How do you get so many As?

[sunny123]

How do you get a lot of As? Take courses you know you will do well in. Unfortunately, I figured this out very late in the game, but there were certain subjects that came more natural to me (and the professors were actually nice and not harda$$es). In our bio dept., most of the profs really have it in for students, and very few end up with As. However, as I progressed through the years, the class sizes became much smaller, and the courses ended up being like highschool all over again (where the teacher actually knows your name and cares that you do well!!).

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[acarson]

maybe this is somewhat correct right out of highschool, first quarter freshman year....

but hey, a lot of people stop working as hard when they hit college, even at places like Princeton, I'm sure. A lot of people were pushed really hard in high school to succeed, and that force might not be as strong in college - where the goal of many is to simply graduate with their degree. So basically, by junior and senior year, all the top students at respectable universities probably have more similarities than differences.

On the other side of the coin, there are those like myself who never cracked a book in high school out of apathy, but then wise up and excel in college. I have no doubt you can do well at any school, it's what you put into it.

 

[JAMMAN]

I've been cruising around this forum lately and it just baffles me how sooooo many of you did so well in undergrad. All these MDApp profiles of 3.8-4.0 ... I dicked around for 4 years and I suppose I really never knew how to get that high A yield percentage. I mean I can sneak an A in here and there (or half the time as my GPA suggests) but for perfection all the time... I can't do it.

Any tips for motivation and clearing that huge hump it takes to get from a B to an A? I always thought it was easy to get a B but took real busting of the chops to get an A.

Please remember, getting into medical school is not about getting a 4.0. Simply, put, a 4.0 will not get you into medical school, just like a 3.0 will not keep you out. Alot of things are considered by admissions boards.

First, the college you went to is important. A 4.0 at one school is not necessarily the same as a 4.0 at another school.

Second, your GPA is mostly a screening test. Long before voting admissions board members even interview you, someone who has no vote probably decided whether you were worthy of an interview based on GPA, MCAT.

The bar to get an interview is not set tremendously high, but it is meant to screen out people "not likely to complete medical school without difficulty".

After the initial screen, the rest of the application is reviewed and interviews are granted based on the overall application.

A 4.0 student who sat in his/her room studying all the time has less of a chance at getting in that a 3.5 student with a broad educational experience...i.e. community service, research, employment, student government, etc...

 

[JAMMAN]

No apology necessary. I am sure it is not your intention to specifically pick on Oregon. You'll appreciate how far your UC education will take you during interviews, where you'll see handfuls of your UC classmates but rarely anybody from Oregon. Also to echo some other posts here, the MCAT score is far more important than GPA (assuming it is in a decent range). Premeds everywhere, even at lesser schools, are competitive. Just be grateful that at least there is a curve (I once took an anatomy class that did not have a curve, and 93% is an A. In the end, more than half of the class got Cs, and probably fewer than 5% got As. That's just the way it is sometimes).

This is very true. Do you know how many doctors graduated from UC schools? I don't know exactly, but when I graduated from college, the provost at my UC said that over 90% of people from my school who applied to medical school eventually got in. (not necessarily on the first try, but eventually).

I have come across many, many UC grads in my training! Go UC!

 

[civic4982]

A 4.0 student who sat in his/her room studying all the time has less of a chance at getting in that a 3.5 student with a broad educational experience...i.e. community service, research, employment, student government, etc...

I haven't met a single applicant that did nothing for 4 years of undergrad. People are so competitive nowadays on all aspects that students like this rarely exist.

 

[JimmyMallo]

I'll have to agree with the person who said to pick your profs carefully. Sometimes a bad prof can sqrew you no matter how hard you try. I don't know if it works for all colleges but I use pickaprof.com all the time. It gives you the grades for each professor like %a,b,c,d etc and comments about the kind of class and what to watch our for. It has been invaluable for me so far.

 

[Code Brown]

I'll have to agree with the person who said to pick your profs carefully. Sometimes a bad prof can sqrew you no matter how hard you try. I don't know if it works for all colleges but I use pickaprof.com all the time. It gives you the grades for each professor like %a,b,c,d etc and comments about the kind of class and what to watch our for. It has been invaluable for me so far.

The best website for this is: www.ratemyprofessor.com

Heed Sunny123's advice: Take only classes where you know you will do well. All of this "taking challeging and rigorous classes" is total crap. I called a couple of schools to find out if they need to okay some course changes from what I put on my AMCAS. What I received from both of the schools was the following "We only care that you have completed you pre-reqs, graduate as promised, and maintain your GPA. What classes you use to satisfy this is up to you."

If you want to take classes for fun, audit them, or take them on a pass/fail basis if you know the prof will be a difficult grader.

You can fix a low MCAT, but you can't easily fix a low GPA.

I would also highly recommend getting to know the professor. More often than not, if they know you and know you are trying to get into medical school, they'll take it easier on you and help you out with better grades. Even those that claim to be "fair" end up with some bias.

That's just the game you have to play in this fun process.

 

[45408]

I haven't met a single applicant that did nothing for 4 years of undergrad. People are so competitive nowadays on all aspects that students like this rarely exist.

that's because in your process of doing many things, you met many other people who did many things. You don't meet people who aren't involved because.......they're not involved. There's plenty of them out there.

 

[Stanford_Playah]

Go to school at Stanford or Harvard and you'll always get A's in every class you take.

 

[civic4982]

that's because in your process of doing many things, you met many other people who did many things. You don't meet people who aren't involved because.......they're not involved. There's plenty of them out there.

good point...

 

[PineappleGirl]

I would also highly recommend getting to know the professor. More often than not, if they know you and know you are trying to get into medical school, they'll take it easier on you and help you out with better grades. Even those that claim to be "fair" end up with some bias.

I definitely agree with this one. Make sure you let the profs know you're trying to get into med school before they even have an opportunity to give you a poor grade. I've seen the "but I need an A/A-/B+ in this class in order to get into med school" and the "if I fail this class it will look really bad to adcoms" work in raising a grade. Just try not to be too whiny.