<p>Sam Lee,
I do agree with you on that the other med school do bear certain risk but I don’t think GPA isn’t really a major risk (although it could be).
See here, most Duke graduates that attend med school don’t even have a 3.8 GPA, the average GPA is actually 3.55. Same goes for JHU, the average GPA for the students that were accepted to med school is also 3.55. The average science GPA for Duke student is 3.38 and JHU is 3.48. This is roughly a B+ average. In other BS/MD, the minimum GPA that the accepted students must achieve to stay in their program is around 3.3-3.5 (depending on school). This is not a big difference in the minimum GPA requirement. However I do agree that some students could potentially slack off a little too much. But for the most part I believe that the students that are accepted have no trouble fulfilling the requirement. My issue with the WashU GPA requirement is that it somewhat becomes difficult for students and cause students to study a lot during their time because it definitely is difficult (but not impossible) to maintain a 3.8 GPA at such a prestigious school.</p>
<p>I also have the disagree with your statement “In WashU’s program, the requirements eliminate such risk.”
See I believe that WashU’s program does bring some risk, the risk of not being exposed enough to Medicine and clinical experience. When students have to study very hard to maintain a 3.8 GPA and a 36 MCAT just so they can be accepted to Med school, they don’t get enough experience with volunteering and research, a crucial part of Med school. This is pretty much what I have be stating. The 3.8 GPA is very difficult at WashU to obtain and requires lots of time to study. The amount of time needed for studying causes volunteering and research time to be reduced, thus experience with medicine is reduced also. So the risk with WashU’s program is that they would be accepting students who are “book smart” but have less amount of clinical and research experience.
This is the problem for some doctors that are working right now. There are some doctors that are so absorbed in their work that their communication with others, especially the patient is reduced. Nurses are trained a lot in patient communication but doctors are trained much less. A lot of the communication experience comes from volunteering experienced and when students volunteer less, their understanding of the patient and communication can be reduced also. Clinical experience is important because it allow students to be able to learn about communication with patients. Although this isn’t always the case, I believe this is a potential risk with their program, the reduction of clinical and research experience.</p>