William and Mary Premed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z College of William and Mary
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Hello! I was just accepted into William and Mary but I have a few questions/concerns. I am planning to go on a premed track and intending on taking all the premed prerequisites, so I have the following questions:

  1. If anyone has gone to or graduated from W&M, are the science classes “weed outs” or more difficult than other universities, say like Virginia Tech or UVA?

  2. William and Mary is classified as a “liberal arts school”. Does that make their science classes any easier? (I know the two are not directly corelated, but I am curious)

  3. I have heard that W&M is quite academically rigorous, but what specifically makes it more difficult in comparison to other schools?

  4. Is there grade deflation/inflation? (I’ve heard mixed things about this)

  5. Should I email W&M’s premed advisor about courses or general questions or would that come off as over eager and I should just wait until fall?
    *I have done adequate research into W&M’s premed track but these are some questions that I feel I am still lacking clarity on.

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I wasn’t pre-med, but had five classmates from my freshman hall floor alone become doctors, so this is based on what I saw from their experiences.

  1. William & Mary is rigorous, but that is different from weed out. They are trying to provide you with a solid science foundation, which will also be useful in medical school and on the MCAT.

  2. Liberal arts actually includes the natural sciences and mathematics. So it is no different from those subjects at UVA or VT. Biology, chemistry, and physics at UVA, for instance, are in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. The science classes will not be easier. Pre-med will be challenging no matter where you go to school due to the nature of the coursework.

  3. William & Mary will require you to do research, analysis and synthesis, and write and present coherently and persuasively. A large majority of science majors will do independent, professor-guided research, which will be useful for medical school admissions.

  4. W&M does not have grade deflation. Almost no colleges do. It you look at the website gradeinflation.com, you will see that W&M actually has a relatively high average GPA for a public university and like almost all schools it has actually had grade inflation.

  5. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t e-mail the pre-med advisor.

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