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Thanks for the A2A.I wish I could say I knew all the answers but I can talk about a few.First of all, credentials come in many shapes and sizes but the one document that is required for entry into virtually any school is a transcript. Generally speaking, there is not a lot of fraud when it comes to students submitting transcripts form secondary schools or colleges and universities in the US. The technology is now in place that many secondary schools can send transcripts electronically directly to the school so unless a student has hacked the school’s system there is very little chance that the transcript is not accurate. Colleges and universities send official transcripts and they come with seals, stamps, and other things that make it difficult to forge.I wish I could say that the same level of security was in place in other places around the globe, but this is simply not true. The country that gets the most scrutiny is China but there are other places too. Some admission offices have staff members who have been trained to spot fraudulent transcripts. These people have usually attended workshops hosted by experts who give lots of good tips about things to look out for. On the other hand, some schools would rather not take the time and effort to scrutinize each transcript for its authenticity. What these schools do is outsource the evaluation and verification. The mostly widely know service that does this is WES (@World Education Services : Educators). They have been around for a long time and have the brand recognition of providing accurate assessments and verification.The largest number of international students, by far, comes from China (235,000 was the number of undergrads last year). I mention this since China is also the place where the submission of fraudulent documents and cheating on tests goes on at rates that are alarming high. In the past couple of weeks there have been several stories that have made some headlines and raised these issues to a broader community in and out of education.The biggest story right now has to do with testing. In October, the SAT was administered in a number of locations across the world. Shortly thereafter came reports that some of the students had access to questions prior to the test. As a result the ETS (The Educational Testing Service)) took action. Here is what the The New York Times says: “Responding to cheating allegations, the company that administers the SAT tests around the world is withholding scores, at least temporarily, for thousands of Chinese and South Korean students just days before the early application deadlines for most American colleges and universities.”Here is where things get complicated in a number of ways that will make the assessment of students from these places a challenge for colleges and universities. Most students who apply to university in the US from these countries do test prep of some sort. Given that China, Korea and India make up about half of all international undergrads in the US, it should come as no surprise that test prep is a huge business in these places. The test prep in China and Korea have the reputation of preparing students to do very well on the tests. They deserve this reputation. In my experience of evaluating applications and talking with student from these counties I’ve seen again and again great scores. (The average score for applicants from China to a selective university in one year I have data for is about 2130). But these scores are not all the result of cheating. Students spend a lot of money and a huge amount of time preparing for these tests. In some cases test prep companies run summer camps in which students spend many weeks working 12 hours a day on test prep. Research shows that putting in great amounts of time and effort on test prep works to increase score, often dramatically.The test companies, have, in addition, done a lot of deep data work. One way they do this is to get students who are taking ‘real’ tests is to ask each individual student to memorize several SAT questions and then to share the question with the test prep company immediately after the test. Given the hundreds of students they have doing this, the test prep company then has a full and accurate copy of the test as soon as it has been given. While ETS does release some old tests as study guides they withhold some of the old tests too. What has now come to light is that ETS recycles old test questions that have not been released. (I was interviewed about this issue a week ago by Time Magazine: Think You Can Cheat on the SAT? The College Board Says Think Again, but the article focuses more on how ETS prevents cheating than on the issue I raise in my comments there about old test questions being recycled, but it’s clear that old test questions are used. In a subsequent article posted by Time, @SAT Students in China, South Korea Fear Missing Out my friend Hamilton Gregg, a veteran counselor who works in China, talks in more detail about the issue and how significant it is: "Nevertheless, Gregg is incensed by the latest scandal. “Someone is so selfish that they put tens of thousands of students’ futures in jeopardy,” he says."I mention this because immediately after the October test I was contacted by someone in China who told me that students were reporting to my contact that the questions on this test were ones they had already seen. What is important to note is that the students themselves were unaware that the test questions would be asked again. It may be that the test prep companies knew this but at least from the students I have heard from, they were not aware this would happen. All of which brings up several big questions. Should the scores of these students be withheld and eventually discarded? Thousands of students are having their scores withheld at the moment. Secondly, are these students guilty of cheating? If so, in what way? And perhaps most importantly, is there any way ETS can distinguish between those who had access to prior test questions and those who did not? It may well be that every score from Chinese and Korean students from this test date may be interpreted by admission offices as tainted, even f they are released. And it may be that admission officers may have doubts about any other testing too. The minds of admission officers have not been primed (in the cognitive science sense) to interpret students from these countries as dishonest and this will affect how readers will rate them.While ETS’s decision to recycle test questions opened the door for some of this testing mess, I also need to make it clear the blame rests largely with students, parents, schools and businesses from these countries, especially China. Diane Ravitch, a nationally prominent educator, challenges some of the assumptions about the greatness of the Chinese schools and education system in the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books. The Myth of Chinese Super Schools by Diane RavitchShe provides quotes about the culture of cheating that goes on there: “China has a problem, however, that is seldom discussed: cheating and fraud… Zhao describes the lengths to which students go to get high scores. Many of the courses they take are specifically geared for test preparation, not learning. Schools exist to prepare for the tests: Teachers guess possible [test] items, companies sell answers and wireless cheating devices to students, and students engage in all sorts of elaborate cheating. In 2013, a riot broke out because a group of students in Hubei Province were stopped from executing the cheating scheme their parents purchased to ease their college entrance exam. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that an angry mob of two thousand people smashed cars and chanted, “We want fairness. There is no fairness if you do not let us cheat.”Ravitch’s comment about the culture of cheating being rarely discussed demonstrates she does not really know much about education in China. Her comments about rote learning being the way all students learn to do well on tests demonstrates she has not spent time in some of top ranked secondary schools there as they teach students to do far more than take tests. Nevertheless, she points about cheating are worth quoting here.But things get even more complicated in China. The grades that students earn in Chinese high schools are often much lower than grades given in the US. Schools use low grades to motivate the students. However, schools in China have learned that sending transcripts with low grades to selective US schools virtually assures the student will not be offered admission. As a result, there are many schools in China that have what they call an American transcript. The transcript is sent by the school and is therefore official, but the transcript is almost always filled with all A’s. The schools (and some of these are the top magnet schools in China) feel that a lower grade in China should be increased to reflect the grade inflation in the US. This practice of changing grades raises questions. If the schools themselves change the transcripts is this then fraud? Schools in the US weight grades for many classes but weighted grades are not a part of the education system in China. US admission officers at selective schools rarely ever see a grade of C on any US transcript these days, even one C can sometimes be enough to keep a student out of contention. In China a C can actually be what it is supposed to be-- an average grade that many students get. In the US these days, A’s are the average grade at many schools. Are the officials in China wrong to change the transcripts?But I am not done. Most selective schools in the US require recommendations, sometimes as many as 3. In China, teachers do not write recommendations. Selection to university there consists of a single score on a single test, the Gaokao, so they do not see it as their job to write recommendations for US schools. In addition, many of the teachers do not want their top students to go abroad. It isn’t that they are anti American. Instead, secondary schools are ranked based upon their placement of students to top universities in China. If a number of top students from the school opt out of applying to top schools in China in order to go instead to the US, then it can then hurt the school’s ranking (and this will have a ripple effect on salaries, job security etc.). Suffice it to say, that Chinese nationals who are teachers do not often write recommendations. So what is a student to do? In some cases, the student writes the recommendation and gets the teacher to sign it. At least in this case the teacher has seen the recommendation. Is a recommendation like this a fraudulent document? If the teacher agrees with what the student has written why would it be fraud?But most recommendations are, instead, manufactured from start to finish by the huge agent industry in China. Families pay tens of thousands of dollars to agents to package students’ applications. This includes creating recommendations out of thin air. What is sad is that many people in admission know about this practice but do not particularly care so long as the student has the money to pay full fees and the SAT and TOEFL scores are high. Schools in the US need full payers and China is a great resource for this (I have written about this a number of times so won’t go into detail here). At the most selective colleges and universities, however, there is another trend taking place. Since there are so many irregularities going on with student applications applying from schools in China many are choosing to offer admission to Chinese student who have enrolled in schools outside China. I know number of Chinese students accepted at the top schools in the US and a disproportionate number of them have finished secondary school in Singapore, the UK, or the US. What this means is that in effect, colleges and universities are just not sure about so many parts of the application from student applying within China that they are not taking any risks. Many schools are now requiring or strongly encouraging interviews, either with alums or through a number of businesses that conduct interviews and send them to the schools (InitialView is one that has contracts with a number of great schools in the US).If it appears that I’m giving China a particularly hard time, I am. There are many things going on over there that need to be addressed. But back in the US things are not always rosy either. At Stuyvesant High School, 70 students were caught cheating on the regents exams a couple of years ago. The New York Times Given that this is one of the best high schools in the US, it demonstrates how much students are willing to do to get accepted into elite schools.But there is more than just cheating on SATs going on all across the US and the world. There are many students getting essays written for them by ‘experts’ who charge anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to untold thousands. I have already written a long post on plagiarism (which I would group under fraudulent documents) so I won’t repeat what I have said there. College Applications: How do universities ensure that the essays they receive don't have any kind of plagiarism?Finally, I should add that most admission officers do not spend much time at all trying to check for fraudulent documents. They are so busy trying to read applications that they don’t have time to check transcripts, recommendations, essays etc. The direct submission of documents via electronic transfer from schools in the US has cut down on some of the possible problems but this has yet to be implemented internationally. I have no doubt there are students walking around campuses, some of them with elite names, who submitted fraudulent material. But overall the number is I think small. It’s hard to manufacture things and even when they are most students don’t get into elite schools anyway. The current scandals have raised the issue and this means schools will be even more circumspect about documents particularly from certain countries. At the moment I think that many applicants from China (and Korea too) may have a harder time getting in this year, as there is so much negative buzz going on, but for the rest, I think, it’s not a big issue for most admission offices. Should it be?

Q. It is a good idea to say I want to go to medical school on my application to an engineering school (I want to be a chemical engineer)?Will the fact that I won’t want to say in the chemical engineering field be a “con” on my application? I plan to apply to some big name schools, including Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia.A. Some schools offer Engineering Pre-med curriculum and keep students on track of the needed prerequisites, MCAT, EC’s etc for successful application (for example the University of Arizona.)Columbia University also has a robust engineering pre-med program. Harvard has strong premed advising office. So does Stanford. Although neither geared towards engineering/premed aspirants.The question is: Why do you want a Chemical Engineering Degree and how useful will it be to you in the long run? Second, knowing engineering grade deflation, are you willing to have your GPA suffer and possibly self deselect from pursuing a medical career?For most people, getting accepted to medical school is the ultimate goal. This often requires stellar GPA and decent MCAT scores.A high engineering GPA is difficult to achieve. Although medical school admission committees make an allowance for the difficulty of the major, a low GPA despite best effort will jeopardize any hope of acceptance to medical school.Most people cannot do both. It’s either engineering/no med school or medical school and a more lenient major (perhaps humanities).Engineering to Medicine: The Road Less TraveledPosted by Jonathan Haughton onJanuary 12th, 2014Making the CommitmentGetting an MD isn’t like obtaining other advanced degrees such as a PhD, MS or MBA. You cannot study part time or get it paid for by a company. It is a full-time affair for which you must be completely committed for at least four more years after your undergrad (and probably more for residency/fellowship training). Medical school isn’t cheap either, so you must be prepared to take on (or add to your undergrad) debt.How to Do itYour undergraduate engineering classes (usually) will not cover all of the general course requirements for medical school. This means you’ll have to carefully plan your coursework in order to satisfy the engineering and pre-med curricula as well as any general education classes your school requires. It is not easy but definitely do-able and working with an advisor to develop a multi-year plan will help. Pre-med requirements can vary between schools but will at least include physics I/II, chemistry I/II, organic chemistry I/II, biology I/II and an English or literature class. For those beginning to think about medicine after already completing two or more years of their undergraduate degree, taking an extra year to finish all the coursework and prep is not uncommon. This extra time can also be used to study for the dreaded MCAT.The MCAT is the medical school equivalent of the SAT or ACT you took in high school. It must be taken before you can apply, so this usually means the summer before your senior year. There’s a myriad of references, guides and avenues of support for this ranging from free practice tests to intensive classroom courses. Contrary to popular belief, this test is not about rote memorization. Almost all groups of questions are accompanied by a passage. So if you have a very basic understanding of the scientific principles and equations but excellent problem solving, you will do great. The key words here are understanding and problem solving. Memorizing the equations is pointless, they will give them to you on the test, spend your time understanding each equation’s components. This is a great opportunity for engineering students to show off their problem solving skills!So you’ve finished the courses and taken the test, what now? The application process is started about a year before your planned enrollment date. So, if your graduating in 2014, you would apply in the summer or early fall of 2013. Thankfully, there is a standard application for all schools called the AMCAS, but plan on getting secondary applications specific to each school and working on them into the fall. Then save up some money and pray for interviews.Where Engineering Falls ShortThese days medical schools are looking more and more at extracurricular activities in addition to metrics like MCAT score and GPA. This included things like research, volunteering, shadowing and other jobs. Engineering coursework doesn’t always provide enough time for all of this stuff, but if you pick carefully, the right extracurricular can give you an excellent experience with a smaller time commitment. Academic research can be a volunteer or paid experience, and when done during the academic year, can mesh well with your class schedule since research labs are typically close to classroom buildings so you can go there before, after or in-between classes.The extra pre-med courses have also been known to give engineers some trouble. For many, it is tough adjusting to biology type classes, as they are much more memorization based and less analytical in nature. There is no easy solution for this. Figure out what works for you (flashcards, re-writing notes, etc.). This is also the stuff more likely to be seen on the MCAT, so pay extra special attention to the material.When it comes to the interview, some claim engineers don’t fare as well. Anyone in engineering has heard the stereotype that engineers aren’t the most social of people. While that’s an outdated view of the field, it can be used to your advantage during an interview or application essay. By having an outgoing personality and being animated, lively, witty and generally sociable, you defy the stereotype and make yourself look that much better the to the admissions board or interviewer.All that being said, medical schools look very highly upon engineering applicants. They understand that to be a legitimate applicant, the engineering student has given it their 110%, as evidenced by their ability to succeed in such a demanding major in addition to coursework and extracurricular activities. A career in medicine will be time consuming, stressful and at times you will doubt your ability, but in the end extremely rewarding and well worth it. So, it’s just like a degree in engineering!SummaryThe problem solving skills and engineering mindset so thoroughly developed during your undergraduate degree can prove to be an incredibly useful tool for solving medical cases. The human being is an isolated system, and once that system is defined, you can apply your knowledge of that system to create a solution, just like any engineering question. The rational and systematic route of thinking honed during any study of engineering is ideal for a career in medicine.About the authorChris Bobba received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering for the University of Rhode Island in 2013. He is currently an MD/PhD student at the Ohio State University pursuing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Current research interests include the intersection of organ conditioning/regeneration techniques and surgical/transplant medicine.University of Arizona College of EngineeringAcademic Focus AreasUA chemical engineering is one of only a few approved College of Engineering pre-med programs. The three academic focus areas prepare students for careers in a broad range of industries.Environmental is focused on increasing environmental safety in industry and reducing emissions and contaminants in the environment.Biomedical centers around modernizing disease diagnostics and treatment.Pre-medical prepares students to succeed in medical schoolResearch OpportunitiesUA chemical engineers are finding better ways to protect and repair the environment, improve the human condition, and ensure sustainability. And chemical engineering students tend to make the most of studying at a Tier-1 research institution. In fact, more than 90 percent of chemical engineering undergraduates are estimated to be involved in research at some point during their time at the University.Researchers are advancing processes, technologies and understanding in the following areas, for example:Algae-based biofuelsWater treatment and reuseClean semiconductor manufacturingDesalinationSolar energyDrug deliveryCancer detection and treatmentClimate changeOutside the ClassroomNot only is undergraduate research a mainstay of UA chemical engineering, but also many students do internships. Additionally, clubs and organizations play an important role in students’ personal and professional development, strengthening leadership, teamwork and communication skills.The honor society Omega Chi Epsilon promotes creativity, entrepreneurship, professionalism and camaraderie among chemical engineering students. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers hosts social events and provides opportunities for mentoring, tutoring and professional networking. And, in the UA Home Brew club, students put chemical engineering skills to the task with craft brewing techniques.Career PathsUA chemical engineering is known for getting students where they want to go, whether it is a prestigious medical or graduate school somewhere in the world or a career in any number of industries – manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, design and construction, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, food processing, specialty chemicals, polymers, biotechnology, or environmental health and safety.Columbia University Premedical CurriculumPREMEDMedical, dental, and other health professional schools prefer that undergraduates complete a four-year program of study toward the bachelor's degree. All health professional schools require prerequisite course work, but they do not prefer one type of major or scholarly concentration. Students with all types of engineering backgrounds are highly valued.It is important to note, however, that each medical school in the United States and Canada individually determines its own entrance requirements, including prerequisite coursework and/or competencies. Each medical school also sets its own rules regarding acceptable courses or course equivalents. It is therefore essential that students plan early and confirm the premedical requirements for those schools to which they intend to apply. The Engineering curriculum covers many of the prerequisite courses required by medical schools, however, in addition to completing the mathematics, chemistry, and physics courses required by the First Year– Sophomore Program, most schools ask for a full year of organic chemistry, a full year of biology, a full year of English, a semester of statistics, and a semester of biochemistry. Advanced Placement credit is accepted in fulfillment of these requirements by some schools but not all. Students are responsible for monitoring the requirements of each school to which they intend to apply. Generally, students with Advanced Placement credit are strongly advised to take further courses in the field in which they have received such credit.In addition to medical school requirements, all medical schools currently require applicants to sit for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). A new format of this exam was introduced in the spring of 2015, for which recommended minimum preparation is:One year of general chemistry and general chemistry labOne year of organic chemistry and organic chemistry labOne year of introductory biology and biology labOne year of general physics and physics labOne semester of introductory psychologyAs you prepare for this path, you should consult regularly with both your assigned adviser and one of the premedical advisers in the James H. Christine Turk Berick Center for Student Advising. These individuals will help to guide you in your course selection and planning, and introduce you to extracurricular and research opportunities related to your interests in health and medicine. Preprofessional Advising maintains an online list of many different clinical volunteer and research opportunities across New York City and beyond. Exploration of the career and sustained interactions with patients is viewed by many medical schools as essential preparation and therefore students are strongly encouraged to spend time volunteering/working in clinical and research environments before applying to medical school.Students must apply for admission to health professional schools more than one year in advance of the entry date. Students who are interested in going directly on to health professional schools following graduation should complete all prerequisite courses required for the MCAT by the end of the junior year. It is entirely acceptable (and most common) for students to take time between undergraduate and health professional school and thus delay application to these schools for one or more years. Students planning to apply to medical or dental school should be evaluated by the Premedical Advisory Committee prior to application. A Premedical Advisory Committee application is made available each year in December. For more information regarding this process and other premedical-related questions, please consult with a premedical adviser in the Berick Center for Student Advising or peruse their websiteFAQ for Preprofessional AdvisingMaking the Cut: The Real Pre-med Requirements (Harvard University Crimson)The story of droves of students entering college expecting to be pre-med, but later switching tracks—whether because of the rigor or the draw of other disciplines—is a familiar one. However, at Harvard unique factors play into this whittling down of aspiring doctors.by LIBBY R. COLEMAN Sep 26, 2013Students file one-by-one into the green seats of Science Center B’s lecture hall. They sit down, pulling out laptops or legal pads, sometimes problem sets to complete in class. A constant hum of gum chewing, chair-shifting, and text notifications is amplified against the walls.The room has yet to quiet down when Life Sciences 1a, Harvard’s 448-person introduction to chemistry, molecular biology and cell biology, begins with an unwelcome announcement.There will be a “little quiz” in section. Students in the packed lecture hall respond to the news with a loud groan.“Don’t you want to know how things are going?” molecular and cellular biology professor Robert A. Lue calls back. The class responds with a resounding “No!”Lue reasons, “It’s important to diagnose how everyone’s doing.” He tailors his word choice to the make-up of the class. Diagnosis is a familiar concept to these students, many of whom are interested in attending medical school.Often taken as the first of many pre-med required classes, LS1a introduces Harvard freshmen to the academic life of a pre-med. While many of the students in the lecture hall believe that they will go to medical school, between one and two thirds of them will end up dropping the program.The story of droves of students entering college expecting to be pre-med, but later switching tracks—whether because of the rigor or the draw of other disciplines—is a familiar one. However, at Harvard unique factors play into this whittling down of aspiring doctors.Although Harvard offers a robust pre-med advising program in the Houses, many pre-meds struggle freshman year, when they say that advising is less structured. Later on, a variety of factors—from alternate disciplines and academic communities that are perhaps less grade-obsessed or more diverse, to more lucrative careers that require less up-front time investment—draw students away from the path towards medical school.Learning The RopesThe Office of Career Services estimates that a quarter of the incoming class each year is “exploring medicine.” This data is based on annual attendance at Opening Days events aimed at students considering pre-med and pre-health careers.However, popular wisdom among Peer Advising Fellows says that the proportion is closer to 50 percent. “Half of them are pre-med, or more,” says Khin-Kyemon Aung ’14, who is a PAF and president emeritus of the Harvard Pre-medical Society.OCS estimates that, ultimately, 17 percent of a given class will apply to medical school.As is the case at most of its peer institutions, Harvard does not offer a pre-med concentration, secondary, or citation. Rather, the school suggests that students take a particular set of classes before taking the MCAT or applying to medical school.Currently, most medical schools require students to take one year of biology, one year of general chemistry, one year of organic chemistry, one year of general physics, and one year of English. On top of these requirements, medical schools expect applicants to have leadership experience and strong extracurriculars.These requirements offer some framework, but the open-endedness can leave students unsure of how to navigate their courses or envision what it means to be a strong candidate for medical school.“They would like to come in here and have us just hand them a checklist,” says Robin Mount, Director of Career, Research, and International Opportunities at OCS. “But there isn’t the checklist for life.”While all undergraduates benefit from advising, freshman pre-meds seem to be particularly in need of guidance. Myths abound regarding both Harvard’s pre-med track and the medical school application process.Though OCS advises that there is no correct pre-med mold, Aung has noticed that many pre-meds spend freshman year trying to live up to what they believe pre-meds should do.“You’re asking: ‘What should I be doing?’” Aung says. “Everyone’s very eager and enthusiastic and it’s great, but it also leads to individuals really wanting to follow the set path.”Christian Ramirez ’15 entered Harvard expecting to be pre-med after spending time on his parents’ farm in rural Ecuador. He came face-to-face with the lack of health care in the region, which sparked the idea that he might want to later work for Doctors Without Borders.So, falling in step with his fellow pre-meds, Ramirez enrolled in LS1a his freshman fall. Ramirez’s freshman advisor, with whom he had little contact, quickly approved his course selection.“My freshman advisor really didn’t do much, to be completely honest. I don’t even remember his name,” Ramirez says. “He told me to take things that I already knew I had to take as a pre-med.”In hindsight, Ramirez realizes that he should have instead taken the alternative course, Life and Physical Sciences A, a more foundational class that also fulfills pre-med requirements.However, Ramirez explains that “people are coming into this with the idea that they’re too good for LPS A.”After his freshman fall, Ramirez decided to quit the pre-med track when he realized he no longer wanted to be a doctor. On top of disliking LS1a, Ramirez also discovered a passion for studying classics. In making his decision, he did not reach out to Harvard’s pre-med advising network.Although pre-med advising for freshmen exists in the form of OCS drop-in hours, pre-med events, and freshman advising (albeit without mandatory scheduled check-ins), the system requires students to be proactive about seeking advice.“As a freshman, I had no idea what to do,” says Katie C. Gamble ’15, a social studies concentrator, Peer Advising Fellow, and former pre-med. She wears a sweatshirt after staying up late to finish a paper for a social studies course. “You definitely have to do some work to get access to the advising,” she says. “It’s great and it’s there but you have to know what you’re doing to get to it.”Without a highly structured advising system, freshmen are more likely to worry that, for example, a bad grade in one class spells disaster for their medical school application. Their preconceptions about the model pre-med student are more likely to inform their decisions about classes, extracurriculars, and whether to be pre-med at all.Kruti B. Vora ’17 volunteered at Newton-Wellesley Hospital the summer after ninth grade. She loved it and the experience inspired her to pursue a career in medicine.However, two weeks into the school year, Vora says that she is still unsure how pre-med advising works.“I don’t know too much yet about pre-med advisors and who I’m supposed to talk to specifically about pre-med advising,” Vora says. “I saw some things at the Activities Fair that would pair me with hospitals and volunteer activities.”One such group is the Harvard Pre-medical Society, whose purpose is to be “a student-run organization at Harvard College committed to providing educational support and volunteer opportunities for the campus pre-medical community.”Grace ’15, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because she did not want her comments to affect medical school applications, decided to be pre-med sophomore year. She has noticed that Harvard’s peer pre-med advising cannot fill in all of the gaps left by an incomplete freshman advising system. “The Pre-med Society has to use their own people and they have juniors and seniors who mentor freshmen, but seniors and juniors haven’t applied to medical school, so it’s really just a shot in the dark,” Grace says.Grace believes that if she had entered her freshman year as a pre-med, she would have dropped out. “I would have done all those things I think you’re supposed to do and wouldn’t have done the things I’m interested in like theater because I would have thought, ‘No, I have to do the pre-med stuff to get into medical school,’” Grace says.Harvard’s pre-med advising is led by the OCS’s two pre-medical advisors, Oona B. Ceder ’90 and Sirinya Matchacheep. Students say that meeting with Ceder and Matchacheep can be remarkably helpful. But the two of them are responsible for all pre-med students at the College, not just freshmen, which means that younger students sometimes take a backseat to those who are currently applying to medical school.“If you want an appointment with them, it’s often backed up for weeks,” Aung says.The choice to have less structured freshman pre-med advising stems from Harvard’s philosophy that students should keep their options open freshman year, as well as its commitment to providing a liberal arts education.“If we had pre-med advisors—this is the way everything is at Harvard—we’d have people saying where are the pre-law, where are the engineering advisors?” Mount says.Once in the House system, students are each assigned a pre-med tutor, which results in more individualized guidance and support than freshman year. “Harvard’s pre-med advising within the House system is incredibly strong compared to other schools,” says Joshua H. St. Louis ’09, who is now in his last year of Tufts’ MD/PhD program. The House advising system offers assistance including mock interviews, personal statements, and advice on application deadlines.However, many freshmen drop out of pre-med before they are even given access to the strong Harvard House advising network. At the cost of encouraging greater exploration, pre-meds are left largely on their own freshman year to grapple with the realities of being pre-med.A Lack of CommunityMany of those who have remained on the pre-med track find that there is a lack of community and pride among pre-meds. These students explain that strongly identifying as pre-med will lead peers to judge them as cut-throat, intense, and grade-obsessed. Therefore, they often socialize outside of the pre-med community, prioritizing their concentration or their extracurriculars.“You want to express your passion for medicine, but you don’t want to be a stereotypical pre-medder,” says Anna ’16, a pre-med who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because she did not want her comments to affect medical school applications. “It creates a very anti-intellectual community.”For Grace, being identified as pre-med takes on the form of an insult. “People are like, ‘Do you do social studies?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh I wish, thank you for thinking that. I wish I was that cool,’” Grace says. “It’s kind of a badge of shame to be called a pre-med.”Because of the negative connotations surrounding the pre-med personality, many students on the track to medical school actively seek out the company of non-pre-meds. St. Louis says that as an undergraduate, he “found [pre-meds] to be super stressed out and always wearied.” He remembers working with a friend in Cabot Science Library on Friday afternoons alongside a table of pre-meds, sobbing and breaking down as they worked frantically up until the 5 p.m. problem set deadline.St. Louis ultimately decided to distance himself from the pre-med community: Of his four roommates at Harvard, only one other was pre-med. Because his concentration—Organismic and Evolutionary Biology—and his roommate’s—Mind, Brain, and Behavior—were not the quintessential pre-med concentrations like Molecular and Cellular Biology and Neurobiology, they didn’t have much contact with pre-meds outside the required curriculum.St. Louis says that many of his friends who were devoted to helping people wound up falling off of the pre-med track, whereas those who stuck with it were largely driven by money or parental pressures. “I felt like most of them weren’t really going into medicine for the same reasons that I was,” St. Louis says, referring to his peers who continued on the pre-med track.Hillary ’13, who was granted anonymity because she did not want her comments to affect medical school applications, also expressed discomfort with the motivations of her fellow pre-meds. “You’ve got everyone trying to get A’s in a class where they give out like five to ten percent A’s and the rest B’s and a few Cs,” Hillary says. Although she stayed with the pre-med program, this mindset meant that she “didn’t want to be around pre-meds 24/7.”Although Hillary originally declared MCB as her concentration, she later switched to History and Science, which she says has fewer pre-med students. “I wanted to experience other people, and experience other concentrations,” Hillary explains.For some pre-meds, the fragmented nature of Harvard’s pre-med community causes them to rethink their intent to apply to medical school. “I think I’ve realized, if I really don’t like the pre-med culture, then med school is really just a bunch of pre-meds. That’s all there is...It makes me re-evaluate if that’s a culture I want to be in for the next however many years,” Grace says.For Grace, this lack of camaraderie might be endemic to a program in which few students are fully engaged in their coursework. “I think every concentration has one or two requirements people aren’t thrilled about but have to do. But pretty much every pre-med class, people aren’t excited about.”A For Application“One could argue pre-med students do obsess on the specificities of the grade,” Lue says, referring to his LS1a students. “Because pre-med students are worried about their ability to get into medical school, there may be a little bit more focus on that.”Harvard’s advising staff emphasize that one or two bad grades will not sink a medical school application. According to OCS’s medical school admissions data, Harvard pre-med applicants with a 3.50 GPA or higher had a 93 percent acceptance rate to medical schools in 2012.Ceder says that she sees “many students who come in with a couple of B minuses or a C+ or even a B or a B+ and they’re concerned that this is now going to keep them out of medical school.” Medical schools, she says, are more interested in “the passion vocation piece”—commitment to a sport, for example—than simply straight A’s.But pre-med students are not just concerned about getting into a medical school: They want to get into the best medical schools.As a result, students often choose concentrations and courses based on what will do the most to boost their GPA. “When you’re choosing Gen Ed, you’re choosing them to get A’s. Generally people will be like, ‘I just need the A for medical school,’” says Sasha ’14, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because she did not want her comments to affect medical school applications.In the lab component for some of her pre-med courses, Hillary encountered lab partners who were driven almost entirely by their medical school aspirations. “If you didn’t do the one extra question on the lab report, you were a bad lab partner and would bring down the whole group and then the whole group wouldn’t get an A and then everybody would be upset,” Hillary says.One consequence of this obsession with good grades is a less intellectually diverse pre-med community. “I think they’re discouraging people who could potentially bring something new to the table in terms of scientific innovation,” Ramirez says.If Not Med School…Harvard students are also pulled away from the pre-med track by the appeal of more lucrative jobs, such as finance or consulting, which hire straight out of college. These career paths offer the dual incentive of high compensation and immediate reward. Students are looking at earning between $50,000 and $100,000 the year after graduation, rather than paying tuition for four years of medical school, followed by a residency of up to seven years.Gamble, who was pre-med until the end of her freshman year, says that the delayed benefits of medical careers played into her decision to pursue an alternate path. In high school, she worked with a reconstructive surgeon. While learning the ropes, Gamble encountered a 35-year-old resident with two children, which “really threw [her] off,” Gamble says. She had trouble imagining herself trying to raise a family while still training for her profession.She is now aiming to get a job in consulting after graduation. “It’s something I discovered that I really, really like a lot,” Gamble says. “I know I obviously want to do something I love, but I also want to make a fair wage.”“I realized that kind of career timeline didn’t align with what I want in a career,” Ramirez says, echoing Gamble. “Time for me is really important, and I don’t want to wait until I’m forty.”For those students who decide to delay applying to medical school—whether to take a break from academics, or to help finance their medical school tuition—the timeline to becoming a doctor is even longer. As a result, many Harvard students decide to get consulting or finance jobs because of the compensation, with the full intent of later applying to medical school.In addition, these companies often don’t have any structured requirements for their entry-level positions. “I know people with no business experience who started consulting after graduating,” says Jen Q. Y. Zhu ’14, who decided to stop being pre-med with one requirement left.Pre-med students have to weigh the cost—in both time and money—of pursuing a medical career against the attractiveness of other careers that can promise larger paychecks immediately.Is it Worth It?Clearly, not all pre-meds who enter Harvard expecting to be pre-med will graduate and go to medical school. According to Ceder, one of the OCS advisors, students must ask themselves, “Do I need the MD to do what I want to do?”For many, the answer is no. Some have become disillusioned, others discouraged, the path to medical school looking less attractive than they had first imagined.This shift away from the pre-med track is already apparent for some at 2:30 p.m., when Robert A. Lue’s LS1a lecture is about to go overtime. A few students quickly pack up their bags and climb over their peers to head elswehere. Most, however, stay to hear the professor’s final thoughts. After all, the concepts might appear on a future exam.After a few moments, Lue wraps up and Science Center B becomes fully alive again. Students huddle afterwards. Some talk about pre-labs. Others admit that they “weren’t paying attention the whole first half.”Most ReadRecord 39,494 Apply to Harvard College Class of 2021Univ. Subcomittee Considers Mimicking Housing at Yale

“What’s the best way to learn how to code?”“How to become a programmer”“How to build an app”These are common questions asked everyday by beginners who are eager to learn how to code. No doubt you’ve already googled something along those lines and read enough articles/answers to the point where you’re sick of the “standard” advice. If you have not, or if you somehow think I have something new to say and want to hear it anyway (I don’t), here is a short and pretty much pointless answer .Step 1: Pick a LanguageStep 2: Learn the LanguageStep 3: Build Stuff and Keep LearningHold on, don’t throw shoes at me. As much as I’d like to say there’s a one-size fits all method to learning how to code, there really isn’t. (Let me add a Step 0: accept that everyone learns differently).Learn iOS Development (For Apple application developments you must know Objective C or Swift)Learn Android Development (For Android application Development you must know Java)Learn Xamiarin Development/PhoneGap Development (For Hybrid application Development if you know any other language, and interested in development)If you’re having that moment when you’ve become a lost sheep, don’t freak out because you’re not alone. Pretty much every time you ask “how do I become a programmer”, developers will tell you to build stuff, as building things is how you can improve as a programmer and it’s the best way to learn, etcetera etcetera.But how do you build your own app?You can always follow existing tutorials on how to build a Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram/etc clone with whatever language & technology you’re using, but keep in mind that the authors of those tutorials have actually done most of the work for you, and all you are doing is understanding the code and their logic. This will attempt to provide you an outline you can follow when building your own app from scratch.PrerequisitesMost apps would need a database, so if you’re going to be building your own app by yourself (ergo the front and back end), you’ll likely have to know a database query language (usually SQL or MongoDB). Unless you’re building something that does not need to interact with a database like Flappy Bird, for example.What’s more, if you’re looking to build a web app, you’ll need to know some basic DevOps to be able to set up your development environment/server, and to be able to actually launch the app.If you’re only aiming to be a front-end web developer, you can feel free to hone your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills at Codepen or JSfiddle. If you only know JavaScript and don’t want to learn another language, then you can try Node.js, as it’s a JavaScript platform for back-end development.Otherwise, you should also know one of the following languages (and usually a web framework) if you intend to build a complete web app:RubyPythonPHPJavaGoC#If you’re looking to build games, then you can consider learning Lua. As for native app development, you’ll need to know Swift/Objective C for iOS development and Java for Android development.Without further ado, let’s get to how to build an app from scratch.Step 0: Understand YourselfFirst and foremost, build something that you’re passionate about. Interest is the best way to keep yourself motivated, so ask yourself what do you care about or what do you like to do.For example:What apps do you enjoy using the most?What apps can’t you live without?Do you like playing games?Do you enjoy designing things?EtcIdentify your interests so you’ll be working on something you’ll have fun with. This way, you are less likely to fizzle out and give up halfway.Step 1: Pick an IdeaNow that you’ve hopefully figured yourself out, it’s time to pick an idea to build. Start simple.Yes…even if you’re thinking about building a game, right now you shouldn’t be thinking about building the next CounterStrike but instead you should be thinking about how to build games as simple as the infamous Flappy Bird. Hey, don’t look down on Flappy Bird─it was a sensation that made people all over the world discover their inner masochist. But I digress.So, based on your interests, come up with an idea for a simple app that will do something neat. It doesn’t matter if the app already exists (in fact it may help you if similar projects already exist).Here are some pointers to help you get some inspiration:If you like cooking, maybe you can think of building an app for people to showcase their homemade recipes.If you always wanted to know how Twitter works, try building a super simple Twitter clone.If you’re a forgetful person who relies on task managers, try building one yourself.If you’re addicted to the League of Legends, you can try looking through Riot’s API and build a site that can obtain & display game information.If you like playing card games, try building a simple one (e.g. Black Jack)If you’re on a diet, try building an app that will log your calorie intake.And so on, so forth. Here’s a list of project ideas if you need more inspiration. Once you have a direction, write down in one sentence the purpose, and, if applicable, the most important target users for this app. For example: A pet adoption app for people who pick up stray animals.Step 2: Define the Core FunctionalitiesThink about what your app should be able to do and list them out. If you end up listing a bunch of things, take a better look and ask yourself if this app REALLY needs, for example, Facebook login to work? Does it REALLY need to upload data to some cloud to work?It’s great to have a dream project with awesome specs, but right now the point is not building something that’s complete with a lot of cool features. Keep in mind that no app is ever complete, and everything starts out simple.Don’t ever try building an all-in-one app. Don’t go there. I’ve seen it happen even in a professional environment, and the result is a lot of pain and little progress. Unless you have an iron will or you really love challenges, you’ll just end up frustrated and discouraged if your first project is too hard to build. You’re a beginner…the point right now is to have fun. Fun is the most efficient way to learn.So, take a look at the list of functions you’ve made, and if it’s too long, start crossing out functionalities your app can work without.Remember, this is your version 1 and you should just keep things simple. Focus on things that will allow the app to perform whatever it’s supposed to do—everything else can be left for a different project.For a sample core functionality list for a Reddit clone:users can create an accountusers can retrieve lost passwordsusers can change their passwordsusers can post new linksusers can comment on linksusers can upvote/downvote linksusers have a profile showing their history activityThe features listed above are the core functionalities you should focus on first. Other features such as:users can share to social mediausers can delete commentsusers can edit commentsusers can delete their own accountAre secondary and can be saved for version 1.x—only work on these after you can actually launch version 1.0.Step 3: Sketch Your AppNothing is quicker than a pen & paper. By now you should have a pretty solid idea of what your app should do, so sketch out the wireframe of your app’s UI (user interface). Where buttons should be located, what the purpose of that button is, and so on.Write down notes and flesh out how the app should work. You’re still in the brainstorming stage, so change stuff around until you’re somewhat satisfied with it.Remember, keep things simple. If you shortened your list from step 2, stick to only sketching functions listed there—don’t get carried away. If you can’t help yourself, then sketch 2 versions: a basic version and the final version in your dreams.All in all, this is not the final look but rather just a step to help you get a firmer grasp of your app.Step 4: Plan Your App’s UI FlowAll right. You have a good idea of what your app will look like, what every element should should do, and how users can interact with your app. Now it’s time to figure out your app’s UI flow. Meaning, how a user should use your app from start to end, every step they have to take and every scenario they might encounter. Try to consider every use-case.Include all the actions your user can take in the flowchart. For example, if your app requires users to log in, how do they create an account? What if users forgot their password? What if they inputed the wrong password? What should a user be able to do on each interface (add new list item > save; edit > save/delete)? So on, so forth. This is done the quickest with a pen and paper.Again, as your app should be fairly simple, your diagram should not be too massive.Step 5: Designing the DatabaseAll right! After you planned out every possible scenario, take a look at it to determine what sort of data you would need to keep. For example, if your app requires users to create an account, you’d need to keep track of things such as the username, user ID, the user’s email, the password, whether user’s email is confirmed, when the account was created as well as every time the user has logged into your app.If you’re building a Twitter clone, you’d need to know the tweet’s ID, the tweet’s content, when the tweet was published/retweeted, how many retweets it has, and how many stars it has. You’d also need to keep a record of a user’s retweets and stars.You can draw an ERM (Entity-Relationship Model) diagram to map out the data relationship. In addition, if you have any future features planned, this is the time to plan them into your database.AdvancedIf the app you’re planning is going to interact with a server (e.g. if users need to create an account and login to your app) or if your app is going to interact with an API (e.g. you’re trying to get information from Yahoo! Weather ), then it’s likely a good idea to draw a sequence diagram for you to get a better idea of how the processes should operate.Step 6: UX WireframesOkay, you have the back-end planned. Now, it’s time to plan your front-end.Hopefully, you’re still as excited as the minions. You know what you need—now you have a much better idea of what your app should look like.Since humans are mostly visual creatures, you’d have a better time understanding what you should do if you have a visual of every view you’ll be coding. However, if you’re like me and your drawing is so messy you can hardly understand the obscure piece of…cough masterwork…you’ve created, it’s naturally unwise to proceed with the this step through abusing your poor artistic braincells.Luckily, many wireframing and mockup tools exist online to help you plan your UX/UI flow (e.g. Gliffy, Mockflow, Framebox, Wireframe.cc - minimal wireframing tool - for free, Invisionapp).Step 6.5 (Optional): Design the UIThis is an optional step, but if you intend to specialize in front-end development or if you care a lot about what your app is going to look like to the point where a prettier app would motivate you to code, definitely go ahead and design the app so all those wireframe UI elements can be replaced with nicer-looking ones.If you love designing, you’re probably going to design the app before you start anyway—maybe you already designed it during step 2.If you don’t do design but still care about how your app will look like, consider using elements from UI kits. Here are a few resources for UI elements (note: Photoshop required):UI CloudGraphicburgerUI DockFor games:Spriters ResourceDon’t get too hung up on the app’s appearance, however. Right now you should be focusing on building an app’s functions instead.Step 7: Researching SolutionsGreat! You’re done with the planning stage…but how are you supposed to code all that stuff? An important skill you’ll have to learn as a programmer is to evaluate when you should use something another developer has already written, and when to build the function yourself. Since everyone is building a unique app, not every use case is the same. Thus, you have to judge when to use an existing solution and when to build your own, and you’ll get better at doing so with experience.If you’re feeling like a directionless boat lost on a vast ocean, take a deep breath and don’t panic. You can do this. As you gain more experience with researching, honing your “Google-fu”, and building things, you’ll eventually get a hang of this process.Looking at SolutionsTake a look at all diagrams you’ve drawn as well as the functionality list you’ve made in step 2. What are some things you have absolutely no idea how to build?For example, do users need to create an account? Does your app rely on real-time updates? What functions do you need?Most of the time it is a good idea to just use an existing solution for large functions such as handling real-time syncing (e.g. Firebase), networking/routing (e.g. AFNetworking for iOS apps), authentication, and UI-related components (e.g. flipboard or pinterest-esque app).Many online databases exist for you to search for backend-related components/packages/gems/etc, but you need to be careful with your evaluation of what other people have written—don’t just use them blindly. You’re hopefully not going to be building anything too complex right now, so right now you’re probably not going to need components other people have written. At any rate, the best way to start out is to study what other developers have done before you and learn the logic behind their decisions. Github is your best friend.Choosing Tools to Get Started WithIf you’re building a web app, perhaps you can check out Yeoman as it aims to help you quickly kickstart new projects by helping you set up the structure of your project.If you’re building a React app, you can also check out starter kits and existing Flux implementations. HTML5Boilerplate and Bootstrap are popular front-end templates for your app. More often than not, boilerplates use Gulp or Grunt for task management. Since you’re likely going to be using some existing components or solutions, you should also install bower for dependency management (npm for those using Node.js and CocoaPods for iOS developers). Don’t worry—most of the time these tools come with tutorials that will teach you how to install them.Step 8: Building the AppYes! You’re ready to build the app now! Here are some tips you should keep in mind when building your app.ChecklistYou should focus on building the app function by function. Thus, if you’re not done with one task such as a commenting system, don’t suddenly start to build a user profile view. In other words, if you’re building a form, for example, you should work on both the front and back-end code until the function is complete. All in all, to keep track of your progress, you can write down a to-do list of functions and use it as a checklist.Write Tests FirstUnless your building a game app, it’s a good idea to write the test for your function first before you actually begin to code the feature. Bugs are inevitable, but testing will greatly reduce your mistakes and your chances of releasing buggy code to production. Granted, writing unit tests take time and you may sometimes question whether it’s worth it. However, if you’re looking to build bigger projects in the future in which you’d continue to add new features, your mind will get explode. So, it’s a good idea to start small and get into the habit of doing Test-Driven Development (TDD), especially since you’re starting fresh and building something simple.You’re not on some deadline with a project manager’s pitchfork behind your back now, are you?Many testing tools are available for you to choose from, such as Jasmine or Karma for JavaScript, Rspec for Ruby, PyTest for Python, PHPUnit for PHP, Quick as an alternative to xCTest for iOS development, or whatever tool you feel would work for you.In addition, if you’re building an iOS or Android app, it’s a good idea to check out Crashlytics.Use GitGit is a version control system and a full-fledged repository with complete history and full version-tracking capabilities. It’s a good idea to start learning how to use Git while building your first app. This way, you can easily undo your mistakes, recover lost data, and more. In addition, if you plan to work with a team of developers in the future, you will need to use git anyway. Github is the most popular Git repository hosting service for open source projects, while Bitbucket is for private repositories.If You Get Stuck…As a beginner, you’ll feel like that hamster more often than not. You’re not alone. Sometimes, all you have to do take a break and let the issue simmer so you can clear your mind. If this still doesn’t work, here are some ways to unstick yourself:GoogleI mentioned Google-fu in step 7, but let me stress again that learning how to Google is an important skill all programmers need to acquire. If you get stuck on a bug or you don’t know why your code isn’t working, it’s a good idea to Google.Ask on StackOverflowYou’d probably notice that your google results will mostly point to questions and answers on StackOverflow. If you still can’t find a solution to your problem after googling your ass off, then you can try posting a question on StackOverflow. Remember to show that you’ve done your research in your question – you’re more likely to get an answer that way.Alternative: Find a MentorSome people will say that StackOverflow isn’t beginner-friendly because beginners don’t know how to phrase their questions. But what if you don’t even know what your problem is?If you get to the verge of headdesking (or if you’re already headdesking…), you don’t have to abuse your forehead (if you hit your head hard enough you’ll just lose braincells). One great alternative to facilitating your development and your learning process is to get help from an experienced programmer. You don’t need to feel like you’re somehow stupid because Person X is a famous expert and a self-taught programmer. People simply learn differently, and all beginners will benefit from personal guidance as you may be making mistakes that aren’t a big deal right now but is actually a bad practice. Remember, back then many self-taught developers didn’t have the services that are now available to you.Final TipProgrammers make mistakes all the time, so don’t feel discouraged when you can’t even pass a test you’ve written or if you’re constantly tripping over yourself. I mean, think about iOS8, Android Lollipop, or some app you love to use. Surely even the most mature apps out there still have bugs, so don’t assume you can build the most perfect, bug-free app out there (of course, this doesn’t mean you should set low standards for yourself—you should always strive to build quality apps).In addition, it’s very common for you to spend hours or even days on one thing and to still have difficulty making it work as you want. If programming new features quickly were easy, the world wouldn’t need new programmers. Hell, we’d probably be on a flawless iOS100 now and living in a digitalized world like to one in the Matrix.Thus, a lot of times, you’d hear the term “make mistakes” whenever people are encouraging you to start building things. They mean it. One thing you’ll have to accept as a programmer is that you’re not going to be a badass coding machine who can conjure up features in a snap. You’ll going to be failing a lot and that’s ok.Again, remember you’re a beginner, so a lot of things are going to be inevitably difficult at first. You’re going to be spending a lot of time on something that you think should be simple and it will seem like a difficult uphill struggle, but as you gain more experience, things will get easier. Look forward to that sense of accomplishment when you finally manage to build your first app.Happy Coding!