@tsbna44 this student explained this.
Please listen to this.
And this.
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One of my daughters has similar stats in HS. She graduated from UDel in 3 years (couldnât afford a more selective school) in the honors college (nice scholarship), and was admitted into every DPT program she applied to (including NYU, sheâs at BU with some merit). High GPA and test scores, similar to applying to med school. She received her second B in her life in chemistry 104 fall of freshman year (she was thrilled to get that B!). It stung a bit when she had to turn down Villanova honors (she shouldnât have applied). Look at where you want to end up. I donât think even my closest friends know where I went to college.
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In my defense, youâre not the one who has to work with these students when doing group projects. Most of them donât put in the effort and I have to be the one to clean up the mess at the end. It becomes frustrating after a while.
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No, with the difficulty of the classes I definitely donât think theyâre preparing for me anything.
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@wayoutwestmom, can you comment? OP doesnât feel like their premed required classes are preparing them adequately for the MCAT. What are some steps OP can take to really get at that?
Welcome to any group project at any college anywhere. There have been many times my daughter has had to play âgroup momâ at her school.
What year are you in school (or what year did you finish)?
You seem set on demonizing other students and blaming them for something you had complete control over. You said to be honest, and thatâs me being honest. With the intellect you claim to have, you can knock out a 4.0 cumulative GPA at a supposedly inferior school. Did your school offer an honors college option? There was not ONE student there who was your intellectual equal, even among upperclassmen?
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The student needs to prep for the MCAT.
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lol about the group projects, so true! My daughters used to be the ones to make up for the slackers, my boys were the actual slackers. One of them just found out his class has several group projects, and his group isnât looking good. I kept my mouth shut.
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Welcome to life.
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Are there higher levels you can take? Have you already done organic chemistry? That is typically the hardest of the mandatory prereqs, but the suggested /encouraged ones that will also could help with MCAT are Biochemistry, Cell bio, genetics, analytical or advanced inorganic chemistry, advanced statistics(take the one for math majors, take multivariable calc if you havent and if it is a prereq)âbasically you need to be finding the most challenging courses the college has and that is going to be upper level bio and chem, as well as advanced math. Get involved in research, bio or chem: it does not have to be directly medical but if it relates to medicine that is good. Actively engage in classes and pursue professors, and you can succeed there. I realize the caliber of students is not at all what you want, and that must be disheartening. However it gives you a distinct advantage to be the best student there.
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And to add to Thumperâs fine post- the âprepâ the university can provide is a thorough grounding in the building blocks of science- math, chem, bio and physics. And then classes in statistics, psychology, perhaps fluency in another language. All of these things will make the OP a better doctor.
But there is no âMCAT 101â followed by âMCAT 102â curriculum which can short-circuit the need to prep!
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That happens all over. My daughter attended a well known public university as a premed student and had the same issue one year in a Spanish class.
It was a good learning experience as she figured out how to successfully navigate it.
She had a similar issue at a job she had, and it was actually a question during a school interview.
When she was interviewing for her current program she had some group interviews as well as group projects (during interviews) where the program director sat and watched the interactions.
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Happens at work too. @Lindagaf summed it up quite well a few posts ago.
Guarantee you it happens at NYU and Cornell.
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Premeds in Search of MCAT Prep Say Harvard Classes Provide Insufficient Instruction
No college classes anywhere will adequately prepare any person to take the MCAT.
The MCAT tests ability, not achievement. (So learning the material is just the first step. You need to be able to apply the information learned to novel situations and extrapolate results. You wonât learn to do that in class. Also the exam is a lâoânâg 7.5 hours. Learning to pace yourself is critical. )
All students are expected to prep on their own. There are plentiful MCAT prep resources available from commercial vendors like Blueprint, Kaplan, MCAT Nerds, Princeton Review, Exam Krackers, UWorld⊠Even AMCAS itself sells a MCAT prep course. These all cost $$. Some are more expensive; some less so. Whatâs best depends on how the individual prefers to study and where their areas of weakness are.
AMCAS also offers 4 retired full length MCAT exams to practice on. ($35 each)
[I strongly recommend you DO NOT take these just to see how you do. Save them as the final step in your prep to assess if youâre ready to take the actual MCAT,]
Khan Academy on YouTube has a contract with AMCAS to offer free MCAT prep materials until 2026.
And a HINT---- the hardest area to improve on is CARS (Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills). This involves critical reading of unfamiliar and information dense material and being able to apply that info to a problem youâve never seen before. This is the best place to start your prep.
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You are far from alone.
My younger D attended a top 30 research U known for its pre-med program.
Guess whatâshe had slackers in her classes too. During one group project, she basically had to do the whole thing herself since her âpartnersâ couldnât be bothered to even show up for project meetings. Itâs very frustrating, but it made great essay fodder on her med school application.
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In theory, a rigorous college curriculum should include practice in doing such things in at least some courses. But it sounds like this is a rarity.
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yes, and itâs possible OPâs courses arenât rigorous (even though they meet med school requirements)
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My daughter is a BSN/RN and her classes supposedly had tests and quizzes based on the NCLEX. They in no way prepared her to take the NCLEX - I spent a small fortune on test prep for her, and she spent a month studying before taking it. I would imagine any class that purports to âprepareâ someone for an exam such as MCATs or even GREs is no substitute for self-preparation. My future son-in-law, now in medical school, spent several months on his own preparing for his MCAT.
Anyway, this thread has stuck with me more than any on CC, and thatâs probably saying a lot lol.
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For her DPT, my daughter took the GRE, definitely needed test prep.
Thatâs pretty typical.
Plus once you get into med school there are years and decades of more career-determining, national standardize exams physicians-in-training (and physicians who have completed training) still need to take. The testing never stops for doctors.
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