<p>Wrong. MIT grades you pass/no-grade-recorded in the first semester. However, in the second semester, MIT grades you ABC/no-grade-recorded. </p>
<p><a href=“Advising resources | MIT Registrar”>Advising resources | MIT Registrar;
<p>In any case, I don’t see why that is relevant. We’re not just talking about freshman classes here. We’re talking about overall science classes.</p>
<p>Well, MIT does have pass not pass for the first semester, if i remember reading correctly. The previously had it for the first full year, but in some recent time, it has changed to just the first semester.</p>
<p>And even the whole MIT pass/no-record policy might not be everything it’s vaunted to be, when you’re talking about med-school admissions.</p>
<p>“Please note, that grades for courses taken under pass/no record during freshman year are important to a few medical schools. Although not common among the majority of medical schools, Johns Hopkins University does request to see your freshman hidden grades. To release pass/no record grades contact each individual academic department and have your released grades sent to the MIT Careers Office (12-170). Your released freshman grades (not your official transcript) will be sent with your recommendation letter packet to the schools you apply to. Please submit the Hidden Grades Form to the Careers Office to indicate which grades you want to be sent to schools.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/medadmissions.html[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/medadmissions.html</a></p>
<p>Which I think is complete bullshi*. So basically, medical schools can compel MIT students to reveal their hidden grades. Then what’s the point of even having a hidden grade policy? Either the grades are hidden, or they’re not. If they truly are hidden, then they should not ever be seen by anybody outside of MIT, ever. MIT should send a tersely worded letter to those medical schools saying they will, under no circumstances, release those hidden grades. If they aren’t truly hidden, then MIT should stop pretending that they are.</p>
<p>Sakky, so what about Northwestern? Is it known for grade inflation or grade deflation, and do pre-meds there fare like Berkeley/MIT or Harvard/Duke/etc. Thank you.</p>
<p>Yep, NW is grade-inflated.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/northwestern.html[/url]”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/northwestern.html</a></p>
<p>Sakky UC Medical Schools do not favor California Students. UCSF on their website even says being a California Resident has no effect on your admission.</p>
<p>major bumsville</p>
<p>What does that even mean?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh really? Is that so? So what’s this I see here?</p>
<p>"Does UCSF School of Medicine give preference to California residents?</p>
<p>Yes. The Committee on Admissions gives preference to California residents, who make up about 80 percent of the entering class annually."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.medschool.ucsf.edu/admissions/apply/gettingstarted.aspx#started_ca_pref[/url]”>http://www.medschool.ucsf.edu/admissions/apply/gettingstarted.aspx#started_ca_pref</a></p>
<p>Hmm, i thought UCLA had the same policy as what sakky showed above for UCSF, but here’s what they say:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/prospective/admissions/?pgID=3[/url]”>http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/prospective/admissions/?pgID=3</a></p>
<p><em>shrug</em> Is there any record of this not being the case?</p>
<p>UCI
</p>
<p><a href=“The Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences – UCI Health Affairs”>The Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences – UCI Health Affairs;
<p>I couldn’t find anything about Davis for either their meidcal ofr veterinary school. Here’s what UCSD has to say:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://meded.ucsd.edu/Catalog/curriculum/application.html[/url]”>http://meded.ucsd.edu/Catalog/curriculum/application.html</a></p>
<p>Hi, I am about to enter college this fall and I heard that you can drop a class by a certain deadline and that even if you miss the deadline you can “cancel” the class and the report card would show “incomplete” or “cancelled” or something like that. Would that be a good idea to do it if I were failing in that class and affect my GPA? I mean I guess I can always retake the class but I am not sure if the medical adcoms would find that to be horrifying. Between getting a C in a class and “failing” or canceling a class to re-take it next semester, which one would you say is a better choice?
Thx guys, I just think this thread is really awesome.</p>
<p>does anyone know anybody that went to the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS) military medical school?? If so, how hard is it to get in? I heard its a great school w/no medical school expenses but around 7 yrs of service, which is not bad.</p>
<p>High schooler extremely interested in medicine as a career. Could any of you plz give me some basic pre-med info (courses to take, good pre-med schools, what’s on the MCAT, etc). Thanks!</p>
<p>As a pre-med, you can major in any area that you are interested in; it does not have to be science related. You will have to take the pre-med courses. They are as follows:
A year of Freshman Chemistry along with the appropriate laboratory courses
A year of Organic Chemistry along with laboratory courses
A year of Biology along with laboratory courses
A year of Physics along with laboratory courses
A year of English
A year of Calculus or other advanced math classes, including Statistics
Some medical schools might have additional requirements (ie. courses in the Behavioural Sciences) so you would have to look at their website to find out. </p>
<p>For more information about pre-med, the MCATs, etc., I’d recommend this website: <a href=“http://www.bestpremed.com/index.htm[/url]”>http://www.bestpremed.com/index.htm</a></p>
<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone experienced (PSedrishMD, Sakky, etc.) can answer this for me. I’m going to be a sophomore at Penn, and my first year did not go really well, even though I truly did work very hard (perhaps not efficiently enough though). I spent this first year in the bioengineering program, where I took Intro Chem, Intro Phys, Calculus, Bioengineering, and Writing, and got an overall GPA of 3.41. Needless to say, it was quite competetive, and I’ve now switched to a Bio major. But, my 1st year grades were as follows:</p>
<p>Intro Chem: B/B
Intro Chem Lab: B+/A
Intro Phys: B+/B-
Calc: A-/A
Bioengineering (1st sem only): A-
Writing (2nd sem only): A</p>
<p>I would also like to add that the Intro Chem and Phys courses I took were “engineering sections,” with more emphasis on computation, so they were slightly more difficult than usual, but still with a strict curve. However, I’m not sure that this will even be noticeable or make any difference.</p>
<p>My first question is, if I do really well on all subsequent courses (A/A-) and do really well on the MCAT, will I still have any shot at a top 20 medical school (or a med school at all for that matter)? This is assuming that I stay active in lots of research, volunteering, etc. Basically what I’m asking is, can a few mediocre grades first year (like a B- in Intro Phys II) seriously hinder you if you perform tremendously well henceforth and still end up a with pretty high (3.7+) science GPA and overall GPA? Is there more emphasis on overall science GPA, or do they more likely carefully scrutinize course by course (particularly the pre-med requirements)?</p>
<p>My second question is, can an engineering course like Introduction to Bioengineering count as a science course for your AMCAS science GPA?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot in advance. Cheers</p>
<p>Your first year didn’t go well? It seems to me that it went OK. Sure, it could have been better, but it’s not bad. You want to talk about bad? I know a guy who, after his first semester, had a GPA of 0.5. That’s right - a 0.5. He got 2 D’s and 2 F’s, hence 0.5. Your GPA is literally almost 7 times better than his was. Think about that. </p>
<p>If you do well on your subsequent coursework and do well on your MCAT and get some medical-related EC work under your belt, you will be competitive for a top med-school. </p>
<p>The most emphasis is placed on your premed grades, followed by your overall science grades, followed by your overall total grades. </p>
<p>And yes, engineering courses are counted as science courses.</p>
<p>Cool, thanks for your reply</p>
<p>Hey I don’t know if anyone mentioned this yet but I have seen this a lot with my class and figured with the new incoming freshmen making the same mistakes I’d point this out.</p>
<p>Don’t take harder courses than you need to as a pre-med (unless you absolutely, positively can handle them but chances of that are few and far between). There were many bio pre-meds in my accelerated chemistry course. They thought it would look good on med apps or wanted the challenge.</p>
<p>This isn’t high school, like taking honors or AP. These are honors college courses and will proceed to chew through your soul. This is fine if it is your major (like I’m a chemE and have had difficulties but am okay with them) but when it isnt your major and you’re having trouble, it will not make you want to try harder. It became very frustrating for those pre-meds.</p>
<p>In fact by second semester every single biology major who made the mistake of taking accelerated chem had dropped out of the sequence by second semester. They saw the effect it had on their GPAs. This was a class designed for engineers and specialized chem. Not big-headed med school aspirees.</p>
<p>You may be tempted by a harder math course, harder chem, harder bio. Your advisors may even tell you to do it. (Those classes are often full of curve-aides [sad stories indeed] who are there because their advisor insisted that they they’d be able to handle it. Yeah with a C+ they handled it, alright.) Heed my warning and don’t do it. It is best to assume you are stupid when picking classes.</p>
<p>A career in healthcare is worth it- have options </p>
<hr>
<p>Just over 50% of students who make it through Pre-med get in. Those are the facts. I was part of the less than 50% who didn’t make into Med school way back in the late 70s. The scariest part was that I had no back up plan.</p>
<p>I got lucky and got a job in healthcare! Worked, got credentialed, traveled the world, went back to grad school, got my doctorate in physiology, did research, and now am Chair of an Allied Health program (Respiratory Therapy) at a medical university.</p>
<p>My point- have a back up plan (even though you have to be focused on getting in to medical school). A good number of my students come from where I’ve been. Some try again and get into medical school and that’s great. Others stay in the allied health profession they got a degree in and are really making a real difference for their patients.</p>
<p>Many of the allied health professions make a great entry-level career into health care. From there you can see if practicing as a physician is worth the extra sacrifices and benefits.</p>
<p>The worst option, from my point of view, is to lose someone who has completed their degree and has the aptitiude and attitude to contribute to the healthcare of people in need because they didn’t get into medical school.</p>
<p>I talk with a lot of students who are pre-med. With all the distractions of college, they know they have to stay focused on their goal. Even then, it doesn’t always work out the way they want. There are options. Explore them. There are many ways to have a rewarding career in healthcare.</p>