I'd like to say yes, it is. Obviously I'm biased, and want something to hold over my friends. But I do have some reasoning.
Sure, the number of applicants accepted vs schools is somewhat similar (or at least, thats what all the number crunchers on here seem to be saying). I'm not sure this includes the DO schools (can anyone set me straight about this? it almost seems like a pseudo hollistic doctor, but with all the normal med training. Definitely seems to be a stigma attached to it). So maybe the numbers are a little different.
I think pre-vet may also be a little more prepared/expecting how hard its going to be. When I started filling out the VMCAS, and saw I had to plug in every grade, I was a little annoyed that i had to hunt down my transcript, but did it. My old roommate, when applying to med school, acted like the world was ending when he had to do that, AND convert his A+ to As (at my school, an A+ = 4.3333, so we lost a bit of GPA when applying to our schools). Which also meant he had to do some basic math to recalculate his GPA. Again, I was a bit bothered, but oh well.
Don't even get me started on the girl I overheard at the bus stop. In once sentence, she was talking about her B-'s in all her prereqs (I know, thats not a terrible grade, but I'm almost ashamed of the B's I had to type into the VMCAS), then moving onto how a local school took people with sub 3.0 GPAs (again, its doable, not to be down on those with it, i'm just a GPAist somewhat), and then moved onto how Obama was ruining her chosen profession with the health care bill. I just wanted to yell "Seriously? You're talking about having a sub 3.0 GPA and having to apply to colleges that accept that, and its Obama that is holding you back?"
Also, so many med students seem to go into the profession without much relevant experience at all. I don't know all the averages of hours, but I know its at least 2k or so total. Sure, that's bumped up by the non traditionals, or the people applying several times, those that took a year off, or even just the people that worked their asses off. But I'd be surprised if several of my friends would top 300 hours of relevant work. Do I think if pre vet weren't required to get so many experience hours, the collective GPA might improve? maybe. Do I think this is a good idea? No! I think anyone entering any sort of professional program should have experience so they know what they are getting into.
I will concede that the MCAT sounds like a mean test. But it also just seems to be a test on everything you should know. Yes, that's a lot of information, and it might be hard to remember the different forms of hemoglobin for the different life stages, or what plank's constant is, but it's all stuff that will definitely come up again, and you would do well to remember. But how accurate of a test is the GRE? I will probably not have to do analogies during vet school, or during a practice. Clients will (hopefully) not quiz me : Fluffy's GI tract:Toast as a shingle: x (which you then have to cross multiply, then divide by toast, in order to find the answer...according to algebra). Stupid point, but its not testing us on things we've necessarily learned, or even need to learn (yes, having a high vocab can be good, yes you should be able to multiple and use logic, etc, but it's not testing you on what you've focused on).
So long post, weird/odd/shaky points. I feel its a lil tougher, due to different challenges, to get into vet school, but both are still tough.
And I believe PA, NY and MA residents at the very least can sympathize...
