Premeds at Ivy/T10 schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious what norm is on skipping Bio 1/2 or Chem is? Do students use AP credit to bypass and then take higher level bio classes instead for pre-reqs? Any clue what norm is at your particular school?

The commonly held advice is to take intro classes for easy A to preserve gpa. This is not norm at my kid’s school and curious what is at others.

So your kid is in college already?
Why care then??

I’m asking because I’m in a Pre-med group and this question pops up constantly and everyone says repeat. The schools attended aren’t shared. I know what our school says, I just find it hard to believe this isn’t majority at the other schools too. The group isn’t an anonymous place and don’t want to offend anyone by asking there and sounding like I think it’s a bad choice to repeat as I don’t. Just curious what norm is at other top schools.

Two kids two different ivies, one premed the other is an engineer who takes a lot of classes with premeds (chemE/molecularE). Your kid should look at the ivy's premed advising pages and should be able to get the internal data with their student id. Mine have shown me the internal data, and one parents weekend we went to a premed parent talk and they showed it. The median gpa at non-engineers ivy is 3.8. Students with 3.8+ have a 93% acceptance rate to at least one US med school. Students with 3.4+ have an 85% rate. 3.4ish is the bottom 25% at this ivy.They warn students not to take the easy route because most students do not and it will look off(ie no taking intro stem at other colleges in the summer unless it is another ivy-level). They do help students spread out the classes and plan for 1-2 gaps if the first year gpa comes in lower, and they offer most intros as well as orgo as summer classes there, taught by same profs with same rigor so not seen as a negative. Lots stay and do research or clinicals in the summer anyway.
My other kid is not premed but their ivy has similar excellent MD acceptance rates. Our FB parent page gets a lot of premed Qs and the older parents who have BTDT always warn not to listen to premed advice from people not at the school because it is not applicable to the way the ivy recommends or the outcomes the ivy gets. Even mcat studying recs on these big sites recommending 6-12 months or a whole gap year to study: no one studies more than a month or two often during junior year or summer after, and the median mcat is 517-518 (at these ivies but T10 non ivies are all similar)
The most common med schools these kids get into are ivy/ucsf/washu/hopkins/duke levels. Trust the ivy/T10 education you are paying for. It is well worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you assuming intro classes are easy As? Aren't they depend on the curve? In general the curve for higher level classes is more lenient.

THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No skipping chem at kid's ivy, freshmen premeds start there, take orgo as soph. One semester of Bio can be skipped with AP of 5. Most skip and take Cell bio, biochem, physiology, genetics as upper levels. That is not typically freshman year but could be. freshmen tend to knock out genchem x2, maths x 2, most place out of at least one if not 2 semesters calc ie some take multivariable plus stats as the 2 maths. Psych is common freshman too. Sophomore is orgo x2, physics x2, Bios if needed, junior is phyiscs x2 if not done and biochem/UL Bios
That is the standard for premed non-engineers who plan no gap year or want to do a masters as a gap year (4+1) which is common for MD-phD chasers.
BMEs move moreintros to first year to have room for the E courses though a lot of BME courses overlap with premed req.
There are a few juniors who are in orgo usually people who came in behind or slowed down the pace/spread out the stem or did a withdraw early as a soph and are retrying orgo.
There is no "easy A" redo intro commonality, most prefer to want to get the coursework done so they can take mcat may-june after junior and apply or at least have it out of the way. However this ivy has medians of B+ for intros as well as for orgo and C grades are rare. Upper level bios often have medians of A- so it is honestly better to skip intros if placement test/AP credit lets you. There are adv/honors versions of some intros (genChem honors requires 5 on the APChem) with "high" medians and very small cohorts of under 40 yet the workload is onerous for these classes

Thanks for answering the question! I probably worded it poorly and should have made more clear this wasn’t about choosing courses. At their Ivy you skip bio 1/2 and they tend to take cell-mo and genetics instead. Only chem 1 can be skipped and they take orgo 1 spring freshman year.

Who are "you" who are "they", then chem 1 orgo 1 description is confusing too. Can you write better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious what norm is on skipping Bio 1/2 or Chem is? Do students use AP credit to bypass and then take higher level bio classes instead for pre-reqs? Any clue what norm is at your particular school?

The commonly held advice is to take intro classes for easy A to preserve gpa. This is not norm at my kid’s school and curious what is at others.

So your kid is in college already?
Why care then??

I’m asking because I’m in a Pre-med group and this question pops up constantly and everyone says repeat. The schools attended aren’t shared. I know what our school says, I just find it hard to believe this isn’t majority at the other schools too. The group isn’t an anonymous place and don’t want to offend anyone by asking there and sounding like I think it’s a bad choice to repeat as I don’t. Just curious what norm is at other top schools.

Yes,almost every "tip" on these sites does not apply or runs completely contradictory to what kid's ivy tells the premeds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a pre-med group for parents?? LOL. Mom…

Who on earth would make fun of this? It’s okay to guide your kid through HS graduation but not thereafter? I asked my parents for advice my whole life. You’re obviously on this board to guide your adult or almost adult.

Advice on life, yes, absolutely. Advice on how to handle college after kids got in? No. You need to let your kid run the race at some point.

[Anonymous]

Many schools don't allow 5s to skip chem and bio, but it depends on the school.

I was a STEM major but not premed who took these classes after getting a 5 on the AP exam and still learned quite a bit of new material. I don’t know that I would jump into Orgo as a freshman. A lot of premeds take it as a summer class so they can focus in it exclusively.

The only class I skipped was the first semester of physics and they had you take an exam for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No skipping chem at kid's ivy, freshmen premeds start there, take orgo as soph. One semester of Bio can be skipped with AP of 5. Most skip and take Cell bio, biochem, physiology, genetics as upper levels. That is not typically freshman year but could be. freshmen tend to knock out genchem x2, maths x 2, most place out of at least one if not 2 semesters calc ie some take multivariable plus stats as the 2 maths. Psych is common freshman too. Sophomore is orgo x2, physics x2, Bios if needed, junior is phyiscs x2 if not done and biochem/UL Bios
That is the standard for premed non-engineers who plan no gap year or want to do a masters as a gap year (4+1) which is common for MD-phD chasers.
BMEs move moreintros to first year to have room for the E courses though a lot of BME courses overlap with premed req.
There are a few juniors who are in orgo usually people who came in behind or slowed down the pace/spread out the stem or did a withdraw early as a soph and are retrying orgo.
There is no "easy A" redo intro commonality, most prefer to want to get the coursework done so they can take mcat may-june after junior and apply or at least have it out of the way. However this ivy has medians of B+ for intros as well as for orgo and C grades are rare. Upper level bios often have medians of A- so it is honestly better to skip intros if placement test/AP credit lets you. There are adv/honors versions of some intros (genChem honors requires 5 on the APChem) with "high" medians and very small cohorts of under 40 yet the workload is onerous for these classes

Thanks for answering the question! I probably worded it poorly and should have made more clear this wasn’t about choosing courses. At their Ivy you skip bio 1/2 and they tend to take cell-mo and genetics instead. Only chem 1 can be skipped and they take orgo 1 spring freshman year.

I am the PP, my premed is a rising senior and applying now, on track to have acceptances at at least one top schools based on data. Sounds very similar! Follow that plan and encourage your kid to get involved in research early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No skipping chem at kid's ivy, freshmen premeds start there, take orgo as soph. One semester of Bio can be skipped with AP of 5. Most skip and take Cell bio, biochem, physiology, genetics as upper levels. That is not typically freshman year but could be. freshmen tend to knock out genchem x2, maths x 2, most place out of at least one if not 2 semesters calc ie some take multivariable plus stats as the 2 maths. Psych is common freshman too. Sophomore is orgo x2, physics x2, Bios if needed, junior is phyiscs x2 if not done and biochem/UL Bios
That is the standard for premed non-engineers who plan no gap year or want to do a masters as a gap year (4+1) which is common for MD-phD chasers.
BMEs move moreintros to first year to have room for the E courses though a lot of BME courses overlap with premed req.
There are a few juniors who are in orgo usually people who came in behind or slowed down the pace/spread out the stem or did a withdraw early as a soph and are retrying orgo.
There is no "easy A" redo intro commonality, most prefer to want to get the coursework done so they can take mcat may-june after junior and apply or at least have it out of the way. However this ivy has medians of B+ for intros as well as for orgo and C grades are rare. Upper level bios often have medians of A- so it is honestly better to skip intros if placement test/AP credit lets you. There are adv/honors versions of some intros (genChem honors requires 5 on the APChem) with "high" medians and very small cohorts of under 40 yet the workload is onerous for these classes

Thanks for answering the question! I probably worded it poorly and should have made more clear this wasn’t about choosing courses. At their Ivy you skip bio 1/2 and they tend to take cell-mo and genetics instead. Only chem 1 can be skipped and they take orgo 1 spring freshman year.

I am the PP, my premed is a rising senior and applying now, on track to have acceptances at at least one top schools based on data. Sounds very similar! Follow that plan and encourage your kid to get involved in research early.

Thanks, best of luck to them this year on admissions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a pre-med group for parents?? LOL. Mom…

Who on earth would make fun of this? It’s okay to guide your kid through HS graduation but not thereafter? I asked my parents for advice my whole life. You’re obviously on this board to guide your adult or almost adult.

Advice on life, yes, absolutely. Advice on how to handle college after kids got in? No. You need to let your kid run the race at some point.

-1,000

You're 100% wrong. There is nothing wrong with asking the opinions of those whom you trust. It could be just an opinion (based on your own thoughts) OR an opinion based on some research. Some kids ask opinions on an outfit (going to an interview - how does this look?), medical issues, the mundane (which flight do you think I should book), or anything relevant to their lives (school being a big one for students). This doesn't mean kids need to ask parents for advice on any or all of these topics, but it is certainly normal and shows a relationship built on trust. It also doesn't mean that the parent's advice is a replacement for advising, but just to have another sounding board. This is the reason there are countless Facebook pages for parents of rising college freshman at particular schools. Makes so much more sense to not reinvent the wheel and be able to canvas a large group who have more experience about a process that is new to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a pre-med group for parents?? LOL. Mom…

Who on earth would make fun of this? It’s okay to guide your kid through HS graduation but not thereafter? I asked my parents for advice my whole life. You’re obviously on this board to guide your adult or almost adult.

Advice on life, yes, absolutely. Advice on how to handle college after kids got in? No. You need to let your kid run the race at some point.

-1,000

You're 100% wrong. There is nothing wrong with asking the opinions of those whom you trust. It could be just an opinion (based on your own thoughts) OR an opinion based on some research. Some kids ask opinions on an outfit (going to an interview - how does this look?), medical issues, the mundane (which flight do you think I should book), or anything relevant to their lives (school being a big one for students). This doesn't mean kids need to ask parents for advice on any or all of these topics, but it is certainly normal and shows a relationship built on trust. It also doesn't mean that the parent's advice is a replacement for advising, but just to have another sounding board. This is the reason there are countless Facebook pages for parents of rising college freshman at particular schools. Makes so much more sense to not reinvent the wheel and be able to canvas a large group who have more experience about a process that is new to you.

Sure. Always tell you kids what to do, how to do, when to do... they will love you when they get older. truly suffocating parenting style

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a pre-med group for parents?? LOL. Mom…

Who on earth would make fun of this? It’s okay to guide your kid through HS graduation but not thereafter? I asked my parents for advice my whole life. You’re obviously on this board to guide your adult or almost adult.

Advice on life, yes, absolutely. Advice on how to handle college after kids got in? No. You need to let your kid run the race at some point.

-1,000

You're 100% wrong. There is nothing wrong with asking the opinions of those whom you trust. It could be just an opinion (based on your own thoughts) OR an opinion based on some research. Some kids ask opinions on an outfit (going to an interview - how does this look?), medical issues, the mundane (which flight do you think I should book), or anything relevant to their lives (school being a big one for students). This doesn't mean kids need to ask parents for advice on any or all of these topics, but it is certainly normal and shows a relationship built on trust. It also doesn't mean that the parent's advice is a replacement for advising, but just to have another sounding board. This is the reason there are countless Facebook pages for parents of rising college freshman at particular schools. Makes so much more sense to not reinvent the wheel and be able to canvas a large group who have more experience about a process that is new to you.

Sure. Always tell you kids what to do, how to do, when to do... they will love you when they get older. truly suffocating parenting style

Or, just post on threads that you have an answer to and save the parenting advice for your IRL friends that I’m sure are all ears.