Can a current UVA premed major student or well informed folks comment on grade deflation in UVA that might come into play when applying to med schools? Very interested in UVA environment and at least one other state school but not decided yet. Would like feedback from medical school prospects perspective, ignoring attendance costs of UVA vs other state school for the purpose of this discussion. Offered Echols scholars invite so flexibility with courses is also in the mix. Thank you.
I’m only a first year right now, but I wouldn’t say UVA has any systematic “grade deflation.” The science classes required for pre-med are just naturally difficult, and that will be the case at any university. If you make the commitment to manage your time and study well (and go to office hours), you will probably be fine. I used to have awful study habits, so I have spent my first year refining them, and I have done well in my science courses accordingly. Plus the pre-med advising here is great.
Thank you much for the helpful input.
Tech has superior biology completion rate and superior course selection
Tech also has a lower average GPA than UVA, although it is possible that is due to self selection. The median GPA in the UVA College of Arts and Sciences is 3.34 (someone at UVA made a FOIA request for the info then emailed around). I read somewhere that the comparable stat at Tech is roughly 3.1.
The claims made the above poster are factually incorrect. UVA has the highest completion rate among public flagships. Also, I fail to see how course selection matters, considering the courses that pre-med students are required to take are standard and taught in several hundred person lectures. Even if Tech has superior course selection, that will be because more students go to Tech, and not because Tech gives students more options for conducting research.
@mtk4yu what do you mean by completion rate?
Almost no schools have had grade deflation. Grade inflation has been been the rule for 40 years. http://www.gradeinflation.com/ In general, the schools with the highest average GPAs are the most selective schools. Tech schools tend to have a bit lower GPAs.
I still do not know what mtk means by “higher completion rate.” However, it is common knowledge that a huge percentage of incoming UVa students at first say they want to do pre-med or pre-commerce, but then find other programs that are of greater interest to them. Therefore, it would not surprise me if half of incoming students who say they want to be bio majors end up majoring in another field. That by itself does not mean that the bio program is flawed.
It is common at every university for students to complain about “weed out” courses for pre-meds. However, please consider that a university is not doing anyone a favor if they lead a student to believe they have a good chance at med school admission when they do not. The tens of thousands of students each year who are not admitted to any med school may have been better off if they had studied another field, or worked towards admission in a different health care grad program.
@mtk4yu the OP would have made their choice by now. There is data on the SCHEV site on number of graduates by major.
There is also some data out there on the Virginia schools with the highest number of medical school applicants in 2017-18 on the American Association of Medical Colleges site. UVA had 374, VCU had 164, W&M had 159, and GMU had 91. If you adjust for undergraduate population, W&M had the most followed by UVA, and those two were well ahead of VCU and GMU.
Of course, applications and acceptances are two different things, but it does give an idea of how many “follow through”. I’ve heard anecdotal information on acceptance rates, but I’m not convinced there is good data by undergraduate school.
this is what I mean by higher completion rate.in 2017 UVA granted 29 bachelors of science in biology. Tech granted 218. UVA does indeed have a higher graduation rate OVERALL than tech overall however but not in science.
Here are my sources for the data
UVA pg 28
https://majorevents.virginia.edu/sites/majorevents2017.virginia.edu/files/2017%20Finals%20Program%20Web%20Version.pdf
Tech pg 73
https://vt.edu/content/dam/vt_edu/commencement/spring-2017/2017CommencementProgram_final.pdf
According to lou’s list there are approximately 300 students in the core biology classes cell bio and genetics. Which ultimately means UVAS biology department has a 10 percent graduation rate if only 29 completed the bachelor of science
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/mySIS/CS2/page.php?Type=Group&Group=Biology
you can argue more kids actual want to become scientists at tech, but I would argue tech’s science departments just do better job of paying attention to prerequisites. here is a link show “prerequisites strictly enforced” which is the reason why tech’s biology has a higher completion rate even though they have weaker students
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/mySIS/CS2/page.php?Type=Group&Group=Biology
I just want people to be informed of the status of UVAs science departments. UVA’s engineering is doing a lot better than science however. my posts are actually geared towards sciencists rather than medical doctors however,
sorry for the late response