Med school vs. Law school question

[DMBFan]

One of my friends is in law school and claims that it is not only much harder than undergrad (which I agree on her with) but it's harder than medical school bec. in med school you can do mediocre in your classes and at the end of the day, still get residency/job. in law school, she says, you are competing with the rest of the class so you have to be at the top to get a job. anyways, my question is, what do you guys who are in med school think? I think that medical school would be just as hard (if not harder) considering the fact that you obviously have larger things at stake in rotations (i.e. someone's life) and I doubt that you can get "mediocre" grades very easily (some studying is still required!)....opinions?

also, anyone know if a law school which is ranked say, 30 is easier to get into than med school taht is equivalently ranked 30?

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[Trekkie963]

Being just a lowly undergraduate right now, I cannot comment with certainty about whether medical school is harder than law school or vice versa. I would tend to agree with you, though, that medical school is probably harder, not just because of the responsibility placed on students during their clinical years but also because of the immense amount of knowledge students have to take in during their first two years.

As far as the ease of getting admission to a top 30 law school vs. a top 30 medical school, I can say that it is approximately 9 hojillion times harder to get into the medical school.

 

[bigbaubdi]

My cousin is going through the law school admissions process right now....IMHO, law schools are way too obsessed with the LSAT. They don't do interviews either, so it seems like it would be more difficult to find bright, dedicated people, who may not be represented adequately by LSAT scores.

As for the difficulty of law school vs med school, I think the best people to comment would be MD/JDs.

 

[fullefect1]

What would be a typical law school accepted students stats?

 

[docmemi]

it does appear to me that law school adm process is more based on numbers.

i heard the acg gpa for top 10 places like yale, etc is around 3.9!

 

[juddson]

I have been to law school and am about to start med school.

From what I know about law school and med school (or even just the premed classes) there is an element of truth in what both of you are saying.

First, law school is not like medical school. Even if you do poorly from the worst medical school in the country, you are going to get a high paying job and make a good living, and not have to try to hard to get it. On the other hand, the situation changes dramatically depending on what law school you go to.

I went to Columbia, which is top 5 law school. I can tell you that I did only middle of the road (and worked about middle of the road hard) and "waltzed" right into a sic figure job right after school. I had many many many interviews, and several six figure job offers. If I had to judge my work based on the standard of a med school that had (F)ail, (P)ass,(H)igh (P)ass, and (H)onors grades, I would say that I did "P" work (with a spattering of "HP" work) and put forth "P" effort (with a spattering of "HP" effort) in law school.

If I had NOT been going to a top 15 law school (let alone a top 5 school) I can tell you that "middle of the road" work and grades would NOT have landed me a good job. And in fact, from a middle of the road school like, say, my undergrad institution's law school (Case Western), only the top 10% of the class got jobs like the one I "waltzs" into after graduation. AND, I can say emphatically that anybody who graduated in the top 10% of thier class at Case Western Law worked harder than I did at Columbia.

So, if you friend is at a law school at or below a rank of about 15 or so (particulary in this tight labor market) he is absolutely RIGHT in the sense that he is going to have to work a lot harder and get A's to ensure himself a good job on graduation than the typical med student who is pulling "P" after "P".

THAT SAID, there is NO question in my mind that the subject matter of medical school (and lets face it, freshman general chemistry) is more "challenging" than most of what you learn in law school (certain classes like corporate income tax and securities regulation notwithstanding - those are ****ing Hard). So in that sense, you are right. Medical school covers more difficult material.

Let me make two more points. First, if he has just finished his first semester in law school (particularly at an elite school) he might genuinly feel it is harder than med school. i was terrified my first semester and DID work harder than I had ever dreamed of in undergrad. SOOOOOOO much reading. But by second semester (and certainly by third year, when I only went to class once a week or so) law school can be largely ignored.

The second point is that I found the BAR exam to be particulary difficult and challenging - more challenging than, say, a biochemistry or embryology final (or the MCAT for that matter). The level of understanding and nuance required to pass it (particularly if, I hear, you are located in NY or California where the failure rate is 30-40% I am told - not sure if this is true) is fairly high - and it is not the sort of understanding one gets by pounding facts into his head.

I will be very interested to see how med school turns out.

judd

 

[jlee9531]

its easier to get into a law school (since there are so many of them) than it is to get into a med school.

in the end we do end up with a job because of the limited number of students that enter the medical profession every year.

but there has been a discussion on this before so if you want you can do a search on sdn to look for threads that talked bout this.


as for my personal opinion...i think med school is harder than law school. you still have to work hard just to pass most of the classes...

 

[Trekkie963]

Originally posted by docmemi
it does appear to me that law school adm process is more based on numbers.

i heard the acg gpa for top 10 places like yale, etc is around 3.9!

I wouldn't be surprised if the average GPA for Yale is around a 3.9. It is by far the hardest law school to get into. I think Stanford and Harvard have GPA's more around 3.8, and the other top 10 schools would be closer to 3.6.

Getting into ANY law school is significantly different from getting into ANY medical school because there are relatively few medical schools (and few medical student positions). There are far more law schools, many of which have class sizes of 300+ people.

 

[Megalofyia]

This is really hard to judge. Certainly there are easy law schools but those people dont end up becoming big high profile lawyers and dont make the big bucks.

This is kind of like comparing medical school and vet school. There are far fewer vet schools and yet, in the past, it was easier to get into a vet school than a med school. So saying that because there are more law schools so that makes it easier isn't necessarily true.

Both have their very diffuclt parts. In medical school there is alot of information that you need to know because you will someday be responcible for someone's life. In law school there are LOTS of laws to memorise and in many ways you are still responsible for someone's life.

 

[Farrah]

Originally posted by juddson

I went to Columbia, which is top 5 law school. I can tell you that I did only middle of the road (and worked about middle of the road hard) and "waltzed" right into a sic figure job right after school. I had many many many interviews, and several six figure job offers.

What prompted you to leave all that, 6 figures and all, and go for med school?

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by Megalofyia
In law school there are LOTS of laws to memorise and in many ways you are still responsible for someone's life. [/B]

Fortunately, there are no laws to memorize in law school, just concepts and the basic elements of the constitution.

Judd

 

[Brickhouse]

Originally posted by DMBFan
One of my friends is in law school and claims that it is not only much harder than undergrad (which I agree on her with) but it's harder than medical school bec. in med school you can do mediocre in your classes and at the end of the day, still get residency/job. in law school, she says, you are competing with the rest of the class so you have to be at the top to get a job. anyways, my question is, what do you guys who are in med school think?

Does it matter?

 

[Chirurgien]

Originally posted by jlee9531
its easier to get into a law school (since there are so many of them) than it is to get into a med school.

Actually, there are only 187 US law schools. So, compared to 126 US medical schools, they're pretty close. 😎

http://www.lsac.org/LSAC.asp?url=lsac/law-school-links.asp

 

[Trekkie963]

Originally posted by Chirurgien
Actually, there are only 187 US law schools. So, compared to 126 US medical schools, they're pretty close. 😎

http://www.lsac.org/LSAC.asp?url=lsac/law-school-links.asp

Yes, but those 187 law schools have WAY more spots for students than do the 126 medical schools. It is not uncommon for a law school class to have 500 people in it.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Originally posted by juddson
Fortunately, there are no laws to memorize in law school, just concepts and the basic elements of the constitution.

Judd

Given your writing style and the way you use grammar, I find it very difficult to believe that you attended Columbia law school.

 

[jhk43]

The second point is that I found the BAR exam to be particulary difficult and challenging - more challenging than, say, a biochemistry or embryology final (or the MCAT for that matter). The level of understanding and nuance required to pass it (particularly if, I hear, you are located in NY or California where the failure rate is 30-40% I am told - not sure if this is true) is fairly high - and it is not the sort of understanding one gets by pounding facts into his head.

I will be very interested to see how med school turns out.

judd [/B][/QUOTE]


MCAT<-->BAR? Not a fair comparison. Try MCAT<->LSAT. Or BAR<->USMLE 1 2 3. it aint F=MA material. while most peeps pass, a passing score guarantees u nothing.

as for whether he attended columbia or not, if he can describe the couches in the main lounge, then hes legit. why would you doubt him on the basis of his forum grammar, btw

 

[DD214_DOC]

Because something one acquires during the course of a legal education, as well as undergrad, is command of the English language, especially at a prestigious law school. Law is more of a "liberal arts" type of education. Ever notice how, on average, liberal arts majors do better on the VR section of the MCAT?

 

[IndyZX]

I can't wait until I go to law school so I can come back on these boards and impress you all with my exceptional grammar.

 

[Gleevec]

I think getting into med school is MUCH harder then getting into law school.

How many premeds do you know who drop out of premed and enter prelaw? I know several.

How many prelaws do you know who drop out of prelaw and enter premed? I know of none.

I dont have statistics, and Id be interested to hear other people's experience with this, but it seems as if GETTING in to med school is more difficult for this reason among others.

In terms of whether med school or law school is more difficult, I'll leave that to an MD/JD to answer since I dont think most other people (including myself) are qualified to answer that.

 

[MacGyver]

Originally posted by juddson
The second point is that I found the BAR exam to be particulary difficult and challenging - more challenging than, say, a biochemistry or embryology final (or the MCAT for that matter). The level of understanding and nuance required to pass it (particularly if, I hear, you are located in NY or California where the failure rate is 30-40% I am told - not sure if this is true) is fairly high - and it is not the sort of understanding one gets by pounding facts into his head.

comparing the bar to the mcat is not a fair comparison. It should mcat vs lsat (mcat wins) and usmle vs bar (usmle wins).

the bar is hard, and so is the CPA exam, but neither exam holds a candle to the USMLE exams.

 

[japhy]

the boards are hard, but they are not impossible. if you look at the pass rates compared to most states' bar exams you could even make the argument the bar is much more difficult. further, most people study 2-3 months for the bar compared with only 4 weeks for step 1. step 2, 3 are a joke. there is no way that the boards are harder than the bar.

in terms of admissions, getting into a top 15 law school is every bit as difficult as getting into most med schools. getting into yale or stanford is damn near impossible.

as far as workload goes, i just finished my first semester of law school and i would have to agree with juddson. they really do try to kill you. i have never read so much in my life. but like juddson said, after that it gets much better. now that second semester is here i go to fewer classes and have a lot less work to do.

however, i found med school to be similar in that respect. i worked ridiculously hard the first semester, spending countless hours in the anatomy lab. however, once i had my feet set i quit going to class and started skiing like mad. the first two years of med school were a blast.

with that being said, the workload in law school is greater, but the material in med school is more difficult.

 

[kito]

Originally posted by Trekkie963
It is not uncommon for a law school class to have 500 people in it.

Harvard admits 800 annually.

 

[indianboy]

I doubt that you can get "mediocre" grades very easily

False. Medical Schools hands Passes out like candy. Just like all hyperbole propogated by premeds [i.e. orgo is impossible] to feel self-important, medical school isn't as difficult as reported.

Hope that Helps

P 'Requiescat for Intelligence' ShankOut

 

[breski]

"How many prelaws do you know who drop out of prelaw and enter premed? I know of none."

Now you know one. 😎

 

[japhy]

how many students a law school admits and how many matriculate are very different. Nonetheless, I think Harvard's class is somewhere around 450. Georgetown, between part-time and full-time students, has a class of about 600.

While I would not go so far as to say that med schools hand out passes like candy, med school is not impossible. I had to study hard to pass most of my classes.

 

[Trekkie963]

Originally posted by japhy

in terms of admissions, getting into a top 15 law school is every bit as difficult as getting into most med schools. getting into yale or stanford is damn near impossible.

Having experience with both admissions processes, I would have to disagree. Getting into Yale or Stanford is probably about as difficult as getting into most medical schools. Getting into any other school is much easier. (I believe I said about 9 hojillion times easier, and I stick to that).

My main basis for this assertion is the fact that, if you have numbers that are "good enough" (ie above the median) for a law school, you will most likely get into that school. With medical school, even if you have numbers at or above the median for a school (or even far above the median) you are far from guarranteed admission. The sheer volume of applicants relative to spots at any given medical school means that lots of very qualified applicants, with great numbers, great extracurricular activities, and great everything else, still do not get in. With every law school other than the two mentioned, this simply is not the case.

Not to mention that the admissions tests which way so heavily in the admissions processes for the two schools are so vastly different with, lets face it, the LSAT being much the easier one.

 

[ericdamiansean]

As part of my elective, I did research for my paper on medicolegal related issues and such.. Law, is NOT easy at all..
If a law student is mediocre in English, he/she will have a really hard time coping
Medicine, you can figure out how blood flows through this artery and then how certain things can cause this and that
Law..you can't figure out cases..it's more memory work in comparison to medicine

 

[vtucci]

The admissions process for law school is definitely based on LSAT and GPA. There are no interviews which is ridiculous in my opinion as a lawyer (regardless of the specialty) must be a good communicator.

The LSAT does not really correlate with subjects the traditional pre-law student learn in the same way that the MCAT correlates with the classes that pre-med students take. For those of you unfamiliar with the exam, it is divided into three sections: (1) logic games; (2) critical reading; (3) analytical reasoning. The logic games are like those found in crossword puzzle books and can be entertaining but that is an extremely time pressured part of the exam. The critical reading is just like the critical reading on the MCAT, although it has much more of a humanities (particularly philosophy) bent. The analytical reasoning has a lot of circular reasoning and arguments that must be dissected. I found that my undergraduate preparation had absolutely nothing to do with the LSAT and consequently, I believe the LSAT is harder in many ways.

The GPA of students getting into law schools does tend to be slighter lower unless you are talking about the top 10 law schools in the country.

Law school itself is as reading intensive as medical school (and maybe even more). On an average week, I read 1000 pages and spent 20 hours in class. There is also clinical rotations and research projects which have you working into the wee hours of the night.

As has been stated, unless you went to a top law school, there is no job security or guarantee that you will be able to find a position when you graduate (particularly in this economy). Of those from my law school class, no one I knew is still employed in the field. I, of course, switched to pre-med. Many of my classmates wanted law to be their career but are unemployed at present and we went to a top 25 school.

There is definitely external pressure (in the sense of job opportunities) to do well in law school. In medical school, I believe the pressure would be more internal for most-- to learn as much as possible so you can help the patient and above all, to do NO harm.

The NY Bar Exam is definitely the worst test experience I had to date. It is a 2 day marathon. When I took it in Feb 2001, the pass rate was a meager 44%, the lowest in history. People were crying hysterically during breaks. I do not think the USMLE is as bad but I could be mistaken here.

I think the two experiences are comparable in the sense that they heap pressure on the students (albeit in different ways) but are not really comparable in many other ways. Your law school or medical school experience will depend greatly on the school you choice and whether you are meant for that profession. Let's face it- If you are meant to be a doctor or some other type of professional, you would find law school absymmal. Similarly, if medicine is not your passion, medical school would be unbearable.

 

[Brickhouse]

Yeah but I really don't understand the motivation behind asking the initial question.

What, are you thinking you'll choose the easier route? Choose law.

Are you wanting bragging rights that what you're doing is the hardest thing? Choose medicine.

Obviously I'm playing devil's advocate - why don't you just do what you are most interested in? Who gives a rat's behind which is harder if you are choosing your path for the right reasons?

 

[DMBFan]

Originally posted by Brickhouse
Yeah but I really don't understand the motivation behind asking the initial question.

What, are you thinking you'll choose the easier route? Choose law.

Are you wanting bragging rights that what you're doing is the hardest thing? Choose medicine.

Obviously I'm playing devil's advocate - why don't you just do what you are most interested in? Who gives a rat's behind which is harder if you are choosing your path for the right reasons?

I am not really "choosing" between the two. I am not into logic games, I am more of a science person, so hence my decision to apply to med school. And so, I HAVE picked what is more interesting to me.

The reason that I asked was that I was tired of my friend continually complaining and acting if going to HER law school was SO hard that it was borderline apocalyptic. I just got tired of the cutting down of other people's chosen career path and just deeming hers as the most difficult thing on the planet (which I truly doubt it is). Hope that answers your questions on my motivation....

 

[Brickhouse]

Originally posted by DMBFan
I am not really "choosing" between the two. I am not into logic games, I am more of a science person, so hence my decision to apply to med school. And so, I HAVE picked what is more interesting to me.

The reason that I asked was that I was tired of my friend continually complaining and acting if going to HER law school was SO hard that it was borderline apocalyptic. I just got tired of the cutting down of other people's chosen career path and just deeming hers as the most difficult thing on the planet (which I truly doubt it is). Hope that answers your question....

Yeah your friend is played out. You need to drop her. Or just humor her. Who cares. "Yeah, you're right....X law school is so super hard to get into and my going to med school really pales in comparison. You really are so much smarter than anyone else I know. Congratulations." You know what I mean? People like that really bug.

 

[DrBodacious]

To the OP, I've got a high school friend that proports that law skool is definately harder than med school. I think I had a thread about it a while back.

I think which is harder totally depends on the person. If you are bad with reading comprehension, then you will have a horrible time getting through 1000 pages of cases per week. If you can't figure out physiology and memorize the anatomy of the head and neck, then med school isn't your game... To each his own. I think that for myself, med school will be easier than law skool would be. So that's what I tell my friend now.

 

[ken37]

Originally posted by DMBFan
I am not really "choosing" between the two. I am not into logic games, I am more of a science person, so hence my decision to apply to med school. And so, I HAVE picked what is more interesting to me.

The reason that I asked was that I was tired of my friend continually complaining and acting if going to HER law school was SO hard that it was borderline apocalyptic. I just got tired of the cutting down of other people's chosen career path and just deeming hers as the most difficult thing on the planet (which I truly doubt it is). Hope that answers your questions on my motivation....

Law students love to bitch and moan about how hard law school is. Honestly, though, it's more to scare off people and protect the job market. I didn't attend classes at UT Law (a top 20 school) for weeks at a time, and didn't crack a book until the week before finals, yet still graduated in the middle of my class. The only stamina required for law school is the ability to drink at least 6 days a week.

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by JKDMed
Given your writing style and the way you use grammar, I find it very difficult to believe that you attended Columbia law school.

I'm not sure what to make of this?

You are a winner, JKDMed!!!!!

Judd

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by MacGyver
comparing the bar to the mcat is not a fair comparison. It should mcat vs lsat (mcat wins) and usmle vs bar (usmle wins).

the bar is hard, and so is the CPA exam, but neither exam holds a candle to the USMLE exams.

I agree with this. As I have not taken the USMLE yet, I can't compare it to the Bar exam. I can only talk about what I know.

What's with JKDMed? Interesting to know what it is about my writing he doesn't like.

Judd

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by indyzx
I can't wait until I go to law school so I can come back on these boards and impress you all with my exceptional grammar.

LOL!!!!!

That is priceless.

judd

 

[juddson]

Look,

Both the LSAT and the MCAT are, to varying degrees, intelligence exams. But they differ in one important respect, which is that the LSAT is EXCLUSIVELY an intelligence examination, while the MCAT requires both smarts AND knowledge.

This distinction makes a difference in this sense: The LSAT does not generally produce false positives or negatives. On the other hand, the MACT CAN produce a false negative (ie, even smart people can do poorly on it).

As has been mentioned before on this thread, the LSAT consists of three types of questions, reading comprehension (like the MCAT, though in my opinion not as difficult), "short" logical vignettes (sp) and the "games" section.

The games section seperates the wheat from the chaffe. It consists of questions like this:

"Six friends sit around a round table with eight chairs. Bob sits next to Tim. Alice sits next to Ed. Ed does not sit within three places of Tim or Bob, blah, blah, blah. . .Now answer the following ten questions."

There are four of these types of questions in a section, and one has 30 minutes to answer the section, which leaves something like 7.5 minutes to solve a problem like that. Some are more difficult than others.

The reason I don't think the LSAT produced any false positives OR negatives is because in order to do exceptionally well on the LSAT, you need to be smart. There's no way around it. One cannot hope to answer a multifaceted logic problem like the one set forth above in 7.5 minutes without being fairly intelligent. And in fact, not everybody does get them right, no matter HOW MUCH time they have (experience tutoring prelaw students), including myself - and i did failry well. By the same token, i don't think enormously smart people do poorly on the LSAT.

The same cannot be said of the MCAT. On the one hand, if you get a 38 on the MCAT, you are a ****ing smarty. There's no question about that. BUT, there might be several reasons why a smart person may NOT do well on the MCAT, including (most likely) a failure to prepare. Because the MCAT requires smarts and knowledge, a smart person can still do poorly if he has failed to acquire the knowledge tested on the exam. The LSAT is not like that. You don't need ANY outside knowledge to do well on the LSAT.

Judd

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by Farrah
What prompted you to leave all that, 6 figures and all, and go for med school?

Believe me, there is A LOT more to life than money. I really enjoyed law school and found the material interesting and exciting. But I didn't like practicing law, and all the money in the world would not have changed the fact that i didn't like getting up in the morning to face another day of moving money from point A to point B for big client X.

There are other types of "non-transactional" law, no doubt. But I had wanted to go to med school in undergrad and didn't have the mativation or maturity at that time to make it happen. So, law school had been a compromise for me. When it came time to consider a move out of "mergers and acquisitions" and the firm I was with, I had two choices before me: (1) try to make it work in another area of law (I considered taxation very seriously, and even had an interview with the IRS general counsels office) or do make a BIG change and avoid living out the rest of my life as a compromise.

I chose the second path because I worried (rightfully, I think) that this decision would continue to haunt me for the rest of my legal career. This decision, on the other hand, has brought with it NO regrets (so far).

Talk to me after my first rotation.

Judd

 

[japhy]

juddson,

i am sure that you have mentioned this somewhere before, but i was wondering where you are in this whole process. obviously you are done with law school, but where are you in medical school?

i have finished the first 2 years of med school (and taken step 1, that nasty bitch) and am almost done with the first year of law school. quite a ride.

 

[juddson]

hey Japhy,

I finished law school in 1999 and worked in Cleveland, Ohio in a corporate-type law firm until the fall of 2001. At that time I started my post-bacc classes and applied to med school during the most recent cycle. I start at Case med in August.

Are you at med and law school at the same institution?

Judd

 

[jedirampage]

Originally posted by vtucci
As has been stated, unless you went to a top law school, there is no job security or guarantee that you will be able to find a position when you graduate (particularly in this economy). Of those from my law school class, no one I knew is still employed in the field. I, of course, switched to pre-med. Many of my classmates wanted law to be their career but are unemployed at present and we went to a top 25 school.

I don't think it is the economy so much as the fact that the profession is saturated. There are plenty of lawyers out there, and we put out more lawyers per year than we do doctors. And in terms of job security, there may not be a plethora of high paying job opportunities in law, but there are many state prosocution offices, for example, that could use some help. Perhaps if law schools cut down on the number of students they put out per year they would do the students that do matriculate more good. Currently there is more of a demand for law training than law practicing, which needs to be rectified.

 

[partial]

Judd,

I feel that I also lacked the motivation and maturity to consider medical school when I was in college and ended up at law school as well. Did you find that your lack of maturity hurt your college GPA, and if so do you believe your success in law school and in your post-bacc program will offset that GPA during the admissions process?

Did you work while you took your post-bacc classes or did you attend full time?

Thanks

Partial

 

[DMBFan]

Originally posted by partial
Judd,

I feel that I also lacked the motivation and maturity to consider medical school when I was in college and ended up at law school as well. Did you find that your lack of maturity hurt your college GPA, and if so do you believe your success in law school and in your post-bacc program will offset that GPA during the admissions process?

Did you work while you took your post-bacc classes or did you attend full time?

Thanks

Partial

My cousin just applied to a post-bac program and is really worried about getting in. Does anyone know how competitive these programs are? She was a psych major at a small liberal arts school in the NE and applied to Bryn Mawr, UPenn, and Temple...

 

[Spartacus]

I don't think you can even compare law school and medical school. Getting into law school is NOWHERE near as tough as getting into medical school. First, the reason GPA's at top schools are so high is that the majority of applicants are liberal arts majors. If you have half a brain, you should get a 3.8 or 3.9 and if your bright enough for premed you would have a 4.0 no problem. Also, law schools don't even interview. Look at med school acceptance rates, a lot of them are around 3 or 4 percent. Look at law school acceptance rates, more like 40 percent and these aren's science majors. I knew a kid who had like a 0.9 GPA, it was below 1.0, and was a philosophy major who got into Tulane's law school. Scary...

Also, I've never known anyone that applied to law school and didn't get in somewhere, even with really bad grades the first time around.

 

[JohnHolmes]

I agree with Judd,

IMO, getting into a top 14 law school (Georgetown or better, arbitrary, isnt it) is comparable to getting into a US allopathic medical school. Plus or minus some heartache.

Why are only the top 14 the "peer institutions" and is this subject to change as the rankings change?

CCW

 

[japhy]

juddson,

no i am attending different law and med schools. i am out at penn for law school. my med school was incredibly supportive of my decision to attend law school. they felt it was a unique opportunity and were helpful all along the way. i am trying to transfer to penn med school, but they are not to hip on that. the main reason is to try and shave one year of this program. but if that doesn't work i may try to work on the masters in bioethics that penn offers.

good luck with med school this fall. the first semester is incredibly intense, similar to law school. you will be grateful that you have gone through that process already. soon, you will find your groove and med school will be a blast. i absolutely loved my first two years of med school.

 

[juddson]

Originally posted by spe12med
I don't think you can even compare law school and medical school. Getting into law school is NOWHERE near as tough as getting into medical school. First, the reason GPA's at top schools are so high is that the majority of applicants are liberal arts majors. If you have half a brain, you should get a 3.8 or 3.9 and if your bright enough for premed you would have a 4.0 no problem.

This is almost too stupid to respond to (almost). I'm sympathetic to the notion that science classes are more challenging that liberal arts classes are (there's no question this is true). But, how well one does in liberal arts is more of a crap shoot because there are no "objective" standards. For instance, for the vast majority of upper level liberal arts classes, how well one does comes down to how much your professor likes the way you write. Accordingly, even while one is pulling A's in his premed classes (as I did during my post-bacc premed classes), it is still possible to get a C on a paper you've done for an upper level English Lit class (as I did while an undergrad). On the other hand, if you thik you are a good writer and your profs agree with you (for one reason or another) it is possible to do exceedingly well in some liberal arts classes without much work at all (this has also been my experience). It just depends.

To suggest that because one does well in premed, it automatically means he would do well in liberal arts is bunk.

many of you need to put your crosses down.

Judd

 

[japhy]

To suggest that because one does well in premed, it automatically means he would do well in liberal arts is bunk.

i have to agree with juddson on this one. i majored in philosophy and biochem as an undergrad. i always had to laugh when science people took a class like bioethics. they had no idea how to make and argument and their writing skills were for ****. of course, in their eyes, it was that the prof didn't like them, etc. the humanities do not have ridiculous amount of lab time, but they are no cakewalk. try taking an upper level metaphysics class sometime.

 

[MacGyver]

Liberal arts vs sciences....

In theory, judd and japhy are right. However, IN PRACTICE, most liberal arts professors are much more lenient regarding how they grade subjective thought. In sciences/engineering, its usually all or nothing, right or wrong answers.

In liberal arts, the trend is that even if you totally botch something you still get some partial credit. By and large, liberal arts profs dont give zero credit unless you just didnt even attempt an answer.

Now, before you go off screaming bout how you know a lib arts prof that always gave honest attempts zero credit, let me remind you that personal anecdotes are worthless and TRENDS AND AVERAGES are the arbiters in this dispute.

 

[DrBodacious]

MacGyver-

(I like your show BTW)

In all of my science courses that didn't have multiple choice tests (e.g. Physics, Ochem, Embryology) there was always partial credit given. Some profs gave more partial credit than others. For my physics classes, the questions were hard to get full credit on, but people could always get a few points just by writing down the correct formula. Or if you botched a caclulation, but used the correct formula, you got decent points.

Maybe my school is leniant compared to yours?