<p>“How hard would you say your med school friends worked”</p>
<p>I don’t know how to answer the question, because there are so many factors that go into this. One straight-A student I know who was in organic chemistry as a freshman worked less than a lot of B/C students, because he was just so crazy smart and so gifted at chemistry that he didn’t have to put in much effort to get perfect grades.</p>
<p>Let me put it this way. All of them had social lives and devoted a lot of time to their music activities. The guy who went to SUNY Buffalo was, by Harvard standards, a frat boy slacker type who spent a lot of time hanging out with his friends, and I don’t think he was up all night trying to get perfect grades. The one who went to Tulane took one year off from his singing group to focus academics that year, but he still sang for 3 years. (That kid, btw, did extremely well in med school and got his first-choice residency, in a competitive specialty, back at Harvard; the person who struggled with grade/withdrawal problems in college and went to a low-ranked medical school is now a specialist at a nationally respected U of California research campus.)</p>