Princeton vs Yale

midatlmom
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:40:50 +0000

cmburns

When I went to school years and years ago, many potential pre-med students took organic chemistry and immediately decided that pre-med was not for them. It had nothing to do with grade deflation , but had everything to do with the fact that the course was really hard, people often didn’t like it and didn’t do that well in it and that the courses and course load required to be a doctor didn’t seem that appealing. I would suspect that this is the same at many schools. Many people come in vaguely interested in pre-med and then decide that it’s not for them.

I don’t really understand your theories about psychology and anthropology. Since neither of these majors requires the biology and chemistry courses that are prerequisites for medical school, I doubt that the vast majority of students majoring in these fields are somehow frustrated pre-med students. They are just as likely to be potential lawyers, museum executives, businesspeople, teachers, NGO officers etc. Moreover, your assumption that people at Princeton are solely concerned with professional careers when picking a major is simply wrong–in spite of the economy, students at Princeton often just choose to major in subjects that interest them.

It’s somewhat hard to argue with you, because you seem to be making up your own facts and then confirming that you’re correct (neat trick by the way). You are making huge and I believe unwarranted assumptions that 400 students come in interested in pre-med, and that grade deflation forces a large percentage of them to decide not to apply to medical school.