i totally hear you, blinky. ibrahim, take this advice from people who have been there: everyone at NU was at the top of their class in HS and comes into college probably a little too cocky as a result. the fact is, NU was hard and unbelievably competitive, and the bottom line is that virtually no one is going to get straight A's in college the way they did in HS. the curved grading scale and lack of grade inflation takes care of this. there's an attitude adjustment that occurs just as much as a social adjustment. there are plenty of former valedictorians who flunk out of the pre-med curriculum. it's *extremely* intense, and i completely back up blinky's statement that orgo is even more competitive than gen chem was. gen chem weeded out the less-serious pre-meds, so by the time orgo rolled around, there was a higher proportion of gunners. even still, i clearly recall how there were fewer and fewer people in the class after every single exam--i'm not exaggerating on this. so even if you have the ability to place in orgo as a freshman, in reality it is probably not the best option for you. the bottom line is that med schools want to see good grades, so don't screw yourself from the very beginning.
i too thought the biology B10 sequence was even harder, but in a different way than orgo was--more conceptual, less rote memorization. but at least it was more interesting.
i never had dr. coddens for orgo, but i heard that while he was a good teacher, he was pretty damn mean.
ibrahim, the vast majority of pre-meds at NU are either biology or BME majors. i didn't do BME, but i'm almost 100% sure that the pre-med course requirements are also requirements for the BME major, so there's no need for you to worry about 'fitting everything in'. you kill two birds with one stone. besides, as simulD can attest, many pre-meds major in non-science subjects--econ and psych, for instance. they have an even tougher time trying to fit everything in since there's no overlap between their major and pre-med, yet plenty manage just fine. so don't stress!
as far as where we all collectively get interviews and acceptances, there are no shoo-in schools for NU graduates. getting into med school is largely a result of individual efforts and state residency (as with a few exceptions, even private schools generally reserve a large proportion of their acceptances for applicants within that state). for example, i'm an IL resident, so i'll fare better at the schools in IL than i will at the schools in TX. but just as a warning: virtually no NU grads get into NU's med school that aren't HPME, so don't think that going to NU as an undergrad will get you preferential status. there are conspiracy theories for this but i'm not going to get into them.
again, i don't know much about how the BME program works, but my understanding is that you can only do coops in engineering workplaces--meaning, you can only coop at a hospital if there are active engineering projects going on, and i'm not sure how prevalent this is in hospitals.
hope this helps!
