<p>I was hoping I could get some opinions of Yale's Biochem major, in terms of breadth and competition.</p>
<p>I have posted a similar thread on Yale's biology, but I believe biochemistry better suits my interests and stats.</p>
<p>I have toured at Yale before, and I believe it is one of my top choices for next fall. I was hoping to know what people think of :</p>
<p>1) Competition. Since most of the students are strong in their fields, how much harder does this require another student to work for an A? (Assuming grades are curved to a B-/B scale.) What is the average GPA?</p>
<p>2) Breadth. How intensive are introductory biology classes and higher up classes? How much reading work is required per week? Around how much time outside of the classroom would a student need to devote to their courses?</p>
<p>Feel free to add additional opinions as well!</p>
<p>FWIW, perhaps you will get a response to this thread from a current student but as an alum I will share my thoughts. By way of background, I entered Yale after spending a summer doing an NIH funded Biochemistry program and having completed AP Bio and AP Chem. I was among the 15% of Yale graduates who actually major in what they put on their application (MB&B) so I was focused from the start. I started with Freshman Orgo and took the intro Biochemistry course as a sophomore with a friend and had to petition the director of undergraduate studies in the major to do so and she very reluctantly agreed to allow us in the course since virtually all the students in that class were juniors. After we did well we heard that students in subsequent years had an easier time getting permission to do the same.</p>
<p>I did not feel a lot of competition in any of the classes but I did not take the typical “pre-med” track with my peers. My friends and I did think that our laboratory classes required as much work as many humanity classes for less credit. I skipped the introductory biology classes in favor of a graduate school level class for which I felt well prepared and got an “A” so I assume our MB&B upperclassmen were well prepared compared to Yale grad students trained elsewhere. Clearly some students feel “weeded” out by the competition in the intro classes and it is more common now for students to enter with multiple science APs so the competition may be more intense in intro biology. I have no regrets that I took the opportunity to place out of those intro courses and free up my schedule to take advantage of other mostly non-science course offerings. I don’t think anyone can tell you how much work or effort will be required for you to get an “A” and the major did and probably still does have options to get a B.A or a B.S. depending on the intensity you desire.</p>