<p>I definitely will be happy at UCLA, but I’m still weighing the options, since I DO want a shot at getting into med school and (no matter what you say UCLA IS grade deflated) a low GPA won’t do that. Let’s face it, even a person with a 40+ MCAT, but a <3.0 will have difficulty getting into med school.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t understand how people can possibly believe that the prestige of the school makes NO difference. No one who thinks it’s a factor is saying it’s going to be a huge boost and you absolutely need it or can get away with an otherwise poor application because of it, but to act like school’s cover up the name of the school and never think about it is ridiculous.</p>
<p>The best way to get a high GPA is to go to a school that makes you happy, not one you think is easy.</p>
<p>“Profs are not suppose to have questions that they did not cover, not in UG.<br>
hahahahaha - Profs can do what they want – and they do!”</p>
<p>-And why failing UGs would be a profs’ goal? It is his job to make sure to cover material on a test. Or he will be faced with few kids willing to take his class. Students talk to each other and they also fill evaluation forms. According to above, we do what we want at our jobs? Nope, sorry, wrong assumption and NOT supported by personal experinces either. I am not saying that material should be easy. And that usually insures the curve. Also, prof. migh not have time specifically mention certain material during lecture, but he will have all textbook chapters and supplemental material listed to insure that material is covered, or students will stop taking class from this prof.
There are kids with straight As and they cannot possibly know material in every single class beyond what is covered in a class and textbooks. It is just not possible.</p>
<p>However, beyond all these discussion about grading, choosing UG based on predicted GPA (which is not predictable) is not correct. If at the end 2 colleges seems to be a very good match which makes it very hard to decide, than predicting GPA at each place is the last thing to do. Kid should visit both places again, talk to current student, gather more information or research on-line. The same goes for Med. School. That is why Med. Schools have Second Look events.</p>
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<p>Nope. Most faculty exist to conduct research – even at some/many LACs. Teaching is a low priority, and often not even evaluated in tenure review.</p>
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<p>If s/he is the only organic prof in town, there is no other choice. If s/he is only one of two Gen Chem profs in town, and the other class is full, there is no choice. Students aren’t dumb. They do know who the easy/hard professors are. But they don’t always have options.</p>
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<p>Huh? (What does “we” have to do with college profs?)</p>
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<p>hahahahahahaha</p>
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<p>That’s what a curve is for. The highest grade could be 85 – clearly not knowing all the material tested, and/or having time to finish – but also an A.</p>
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<p>I’ll see your ‘personal experience’ and raise you with my personal experience. In the end, they are both just anecdotes. Just because you haven’t experienced it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I have experienced it. :)</p>
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<p>Not sure anyone suggested that it was “correct”.</p>
<p>Teaching being a low priority is the biggest concern and that was NOT true at D’s UG, while it is true at most UGs. D. shared this with her HS friends and was really pleased with situation at her school in comparison with others.<br>
Again, as my anecdotal evidence goes, I have never heard of 85% being an A (about 8 college degrees among 4 of us in our family). A is usually at least 95+%, “A-” is 90-95…, 100+% is A+ (meanningless, except for confidence boost, as “+” is stripped, but “-” results in substraction from GPA) but it might vary from class to class. I would not rely that 85% might be an A at some places. And keep in mind that college profs are just employees, they are NOT gods, they absolutely cannot do what they want, just like the rest of us.
I would still say, go to the school that fits you the best. If not sure, do more research. At the end, it might not matter if there are 2 - 3 schools that match perfectly, then use some other important criteria. If you have a cristal ball, might as well use it to predict opportunities / GPA and other important factors at every school. We did not check any ranking when choosing, but D. had very strong opinion about her personal criteria which was very different from others. There is nothing wrong in using what is personally important.
I wish everybody the best in their decision making, do not listen too much to us here, you know better what is the best for you.</p>
<p>anecdotal evidence–this term is really starting to grate on my nerves :)–not just from you Miami, but everyone here that uses it. Maybe I am the odd person out but that is EXACTLY the information I am here to learn. I want to know YOUR personal experience with XYZ school or whatever program. Every school looks good in their mailings and given that there are how many colleges across the country, I want personal experiences with those schools to help us decide which ones we want to visit. </p>
<p>One example, Bennington in VT. OMG the photos on the mailers are AMAZING. The campus looks, in the mailers, exactly like what DD wants in a college campus. Of course they all have “strong science programs”…but what does that really mean? We had never heard of this school until we got a mailer one day…where do you go from there??</p>
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<p>Seriously why? I agree that marketing stuff is not useful but some of the actual data available (such as graduation rates is). And while I think its fantastic to get specific and more objective facts from people that you can’t get elsewhere, some stranger’s biased and personal opinion of where they spent $100-250k tells you almost nothing.</p>
<p>But do a test on CC: randomly pick any school whatsoever, regardless of objective quality, and you will find people that love it. Just like for any car, or fast food restaurant, hotel or piece of clothing, you will find someone who LOVES it. How does that narrow it down for you? All that tells you is people rationalize where their money goes. And given you do not even know the people posting, or their kids, nor their reference point, you have no idea how their opinion could possibly be useful.</p>
<p>Because I can do a 2 second Google search and come up with pretty much any statistic I need. What I can’t get from that search is information on the intangibles that make or break a school for most kids. When someone posts that they don’t like a school because the dining hall is ugly, I take that with a grain of salt. If someone posts that they didn’t like a school because everyone goes home on weekends, it is important to our kids that they don’t end up at a school like that so a comment like that is very relevant to their search. Specifically if a comment would be made saying that Joe’s College has a 99% med school acceptance rate but you have 20 people here saying that they only allow 2 pre-med candidates apply (or give recommendations for the top 2) yet that isn’t published information but personal experience, that is very relevant to her search.</p>
<p>I want to know what the like or dislike about a school, specifically, even if it is that the dorm rooms are small. We can make our own conclusions from their information.</p>
<p>Brown, prestige doesn’t make a difference. Academic reputation, however, can to an extent help when a medical school is very familiar with a certain feeder university.</p>
<p>I have a couple of questions. Currently, I am a sophomore in high school who is planning on pursuing a career in forensic pathology. In regards to science, I LOVE chemistry, and I enjoy biology and physics as well. In regards to pre-med, which of the following majors should I choose to ensure a) Provides strong career opportunities if I were to get rejected from med school and b) allows a pre med student to take all the pre med courses needed for med school:
- Chemical Engineering
*Chemistry - Biomedical Engineering</p>
<p>Also, would Drexel U be a good school to puruse pre-med? Or should I try to go to a better school? IS IT TRUE THAT AN ENGINEERING MAJOR TYPICALLY HAS A LOWER GPA THAN ANOTHER MAJOR? THAT IS THE ONLY FACTOR THAT IS PREVENTING ME FROM DECIDING ON CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Lastly, no matter which of the above majors I choose, can I minor in economics? Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Engineers as a group tend to have lower GPAs. That is not to say this is a universal. There are some engineers with stellar GPAs. Whether you could be one of those is beyond the scope of message board advice.</p>
<p>Because of the extremely structured curricula that engineers follow, it may be more difficult to complete a full minor in addition to any GEs your school requires. But that will, of course, depend upon what college you attend, its policies, your strength as a student, how many AP credits you’ll have upon enrolling in college and your college’s policies toward allowing AP credit.</p>
<p>As far as job opportunities go—either engineering major will have better job opportunities than a BA/BS level chem degree. Any of your 3 proposed majors will allow you to meet current* med school requirements with only a few additional classes.</p>
<p>[* NOTE: the content of the MCAT is undergoing major revision and will have significantly different format and content beginning Jan 2015. You will need to consult with the health professions advisor at your college to see how these proposed changes will affect your course of studies.)</p>
<p>As for what makes a good pre-med school–see the stickied post at the top of this forum:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/202936-good-pre-med-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/202936-good-pre-med-schools.html</a></p>
<p>Generally speaking, any reputable college (and Drexel surely falls in that category) can be a “good pre med school.” Mostly what makes a successful pre med is the student, not the college. Choose a college where you’re most likely to be happy & successful, and one that does not require you to incur significant debt to attend.</p>
<p>@Nswamy13,
You said you “LOVE chemistry”, well so do I. That’s why it’s my major. If you “love” what you are doing, you will most likely do it very well :)</p>
<p>As for having fallback options, my program in chemistry is ACS certified. This can be a plus if you wanted to get a job in industry right after college. The extra classes required for the certification can also help you get into a great graduate program in chemistry. Good luck.</p>
<p>@bluebayou,
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<p>I’m sorry to hear that’s the case where you are. But where I am, it certainly is not. Teaching is a VERY high priority here at Maryland. This was made clear before I enrolled and has now been proven to me. This campus has many researchers who don’t lecture and many professors who ONLY teach. Honors seminars are frequently taught by adjuncts from industry and government in the D.C. area who are active experts in their fields. They are teaching these classes because they love to teach. I can only hope that Maryland is being a trendsetter on this as they were with their (now much copied) Honors College.</p>
<p>mmmcdowe,</p>
<p>drawing a distinction between “prestige” and “academic reputation” in this discussion is meaningless as I really doubt anyone would be talking about schools that are prestigious for anything other than academics in this conversation.</p>
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<p>That’s very sad, IMO. Honors students should have priority access to tenure-track faculty members, not adjuncts. Moreover, while I personally think that adjuncts play an important role in education, the academic establishment does not. (Part of this, of course, is competition from non-tenured, non-PhD teachers.) The more adjuncts, the lower the ranking. Adjuncts maybe a negative to Peer Assessment scores, but administrators love them bcos they are lower cost.</p>
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<p>LOL, nothing “sad” here. I think you misunderstand. The Honors College here is BIG. A virtual “Ivy League” college embedded within the greater university. The honors seminars are only a part of what is available. They are highly specific topics and contain detail that is frequently well beyond the scope of any general class. Here’s a sample of what’s being offered this Spring:</p>
<p>[UM</a> Testudo | Schedule Of Classes](<a href=“http://www.sis.umd.edu/bin/soc?term=201201&crs=HONR]UM”>http://www.sis.umd.edu/bin/soc?term=201201&crs=HONR)</p>
<p>It is a wonderful opportunity to study one of these topics under the guidance of someone who is actively involved in area. For example, taking a seminar on globalization taught by someone at the World Bank or IMF, or studying the “evolution of infectious disease” with someone from NIH (just a few miles away). Or maybe a class in “counterterrorism” taught by and expert in the field.</p>
<p>We certainly also have the “standard” honors courses, taught by the best faculty available. (to get our cord/citation we must take a min. number of credits from both types) But the point I’m trying to make is that all of this exist because of the commitment to teaching. Yes, teaching is alive and well in American universities.</p>
<p>nice try, umd admissions office</p>
<p>Hi I had a question regarding BACM med school grades.?
I am a junior transfer and I am doing the pre requisties for medical school, but I wanted to clarify what classes aside from the core classes will be factored into my gpa. Now i am getting mixed signals as to what counts and what does not, because many have told me that Community college courses dont count for BACM, whereas others have told me they do count towards your science gpa. I was interested in taking two science classes this summer at community college, because as a junior at berkeley i am on the unit cap and if i take summer school i would have to graduate without finishing my pre reqs. I wanted to take an anatomy course, an astronomy course, and a calc class. I was wondering will these courses get factored into my medical school gpa? How much weight will they have compared to the classes I have taken at UC berkeley? Also, astronomy many have told me it is a cop out, and it must be physics based, but i was wondering will basic astronomy count towards my gpa? Introduction to astronomy? Will that anatomy course count towards my gpa? Bear in mind I am a sociology major. Lastly, before transfering I had to take a gen bio course that was five units, will that course count towards my science gpa? even though I have to take both bio 1a and 1b at berkeley</p>
<p>All science classes count for your s-gpa, regardless of when and where you take them. So juco science courses count for the s-gpa (BCPM). Algebra-based physics is fine for premed, so Astro would count as well. (Astro is a typical gpa booster.)</p>
<p>Taking classes at a juco when you are enrolled in a major 4-year Uni gives the impression that you are looking for easier competition. OTOH, adcoms give some slack to juco transfers. But if you are a transfer, make sure that you take some upper division science courses at the 4-year Uni to demonstrate your readiness for advanced work and competition. Do not repeat Bio1 at Cal, if you have already taken a transferable Bio 1 course. Med schools will average the two grades, and anything less than a A will be suspect.</p>
<p>This discussion is pretty ridiculous.You might have a Nobel Prize winner teaching the course at elite university. Usually they are lousy teachers and often say “read the textbook and come back for questions” But they are great for telling you the "why’ instead of the “what”. Example. Linus Pauling used to teach UG biochemistry at Stanford. He was a terrible teacher = but he could tell you why he did what he did and how he added x + y.</p>
<p>At State University you will probably have a terrible researcher, but a great teacher who “teaches” what others have done.</p>
<p>Which is better. Neither. It depends on the student. Some only care about the what and could care less about the why. Others want the why. That is how you should pick your school.</p>
<p>With the exception of going into academic medicine where “Dr Pauling” might know a member on the adcom and do a “dear George…Billy is one of the best students I have ever had” letter – it makes no difference. </p>
<p>I read a letter from The Pope that a kid submitted to Stanford UG who was a family friend of the Pope. He did not get in. The adcom was not impressed.</p>
<p>Pick a major you like. If you like Engineering, you will probably get a better grade than in Chemistry if you don’t like Chemistry. Engineers have a lower GPA cause they don’t care.</p>