Vandy Pre-Med Input from Current/Former Students

My son was accepted in Vandy ED1. He is very excited but has read a lot of boards recently where people are talking about grade deflation and Vandy may not be the best choice for pre-med due to this and the difficulty of the weed-out classes. He has great work ethics and is ready for the challenge. But, it would be great to hear from current and former students if the workload is “unreal” and truly designed to make you drop this major. His passion has always been to be a doctor and I would hate to see his dream crushed just because the school he loved has a system to weed out kids who would excel at other schools and have no problem getting into medical school.

One board I read with him recently was a current medical-school student saying he knows his friends at Vandy who dropped pre-med due to the grade deflation and weed-out classes were smarter than students around him that went to “easier” schools.

Just want to make sure we are prepared for what might come his way as he is going to attend this coming Fall.

Appreciate any honest feedback.

I don’t think it’s necessarily designed to make you drop the major but he will be challenged. A lot. Have him talk to current premed students to get a strategy for scheduling his classes. Taking one or two of the science classes over the summer can really help. (They don’t have to be taken at Vandy but do need to be pre-approved). The weed out classes are definitely difficult. There are ways to get through them though - office hours, study groups, careful scheduling. Send him with an arsenal of vitamin C and D, elderberry etc. - the stress is real and along with it usually comes some sort of virus ? On a positive note, the help is there if it is sought out. And the research opportunities, the clubs that are offered, the support of professors and other students are all amazing.

It is more likely to be weeded out at VU than your state school where he will be the smartest kid in all his classes however if you make it through VU you will have more med school options. If you come from the NE or west coast it will also help to go to VU as they have many great applicants to med school…
Plan:

  1. Start with a light easy fall semester to adjust to college academics and social freedom. Most pre-meds are weeded out before Thanksgiving and don’t have time to adjust to college. You want a high GPA fall freshman semester and time to adjust.
  2. Survive the 5 weed out classes:
    Calculus: take in high school and take AP credit so you don’t need to take at VU.
    Chemistry: take AP in high school. Do not take credit but take at VU with a goal for an A or B.

    Orgo: take during summer school
    Bio: just gotta put the hours in
    Physics: may take in summer instead of orgo
  3. Use summer school to take either orgo or physics (may take at other approved U)
  4. The rest of the classes aren’t that difficult to maintain your GPA.
  5. Play the GPA game.
  6. Take advantage of research, volunteer opportunities, and jobs at the on campus medical center.

I don’t have a kid who went to Vanderbilt, but an equally rigorous UG, went to med school and is now in Residency. I have to strongly disagree with the previous two posters who are advising to take summer classes, especially a science class. A student who is wanting to pursue med school needs to spend their summers on their medically related EC’s, whether it is volunteering at an underserved community clinic, working or volunteering at a nursing home or doing research with a REU or SPUR program being just a few suggestions. I will tag @WayOutWestMom as she can give you more and better input as to why taking stem summer classes isn’t the best idea.

My kid has the same concerns three years ago. He did fine on all the pre-med classes. He did tell us that the sophomore year was the hardest.

You may go to a easy school and get all As, but you may not learn as much as you would at Vandy to prepare yourself for the MCAT exam.

Agree with @CottonTales that summers should be used strategically on enhancing the medically related ECs.

Strongly disagree with the advice given in post #2.

Fwiw, my younger D also attended a competitive research U for undergrad (as a double major in mathematics and computation neuroscience). She’s now physican in her second year of residency.

Adcomms are suspicious of pre-meds who take summer classes, esp if they take them at a school other than than their home institution. (It looks like they’re trying to duck challenging classes or teachers at their home institution. It also looks like “protect GPA at all costs” mentality–another thing adcomms aren’t fond of. So two potential red flags right there. )

Most importantly summer classes do not cover all the same material as regular semester classes and do not cover the material in the same detail and depth. (Less instructional time over the summer means stuff gets always dropped out of the curriculum. Exactly how much varies from teacher to teacher and from year to year )

Your son especially does NOT want to take ochem in the summer. Ochem is a very challenging class for most students, one that introduces a lot of completely new concepts. (Gen chem does not really prepare one for ochem. ) Taking ochem in the summer means the student has no time to recover from one bad quiz grade or get help understanding concepts he doesn’t fully “get” the first time he hears it because the class is already off onto the next topic.

Summers are best used to earn $$ needed to support a round of med school applications (Cost ~$6-10K) and to enhance their ECs portfolio by volunteering, doing research or working in a clinical job.

1.) All pre-med programs weed student out. It part of their purpose. (In fact all science, math and engineering majors are survival of the fittest. It’s like that all that way through grad school too.)

  1. It’s wrong to assume that a kid who gets Bs at an “elite” undergrad would be an A student at a state school. At public universities, the most able students cluster in STEM majors–chiefly pre-med and engineering. There will be plenty of really, really smart kids in pre-med classes not matter where you go. (D1 had a classmate at her state U who was co-authoring papers with Kip Thorne in theoretical astrophysics as a college sophomore. Absolute truth. J was in every single one of her math, physics and chem classes for 3 years.)

Strongly agree with the advice given in post #5.

The addition of psychology, sociology, & biochem to the MCAT 5 years ago has made summer school very common in order to complete these prior to taking it. IMHO there is no issue with this and I suspect med school adcoms are too busy to review applications in that detail. (niece had no problem getting into many med schools taking orgo in the summer and enjoyed having more time to study and fewer distractions). Not a single school asked her about it during her interviews. I agree it is better to take at your home school however med school adcoms understand financial issues may prevent this or some students don’t decide to be premed until second or third year and have no the option. One nice thing at VU is the med complex on campus which makes it easier to set up research, volunteering, service, and shadowing during the school year and they are flexible with times and hours.

Just don’t take calc, chem, and bio in freshman fall semester.

Thank you all for the responses. My student is a very hard worker and this makes me feel much better about the curriculum and helping to plan out the semesters/workload.

He loved Vandy when we went to visit and was lucky to be accepted to every school he applied to and, of course, chose Vandy. I am also a big believer in things happen for a reason and if you have a true passion for something, you will find a way to make it happen!

Best of luck to all of your students/yourself and thank you again for responding.