Right on Quideam!
I have to agree with what you're saying.
Basically I went to a private liberal arts university where chemistry and physics are combined into one department and (via crappy textbooks, homework sets that even the enlightened post-baccs can't do, and notes that don't do squat for the tests) many students get weeded out ("mostly C's in 24 out of 38 core pre-med hours") without flinching. Why would these profs care? If a student can't teach himself or herself the material to the point that the or she thinks exactly like the professor, then why should he or she have what it takes to be an MD?
For all the victims of this machine who don't have a 3.5 but have say a 3.3-3.45, I don't think the tough private school reputation is working. In fact, the Bio and Chem-Physics departments are relying on transfer students who probably transferred good grades in from public schools during their junior year. In short, only one transfer has got in b/c of good grades and very good MCAT. As for the lost generation of matriculants, I am the very last one. And I wish, with one exception, I had attended a public school.
This is where I start to agree with Quideam. I've taken all 16 hours of chemistry at a state school - they don't beat around the bush - they teach all the essentials in great detail - if there is a stellar class with a lot of A's and B's then the professors congratulate them and give a lot of A's and B's. I don't see why anyone who is DELUSIONAL enough to attend a private school where the teachers don't give a flip should expect a joyride to medical school on the "it was more challenging" fable. People from the public schools do about the same or better on the MCAT than people from my school - where only one or two exceptional science students get through the machine in one piece. This is why I use the term "fable."
And yet people throw out terms like "High School College" in hopes of justifying themselves. I highly recommend considering Quideam's point of realizing what you as an individual have got yourself into.
And my one exception is this. I attended a "liberal arts" college. The science major machine broke me down to a 3.2 something by the end of my sophomore year. It seemed like the end - I could give up pre-med. But no!, again verifying Quideam, I could play to my strengths and be a survivor. So I changed to classics major, made straight A's, and am graduating with at least a 3.51. Now I will go to that public school and retake all my sciences and see if I can hack the MCAT. But it wouldn't be possible if not for that humanities major. (If you're thinking classics majors have an easier time and bad rep for having no labs, etc. then click on this link before complanin -->
http://www.princetonreview.com/coll....asp?majorID=64)
Quideam is so right it's scary. It's imbecilic to throw out terms like "High School College" when science profs at public universities can do at least one thing correctly - their jobs as instructors. And when med-schools ask about my easier bad-rep major I can say I played on to my strengths at a "liberal arts" college. Or there's always the "I had this one last chance to pursue a major interest before the main interest of medicine."
This has taught a couple of lessons for me.
1) Don't go bashing public schools because your private university has a GPA grudge against you. At least in the South there are exceptionally smart and poor people who in high school can't get the time of day for scholarships at Vandy, Emory, or even lesser-known private liberal arts colleges Public schools are their only outlet. When you bash public schools you are more than likely (in potential) attacking the socioeconomically "less preferred" rather than
2) Making the best of a bad situation. I didn't choose to have a 3.2. I chose to have a 3.5 and I am never taking another science class at a liberal arts college again, ever.
Quideam has already said both of these things. I am reinforcing them.
