Why Organic Chemistry is the Weed-Out Course for Premeds

by goliszek (Posted Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:46 am)Ask any premed student and most will tell you that organic chemistry, especially organic chemistry II, is the toughest course that they’ve taken in college. At some schools, professors take pride in making this the weed-out course for potential medical students; and I’ve personally known good students who’ve given up on medicine just because of organic chemistry. There are a few reasons for this. At one large university, where a thousand freshmen wanted to go into medicine, a professor actually said that he needed to weed out as many of the weak students as possible to make the advising and the application process more manageable. What school, according to the professor, wants to have hundreds of weak applicants who have no chance of getting into medical school? Another reason is that organic chemistry requires more study time than just about any other course, and naturally the weak students will drop out. If a student can’t spend 10 or more hours a week studying for a single course, there’s no way that they’re going to get through medical school. The reason admissions committees look closely at organic chemistry grades is that organic chemistry requires not only memorization (although some claim that it doesn’t) and lots of study time, but problem solving skills. Even though you won’t have to know much organic chemistry as a physician, the fact that you were able to do well in the course says a lot about 1)...
Source: Med Student Guide - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: forums