<p>*In contrast, the UC’s do not focus as much on test scores, and I would submit that their students are not as good as test takers. Since the mcat is ~50% of the prescreen app process, schools with excellent test takers WILL do better by definition. *</p>
<p>I can see where you’re going with this but I offer this as a possible caveat…</p>
<p>Yes…the UCs weight GPA more heavily for admittance so that their schools are not only filled with mostly suburban upper-middle/upper class Asian/White kids. So, some kid from a crappy urban school with no APs offered, but has an (inflated) GPA of 4.0 can get into UCLA, Cal, UCSD, UCD and UCI. </p>
<p>But…if that kid goes the pre-med route at a tough UC, it’s very likely that the kid will not get the grades to get to the point to even take the MCAT. Such a kid will likely have changed his major sometime during those first 6 quarters (4 semesters for Cal). </p>
<p>It would seem to me that those who survive the tough weeder UC pre-med classes and have GPAs that would not be iffy or a joke to apply with are likely going to also do well on the MCAT.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t think you can make that assumption. </p>
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<p>I don’t think that assumption is correct either. Each UC campus is one-third Pell Grantee. 66% at Cal receive financial aid and since ~85% are instate, “need” is calculated at a lower COA than privates. (Sure it maybe loans, but the point is over half of the students are not full pay.)</p>
<p>There is no Committee at a UC to tell those low, unhooked gpa’s to not even apply. There are plenty of Calif kids posting on that other board with 3.0-3.3 and <30 who apply to med school, only to be rejected. If they had had the knowledge of a Comte, they would have been advised to do SMP and not waste money on applying to allo med schools. </p>
<p>btw: Cal and UCLA generally curve to a low B in the premed sciences…And don;t forget, the UCs have a lot of kids for whom English is a second language; thus, ‘low’ SAT-VR, but strong in math-science. In contrast, HYP as extremely strong in both SAT-VR and SAT-M. (VR is 33% of the mcat total.)</p>
<p>poly sci, pre med major here. not following victim to the tradition route dropout statistic.</p>
<p>PS. Princess’Dad, while you provide very lengthy and meaty information, I hope you aren’t still an adcom, if i wasn’t two/three years from applying for med school this year, i would hire 4chan to trace your IP and have you fired for unfairly admitting students to medical school.</p>
<p>what you are doing/did is wrong & unfair to students busting their butt trying to get in. People who come from poverty and basically nothing, with a lot on the line pending rejection or acceptance.</p>
<p>Wow. Princess Dad. So we have to go find some professors to schmooze with the adcom folks in order to get accepted? Yikes. My husband was afraid of that sort of thing, and me, being naive and pollyanish about equitable admission processes didn’t want to think that way. I worked at Beth Israel in Boston for many years and saw (and respected) the whole Harvard system. It never occurred to me that some of those kids got in like an elite club membership. Guess I’m the naive one and might have benefited from keeping some of those old contacts! Sad if true, for sure.</p>
<p>Methinks that you are blaming the messenger, Princessdad. Think about it: if you are a med school adcom (at Harvard, say), and you have two letters of rec, one from professor at H who you personally know (or have read his/her publications) and one from a professor/adjunct at California Podunk Desert College. Both recs say that the applicant walks on water without floaties. Who ya’ gonna believe, the H Professor, or the guy/gal that you never heard of. Sure, recs and contacts matter. Probably even moreso for Residency placements.</p>
<p>Hey guys I’m a freshmen at Cornell looking to go into medicine. My backup plan is to do pharmacy and for that reason I’m a chem major, but now I have misgivings. Do you think I should switch my major to something easier? I kind of want to do psychology or sociology…</p>
<p>^
This topic has been discussed ad nauseum. Major in anything you like to go to med school. Majoring in chem or any other science will not give you a “leg up” in med school admissions… Pursue the major you want.</p>
<p>@GA2012MOM I know that but I’m talking about backups… if i major in psychology or sociology what could I do with it if med school doesn’t work out</p>
<p>and according to this website it says chem is the hardest major which doesn’t help my gpa…</p>
<p>The prereqs for Pharm are similar to those of premed. You don’t need to be a science major for premed – heck, you don’t even need a Bachelor’s for some/many Pharm schools – and you don’t need to be a science major for pre-pharm. Major in what you like.</p>
<p>Hey everybody, I’m currently a freshman at Quinnipiac University majoring in Biology. It has only been about a month into the semester and I have taken exams in most of my classes. I recently received grades between an 80 and a 90 for my first calc, chemistry, and chem lab exams. I feel like if I don’t receive an 90+ on all of my exams it would greatly affect my GPA for the semester/year and I feel like this is not a good start for my path onto med school in 4 years. </p>
<p>I know medical school is extremely hard to get into, but I feel like if I don’t get into med school straight out of college then I would not be able to get a good job with just a bachelor’s of science in biology. Medical Schools put great weight on MCAT scores and high gpa’s, but I feel that if I am not getting an A right now in my classes on exams then it’s only going to get harder from here. </p>
<p>I am also thinking of transferring to either University of Hartford or Rivier College for my sophomore year because the tuition at Quinnipiac University is extremely high and I feel like that would put a strain on my family financially. I guess all I’m looking here for is some type of reassurance or advice at what I should do besides study harder for my exams. I know I need to step up my work and work harder to get 90+ grades, but even then if I don’t get into medical school what should I do ? In my opinion maybe I made the wrong decision to have a major in biology. Maybe I should have applied for a PA program or an PT program because then I would be able to work after 6 years. Thanks to anybody in advance that reads this post and decides to reply.</p>
<p>Ok so I’m majoring in Microbiology at Cal Poly SLO. I’m a freshman, two weeks into fall quarter. Winter quarter for the four year plan they have me take calculus 1. I already waived this course due to my passing of the AP calc AB exam. So according to my major I am done. But then I know you have to play the game with medical schools. I’m happy with just looking into Wayne state or a podiatry school or if I really ended with an awesome pre-med application maybe U of Mich. None of these places require calculus. Maybe just some statistics or computer science. So at this point can I just be done with calculus forever or would it be best to take at least one college calculus course? And if so, should I take a course in calculus 1 again or calculus 2? I go to impacted, 5-year grad average cal poly…so if I really don’t need to keep taking it, I really don’t want to keep taking it.</p>
<p>One more med school admission question. My son has got a bad case of mono (plus a sinus infection) that’s sapping his energy. He’s considering withdrawing from one of his honors classes (getting A’s in his other classes) that’s the most stressful. It will show up as a “W” on his transcript. Will he need 'evdience" that this was medically based when he eventually applies to med school? He’s a freshman and will take the class again next fall. Thanks.</p>
<p>kitty and poly
As said later, I don’t make the rules. But no matter where you are going in life, if the person hiring you gets two applicants and one has a letter from someone he/she knows and trusts and the other from Joe Blow - guess who is getting the job.</p>
<p>That is why Universities have great placement centers for alums… </p>
<p>Give me a break.</p>
<p>Yes you can get the job if your credentials are better than the others, but if they are the same - the other person will get it. Guess why it is called “the old boy’s club”</p>
<p>Some schools do not look at the Freshman year and some do. If the rest of his grades are good, I would not worry about it. If your school has a “pre-med” letter writer that puts together a package - have her/him cover it.</p>
<p>Princess Dad,
Makes sense. I’m pretty sure that wherever my son ends up attending will be well pleased they accepted him. That goes for most of the applicants, I’m sure. It’s a tough job on both sides, being the applicant and the deciding voice on who gains admission.<br>
Wishing everyone the best. One thing is for sure, I just recently worked with some new interns on skills development and I was incredibly impressed with these young guys and gals. It’s an interesting time in medicine right now and very exciting how the medical schools are meeting the new challenges.</p>
<p>CapeCodLady
The top kids are still great. Unfortunately (I think), alot of kids are now asking about jobs with the most money and least hours. I also hear the same from colleagues on the law school and bus school adcoms. While I am glad that we are trying to humanize our docs now, I am also worried about the “give me” generation.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon. Your name reflects your posts. Telling your daughter to go for a high paying profession and not what she wants to do is part of the problem.</p>
<p>Kids are even more stupid than one would imagine. They don’t realize that when they ask the student tour guide about “how much money…” that the tour guide reports said and eliminates that student.</p>