Is it true that ADCOM's distinguish between an A in history and an A in physical chemistry for examp

[JoyKim456]

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[TheRhymenocerous]

As in, do they re-weight your GPA based on what classes they think are hard? I'd think not.

 

[JoyKim456]

Not re0weight. But would they be more forgiving for a 3.7 with several classes in upper div science classes

 

[AlteredScale]

AdComs distinguish this by looking at your science vs. non science GPA.

 

[Lucca]

You have a BCPM GPA and a Cumulative GPA. A (huge) discrepency in either direction will not help you. For example, a high science but low cumulative is bad; high cumulative and low science is bad.

 

[LizzyM]

There is also the AO GPA meaning "all other" after taking out BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics, math). We appreciate that P-chem is one of the hardest courses going but you can't make the assumption that history is easy. For some folks, chemistry is far easier than a text-intensive course that requires enormous amounts of reading and writing.

 

[Law2Doc]

If you have a high GPa and did well in all the prereqs, places really don't care what you took to round out your schedule. The days of favoring science majors and courses ended in 1980. More people have killed their GPa and missed out on med school taking killer science courses than taking fluff. To be honest an interesting major beats a cookie cutter bio major most of the time.

 

[zaben]

After going to a lot of interviews I don't believe in any of these universal rules of medical school admissions anymore. The fact of the matter is a lot of interviews are open file, and a lot of interviewers are impressed by different things. There are some interviewers out there who will immediately view you in a far more positive light if they see you aced physical chemistry. Some just won't care.

 

[Law2Doc]

After going to a lot of interviews I don't believe in any of these universal rules of medical school admissions anymore. The fact of the matter is a lot of interviews are open file, and a lot of interviewers are impressed by different things. There are some interviewers out there who will immediately view you in a far more positive light if they see you aced physical chemistry. Some just won't care.

And a lot of interviewers will regard it as a positive if you were smart enough to avoid a GPa killer like pchem and instead took film appreciation for an A.

 

[JoyKim456]

I guess I'm trying to get insight into the fact that about half the people here say that an "A" in a humanities class is worthless whilst the other half say it is worth just as much as a killer science class

 

[IL Pre Med]

I guess I'm trying to get insight into the fact that about half the people here say that an "A" in a humanities class is worthless whilst the other half say it is worth just as much as a killer science class

Boy, you have a long way to go to understand how the world works. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Make Or Break]

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[Law2Doc]

I guess I'm trying to get insight into the fact that about half the people here say that an "A" in a humanities class is worthless whilst the other half say it is worth just as much as a killer science class

Simple. The premeds who are convinced that their own upper level science heavy schedule is the "right" path think one way. The people who actually have been through the process think (actually know) the other.

 

[CLE216]

Gosh, you're only in undergrad once..take the classes that interest you. If that's an upper year science class, go for it. If that's intro sociology or human geography, all the power to you.

 

[efle]

To be fair, the person interviewing you will have their own biases too. Someone who majored in physics as an undergrad is more likely to view science courses as harder/more impressive to ace if that was also their experience. Someone who never took Pchem will not see it the same way.

 

[lumpyduster]

Honestly I think all that matters is that you do what you like. Yeah, maybe my chemistry degree is a little "cookie cutter" but I love it and I'm damn good at it. P chem is way easier for me than 100s of pages of dense historical reading and I would most likely struggle with history. As long as you do well and are enthusiastic no one can fault you there.

 

[litotes]

the idea that all humanities classes are inherently easier than all science classes is ridiculous, especially for science kids (which most of us are)

 

[efle]

It's pretty universal for classes like intro-level anthropology, philosophy and psych/sociology to be easier than the core BCPM though. It's really at the major-oriented 300+ levels that there's huge variation in all subjects.

 

[ctryhunzelma]

There are some interviewers out there who will immediately view you in a far more positive light if they see you aced physical chemistry.

 

[Law2Doc]

There are some interviewers out there who will immediately view you in a far more positive light if they see you aced physical chemistry.

See my post above. The value of acing hard courses is largely for your own psyche-- the Adcoms wont care

 

[Oh_Gee]

what if we did biology major because we genuinely liked the subject (but got more B's than A's)

 

[efle]

Then you were a little bit screwed by happening to like the same subject that the vast majority of premeds are cookie-cutter versions of. You won't stand out but at least you enjoyed it

 

[Oh_Gee]

Then you were a little bit screwed by happening to like the same subject that the vast majority of premeds are cookie-cutter versions of. You won't stand out but at least you enjoyed it

life

 

[JoyKim456]

As far as standing out goes, under no circumstance (that I'm aware of) would a medical school look down upon a bio major just because they tend to be the vast majority of applicants

 

[efle]

Yeah it won't hurt you, but I bet you are more interesting to an interviewer with a major in something like a humanities subject instead of being yet another bio

 

[JoyKim456]

Theoretically, it might. But I doubt medical schools think that way. Being a non-bio major doesn't give you a "uniqueness" factor. It's not an easy thing to do. There might be 5923434257234048723498 bio majors but how many of them actually have a decent GPA?

 

[litotes]

I feel like if you truly like biology, it will come through in your grades & research... if not, then otherwise

 

[Law2Doc]

Theoretically, it might. But I doubt medical schools think that way. Being a non-bio major doesn't give you a "uniqueness" factor. It's not an easy thing to do...

While med schools won't hold it against you that you are a bio major, the religion or dance major or nontrad who has accomplished things in another field already has a leg up in setting themselves apart from the crowd of everyone else who also aced the prereqs and did the usual ECs. Med school application is not about being cookie cutter and having the numbers. There is no magic formula and you are in. It's about being a "good fit" and putting together an interesting diverse class. If a program is looking at two similar applicants who both have a 3.5/35 and one is a bio major with te usual volunteering and shadowing while the other is a dance major who has adequate health ECs but also lists various performances, which one do you think intrigues the adcoms more? Hint, it's not another bio major. There's nothing wrong with being a bio major and you'll still probably get in "someplace" if you put up the stats. But part of getting the better med schools involves differentiating and distinguishing yourself from the other applicants, giving yourself that "wow" factor that sets you apart from every other application they see, and frankly it's just very hard to do if you are that cookie cutter bio major with decent stats and usual ECs.

once you are in med school, you will get a sense of what adcoms really found important -- yes most had good grades and MCATs, and most did some health related ECs. But if you are at a good school, you are going to be impressed to see a lot of the more unusual accomplishments of your classmates. More people will have some "wow factor" than not. People who majored or worked in different areas. Former professional or ranked athletes. Professional musicians, dancers, artists. Reality TV stars, Olympians. Former military. The list is extensive. If you have none of those things, then I'd say yes, being that plain vanilla bio major with good numbers end 500 hours of volunteering or whatever isn't going to sell you comparably.

 

[litotes]

More people will have some "wow factor" than not. People who majored or worked in different areas. Former professional or ranked athletes. Professional musicians, dancers, artists. Reality TV stars, Olympians. Former military. The list is extensive. If you have none of those things, then I'd say yes, being that plain vanilla bio major with good numbers end 500 hours of volunteering or whatever isn't going to sell you comparably.

None of these things is exclusive to being a non-Biology major...

 

[Law2Doc]

None of these things is exclusive to being a non-Biology major...

It's not necessarilly mutually exclusive, but the person who opts to be the cookie cutter premed bio major doing the usual ECs is rarely going to be in any of these wow factor categories. And again, the guy who isn't the cookie cutter premed with the usual ECs is going to have more interesting things to talk about in an interview. Just saying.