Worried about Pre-Med at MIT :(

cellardweller
Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:40:32 +0000

MIT does not have a specific rule that states that only so many students can get an A in a class. It can be 50% of the class or it can be zero. There is little if any grading on a curve, so your grades are not dependent on the performance of others in the class. In that sense premeds don’t compete among each other for grades. If you do A level work, you can get an A. It is just that what constitutes A level work at MIT is generally very high. My D took an advanced neurobiology class last semester and nobody got an A and only five got a B in a class of 30. It was just a very hard class and the professor set the bar very high, probably unreasonably high. No adjustments were made to the grades. She took another graduate level class taught by a Nobel Laureate. It was very challenging but she felt the grading was much more fair. It is actually not uncommon for MIT students to take certain premed requirements classes at Harvard. My D took Orgo II at Harvard last year and there were at least 20 MIT students in the class!