<p>Does anyone have an idea of how cutthroat the competetition is for students in pre-medicine at the following schools:</p>
<p>UPenn
Georgetown
Yale
Princeton
Brown
Emory
Northwestern</p>
<p>Northwestern has the hardest organic chemistry sequence in the country, so pre-med is quite challenging in that regard ... I guess it's kind of a weed-out class.</p>
<p>at UPenn, 56% of the grades given out in arts and sciences are A's, and it's slightly lower at Brown.</p>
<p>56 sounds beautiful to me.</p>
<p>"Northwestern has the hardest organic chemistry sequence in the country."</p>
<p>On what basis? I'd like to see anyone try to justify such an unquantifiable statement.</p>
<p>I think that UPenn is simply cutthroat all around</p>
<p>how can a school be cutthroat when statistically the average student will get an A?</p>
<p>I believe the slang is Penn, I hear that they actually prefer not to be considered UPenn.</p>
<p>who cares what they prefer? their website is upenn.edu not penn.edu, so upenn is their name imho.</p>
<p>from where i'm from in the Northeast, Penn = Penn State. </p>
<p>though there is often confusion when somebody says UPenn as people assume it's the same thing as Penn State</p>
<p>Outside of Wharton, I don't get the impression that Penn is overly competitive.</p>
<p>I usually come into contact that sometimes can and can't distinguish between Penn State, and Penn. My parents went to Penn State, so when I said I wanted to attend Penn, everyone said that that's because my parents went there. And btw, no one calls it UPenn on campus or anyone who is directly associated with the school.</p>
<p>at Cornell we call it Penn as well ... though we're assuming other people at Cornell realize we mean the ivy peer</p>
<p>::On what basis? I'd like to see anyone try to justify such an unquantifiable statement.::</p>
<p>Um, only the fact that the only undergrad organic chemistry sequence accepted as graduate credit in the country is Northwestern's, and secondarily the fact that Northwestern doesn't accept organic chemistry credit from any other school, HPYS included.</p>
<p>i dont see how that makes it the hardest orgo in the country. not accepting credit from other schools usually means it's not "easier" at other schools but rather it covers a different set of topics from the other schools. Also, many schools have undergrad courses count as grad credit. It usually isn't something that is worthy enough to go in the viewbooks, though. Heck, i know of a few courses at Cornell's ILR school that count as credit for both undergrads and MS students. It sounds like Northwestern just follows a different curriculum for the course than other schools do.</p>
<p>::Also, many schools have undergrad courses count as grad credit::</p>
<p>the point is, Northwestern's ORGANIC CHEMISTRY PROGRAM (which is what we're talking about here, I believe) is the only undergrad curriculum accepted in grad schools, i.e. you don't have to retake orgo in grad school ... forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean that Northwester's program is more advanced than other schools'?</p>
<p>Just for the record, I am really enjoying this spout. You guys both raise some very valid points, but in the end, does it really matter. The top schools we are talking about are all competitve. What does it matter if one is slightly better than the other. I can bet that in Med school admissions, they don't factor in who had the hardest Organic Chem cirriculum. They look and see how you did in the school that you attended. I think you guys are arguing semantics.</p>
<p>"the only undergrad curriculum accepted in grad schools"</p>
<p>there are a bunch of things like these. Heck, even my major at a different school has this. It's typically seen whenever you see the "4+1 for undergrad and MS" or "3+2 for undergrad and grad" ... these programs just use undergrad courses to count as grad courses. As long as you have a BS, an MS can be earned in the same major in half the time.</p>
<p>::I can bet that in Med school admissions, they don't factor in who had the hardest Organic Chem cirriculum::</p>
<p>true, but a harder orgo program will leave you better prepared for the MCAT.</p>
<p>and heh, i'm not sure how to respond to gomestar since he/she doesn't seem to be reading anything i'm writing.</p>