Reply to Why do top US universities weed out most pre-med kids & then we import foreign MDs?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Why do top US universities weed out most pre-med kids & then we import foreign MDs?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am one of the "weeded out" Duke undergrads who dropped pre-med.  Wow you guys are harsh!  Honestly, I struggled with depression in college and was unhappy at Duke and was even more miserable in pre med courses and did poorly.  I was so unaccustomed to flailing so miserably and it seemed like everyone around me seemed so brilliant and was happy and doing awesome (although that wasn't true!).  If I could do it all over again I would have majored in something less rigorous at Duke, tried to graduate in 3 years, [b]and then taken my science courses at an easier school. [/b] I think sometimes we have different capacities at different times in our lives.  For my own child, my advice would be that a job is a job and not who you are, no matter how prestigious or lucrative it is.  [b]My family pushed me so hard and made everything so much worse.[/b]  Even now I think my family perceives me as a failure for going to such a prestigious college and failing to go to medical school.  That's hurtful to me, honestly.  I went to a top law school on scholarship and graduated with no debt and have a great job now.  Everything turned out really well, and yet I suppose I will always wonder what if...[/quote]

So, you couldn't do premed courses because those courses are "harder" @ Duke? Maybe med school wasn't meant to be. [/quote]

Exactly. Med schools are going to notice if you do poorly in your science classes - which could very well have happened in the community college classes as well.  You can’t hide a lack of science aptitude on the intense MCAT’s either.
Why have regret? [/quote]

I knew more than a few students who realized they could not compete in science classes at Duke and took them at less rigorous schools. [b] I don't think anyone could tell you the level of competition and rigor at Duke vs. some random school are the same[/b].  I am jealous of their savvy, not regretful.  I eventually realized I needed to make things work for ME, which is how I made some good choices and positioned myself much better than most of the posters on this board.  You have to learn from mistakes.

But I think it's silly to think our system rewards only aptitude- it rewards savvy and parents who can pay $$$$.  [/quote]

But that's why you also need MCAT score. It "normalizes" the playing field for everyone. If Duke kids are truly smarter/courses harder/better prepared than typical state Us, their MCAT scores will show and US med schools will be full of Duke kids. And no state U kids will be able to go to decent medical schools, right? [/quote]

This is one of the reasons that med schools give little (although they will give a bit) of credit to the quality of undergrad.

The MCAT is the great equalizer.  If you went to a no where near any tier college and get a 3.9, but have a 518 on the MCAT (97th percentile), as my DD did with respect to both, you can get into a mid tier or better med school.  Provided, of course, all the extra stuff like clinical hours, volunteering, and shadowing are there. And that no where college turns out to be a plus because med schools like to accept from a broad spectrum of colleges.

A kid who went to Duke and got a 3.5 or 3.6 and a 518 would also have a shot at a mid-tier, but, perhaps unfairly, not as good a one as my DD.

What this means in terms of college planning is that if a smart high school kid wants to be a doctor and is not naturally the person who will be at the top of curve in the science weed out classes, he should not aim for a top undergrad with grade deflation.

Go to a lower rated college that attracts few pre-meds and that will give financial aid for his 98 percentile SAT and stellar high school grades. Then you have a win-win: a better chance at a higher science GPA and more money to spend for MCAT tutoring and med school.[/quote]

Hopkins literally tortures their undergrads with super difficult courses, sets up competitive internships for the students where they are all working long hours - ususally for no pay - on top of that, and then accepts virtually none of their undergrads to their med school. I am not religious but I prayed that my DD wouldn’t go there honestly. (She didn’t). 
Hopkins med school accepts students from a very wide range of undergrad schools, including state schools. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics