<p>Little background: I got into a discussion with a friend of mine yesterday and it got me thinking. I originally had 16.5 credits for this semester (I'm a frosh) and Calc 2 was honestly kicking my @** Don't get me wrong, I understand the concepts, and I breezed through AP Calc (AB) last year. My professor goes out of his way to make the tests difficult, and refuses to curve. He told me that roughly 10-15% of his students get A's, 10-15% get B's and the rest get C's or lower, not because he curves it that way, but simply because his exams are that difficult. I dropped this class while I was second in the class with a low B / high C (until my second midterm where I then held a D ish), while working 10-20 hours a week. For an introductory course (it is still a 100 level math) I think that's a little ridiculous considering I study 0-5 hours a week on any other class and pull off solid A / A+'s. </p>
<p>My friend went on to tell me that she lost a little bit of respect for me because I'm putting too much emphasis on the grade, and not what I'm learning. I don't know about you, but I do care about the learning experience, but it hinders me a great deal when I don't receive the grade that I want, especially if I know I'm putting a lot of effort into it. (I studied for this class more than all of my other classes combined) Being a pre-med student (and really for anything else, it does help to have a good GPA) I couldn't keep it in my schedule.</p>
<p>She then goes on to tell me that medical schools would probably care more about how you genuinely care about the learning experience. This may (and probably is) be true, but on paper, I do need a certain GPA (and a MCAT score for that matter) to get through the first screening, and really I see my frosh year as the time to build a solid GPA, not soil it and be forced to bring it up later.</p>
<p>Now in a perfect world I understand that this wouldn't happen, and that not JUST the smart people would become doctors, but also the ones that do truly care about people's health. In fact, we must lose many great doctor candidates due to this screening. Candidates who may not have the greatest school record, but would perform exceptionally in practice. I understand you probably don't want "stupid" doctors in practice, but I don't think having a 3.0 should "automatically" destroy your chances of becoming a doctor.</p>
<p>The class has already been dropped, right? The decision is already made.</p>
<p>What's your question?</p>
<p>yes class is dropped already</p>
<p>my q is more on the criteria of how med schools pick their candidates, how evaluative u think it is, if u can think of another (better) way of screening applicants, etc.</p>
<p>My opinion is to aim for a happy medium. No need to take 28 credits a semester or load up on 5 engineer courses. But, there's no need to avoid anything resembling a challenge. </p>
<p>That's what I personally did through college. I never overextended myself (12-16 credits/semester with an average of 15 credits/sem). I didn't want to take p-chem so I switched from biochem to molec. bio which enabled me to take all of the bio classes I wanted and none of the ones I didn't want. I had no problem taking tough courses as I took the 2-sem biochem sequence for biochem majors as well as a 600 level graduate biophysics course. I didn't see a need to retake calc so I took multivar calc as well as linear algebra. I never took physics in high school so I took it easy with alg-based physics at Cornell and ended up scoring 15 on the Physical Sciences section anyway. So, you can see my schedule was littered with challenging, interestin courses as well as "baby" courses.</p>
<p>ncg, when u said that you're molec. bio major allowed to take the classes u want, does that mean u picked which bio classes? like what type of classes did u take?</p>
<p>10-15% A's and 10-15% B's is pretty normal at least at my school (Penn State)</p>
<p>I don't have an issue with GPA has one of the main factors of admission. Getting A's means that you have to strive for perfection or at least close to it. Getting B's means you are making a fair share of mistakes on quizzes and exams. As a patient, would you want a doctor who is correct 95% of the time or 85% of the time. GPA is usually a reflection of your work ethic. Some people claim that they are not good test takers, but those skills are necessary to pass the boards (thats what I've heard from my friends in residency).</p>
<p>I don't see any other effective way to screen applicants. ECs can't be in the top 2 because most applicants have top notch ECs and it would encourage students to spend less time on his/her work. MCATs can't be the end all be all of everything because imagine the stress everyone would have to go through.</p>
<p>Once again someone confuses curving with scaling...<sigh>...</sigh></p>
<p>On to the topic at hand...</p>
<p>The problem you run into is that no one can anticipate exactly what type of educational experience you had. Unfortunately, GPA probably matters more...BUT that doesn't mean you can't "explain away" a course by pulling the educational experience card. Your best chance to do this is at a school which knows your school. </p>
<p>For example...I got a C in second semester organic chemistry. But I went to the state public medical school affiliated with my state public college. My university sends a lot of students to my medical school, and many more applicants. This particular organic chem teacher had been around for 30 years, and so there was a fair amount of familiarity within the admissions committee in regards to this particular prof. I explained what my options were, that i was at the class average to get my C, and that while I could have skirted the class and taken it at a different time, it didn't seem appropriate. Whether that was enough, I don't know, but I got accepted shortly after my interview. I was also able to use the setback as part of my personal statement, showing that academic setbacks couldn't deny me from my goal.</p>
<p>I meant that the only difference b/w the MCB and biochem concentrations at my school was p-chem so since I enjoyed biochem courses and not p-chem, the logical move was for me to switch to MCB.</p>
<p>But that is definitely something that varies from school to school.</p>