<p>Hey, I was just wondering if any current or former premed students could comment on their experiences. Where do you go? What’s it like? What do you love? What do you hate? Grade inflation/deflation? Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Where do you go?-Cornell University
What’s it like?-intense, competitive, involves a lot of sacrifices
What do you love?-not much, perhaps, the fact it pushes me to do my best
What do you hate?-the grade grubbing, constant stress and worrying about grades, MCAT, never having time to just chill
Grade inflation/deflation?-you decide</p>
<p>Overall conclusion: Premed sucks. Hopefully, the end is worth it.</p>
<ol>
<li>UConn</li>
<li>Lots of work, not much free time if you are truely into it</li>
<li>What do I love? Errm, fun labs? Not much else</li>
<li>What do I hate? People who complain, people who complain, and people who complain. I also hate people who think they should have good grades just because they tried like in high school. Welcome to the real world. I also hate the rediculous standards for GPA</li>
<li>Inflation deflation, how bout neither. Both are stupid. </li>
</ol>
<p>Overall:I really hope in the end its worth it, hopefully I can continue to keep up with it.</p>
<p>1) Rice University
2) It’s manageable. Competitive, in the sense that you always want to stand out at the top of your class. Contrary to what many people say, you’ll still have free time, but just usually not as much as others. You’ll still have time to go out and party on the weekends.
3) I like the science classes, I guess. Learning about the subject matter moreso than the work involved in each of them…
4) I hate how you always have to worry about your grades. Learning is so quantitative based – you’re always striving to achieve the highest scores possible. Sometimes, this is bad in the sense that students are afraid to pursue or major in areas that they’re really interested in (e.g. engineering) but are more difficult to maintain that high GPA, which is ALWAYS in the mind of a premed. There are also certain sacrificies involved, such as devoting more time to your studies, spending countless hours in research labs, and doing something productive during your summer (e.g. research, shadowing) rather than just pure vacationing.
5) Here at Rice, there’s neither grade inflation or deflation. You really work for every grade you earn.</p>
<p>Overall: Yeah, premed is hard but its manageable. You’ll have to make certain compromises/sacrifices in order to maintain that ever important high GPA. But if you really have a passion to study medicine, you should be fine with it.</p>
<p>Michael Crichton, producer of the TV show ER and author of numerous novels such as Jurassic Park, was himself a former premed at Harvard, and was obviously highly successful as he got into Harvard Medical. Here is what he had to say about his premed days in his autobiography Travels.</p>
<p>“In general, I found Harvard an exciting place, where people were genuinely focused on study and learning, and with no special emphasis on grades. But to take a premed course was to step into a different world – nasty and competitive. The most critical course was organic chemistry, Chem 20, and it was widely known as a “screw your buddy” course. In lectures, if you didn’t hear what the instructor had said and asked the person next to you, he’d give you the wrong information; thus you were better off leaning over to look at his notes, but in that case he was likely to cover his notes so you couldn’t see. In the labs, if you asked the person at the next bench a question, he’d tell you the wrong answer in the hope that you would make a mistake or, even better, start a fire. We were marked down for starting fires. In my year, I had the dubious distinction of starting more lab fires than anyone else, including a spectacular ether fire that set the ceiling aflame and left large scorch marks, a stigmata of ineptitude hanging over my head for the rest of the year. I was uncomfortable with the hostile and paranoid attitude this course demanded for success. I thought that a humane profession like medicine ought to encourage other values in its candidates. But nobody was asking my opinion. I got through it as best I could.”</p>
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<p>Where do you go?
Vanderbilt
What’s it like?
Like in collegekid88’s case, it’s competitive in the sense that everyone wants to do well. Not cutthroat though. People work together and study together.
What do you love?
I love Biology. That’s why I want to get an MD, which is probably the reverse of many premeds (They want to go to med school so they major in Bio).
What do you hate?
Always worrying. Grades, extracurricular activities, my “theme”, who I’ll be able to ask for recommendations, etc., etc., etc.
Grade inflation/deflation?
I’d say it’s pretty even but maybe leaning towards deflation with the way they limit the number of As.</p>
<p>Okay, I don’t think premed is as scary as Michael Crichton makes it out to be in Sakky’s post. Premed is pretty intense and competitive, but is definitely manageable. A lot of it has to do with your work habits and how prepared you are from high school (e.g. taking challenging courses, etc.). It’s also different for each school, but I have friends who are Harvard premeds right now and they have not complained yet. Med school is definitely extremely challenging to get into, but don’t let these facts/figures scare you away from pursuing something that you want.</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>