Worst College Advice you have heard, that you know is untrue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's practically impossible to get in to UVA from NoVA.

Well, having been through that battle, I think that's just about right unless you went to T.J. Or you must be in top ten percent of your class, have a 4.40+ GPA, ACT of 34 or higher, 10 APs and national awards. 93% of this year's accepted students were top ten percent.

[Anonymous]

As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's practically impossible to get in to UVA from NoVA.

Well, having been through that battle, I think that's just about right unless you went to T.J. Or you must be in top ten percent of your class, have a 4.40+ GPA, ACT of 34 or higher, 10 APs and national awards. 93% of this year's accepted students were top ten percent.

Why is it impossible to be in the top 10 percent of your class. Heck, one out of every ten kids pull it off.

I didn't say it was easy. I didn't say that my own kid managed to do it, but you can't claim it is impossible.

Frankly, UVA can't be both "great" as measured by selectivity and "be accessible".

The bigger issue is grade inflation that makes it impossible to distinguish good from great and leads to the piling up of AP classes and busy work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

This is a somewhat separate issue from prestige though. Brown has great premed advising, Harvard might not. Davidson has great premed advising, other LACs do not match it. It's more than just a prestige game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

OChem was the weeded class at UVA when I was the undergrad. This is where dreams were crushed and friends switched to business school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

You don’t have to be premed or get any advising to go to med school. What you need to be is smart.
This is a somewhat separate issue from prestige though. Brown has great premed advising, Harvard might not. Davidson has great premed advising, other LACs do not match it. It's more than just a prestige game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been practicing medicine for over 25 years and sit on the admissions committee of a medical school. On a macro level, the PPs are exactly correct. When admissions committees from medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not something that is considered (within reason, of course. A U of Phoenix degree is going to be looked at as suspect. But a perfectly legitimate but lesser ranked school like JMU or GMU or McDaniel? no.) If a student has a high GPA and MCAT, solid extracurricular activities, a strong personal statement, and thoughtful supplementary essay responses, his or her school’s reputation will have little bearing on admissions. A good applicant is a good applicant, whether they come from Harvard or Frostburg. Ignore well-meaning - but ignorant - people who try to tell you otherwise.

Thanks, very helpful. Family member attended JMU undergrad and is now a successful physician after attending a highly respected medical school. He laughs at these myths too.

Who's going to help your kid apply to medical school at a shit college? The janitor? They're on their own. At Brown you have an entire department dedicated to polishing pre-meds applying to med schools. Who's going to push your kid to overachieve at a shit school? The slackers all taking 5 6 7 years to graduate? At an Ivy pretty much everyone finishes on time.

This is a somewhat separate issue from prestige though. Brown has great premed advising, Harvard might not. Davidson has great premed advising, other LACs do not match it. It's more than just a prestige game.

You don’t have to be premed or get any advising to go to med school. What you need to be is smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

What he is trying to say - apparently after his nightly 4 bottles of wine - is that a lot of kids with premed hopes fail organic chemistry so they are out of the running for med school early on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

What he is trying to say - apparently after his nightly 4 bottles of wine - is that a lot of kids with premed hopes fail organic chemistry so they are out of the running for med school early on.

got it. That sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

What he is trying to say - apparently after his nightly 4 bottles of wine - is that a lot of kids with premed hopes fail organic chemistry so they are out of the running for med school early on.

got it. That sounds about right.

Well, of course, this wouldn't apply to the leisure studies med school applicants who never have to take organic chem. After all, we often hear that you don't have to major in science to become a doctor, right? Just make sure to have a 4.0 GPA......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

What he is trying to say - apparently after his nightly 4 bottles of wine - is that a lot of kids with premed hopes fail organic chemistry so they are out of the running for med school early on.

got it. That sounds about right.

Well, of course, this wouldn't apply to the leisure studies med school applicants who never have to take organic chem. After all, we often hear that you don't have to major in science to become a doctor, right? Just make sure to have a 4.0 GPA......

That is true - I know many good doctors who were not premed and didn’t major in science. You should be excellent at whatever you choose to study though. I don’t think that you need perfect grades but you should excel , yes.

It also doesn’t matter that much if you have lower grades in a very challenging course of study with grad deflation if you excel in your work (summer jobs?) and on the MCAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former organic chemistry professor, don't forget the huge number of premeds who was out before ever applying to med school. So many don't make the grades early on.

What?
So what kind of grades in organic chemistry "early on" (I assume you mean freshman year) will knock you out of getting in to med school?

What he is trying to say - apparently after his nightly 4 bottles of wine - is that a lot of kids with premed hopes fail organic chemistry so they are out of the running for med school early on.

got it. That sounds about right.

Well, of course, this wouldn't apply to the leisure studies med school applicants who never have to take organic chem. After all, we often hear that you don't have to major in science to become a doctor, right? Just make sure to have a 4.0 GPA......

That is true - I know many good doctors who were not premed and didn’t major in science. You should be excellent at whatever you choose to study though. I don’t think that you need perfect grades but you should excel , yes.

It also doesn’t matter that much if you have lower grades in a very challenging course of study with grad deflation if you excel in your work (summer jobs?) and on the MCAT.

Med schools have prereqs. If you don't have those courses under your belt, you aren't getting in.

[Anonymous]

Geezus. It’s called PREREQUISITES people. Of course all applicants had to have taken the same prerequisite classes. OY!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geezus. It’s called PREREQUISITES people. Of course all applicants had to have taken the same prerequisite classes. OY!

Um, prereq is just an abbreviation, dude. Most creative writing, econ, education majors do not also take bio + lab, 2 semesters Gen Chem + labs, 2 semesters organic + labs, university physics (along with the required math prereq).....etc.

Yes, it is possible for a non science/non premed major to get all those classes in, it's just not the standard way to go about it.