Wharton and CAS curves

Poeme
Tue, 20 May 2014 03:57:11 +0000

I said B/B+ not a B+. Courses like Math 104, Chem 101 and possibly a few other premed courses are most likely curved to a B. Biol 121 is more along the lines with orgo which is curved to a C+ at the very lowest. It is most definitely not curved to a C. I have a very large number of friends in Vagelos MLS who have taken these classes with premeds (and have very strong opinions about Penn’s premeds as a group).

Penn’s pre med grading scheme is no more deflationary than places like Chicago, Michigan, or Berkeley. Do you really think the students at Penn are that much better? The only reason people think there is grade deflation at Penn is because many of the other Ivys (Brown, Yale, and Harvard being prime offenders) are so outrageously inflated.

The issue with the pre med curriculum does not so much have to do with the grading as it has to do with admissions criteria. The obsession with GPA and MCAT scores discourages people from taking more challenging classes/majors (although I feel like the people in majors like physics and biophysics I know have all done really great in med school admissions even though the coursework is much harder than say bio) and encourages grade grubbing.

Unlike PhD programs who value your ability to make intellectual contributions, med school admissions value students ability to memorize and do well on tests. This leads to med schools being filled with students who are great at rote learning but are really not that smart as well as students who are book smart but do not have the interpersonal skills to be doctors.