Majors and GPA

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>According to what I have read on this forum and on other website, I have found that liberal arts majors have better success rate applying to med school than science majors. Biology, chemistry, nursing are all majors where you learn essential skills for medical school (and to be a doctor for nursing) yet they have an astounding low acceptance rate to med school. Is there a reason for this? (I feel a bit nervous because I want to major in Biology or Biochemistry)</p>

<p>On mdapplicants.com, there was a trend where the science GPA is significantly lower than the overall GPA for admitted students. Is there a reason? Are science classes harder than nonscience classes?</p>

<p>Also, is it true that liberal art classes (History, sociology, psychology, political science…) are easier to have higher grades than science classes in college(bio,chem…)? ( This puzzles me because I have always done better on science classes so far)</p>

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<p>Not on here you didn’t.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=214387[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=214387&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Well, at least for the GPA thing (science lower than overall) is quite puzzling??
The respective GPAs are found on mdapplicants.com.</p>

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<p>Science classes tend to be graded harder.</p>

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<p>Check out the MSAR. You will see that science GPAs are generally only slightly (by slightly I mean within 0.05) lower than overall GPAs.</p>

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<p>Just to throw it out, in 2003 the UVA english department “handed” out 47.1% A’s among all english classes. Science classes at UVA tend to hand out 20-25% A’s. In my opinion english GPA’s should be weighed less than science GPA’s.</p>

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<p>Interesting…</p>

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<p>There’s also the fact that your grades in science courses count twice since they go towards both your science AND your overall GPA</p>

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<p>Here’s what I saw on
<a href=“http://www.furman.edu/depts/premed/major.cfm[/url]”>http://www.furman.edu/depts/premed/major.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>"The acceptance rate for liberal arts majors mirrored the overall acceptance rate of 52%. Still, most applicants choose a traditional path, with approximately 70% of the medical school Class of 2006 majoring in biological or physical sciences. …. "
That’s higher than the average acceptance rate of approximately 45%, and definitely higher than the acceptance rate for many science majors (since 45% includes liberal art majors)</p>

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<p>I forgot where I read it but I am sure that acceptance rate to medical school for people who major in nursing and pharmacy did not exceed 30%.
Surprisingly, more than 50% of people who double majored in nonscience were accepted.
Also, on the MSAR, liberal art majors do much better on the verbal but also biological and physical science sections of the MCAT. Nursing and biological majors are those who do the worse.
That seems to me a bit weird.</p>

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<p>1.) Come on. “mirrored the overall acceptance rate of 52%” means that they’re not at an advantage. 45% was the anticipated number for the class of 2007.</p>

<p>2.) Further proof that the MCAT is not a knowledge test.</p>

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<p>MCAT scores have been discussed at length. See <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=4206151&highlight=majors#post4206151[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=4206151&highlight=majors#post4206151&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“Specialized Health Services” majors have lower scores on the MCAT and liberal arts majors do not suffer on the MCAT. <a href=“http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sum2005.pdf[/url]”>http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/examineedata/sum2005.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The MCAT has a ton of reading. Even the science sections are passage-based. Therefore, it is not very surprising that nonscience majors excel in the verbal section and hold their own on the science sections.</p>

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<p>what abt engineering majors ?? (like biomedical eng…)
-do they have better or same success to med schools as liberal arts or natural science majors ??</p>