aren’t interested in premed (aside from in intro physics and maybe calc I/II), so it’s not the biggest thing on their mind when handing out grades. If 30% of a class is premed, it’s completely possible for almost all of them to get As/A-s. As the premed advisor told us, the average GPA for a Vassar student accepted to medical school is a 3.6; idk how that compares to other schools.</p>
<p>
For introductory cellular/molecular biology or chemistry classes, I do not think this would be the case.</p>
<p>At DS’s college,
<p>I once read an article that, in one year at Harvard, there were >600 students who took the introductory biology class. The class was so huge that the school decided to divide it up into many smaller classes of different “tracks” which created another trouble for students: not all professors are of the same quality, and the grading among these classes could be quite different.</p>
<p>Hey everyone, </p>
<p>I just registered and got an account just so I could type a complete exhaustive answer to this question. I am not implying that what people have already said is inadequate but I’m just going to type a post with what I think includes everything. Currently, I’m a junior at a state school getting ready to apply. One disclaimer about this list is that I highly recommend you do not take this list as an instruction guide on how to be pre-med. Not only would it be difficult, but it would not separate you from the pack. This list is pretty much the average pre-med journey. There are plenty of passionate and talented individuals who didn’t do all these things but excelled in their own ways (or did amazing on their MCAT-more on this later) and that got them accepted into medical school. Oh also, typos, subject-verb disagreements, missing words, etc…sorry it’s late. </p>
<p>So, the Pre-Med Journey: </p>
<p>So you’re out of high school. Chances are if you’re on this forum you worked hard to get into a good college. The first important thing to keep in mind is that now the playing field is pretty much level again. It doesn’t matter if you’re at Harvard or you’re local state school. Well actually, there’s a slight prestige factor you’ll get but it’s definitely not worth the amount of work you’re likely going to have to put into the school-work. Anyways, so fall rolls around and classes start and everyone’s having partying during Welcome Week. It’s fun and as a freshman you should take part in it all for novelty’s sake. However, once classes start it’s completely different. Pre-meds have to take bio, chem, physics, and organic chem, math up to calc(as well as a coupla writing classes and a few other things depending on the med school-some require biochem). Unlike your fellow students aiming for grad school or a 9-5 job, your goal is to get an A (worth 4.0) in EVERY course. You cannot afford to get A-'s, any form of a B, and heaven forbid anything lower freshman year. This is because classes will only get harder and you better solidify you’re GPA now. Now there’s a lot of other stuff that needs to be done as a pre-med so if you want to come out of college sane you better do some of it during freshman year.</p>
<p>Tangent: </p>
<p>[Do not be tempted to start chilling late at night with friends on weekdays or joining multiple IM Sports teams. Do not be tempted by the RA’s of your hall who say you need to have fun and as a result plan “video-game” nights. You can do some of those things sparingly but if they become a routine you’re screwed (Well maybe once in a while chilling with friends on weekdays is fine and a IM sport can be a good form of exercise that I recommend if you’re not hitting the gym). Also, dating is manageable and many do it but keep in mind if you want to keep a GF/BF as it should be done (not hooking up) it’ll take a huge chunk of time. Best thing that can happen to you here is if you find someone freshman/sophomore year who you’re totally into and get a long-term relationship going that’ll be good (wish I did that) because come junior year, getting that kind of stuff initiated will be the last thing on your mind. For the most part though, being a serious pre-med can put a lot of strain on dating.] –end tangent</p>
<p>Anyways, so there a lot of things you have to do as a pre-med to qualify you as one (Keep in mind pre-med is not about checking the boxes; it’s about expressing yourself while checking the important boxes). Anyways, many of these qualifying activities come later in the game but for now a good one to start for the average pre-med is volunteering. (It doesn’t matter if you volunteered 200+ hrs. at a hospital during undergrad, it doesn’t count for admission). My best advice is to look for volunteer positions and how to sign up for them during the summer before college. If you’ve already done hospital work, try to find some kind of clinical volunteering with a little spin on it. Hospice and mentoring the disabled are good alternatives. You cannot afford to have a semester where you do nothing but classes. The volunteer shifts usually last 2-4 hours per week and even the good ones have a bit of grunt work. Make sure to get something that involves patient care and not something like a gift-shop worker or paper-work juggler. Here the key is to do the work necessary but don’t get tied up emptying linens. Try to talk to patients and gauge how comfortable you will be treating them. Some things to practice are how you interact with patients, how to be patient with them, how to comfort them (as well as their families-important too). Ex. Repeating the phrase: How are you doing today? is probably not the best thing to say. As an alternative, try “what’s new”. Basically, try to develop your people skills in a clinical setting. This is why med schools like to see clinical volunteering. This is what it is supposed to do. Anyways, make sure you at least that if you can think of nothing else to do during your first semester. Now, there are many high school students who have actually done some research as a high school. Research is also critical for getting into medical school. The only reason you should bypass volunteering is if you have research you can do. Some schools place students in research positions (paid w/ stipend-wish I had that) right in the get go. These are sweet because you get a lot of research experience out of them. I don’t know as much about research but in general, the earlier you get it, the better because you’ll get more experience to it. If you do not have research and have not done research, DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED or feel like you’re already behind. It’s actually really easy to get research at most research schools. In one of your classes you like just talk to the professor and ask him if he has anything you could possibly do or if not maybe one of his colleagues??? If not, then try going online and looking. A lot of schools post opportunities on a certain page. Try to apply for these. If not, go to your advisor. They’ll definitely point you in the right direction as to where to look for research. If you have to resort to something analogous cronyism, just do it. A trick is to mention that you wish to volunteer, not be paid. Also, the hardest part about research is not to get someone to let you in their lab. The hardest part is staying in the lab and doing work (especially if it’s a volunteer thing). Many pre-meds get stuck in the lab-rat rut where it’s been a year and all you’re doing is cleaning test-tubes. If this is the case, the research isn’t worth it. Try to be dedicated as a volunteer and chances are they’ll place you in a position of higher responsibility (with possibly your own project and a chance of getting published after a while). I’ll be honest. I went begging to a lab for research, was allowed in as a volunteer and 6 weeks later I just started losing interest and I stopped doing it. Try not to do that. Another thing that can be done in addition to research and volunteering is shadowing a physician. If you’re in a network that can provide you with shadowing experience go for it! A big mistake pre-meds have is not observing a doctor and one of the biggest things medical schools look for after GPA and MCAT is the indication that you’ve explored the field of medicine. The good thing about shadowing is that it’s relatively chill and takes much less brain-power than research. Nonetheless, be an active observer and ask questions. If you develop a good relationship with the doctor, you may be able to get a letter of rec from him or her. It has to be genuine or else the letter will be bad (more on letters later). So…your baseline schedule should range from 2-3 moderate-difficult classes, research/volunteering, and shadowing would be a bonus. If you’re doing research and volunteering, try to ease the schedule a bit especially freshman year. Remember, you need A’s. Now in terms of other non-academic things that you could/should be doing… Jobs are good for what they are; sources of income. Avoid taking time-consuming grunt work jobs like working in the cafeteria, etc. Now I understand that a lot of aspiring pre-meds need to work for their income. I have infinite admiration for anyone who manages to be a legitimate pre-med on top of having a work-study. I just could not do that and I bow down to those that can manage that on top of everything else I’m talking about on here. Even if you HAVE to work to finance your own income, try to find a job that is a little more sophisticated (not for the sake of being sophisticated; but for the sake of developing people skills or gaining a valuable skill). Examples of these would be teaching a foreign language after class or maybe working as a nurse assistant. Just try to make it interesting and as a bonus try to enjoy it. Now, if you’re not on a work study and if you do not have to manage your own finances TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE of that. Do not get sucked into the tediousness of a job. Most jobs that are good to have as a pre-med are actually attained sophomore year which I’ll talk about soon. Also, leadership is important. For this, try to become a hospital volunteer coordinator, T.A. (prolli sophomore yr. at the earliest), R.A. (though watch out it’s time consuming) or something interesting like that. Try to avoid the pre-med club secretary position because that’s been done and it’s really superficial by now. Lastly, I’ll end the freshman activity part of this with clubs. Clubs (and Greek Life) are the least valuable things you can put yourself into. With that being said, if you work to do something productive like volunteer somewhere meaningful or build a robot that can compete in a national competition that’s legit…this is because that club/Greek life thing took a lot of work and dedication and chances are it taught you a couple of important things. On the other hand, joining the pizza-eating club or even more serious sounding ones like outdoors club/running club/judo club can be a bad idea just because they’re seen as activities you do not really dedicate yourself to and are more for leisure. With that being said, if you become an amazing judoka and compete state-wide or nationally, that’s a different story. Lastly, something that’s completely optional but I make mandatory for myself is exercise. It helps me focus and it’s one of those things that makes my day complete. Also if you shape your body now, just as a general thing, you’ll reap some benefits, your transcription patters will change, and you’ll be a whole lot better off. It improves your mood by providing releasing the endorphins and stuff. It also qualifies you for a random night of soccer or fun event without being the odd one out. Also, personally, it improves my self-esteem so even if I don’t have a girl-friend, at least I can fantasize about having one without my lack of abs being one of my back-to-earths (lol jk-that’s not why I work out). Anyways, BACK TO ACADEMICS…so as I said before, in addition to some extra activities, you’re gonna wanna be taking some pre-med classes (#onlyreasonpremedsattendcollege). There are two general ways people go about this and I’ll explain each starting with the one I did. You can become a biology, sub-field-of-biology, biochemistry, or even chemistry major. Most B.S. programs cover your BCPM (biology chemistry physics math-classes use to calculate science gpa). Then you just have to take some additional courses which hopefully you’ll like if it’s your major. If you’re a bio major then a lot of these courses will be classes that can be a good primer for medical school like advanced biochemistry or human physiology or neurobiology or clinical immunology. That’s great. Just don’t think that will stand out on an application because it’s what 60-70% of medical school applicants do. Anyone that thinks that is a noob pre-med. Another way to go about things academically is to do a philosophy/social science/literature major/some kind of art major. DO NOT DO THIS TO STAND OUT because though it does stand out it doesn’t matter as much as a million (hyperbole) other things. If you’re passionate about science which most are and should be as pre-meds, major in physiology or biochemistry. Also, don’t worry if they don’t have those fancy majors at your school. General biology will work just fine too. A good way to decide if you should do a bio/science major vs. something else is by asking yourself: Do I have a knack for this other thing or will I be driven to do this and will I enjoy it? If so, go ahead. If not, don’t do it. It’s not worth complicating things just to have one small (+) on your application. Also, another thing to not do is major in kinesiology, nutrition, or dietetics. No offense to these things but they’re pretty much dumbed down societal versions of the biological sciences that most people already have an intuitive understanding of. Also, these classes won’t count in your science GPA and you will be disappointed intellectually with a lot of them. With that being said, if your passion is nutrition and metabolism, I guess nutrition major wouldn’t hurt so long as you challenged yourself with some other upper level science courses. Now moving back to the non-science majors, in addition to taking bio, chem, physics, organic, math, and a writing class you’re probably going to want to take at least or two upper level science classes just to make sure you are capable of doing what you will be doing in medical school for the first two years as a living and of course to make sure you somewhat like it. Now in terms of spreading out classes, the way to spread the classes out is up to you which can be a challenge for some. The key is to make sure that if you’re a science major you only take 2 or at least no more than 3 upper level science courses along with whatever other courses you are taking. Also, telling yourself you’re going to compensate by taking 4 upper level science classes by dropping a lit class or something isn’t a good idea. There’s only so much science you can handle comfortably and you’re gonna wanna remember the science classes you did take for future reference (or the MCAT) so taking more than 3 at a time is not really advisable. With that being said, some have done it, most have suffered and some of pulled it off. For non-science majors, make sure you take biology, chemistry, and organic chemistry (WITH A YEAR OF LABS!!!) before junior year so you’re on track for the MCAT. Math can be done whenever and chances are if you’re non-science you’ve probably got a writing class in there. Then, take your 1-2 upper level science courses junior/senior yr. With these science and prerequisite classes…you’re going to want to make them your first priority as a pre-med. You should study as a pre-med at least 2-3 hours a day and more obviously when you’ve got an exam coming up. Do not get into the habit of developing what I’d like to call the [cram-adrenaline-eat-sleep-study] –[party-slack-off-do nothing] equilibrium. This is common among college students and I myself am guilty of it. This is basically where you basically chill for two weeks and then start studying for an exam a 3-4 days before it happens. This is bad because first of all it’s not healthy. You might be able to get away with it during pre-reqs like gen bio and stuff but with stuff like Biochemistry, Physiology, Genetics, etc. it might work but it might not and also it’s bad for you, you’ll gain weight, start to look older, never have time to exercise (won’t be in the mood too either). Also, you’ll start skipping your extra activities in order to study for your exams and it will be a vicious cycle. I mean, you might end of doing well in your classes but that’s pretty much all you’ll do. Instead treat getting 3 hrs. of work/studying a day as an ultimatum. Obviously, this is just ideal. We all know what happens. Just try to always have discipline. Don’t be anal about it either. If you find yourself miserable and you don’t have pressing items on the agenda for the next two days catch up on sleep and take the day off.
(oh hey, by the way, you may have noticed this but I have just made a huge organization/stylistic mistake, you see I started this whole thing trying to go sequential but then my extreme A.D.H.D. made me jump ahead and now I’m like screw it so yah, I delved into sophomore, junior, and senior academics too…oh well). Anyways, at least that takes care of academics. Now, let’s talk about your extra things starting sophomore year. Here you’d really be doing yourself a favor if you got some sort of research position set up for yourself. According the MSAR 60-99% of students they accept have some sort of research (oh ya, if you’re MD/Ph.D. this rant isn’t for you). As I said before make sure you’re dedicated to it and try to get to the point where you are actually to the point where you are doing some critical thinking and analysis. If you can’t get to this point, the research you’re doing might check the research box, but it’s probably not a great experience. Also, at this point you need to start shadowing and also if you haven’t done clinical volunteering YOU MUST start now. If you did not do anything freshman year, this is your year to plunge in and catch up while you still can. (lol, I guess I am going sequentially with the exception of academics). The only common extra activities I think that come up sophomore year besides research are T.A. /L.A. jobs now that you’ve taken some classes and have impressed some teachers. Try to get one of these especially if you like teaching! They don’t mean as much as research but they give you a good experience especially if you do a bit of teaching. I’d say they’d be equivalent to clinical volunteering with the exception that clinical volunteering is a necessity and a T.A. job is not. One big thing a T.A. job could set you up with as well is an excellent letter or recommendation because then the recommender would be your teacher and your boss so they’d know you a whole lot better. Also, tutoring for your school’s tutoring service is a nice job to pick up as well for review. You see, these jobs are not bad because they not heavy hour jobs and are built to work around student schedules. Also, the extra cash is nice and if you do have a girlfriend it would be nice to not have to use your parents money to buy her things (I’m lonely). Okay, so once you’ve done your personal variation of the aforementioned stuff and sophomore year ends the game picks up its pace. During your sophomore year summer, I highly advise that you study for your MCAT and take it 3-4 months afterwards (right before school starts or during syllabus week). This is the only time you’ll get significant time to focus on the MCAT unless you take a year off. During this summer there are a lot of things you got to watch out for. First of all, you’re 50% through undergrad and you might have a 3.8-4.0 GPA. That’s great! You just have to realize that your comfort will turn to panic in the blink of an eye if your MCAT turns out to be sub-30. Therefore, you need to buckle down this summer and focus on the MCAT. I don’t care if your friends are going to a neat study abroad trip (which is cool and a good experience nonetheless) or if a lot of kids are knocking out classes online (which are known to be easier than their fall and spring semester equivalents). Focus on the MCAT. You can allow yourself one more activity like volunteering/research but other than that focus on the MCAT. Also, try to work out and have a bit of fun on weekends too (it’s summer after all-ease up a bit, but don’t get carried away). I took a prep course but you technically don’t need one if you go on Student Doctor Network and refer to the schedule some SDN junkie called SN2’ed for backside attack made. (By junkie, I do not mean to draw out the negative connotation of the word…it’s just that it seems that the amount of time he spends on SDN is equivalent to how much time others spend working per day). All you’ll need is a couple hundred dollars for prep material (Princeton, Berkeley, Exam Krackers, Kaplan –in order of my opinion) and it would be a good idea to purchase the old MCAT exams from e-MCAT.org. Then get to work! Work slow and steady towards the goal every day. Remember, this isn’t school! You can’t get away with it by cramming the last minute. About mid-way through you’ll start missing school again. Just motivate yourself by telling yourself that you do NOT want to retake this test because then you’ll have to study once school start. Take the MCAT, hopefully do well and then move on to school and now you have to start working on obtaining LORs from professors. </p>
<p>Ok guys, there’s where I’m actually right now…Worrying about my MCAT and LORs. It’s also 6:05 AM and I started this at 4:32 AM so ya…I’m too tired think now. It’s not exhaustive like I originally promised but hopefully I’ll add to it later.</p>
<p>One thing I’d like to add quickly is the importance of the MCAT. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. A general rule of thumb is that each point on the MCAT is worth .1 of your GPA. Isn’t that INSANE!!! a difference of a question can be the difference between a 3.6 and a 3.7?!?!!? . Ya, I guess it is. Mainly this is because this is the only way medical schools can compare apples to apples. So ya, doesn’t matter if your GPA is 3.8+. If your MCAT comes out low, you’re immediately in jeopardy and you might have to undertake Mission Impossible: Studying for the MCAT amidst all the aforementioned during the school year. Also, depending on who you ask a 30+ is not a given for the average pre-med. It still takes a good amount of studying. Back to the point about MCAT, I would say in some cases it’s more important than GPA (some cases). </p>
<p>Example: </p>
<p>I’d rather have 3.6 GPA; 32 MCAT
than a 4.0 GPA, 29 MCAT. </p>
<p>but…</p>
<p>I’d rather have a 3.9 GPA and 29 MCAT
than a 3.3 GPA and 32 MCAT. </p>
<p>(Basically your MCAT is incredibly important but it doesn’t make up for a GPA lower than like 3.5…unless you get like a 3.3/3.4 and a 40 MCAT)</p>
<p>Oh and also, I typed this primarily for M.D applicants but please don’t be offended D.O’s. You guys/girls are deserve just as much as credit as M.D applicants and you graduate to be the exact equivalent of the M.D. It’s just that I’m applying M.D. so that’s why I wrote this.</p>
<p>as a current MD/PhD student with a C freshman year that was depressing to read. If college is that regimented and miserable sounding for you I hope you are able to find some happiness in med school somehow because if you think it’s tough now or that you don’t have time for video game nights in college (hell I won my frat’s all day mario kart tournament) med school is going to be a rude awakening. In fact, my second semester of 2nd year of med school I went back to my college ways of the cram-do nothing-have fun-cram and not only did my overall mood increase but my grades went up as well.</p>
<p>My real point is that we are each only one individual and so if anyone reads this, don’t think either his way or my way are the only ways to succeed.</p>
<p>The thing is that people have their own “successful” ways. What works for some, will not work for others. Find your own way and do not be frustrated with others doing their ways. These is an observation of my D. (MS2). Some people need to stay intense/focused and it works for them. Others simply cannot do it, although it is understandable that at Med. School you will have much more work than in UG (most people do, again, there are giniuses out ther, who are saying that Med. School is not hard at all, but believe me for the most, it is very hard). The same goes for UG. With exception of few, if the goal is 4.0 with the decent MCAT, it is a lot of hard work. However, it does not mean that one should not enjoy life. UG is you chance to fully enjoy everything, try new things, but do not forget your priority #1.</p>
<p>So I agree 100% with “My real point is that we are each only one individual and so if anyone reads this, don’t think either his way or my way are the only ways to succeed.” -Very true, find your own way and do not forget you own individual goals, they are not the same for all pre-meds, respect your own.</p>
<p>This thread is from 2006… It’d probably be better to start a new one.</p>