if this isnt massive grade inflation ... (also question for dartmouth ppl)

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Fed Meat said:
Vandy may have been in this group, as well; I don't remember.

can personally attest to the truth of this statement...
 
SarahGM said:
How do we get inflation from the school? As I said, the means for each class are published next to the student's grades for each class right on the transcript, for adcoms to see.

i think it's a more subtle advantage b/c you guys go to ivies...maybe that's what he meant 🙂
 
Fed Meat said:
Tougher grading top schools were Cornell, Emory, Rice, and Chicago. Vandy may have been in this group, as well; I don't remember.

Carnegie Mellon too 😉.
 
wetlightning said:
THAT SOUNDS LIKE WAKE FOREST!!!! another top 30 school with grading from hell.....😱 😱

our sci class median is C-, and our health committee sends out a letter to med schools informing them that only the top 25% of the class at WFU graduates with a 3.3 or above......

hopefully duke will keep this in mind when they see my app! :laugh: rumor has it that they multiply WFU gpa's by 1.1 to equalize them, but i'm sure it's all totally false


I went to Wake Forest too Wet - its downright ridiculous the amount of deflation that goes on. Average gpa is a 2.98 at Wake for all students... not even a B average :scared:
 
BOBODR said:
I went to Wake Forest too Wet - its downright ridiculous the amount of deflation that goes on. Average gpa is a 2.98 at Wake for all students... not even a B average :scared:

are you SERIOUS?! i didn't know that statistic....omg
it really is ridiculous, and yet i find it's hard to make people believe me when i say that, b/c i don't think wake has a huge reputation outside of NC 🙁 😡
 
wetlightning said:
are you SERIOUS?! i didn't know that statistic....omg
it really is ridiculous, and yet i find it's hard to make people believe me when i say that, b/c i don't think wake has a huge reputation outside of NC 🙁 😡

Look at it this way, I graduated with a little over a 3.5 in Aug 2004. This put me in the top 15 % of the class. Apparently if I went to Dartmouth and graduated with a 3.5 I would have been in the bottom 15 % of the class 🙄

Yes the fact is true. Not hard to believe since only a quarter of the class has a 3.3 or higher. The 2.98 is when I graduated in Aug last yr. You can ask the register for this years.

Edit: Apparently some people on this board dont know a joke when they see one, I was joking that it would be the bottom 15 % of the Dartmouth class. Obviously a 3.5 isn't the bottom at any school. Maybe someone can post that humor section on the MCAT thread for Sarah?
 
wow....depressing

have you heard that rumor about duke, as well? or is it just me...
 
BOBODR said:
Look at it this way, I graduated with a little over a 3.5 in Aug 2004. This put me in the top 15 % of the class. Apparently if I went to Dartmouth and graduated with a 3.5 I would have been in the bottom 15 % of the class 🙄

Yes the fact is true. Not hard to believe since only a quarter of the class has a 3.3 or higher. The 2.98 is when I graduated in Aug last yr. You can ask the register for this years.

The fact is false. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/regulations/undergrad/honors.html

"The regulations of the following three paragraphs apply to the awarding on grad*uation of the degree of Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude, magna cum laude, or cum laude:

A student with final average exactly matching or exceeding the final cumulative average of the lowest standing of the past three academic year’s top 5% of gradu*ates will be awarded the degree summa cum laude.

A student with lower standing but with final average exactly matching or exceeding the final cumulative average of the lowest standing of the past three aca*demic year’s top 15% of graduates will be awarded the degree magna cum laude.

A student with lower standing but with final average exactly matching or exceeding the final cumulative average of the lowest standing of the past three aca*demic year’s top 35% of graduates will be awarded the degree cum laude.

The lowest averages for these three groups of graduates in the three academic years 2001-2002 through 2003-2004 were, in descending order, 3.84, 3.72, and 3.55. Accordingly, these values govern the awarding of the corresponding honors in 2004-2005."

Someone with a 3.55 is in the TOP 35% of the class. Not the bottom 15% 🙄

MOREOVER, if someone above calculated the average premed GPA at Dartmouth to be 3.58, are you suggesting Dartmouth premeds are at the bottom of their class?
 
he's talking about the "fact" about wake forest, i believe

the fact being that the avg gpa is 2.98 and that the top 25% have 3.3 or above.
that fact is definitely true, and we know b/c we both go there...

not sure about the dartmouth portion...
 
Whoa chill out. It was a joke. I was talking about WFU and then the list someone else posted. Looks like someone is a little defensive about their school. And I said "apparently" with a rolled eye face.... you need to chill before you hurt yourself.

And I didnt say anything about Dartmouth was a fact. I said it was a fact that the average GPA at Wake was a 2.98... read carefully, I know you can since you and the rest of Dartmouth got an A in English (that is a joke again).
 
BOBODR said:
Whoa chill out. It was a joke. I was talking about WFU and then the list someone else posted. Looks like someone is a little defensive about their school. And I said "apparently" with a rolled eye face.... you need to chill before you hurt yourself.

And I didnt say anything about Dartmouth was a fact. I said it was a fact that the average GPA at Wake was a 2.98... read carefully, I know you can since you and the rest of Dartmouth got an A in Enlgish (that is a joke again).

exactly. 👍
 
BOBODR said:
Whoa chill out. It was a joke. I was talking about WFU and then the list someone else posted. Looks like someone is a little defensive about their school.

Damn straight... I heart my school 😍

I'm sorry if I misread you -- sarcasm is often lost over internet forums.
 
Yes, Wake Forest was indeed in this grouping. Didn't mean to leave y'alls pain out of this sobfest. 😉

To give you all some ACC fodder, UNC had like a 3.05, but Duke's median GPA has risen to a 3.38.

Hate on the Dukies, Decaons! Y'all deserve it!!
 
SarahGM said:
Damn straight... I heart my school 😍

I'm sorry if I misread you -- sarcasm is often lost over internet forums.

honestly, i didn't really catch the sarcasm either--i'm not so good at emoticon symbolism i guess. funny, you'd think we'd have more time to work on our humor given all the grade inflation we apparently have. i think people are just jealous that we can do the salty dog rag so well


dartmouth '05
yale som '09
 
biggreen05 said:
i think people are just jealous that we can do the salty dog rag so well


dartmouth '05
yale som '09

Clearly... If I were them, I'd be less worried about alleged grade inflation and more upset about missing out on things like that... 🙂

Congrats on graduating! Btw, is this who I think it is? If so, a mutual friend's boyfriend that's an '08 at Yale Med tells me how much he looooves it... sounds like you're going to enjoy it there!
 
riceman04 said:
THAT'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CUZ I SURELY DID NOT BENEFIT FROM NO FREAKIN INFLATION.
ORGO - MEAN SET AT A C FREAKIN MINUS
BIOC - HARD AS HELL
GENETICS - OMG....PLEASE NO CUSSING RIGHT NOW
PHYSICAL CHEM - UMMMMMM..............BRAIN DEAD, FLATLINED, TACHYCARDIA?..NOPE...BRADYCARDIA?....NOPE, NOCARDIA?.....YEP!
At rice: GPA = grade point assasination
No really my friend from my alma mater (GO OWLS, 2003 college world series champs) said that when she went on interviews during this past app system all the adcoms were asking her how she managed to maintain a 3.4 at Rice b/c they try to kill your gpa.

Uh... you can get a 4.3 at Rice for an A+... which is the ultimate grade inflation because its not even on the same scale as everyone else!

Also, Houston isn't in the "South" persay (so Rice is the Harvard of Texas... good school though). The bigtime schools in the South (which doesn't include TX) are Duke, Vanderbilt, and Emory.

I dont really care if Dartmouth or anyone else grade inflates to a C+ instead of a C because in the end the MCAT will even things out.
 
stifler said:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/courses/medians/04f.html

if this isnt massive grade inflation then i dont know what is.

wow i go to a school like dartmouth except non ivy and we dont have grades that generous. makes me angry.

okay sorry if i offended you. but yea im giong to try to study away there because itll be cool to leave my college for another one for a semester. so if you are from dartmouth mind leaving me a aim sn or email so i can ask you some questions about upper level sci courses? thanks!

you've got to be kidding -- dartmouth has the lowest grade inflation of all the ivy's, first of all.

also, as another dartmouth alum pointed out on this thread, science classes at dartmouth are TOUGH. i feel confident in saying that science at dartmouth is way harder than science at any other ivy league school, not only because of the low (B-) medians, but also the incredibly heavy workload and the required labs that go with the course, which take up almost as much time as an entire course. (amost 80% of the incoming class starts of as premed, but only around 10% end up applying after going through dartmouth science courses.) i'm a recent dartmouth grad and a chemistry major, and i can assure you that i busted butt for four years at dartmouth to do well in my classes, as i know all of my fellow science major friends did.

consider also the caliber of the school, and the motivation and intellectual abilities of the students who go to dartmouth - particularly the science majors. my physical chemistry class (the hardest class in the major) had a B+ median, but that's because in the class of about 20 students, every single one of us studied our butts off in the library and worked ridiculously hard in the class. i have kids in my classes who got 37, 38, and 42 on their mcats, and they are SMART people.

i'd think twice about making such thoughtless statements as the one you made.
 
but you're implying that other students don't work their butts off...

many kids go to schools where they do work incredibly hard and still face C- averages...especially in a class like p-chem

not to mention, the additional bolster that an ivy reputation gives you in the med school admissions process must be considered

i'm not trying to say that dartmouth kids aren't incredibly smart and hardworking, etc...but there is a definite distinction when most schools (even state schools) receive C averages in hard science courses whereas ivies have a "low" of B+
 
I apologize if i sound arrogant but I left a fairly competitive private school and transferred to UPenn and it honestly was infinitely more difficult at Penn....I realize it is unfair to say and pure speculation but had I remained at the school i was at as a freshman (where I got A's in Bio Chem and Calc) I would have been in med school now and not a trying post bacc.

In general, the premeds at Dartmouth (or a school similar) are all bright with very few excpetions. I agree that in theory grade inflation is unfair....but perhaps so is the discrepancy in difficulty from 2 different private schools...just my thoughts
 
g3pro said:
Knowing that my grades are worth more than what students get at Ivy Leagues is truly rewarding. 👍

not to get nasty, but dream on
 
this thread is painful for me to read.

a few things from a dartmouth 05 (u miami som 09):

science classes at dartmouth are most certainly harder than those at state schools. during an off term, i took a physiology class at miami (i know it's not technically a state school, but for all intents and purposes, it is). not only were the tests easy, but they were all multiple choice, since it's an easier format to grade with huge classes. i had a friend taking a physiology class at dartmouth (used same text as miami) and saw his exams. they were much harder than at miami. there were no multiple choice questions; they were all long, written answers, etc, which is more difficult, since you can be docked points here and there in your responses. you don't see many multiple choice exams at dartmouth b/c the classes are generally smaller than state schools and written "essay" questions are a better way to test a student's knowledge of the subject.

having said this, i'll rehash a point already made. if my friend took the physiology class at both miami and dartmouth, where do you think he'd do better? of course he'd do better at miami. but by making the class median a B instead of a C, dartmouth doesn't penalize my friend for attending a school like dartmouth. with gpa playing a huge role in med school admissions (at least to make the first cut of interviews), dartmouth doesn't want to jeopardize its students' chances of admisson just b/c their classes are harder than "state school" students'. making medians in the B range, rather than the C range, accounts for this problem.

stifler: i've taken the chem 61/62 series as a chem major. both classes are a lot of work. not only is the material difficult, but you also have to take into account that terms at dartmouth are 10 weeks, so everything is probably faster-paced than you're used to. the lab writeups are usually quite frustrating as well. however, as people have pointed out, the median grade usually works itself out to be in the B+ range (but you'll definitely have to work for it).
 
SarahGM said:
How do we get inflation from the school? As I said, the means for each class are published next to the student's grades for each class right on the transcript, for adcoms to see.
Because you have a high numerical GPA. If you don't look at the transcript, which I doubt happens all the time, have a 3.5 is considered to be a good GPA meaning you were near the top of your class (not the median like at Dartmouth). That is from the school.

Then people hear the Dartmouth name and assume if you have a 3.5 from Dartmouth, you are near the top of an elite school.
 
stifler said:
how about one of your dartmouth ppl help me figure out what physical chemistry is like at dartmouth cuz i might be heading over in a year to take it and to study away

i highly suggest it -- you'll probably get your butt kicked and rescind everything you've said on this thread.
 
Stifler:

I find your posts curious, since you start out by bashing Dartmouth as a "notorious" grade inflater, when it is near the bottom of the Ivy league in terms of grade inflation, and then you say that you want to transfer to the school.

A couple of suggestions and points if you are a chem major:

The undergraduate chem major, i.e. the pedagogy, at Dartmouth is HIGHLY respected. Although the school is not a big research school in any field, certainly not chemistry (as compared to Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, etc.), its teaching is one of the very best. If you do well in those classes, and do some research with the faculty (some of which are quite excellent: Lemal is at the forefront of fluorine organic chemistry, Gribble is a reknowned natural products/synthetic chemist, and Winn has written an excellent textbook called "Physical Chemistry" that are used in the upper level 71, 72, 73 pchem classes, for example); you can basically go to grad school wherever you want.

The year I graduated, out of less than ten students who went on to grad school, one went to Harvard, another to Berkeley, another to Caltech, another to Chicago. I know that in this last graduating class, one person (maybe more) is going to Berkeley, and in the year before I graduated, one guy went to MIT. I'm sure there are even more that I have not heard of. The above schools are really the very best in chemistry in the world. So, yes, a Dartmouth degree in chemistry is very well respected, and those A's are deserved, despite your claims of "notorious grade inflation."
 
wetlightning said:
but you're implying that other students don't work their butts off...

many kids go to schools where they do work incredibly hard and still face C- averages...especially in a class like p-chem

not to mention, the additional bolster that an ivy reputation gives you in the med school admissions process must be considered

i'm not trying to say that dartmouth kids aren't incredibly smart and hardworking, etc...but there is a definite distinction when most schools (even state schools) receive C averages in hard science courses whereas ivies have a "low" of B+

for your first point and last points, read the post right below yours.

secondly, i'm sorry but you clearly don't know what you're talking about. have you applied to med school yet? i actually got a phonecall from one of the med schools i applied to (by my regional admissions officer) telling me they were really impressed by my application, especially my research experience and publication, but saying that they hadn't been offering interviews to anyone below a certain gpa, which i was just under. some schools may take your undergrad college into account when you apply, but there are cutoffs and a numbers game that you simply cannot get past in the admissions process. clearly, my ivy league institution reputation didn't do much for me at that school other than earn me an apologetic phonecall. i'm sure that's why i wasn't interviewed at several other schools i've applied to as well.
 
BrettBatchelor said:
Because you have a high numerical GPA. If you don't look at the transcript, which I doubt happens all the time, have a 3.5 is considered to be a good GPA meaning you were near the top of your class (not the median like at Dartmouth). That is from the school.

Then people hear the Dartmouth name and assume if you have a 3.5 from Dartmouth, you are near the top of an elite school.

sorry sweetie, but adcoms are smarter than that. in fact, a number of prestigious med schools have certain adcom members assigned to specific schools so they are very familiar with the nature of the school, as well as grade inflation patterns.
 
I realize that but also the problem there lies outside the realm of professional school.
I am talking about also gaining employment where HR isn't always up to date on these issues.
 
BrettBatchelor said:
I realize that but also the problem there lies outside the realm of professional school.
I am talking about also gaining employment where HR isn't always up to date on these issues.

We all have gripes about something or other, I am sure. My experience with Organic Chemistry at Dartmouth was like that. We get 1 credit per course (as opposed to 3 or 4 at other schools), but of course the total credit requirement is less. However, for organic chemistry, we had over 4 hours of lecture time, along with 6 hours of lab time > so 10+ hours of just being in class or in lab (not counting the huge amount of studying involved). We got just one credit for that class, just as if we had taken an English class that required 3X less in-class/lab time. And all our effort in lab didn't even go into our grade! You had to do well in the labs NOT to have your test-based final grade suffer, but it was practically impossible to improve your test-based grade with the labs, despite the long hours in lab and the tedious reports.
 
I am one of the biggest supporter of "life is unfair" and "everything is not equal". I was just trying to give a different perspective. If it would have been cost effective for me to go to a prestige school, I would have gone and taken the advantages that are provided. Don't feel guilty.
 
hunniejl said:
not to get nasty, but dream on

It's reality. A 3.5 from Dartmuff or Harvard does not trump a 3.5 or 3.6 at a non-Ivy. Sorry to say. kthxbye.
 
hunniejl said:
for your first point and last points, read the post right below yours.

secondly, i'm sorry but you clearly don't know what you're talking about. have you applied to med school yet? i actually got a phonecall from one of the med schools i applied to (by my regional admissions officer) telling me they were really impressed by my application, especially my research experience and publication, but saying that they hadn't been offering interviews to anyone below a certain gpa, which i was just under. some schools may take your undergrad college into account when you apply, but there are cutoffs and a numbers game that you simply cannot get past in the admissions process. clearly, my ivy league institution reputation didn't do much for me at that school other than earn me an apologetic phonecall. i'm sure that's why i wasn't interviewed at several other schools i've applied to as well.

this thread is ridiculous because most of it is anecdotal anyway. perhaps there isn't a hard and fast rule about ivies, but i definitely think there is a trend...and there are always exceptions.

no, i am currently in the process of applying to med school, so i don't have firsthand experience of this...we'll see as i go along

also, this has been taken over by dartmouth people defending their school, so i think i'm done with it 😛

good luck all 👍
 
Fantasy Sports said:
Uh... you can get a 4.3 at Rice for an A+... which is the ultimate grade inflation because its not even on the same scale as everyone else!

Also, Houston isn't in the "South" persay (so Rice is the Harvard of Texas... good school though). The bigtime schools in the South (which doesn't include TX) are Duke, Vanderbilt, and Emory.

I dont really care if Dartmouth or anyone else grade inflates to a C+ instead of a C because in the end the MCAT will even things out.

Yeah, I have a few A+'s (97<). But you cannot use them on the AMCAS system.
Houston is in southeast texas. If that is not part of the south then something must be wrong. It's just that texas is so massive (took me longer to drive from Houston to El Paso than to drive from El Paso to Los Angeles).
 
hunniejl said:
sorry sweetie, but adcoms are smarter than that. in fact, a number of prestigious med schools have certain adcom members assigned to specific schools so they are very familiar with the nature of the school, as well as grade inflation patterns.

Hey hunniejl, I just realized who you are. Met you once at Woodstock (with M. Yam...) and took inorganic the same year. Applying this year or last year? I'm applying now, hope to get all the stuff within a week.
 
mercaptovizadeh said:
Stifler:

I find your posts curious, since you start out by bashing Dartmouth as a "notorious" grade inflater, when it is near the bottom of the Ivy league in terms of grade inflation, and then you say that you want to transfer to the school.

A couple of suggestions and points if you are a chem major:

The undergraduate chem major, i.e. the pedagogy, at Dartmouth is HIGHLY respected. Although the school is not a big research school in any field, certainly not chemistry (as compared to Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, etc.), its teaching is one of the very best. If you do well in those classes, and do some research with the faculty (some of which are quite excellent: Lemal is at the forefront of fluorine organic chemistry, Gribble is a reknowned natural products/synthetic chemist, and Winn has written an excellent textbook called "Physical Chemistry" that are used in the upper level 71, 72, 73 pchem classes, for example); you can basically go to grad school wherever you want.

The year I graduated, out of less than ten students who went on to grad school, one went to Harvard, another to Berkeley, another to Caltech, another to Chicago. I know that in this last graduating class, one person (maybe more) is going to Berkeley, and in the year before I graduated, one guy went to MIT. I'm sure there are even more that I have not heard of. The above schools are really the very best in chemistry in the world. So, yes, a Dartmouth degree in chemistry is very well respected, and those A's are deserved, despite your claims of "notorious grade inflation."


This is turning into a pissing contest. My OChem is better than your OChem. My school is better than your school. Oh yeah! It's all bullsh*t. You learn the same material in Dartmouth's chem as you do in Harvard, Ohio State, Santa Barbara Community College, Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc. Yeah, your experience and fellow students might be different, but every school has their share of brains and dipsh*ts. Most schools brag about their noble prizes and fields medals. Every school has alumni that went on to bigger and more prestigious places. If going to an ivy league makes you hot s h it, what about those who turn ivy leagues down? What are they? HOT HOT s h it?
 
squeage said:
science classes at dartmouth are most certainly harder than those at state schools. during an off term, i took a physiology class at miami (i know it's not technically a state school, but for all intents and purposes, it is). not only were the tests easy, but they were all multiple choice, since it's an easier format to grade with huge classes. i had a friend taking a physiology class at dartmouth (used same text as miami) and saw his exams. they were much harder than at miami. there were no multiple choice questions; they were all long, written answers, etc, which is more difficult, since you can be docked points here and there in your responses. you don't see many multiple choice exams at dartmouth b/c the classes are generally smaller than state schools and written "essay" questions are a better way to test a student's knowledge of the subject.
As much as I think people unfairly assume that every class at every upper-level school is grade inflated, I also think that your comments are ridiculous. An off-term class? Like summer? Any "off-term" class I've taken has always been easier, and it was multiple choice. Same prof during the spring? Essay exam. Judging state schools because you took a summer class is ridiculous and asinine.
 
Remember. It also depends on the professor. I daresay there are professors in community college who are harder than let's say.. harvard.
 
"As much as I think people unfairly assume that every class at every upper-level school is grade inflated, I also think that your comments are ridiculous. An off-term class? Like summer? Any "off-term" class I've taken has always been easier, and it was multiple choice. Same prof during the spring? Essay exam. Judging state schools because you took a summer class is ridiculous and asinine."


b/c of the D-plan (a quirky dartmouth enrollment pattern thing), i took the fall term of my junior year off from dartmouth (hence "off term"). it was then that i took the physiology class at miami, during their regular fall term with full-time students and with a professor who had regularly tought the course in years past.

hope that clears up any confusion.
 
TheMightyAngus said:
This is turning into a pissing contest. My OChem is better than your OChem. My school is better than your school. Oh yeah! It's all bullsh*t. You learn the same material in Dartmouth's chem as you do in Harvard, Ohio State, Santa Barbara Community College, Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc. Yeah, your experience and fellow students might be different, but every school has their share of brains and dipsh*ts. Most schools brag about their noble prizes and fields medals. Every school has alumni that went on to bigger and more prestigious places. If going to an ivy league makes you hot s h it, what about those who turn ivy leagues down? What are they? HOT HOT s h it?

Listen, we Dartmouth students and alumni didn't start this thread. Someone else, who doesn't go to Dartmouth, started this thread, just so he/she could bash the "terrible" grade-inflation that we have here. Then, other imbeciles like g3pro chimed in. This is typical. It isn't us Ivy "snobs" who start threads about the "easy" education at state schools. It's always the other way around. Whatever, this is so old. Just mind your own business and support your own school if you like, but stop bashing ours.
 
mercaptovizadeh said:
Stifler:

I find your posts curious, since you start out by bashing Dartmouth as a "notorious" grade inflater, when it is near the bottom of the Ivy league in terms of grade inflation, and then you say that you want to transfer to the school.

A couple of suggestions and points if you are a chem major:

The undergraduate chem major, i.e. the pedagogy, at Dartmouth is HIGHLY respected. Although the school is not a big research school in any field, certainly not chemistry (as compared to Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, etc.), its teaching is one of the very best. If you do well in those classes, and do some research with the faculty (some of which are quite excellent: Lemal is at the forefront of fluorine organic chemistry, Gribble is a reknowned natural products/synthetic chemist, and Winn has written an excellent textbook called "Physical Chemistry" that are used in the upper level 71, 72, 73 pchem classes, for example); you can basically go to grad school wherever you want.

The year I graduated, out of less than ten students who went on to grad school, one went to Harvard, another to Berkeley, another to Caltech, another to Chicago. I know that in this last graduating class, one person (maybe more) is going to Berkeley, and in the year before I graduated, one guy went to MIT. I'm sure there are even more that I have not heard of. The above schools are really the very best in chemistry in the world. So, yes, a Dartmouth degree in chemistry is very well respected, and those A's are deserved, despite your claims of "notorious grade inflation."

for one i not transferring to dartmouth because i am very happy where i am. i would only see what it is like at dartmouth and to avoid the slaughter in physical chemistry. i attend a school of dartmouth's caliber if not higher (according to us news).

also i think its very amusing that people who attend ivies hold themselves in such high esteem. let it be known that just because you attend an ivy doesnt mean others are not of your caliber and cant go through what you have endured. i chose not to matriculate at one of the ivy league schools for various reasons, but one of them being the type of personalities that some (a few) students have.

anyways, im sure your physical chemistry class is hard or even really hard as are all your science courses. at my school we have a similar system like dartmouth 1 credit for the course and that includes the lab. no lab not credit for the course. and labs take just as long as the course itself. i think i know very how difficult sciences can be. as for the B+ in physical chem for an median, its a reason why i am considering studying for one semester, because the median at my school is a C and dartmouth certainty has a lot of respect for courses at my school seeing as that any course you take at my school you will get credit for at yours.

anyways enough of the arguing, i have my opinions you have your own. if i attend dartmouth for one semester i will see if there really is grade inflation or not, but more so to learn physical chemistry, and compete with the best (yes i think dartmouth is a wonderful school, and had I not been accepted to my current college I would be very happy there). but i am curious what is the difference between 61 and 71? and as for the math involved, do you suggest multivariable as a prereq. I am prepared to bust ass because it is the hardest course in my major.

as for the ass kicking ill receive? ill take it. its expected. its pchem, but if i earn a B- or above in it im not rescinding what I said because I would not get that grade with that professor in that course.
 
stifler said:
for one i not transferring to dartmouth because i am very happy where i am. i would only see what it is like at dartmouth and to avoid the slaughter in physical chemistry. i attend a school of dartmouth's caliber if not higher (according to us news).

also i think its very amusing that people who attend ivies hold themselves in such high esteem. let it be known that just because you attend an ivy doesnt mean others are not of your caliber and cant go through what you have endured. i chose not to matriculate at one of the ivy league schools for various reasons, but one of them being the type of personalities that some (a few) students have.

anyways, im sure your physical chemistry class is hard or even really hard as are all your science courses. at my school we have a similar system like dartmouth 1 credit for the course and that includes the lab. no lab not credit for the course. and labs take just as long as the course itself. i think i know very how difficult sciences can be. as for the B+ in physical chem for an median, its a reason why i am considering studying for one semester, because the median at my school is a C and dartmouth certainty has a lot of respect for courses at my school seeing as that any course you take at my school you will get credit for at yours.

anyways enough of the arguing, i have my opinions you have your own. if i attend dartmouth for one semester i will see if there really is grade inflation or not, but more so to learn physical chemistry, and compete with the best (yes i think dartmouth is a wonderful school, and had I not been accepted to my current college I would be very happy there). but i am curious what is the difference between 61 and 71? and as for the math involved, do you suggest multivariable as a prereq. I am prepared to bust ass because it is the hardest course in my major.

as for the ass kicking ill receive? ill take it. its expected. its pchem, but if i earn a B- or above in it im not rescinding what I said because I would not get that grade with that professor in that course.

Well, I don't have time to comment on the rest of your post, we seem to be running in circles anyway. But I'm glad to assist with course logistics.

Chem 61, 62 is a sequence designed for people who are less excited about rigorous math and especially for pre-meds and biologically/organic oriented majors. In practice, the material is practically the same, and, depending on the professor, the tests may be just as hard as in the 70 sequence, but will cover fewer topics.

Briefly, when I took it, 61 covered thermodynamics (all three laws, principles of temperature, debye and einstein heat capacities), the ideal gas law and manipulations with it, maxwell cross relations, E, H, A/F and G (the Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies) in differential form, van't Hoff equation, Clapeyron equation, phases of matter, as well as ideal and nonideal solutions, colligative properties, and gas behavior and some effusion.

I've also covered the material for 71. It also covers thermodynamics a bit more intensely, and all of the above, as well as a bit of surface chemistry, and especially real gases (a lot on that).

To give you a heads up, Ira Levine's book "Physical Chemistry" is used in C61/62 and John Winn's book of the same name is used for C71/72/73. You could perhaps borrow one or both beforehand to see which appeals to you more.

As for the particular math you need, they require vector calculus for the 70s and just multivariable for the 60s, but in my experience, 60s should suffice for either sequence. You really don't need to know vectors for either 61 or 71, though maybe they are more relevant for 72 since it works with the bra ket (vector space) notation for quantum mechanics.

If you do choose to spend a term at Dartmouth, have a great time and enjoy yourself! 61 is in the spring, and in mid April through June, it can be very nice up there!
 
mercaptovizadeh said:
Well, I don't have time to comment on the rest of your post, we seem to be running in circles anyway. But I'm glad to assist with course logistics.

Chem 61, 62 is a sequence designed for people who are less excited about rigorous math and especially for pre-meds and biologically/organic oriented majors. In practice, the material is practically the same, and, depending on the professor, the tests may be just as hard as in the 70 sequence, but will cover fewer topics.

Briefly, when I took it, 61 covered thermodynamics (all three laws, principles of temperature, debye and einstein heat capacities), the ideal gas law and manipulations with it, maxwell cross relations, E, H, A/F and G (the Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies) in differential form, van't Hoff equation, Clapeyron equation, phases of matter, as well as ideal and nonideal solutions, colligative properties, and gas behavior and some effusion.

I've also covered the material for 71. It also covers thermodynamics a bit more intensely, and all of the above, as well as a bit of surface chemistry, and especially real gases (a lot on that).

To give you a heads up, Ira Levine's book "Physical Chemistry" is used in C61/62 and John Winn's book of the same name is used for C71/72/73. You could perhaps borrow one or both beforehand to see which appeals to you more.

As for the particular math you need, they require vector calculus for the 70s and just multivariable for the 60s, but in my experience, 60s should suffice for either sequence. You really don't need to know vectors for either 61 or 71, though maybe they are more relevant for 72 since it works with the bra ket (vector space) notation for quantum mechanics.

If you do choose to spend a term at Dartmouth, have a great time and enjoy yourself! 61 is in the spring, and in mid April through June, it can be very nice up there!

how do i find out who teaches 61 or 71? i can check out their ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. and is the lab required for 61 and an integral part of the course? at my school its a huge lab course physical chemistry lab, but its not required for biochem majors, just chem majors. so i was wondering if i can get out of the lab for 61 or does it count for part of the grade?
 
stifler said:
how do i find out who teaches 61 or 71? i can check out their ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. and is the lab required for 61 and an integral part of the course? at my school its a huge lab course physical chemistry lab, but its not required for biochem majors, just chem majors. so i was wondering if i can get out of the lab for 61 or does it count for part of the grade?

Both 61 and 71 require labs and they are integral to the course. They count for 15% of the course, but if you don't do even one of them, you fail the class. In both courses you do 4 labs. In 71, you have a choice of what four labs to do out of 6-7. The possible labs in 71 have been partial molar volume, differential scanning calorimetry, bomb calorimetry, compressibility of gases, liquid-liquid mixing, ionization constants of cysteine, and fumarate-malate equilibrium.

When I took 61, the four labs were hand-picked by the instructor to be biologically oriented: ionization constants of cysteine (which is very hard), fumarate-malate equilibrium, DSC, and bomb calorimetry. Another instructor gives the same options as in 71, so that depends on the instructor.

The lab write ups can be hard, with full error analysis. My lab reports were usually 25-30 pgs long and sometimes had up to 20 figures.

You may be able to find out who teaches the classes by looking up the ORC under the Dartmouth webpage. I can tell you this, though: 71 is usually taught by Lipson or Cantor (usually Lipson), and 61 is taught by Cantor, Lipson, or Winn. I took 61 with Winn, and he was excellent.
 
hmm...at ucla, most premed courses if you get the class average, it turns out to be a C+/B-/B. I think the average student body GPA here is around a 3.0...so i guess our grades ARE inflated somewhat...but then again our rate of med school applicants who get in to at least 1 med school is only around 50%...
 
mercaptovizadeh said:
Hey hunniejl, I just realized who you are. Met you once at Woodstock (with M. Yam...) and took inorganic the same year. Applying this year or last year? I'm applying now, hope to get all the stuff within a week.

Small world! I applied this past year, and decided on Case Western for med school. Good luck with your apps!
 
g3pro said:
It's reality. A 3.5 from Dartmuff or Harvard does not trump a 3.5 or 3.6 at a non-Ivy. Sorry to say. kthxbye.

oh really? interesting, given the admission stats to top grad schools, med schools, and law schools if you compare numbers from Ivies and state schools. not to discredit prestigious non-ivy schools, because the prestige of a school is what matters. i don't think anyone will deny that adcom committees acknowledge that the prestige of school adds value to grades earned there.

also, heh, that statement is not quite what you wrote earlier:

Originally Posted by g3pro
Knowing that my grades are worth more than what students get at Ivy Leagues is truly rewarding.
 
Wow what a great thread. Seriously thanks for the laughs.

I'd just like to say, in a self-congradgulatory (sp?) way:

I didn't go to an Ivy League School. I went to a state school, one that is at least regionally, if not nationally known as a *Party School*. I don't know what it would have been like if I had gone to an Ivy League school. I don't think I would have wanted to go, and I didn't.

College was the best 5 years of my life, my only regret is that I didn't make it seven. I had a great time, and while I DID take PChem, and all kinds of Math and these other dreaded classes, I still found time to enjoy life.

Don't worry too much about all this stuff to let it rob you of your 18-22yo time.

Be Smart, Work Hard, Always take the "Hard" Classes, Teach Others (You'll Learn more), realize that just because someone learned to solve Single (or multi Dimensional) Harmonic Oscillators, it doesn't mean that he/she is a better person than you. Realize that because you can apply the 50 different ways to get the z in PV=znRT, it doesn't make you better than someone else. Let your work eithic and ability impress those in academia around you, so that they will praise you (in grades, and in letters).

Have Fun.


Oh, and to that guy that said that Essay tests are harder than Multiple Choice. Really.. ROFL. That has to be one of the most ignorant statments I've ever read. I have no idea where you ever got that notion. You can't even argue, especially not on a forum surrounding medical education. The "hardness" of a test, essay or multiple choice, can be set by the professor with ease.
 
TheMightyAngus said:
If going to an ivy league makes you hot s h it, what about those who turn ivy leagues down? What are they? HOT HOT s h it?

You make a good point, but...

Going on that line, then what about people who turned down the schools that other people turned ivy's down for in order to attend an ivy? hot hot hot ****? 😉
 
mercaptovizadeh said:
Listen, we Dartmouth students and alumni didn't start this thread. Someone else, who doesn't go to Dartmouth, started this thread, just so he/she could bash the "terrible" grade-inflation that we have here. Then, other imbeciles like g3pro chimed in. This is typical. It isn't us Ivy "snobs" who start threads about the "easy" education at state schools. It's always the other way around. Whatever, this is so old. Just mind your own business and support your own school if you like, but stop bashing ours.

This is just so true. Basically these people throw mud all over your accomplishments and your school. Then when you defend it they call you snobs. The hypocrisy is disgusting.
 
stifler said:
for one i not transferring to dartmouth because i am very happy where i am. i would only see what it is like at dartmouth and to avoid the slaughter in physical chemistry. i attend a school of dartmouth's caliber if not higher (according to us news).

also i think its very amusing that people who attend ivies hold themselves in such high esteem. let it be known that just because you attend an ivy doesnt mean others are not of your caliber and cant go through what you have endured. i chose not to matriculate at one of the ivy league schools for various reasons, but one of them being the type of personalities that some (a few) students have.

anyways, im sure your physical chemistry class is hard or even really hard as are all your science courses. at my school we have a similar system like dartmouth 1 credit for the course and that includes the lab. no lab not credit for the course. and labs take just as long as the course itself. i think i know very how difficult sciences can be. as for the B+ in physical chem for an median, its a reason why i am considering studying for one semester, because the median at my school is a C and dartmouth certainty has a lot of respect for courses at my school seeing as that any course you take at my school you will get credit for at yours.

anyways enough of the arguing, i have my opinions you have your own. if i attend dartmouth for one semester i will see if there really is grade inflation or not, but more so to learn physical chemistry, and compete with the best (yes i think dartmouth is a wonderful school, and had I not been accepted to my current college I would be very happy there). but i am curious what is the difference between 61 and 71? and as for the math involved, do you suggest multivariable as a prereq. I am prepared to bust ass because it is the hardest course in my major.

as for the ass kicking ill receive? ill take it. its expected. its pchem, but if i earn a B- or above in it im not rescinding what I said because I would not get that grade with that professor in that course.

and i think it's all very amusing how you, as a student from what may be a prestigious "non-ivy league" school (as you so differentiated), have a combination of the snobbery you so hypocritically accuse us of having AND some sort of inferiority complex that makes you bash and downplay the caliber of ivy league institutions.

and as a sidenote, i chose not to go to a top liberal arts college (using your US News rankins) because of financial aid packages, and i'm glad i chose to attend a school where some may have a hypocritical snobbery/inferiority complex about those who attend ivies. we, at least, have the tact and courtesy not to start a thread discrediting the value of grades earned at non-ivy institutions, whatever our views may be on that topic.

btw, the B+ median for Pchem was unique, I believe, to the year I took the course because four very brilliant and intensely studious students with 3.85+ gpa's (which apparently holds no weight with you) and 36, 37, 38, and 42 MCAT scores were in the course and consistently scored above an 90 on the exams. take away their scores and the median would, without a doubt, drop below the B+ mark. anyway, if you want to derive the schrodenger equation in class, and then derive other equations you never even learned about on the 4 hour exams i had in 61, then you're welcome to try out the "grade inflation" at dartmouth.
 
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