I live in FL so going to UF would be very inexpensive but I am hoping I can get into Emory and get some kind of merit scholarship!!
Since you haven’t gotten into Emory yet, you don’t need to decide now.
If you do get a merit scholarship at Emory (merit is very competitive there), you’re one of the stronger applicants and that would probably indicate that you can survive their premed weeder courses. But UF would probably be a stronger choice for premed, as med school is expensive and the curves in weeder courses won’t be as bad as Emory’s.
@usualhopeful I wasn’t aware Emory had any difficult curves?
Premed prerequisite courses everywhere are curved. Emoryp premeds come in with high scores, high GPAs, and often AP Chem, Bio, Physics, and/or Calculus, which they will probably retake. That means you’re competing with very high achieving students to be at the top of the curve.
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Emory premeds come in with high scores, high GPAs, and often AP Chem, Bio, Physics, and/or Calculus, which they will probably retake. That means you’re competing with very high achieving students to be at the top of the curve.
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^^^^. This!!!
And this is probably the number one reason why premeds with strong stats end up with GPAs that aren’t med school worthy. They go to schools where they are just “one of the crowd of high stats students”…and grading in the premed prereqs will be curved to make sure that students are weeded out.
Oh…I just saw this…
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old) SAT-1950…waiting to here scores from june SAT
ACT: 30
SAT II Literature: 650
SAT II U.S. History: 790
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Your stats are too low for a scholarship from Emory. Your stats probably won’t get you admitted.
I’m concerned that the premeds at UF will be much stronger than you are.
are you serious about med school? If so, then target some of the lower FL schools like UCF, USF, FAU, or FIU or any other public FL that has a med school.
When choosing a school for premed, look at the school’s reported middle quartiles…
Emory
650-770 Math
640-730 Writing
620-720 Critical Reading
A premed should be choosing a school where his/her numbers are higher than the middle quartiles…in the case of Emory…SAT 2220+…or really a M+CR SAT 1490+
Your 1950 puts you around the bottom quartile for the school.
@mom2collegekids well about the university of florida i have talked to counselors and i am right on track with standards of admission… and I am not completely sure about med school but I have goals of being a doctor-maybe a psychiatrist and if i work hard i can achieve anything I set my mind to.
I believe UF’s 75th percentile ACT is 30 or 31. You’d be pretty good for admissions, but not ideal for premed curves.
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well about the university of florida i have talked to counselors and i am right on track with standards of admission… and I am not completely sure about med school but I have goals of being a doctor-maybe a psychiatrist and if i work hard i can achieve anything I set my mind to.
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I’m not talking about admission. Admission is one thing. Having premed classmates that are stronger than you are is another.
If you’re not serious about becoming a physician/psychiatrist, then no biggie. My advice would be if you’re serious about becoming a physician/psychiatrist.
Would you qualify for financial aid at Emory?
And remember there is no pre-med major you need to take. Just cover the prerequisites for med school and pick the major you want (and achieve a high GPA).
Oh my god! Pre-med at Emory is not that bad! Professors here are very supportive and I feel that I’m in a very collaborative environment. Pre-health advising is excellent and there are so many opportunities being constantly offered! As long as you work hard at Emory, you will do fine! There are no ridiculous curves designed to hurt you. THERE ARE NO CURVES WHATSOEVER!
Many people at Emory drop out of premed, but not because they had low GPAs. Many drop out because they found something else they liked.
NOTE: Emory favors its own students in admissions for medical school.
I can pretty much guarantee your school has curves. Schools don’t just not have curves.
Are you going into your sophomore year?
I just finished my sophomore year. I can confirm there are no quotas to fill for any grade.
Curving at all schools is on a course-by-course basis. Here’s one Emory professor’s grading policy (math/CS dept) which uses curves:
http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~mic/class/grading.html
ETA: This page gives a recommended grading curve for Goizueta courses.
http://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/curriculum/standards_honors.html
And regardless of curves, it just doesn’t make sense for a student who needs to get a high GPA to start at a school where they’re in the bottom half by test scores.
I have personally not been in a class that curves (yet). I just think prospective students shouldn’t get the perception that premed at Emory is insane with awful curves.
@r4cheh Are you low income?
@emory323 no I am not low income
If Emory’s NPCs are too expensive, don’t expect it to be affordable. You might have a decent chance at admission, but I believe Emory only gives significant merit to its very top students.
@usualhopeful ok thank you!
Emory’s link to more premed stats isn’t working, but the website does indicate :
For the 2013 app year (latest available), 403 students applied to med school ad 217 received at least one US MD acceptance…a 54% acceptance rate.
139 M1 seats…67 different undergrads…24 avg age at matriculation.
Why do you think those other 46% rec’d no acceptances? These are top students, after all…they got into Emory. They took a rigorous high school curriculum , they were well ranked at their high school…probably most/all were top 10%.
Where are you seeing that Emory SOM gives a preference to Emory applicants? While there may be a slight one (and at many private SOMs there isn’t a preference), Emory states that there are no reserved seats for their undergrad applicants…therefore there isn’t some sort of …10% will be from Emory.
@emory323 Maybe you’ve done very well in the premed prereqs so you’re not aware of what’s going on with others.
And weeding doesn’t just involve curving…it also involves difficult tests to weed out the weaker students.
Are you saying that everyone in your premed prereqs are getting B’s or better? AND…no one drops those classes?
BTW…don’t necessarily believe what you’re being told that students are “moving on” to something else just because of interest. While that may be true in some instances, I’m willing to bet that at least half change paths because of grades (either final grade or test grades/drop class). I know that some start as premeds, maybe due to family pressure or romantic thoughts and soon learn it’s not for them, but issues with grades in the sciences often a accompanies that decision.
Re: curves…I don’t think anyone here is saying that if everyone in the class gets nearly every question correct on every test in a prereq class, that some will get low grades. Often the tests/labs are designed to weed…maybe by including many questions that weren’t covered in lectures but can only be found in some obscure paragraph in the textbook or by having extremely picky lab rubrics and rules (like losing points if you open a water bottle while walking out of lab!..yes, there are such rules at some schools)
There’s a reason why virtually all schools, even tippy top schools, start out with 4 times as many frosh premeds as there will be by senior year…of which maybe 40-85% end up with at least one acceptance. So if a school starts out with 400 premeds, then about 100 will remain by senior year…and about 50-85 will get an acceptance.
The 54% acceptance rate does suggest modest weeding in comparison to, for example, JHU.