<p>Princess’Dad, interesting to use tour guides as sentinels (which is what I assume you mean by “they ask the student tour guide about “how much money…” that the tour guide reports said and eliminates that student.”) I’m a tour guide for my school and I certainly do not act as a sentinel–I probably can’t even name >2 people on the committee. We tell the kiddos we’re taking on the tour that they can be as candid as they want on the tour because we have no say in the admissions process and want them to feel free to ask whatever questions they have (perhaps including “how much money…” but I’ve never gotten that one). </p>
<p>The other 3 schools where I interviewed said largely the same thing–be as candid as you want with us, we’re not part of the decision-making team. </p>
<p>If what you’re implying–that tour guides serve as sentinels and report back to the adcom–is indeed true, what advice do you have for applicants/interviewees to avoid getting eliminated based on something that happens during the tour? And, what advice do you have for students who interview at schools that encourage applicants to be candid with tour guides because tour guides aren’t on adcoms (ie, is this deceptive)?</p>
<p>(PS: no idea what you were referring to re curmudgeon and his D)</p>
<p>Nor do I . lol There is a missing post. I reported a spam post and commented on it. The mods removed it but left mine. Princess dad appears to have thrown a rod. ;)</p>
<p>P dad, I 'd suggest seeing somebody. You may have popped a gazebo somewhere. Whatever you think you know about me or my kid, you couldn’t be more wrong about what you posted. But I will give you a pass. We all have bad days.</p>
<p>Perhaps P Dad can elaborate since I have no idea what kinds of questions with regards to salary someone would be asking on a med school tour.</p>
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<p>Although rare for med school interview days, this is pretty much standard for residency interviews. You will be judged during the pre-interview dinners, on the tour, on the interview day lunches, etc. This isn’t surprising since the residents you are having lunch with are the ones actually working with you if you match (as opposed to your med school tour guides whom you are unlikely to ever associate with again).</p>
<p>Kristin: unlike undergrad, most med schools don’t have formal tour guides, but regular students</p>
<p>However. Great advice for school tour or job tour - never trust that what you say “off the cuff” does not get back to the decision makers.</p>
<p>Even at a major university with formal tour guides that I was associated with, the guides were told to mention kids that stood out (good or bad)</p>
<p>Nocal: definitely true for residency - they usually have a form to fill out for all.</p>
<p>Do they have to be with labs?
For example, fund. of cell bio and development isn’t offered with labs. There are no labs for the course. So does this mean that this class won’t count toward med school requirements?</p>
<p>So you’re saying that with the exception of General Biology (and it’s year long labs), I can take ANY upper level bio course, if of course the upper level bio courses come without labs? I won’t be penalized? Some med schools have on their websites the following: 1 year of biology with lab. For example, Harvard MEdical School has that and I’m sure other med schools must have the same requirement. So does this mean that, if you do not AP out of Gen Bio, then you have to take a 1 year lab component with Gen Bio? or that, FOR WHATEVER UPPER LEVEL BIO COURSE YOU TAKE, you have to have labs for the respective courses that total up to a years worth?</p>
<p>Yes. You may* be able to substitute 1 year of upper level bio class lab for the 1 year of general bio with lab. There is no avoiding the lab requirement component. You must a have a year’s worth of bio lab credits to apply to medical school.</p>
<p>Plus, some schools (JHU comes to mind, though I think they dropped their biochem lab requirement this year) do require additional upper level bio coursework WITH lab.</p>
<ul>
<li>I say may because policies regarding substitutions vary by school. You will need to contact the Admissions Office at each school you’re interested in and ask.</li>
</ul>
<p>So is it even worth taking an upper level bio class second semester of freshmen year in terms of fulfilling requirements for medical school? This upper level bio class doesn’t have a lab component and it’s a tough class. I already have a tough schedule. Is it worth taking this class?</p>
<p>My thinking was that i could this class to fulfill a semester of the upper level bio requirement, one less that i would have to worry about when taking orgo sophomore year. So i wouldn’t have to triple on sciences sophomore year because I’m going to be taking orgo and physics sophomore year.</p>
<p>If you are still planning on taking the EMT class–I’d say don’t do it. </p>
<p>If you’ve dropped that idea–it depends on how well you feel prepared to jump into upper level bio coursework. You really don’t want to damage your sGPA by taking a class you don’t have time to prep for and getting an less than optimum grade. </p>
<p>BTW, if you’re going to take your MCAT at the end of junior year like most students do, you really don’t need to be take physics AND orgo AND upper level bio coursework at the same time next year. You can postpone physics until junior year–it’s what most premeds do.</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t have 20 credits. I got it down to 17 credits…this bio class (3 credits), chem (4 credits), EMT + LAB (6 credits), and an easy elective…that’s too much you think?</p>
<p>Do you have other time committments? TAing, lab research, job, volunteer position, sorority rush, student gov office? If not, 20 credits ought to be do-able.</p>
<p>If you feel prepared for the upper level course…then go ahead. (Just be prepared for it to take more time than you had originally planned for it.)</p>
<p>And remember going from 13 credits to 20 is huge jump in the amount of time required. Academics don’t necessarily scale proportionally. (IOW, 20 credits isn’t 50% more time-consuming than 13. It’ll be more like 20 credits requires twice as much time as 13 credits.)</p>
<p>Each school has its own way of recruiting and hiring undergrad TAs. But generally, you need to be one of very tippy top students in the class when you take it, plus you will have to completed both semesters of a class first–i.e. Gen chem 1 AND 2. </p>
<p>Some schools will post open positions; others will send out invitations to apply to certain students; still others will only hired students who have worked as paid tutors at the school’s tutoring center; others only offer positions to juniors & seniors who are majors in the subject area. (Chem majors will TA chem classes.)</p>
<p>Advice and Tips to mantain a High GPA for Med school. I’m in high school atm, and am worried if I have a Low GPA as an undergraduate like a 3.0 or so then my options are slim.</p>
<p>I didn’t have time to read every page, but skimmed through several. If I am reading all of this information correctly, our DD should go to an easier college, get high grades and find a good study group for the MCAT. She is a junior in high school, top 10% in class, taking all Honors/AP/College in the School classes (classes offered by the U of MN, taught at the high school). Current list of potential schools: Creighton, U of WI-Eau Claire, College of St. Benedict (MN), Holy Cross (MA), William and Mary, University of Dayton, Valparaiso, maybe Grinell, Truman (Mo). She will play college golf, scores well enough to play DI, is fine playing DII or DIII–going to come down to who gives her the best money to go. Other suggestions for schools to consider welcome.</p>
<p>She is a “real” person. From sitting in on various sessions with pre-med advisers at the schools we have visited, she has more personality than the rest of the room combined…but that is my biased opinion :). </p>
<p>So, if this were your DD, what advice would you give as far as selecting a school. She will major, most likely, in Biology or Chemistry because those are her two favorite subjects. She has enough high school Spanish that she will most likely be able to test out of a couple years of college Spanish so she will probably add a second major in Spanish…</p>
<p>Hey, sorry for being off topic, but I spent the last two hours reading up to the 26th page and then gave up. (2006 ish).</p>
<p>Anyways, is UCLA considered a good school to be for pre med. I know that in and of itself, it’s a pre-med school, but is the grading super deflated? I know Med Schools are looking for super high GPAs. Should I go there?</p>
<p>UCLA is not grade-deflated. The mean gpa of its grads is a low 3. That being said, UCLA has a lot of premed gunners, who matriculate with plenty of AP science scores but repeat the courses for the “easy” A.</p>