How hard is premed at Duke

ay_caramba
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:38:30 +0000

I was also premed at Duke. I have had good success in the medical school application process (multiple acceptances so far). Premed at Duke is fairly hard, but I don’t think it would be harder than at UCLA or Berkeley. In gen chem/orgo/cell bio (if you take cell bio), the curve is basically set so half of the class gets A/B, half gets C/D/F. You will need to be in the top half of those classes to get A’s and B’s if you want to have success in the med school process. (DISCLAIMER: People (including some that I know) do get into med school with a C or even two if the rest of their record and MCAT are good.) The curve for biology/physics/biochem (if you take biochem) is more lenient.

The students at Duke are smart, so you will have to work pretty hard to beat the curves. That said, study times vary widely. I am not a huge studier. I got all A’s and B’s with probably <10 hours per week on average. It really depends on your natural aptitude and the class. If you’re good at math, physics is pretty much a breeze. If you’re good at memorization, biochem is no problem. And so on.

There’s a lot more I could say about premed at Duke but I won’t go off the deep end here.