<p>Competitiveness of classes from a standpoint of students not helping each other or not collaborating…such cut-throatness isn’t typically part of Pitt’s culture. You do find such a culture more prevalent at other some other schools, which in my opinion, speaks poorly to them. Med school pre-requisites can be challenging based on your background and aptitude, but no more so than most other places. Such pre-req classes are pretty standard fair across the board, although, IMO, Pitt has better offering of non-standard classes than many schools…such as courses offered through its Neuroscience program or History of Philosophy and Science program. I’m not familiar with grade deflation, or curving down, being any sort of regular occurrence at Pitt. The big advantage at Pitt over some other places is the ease of access to, quantity, and quality of extracurricular activities that are necessary for a competitive med school application: things like medical center volunteering, physician shadowing, and research projects.</p>
<p>I’ve stated this before, and it sounds blunt, but outside difficulties adjusting to the medium sized university or the urban setting, with all the resources available at Pitt, if an individual can’t make themselves into a competitive medical school applicant there, then they probably should carefully reevaluate medicine as a career track.</p>