Organic chemistry being used as a weed-out system for pre-meds doesn't make a whole lot of sense, particularly anything related to organic synthesis and things

Organic chemistry being used as a weed-out system for pre-meds doesn't make a whole lot of sense, particularly anything related to organic synthesis and things like nuclear magnetic spectral interpretation, which doctors simply will never use. A main issue here is that any real (and interesting) understanding of organic chemistry requires a fairly solid understanding of quantum mechanics and things like electronic structure calculations. This is also true of spectroscopy, which is probably the main analytical and experimental tool used in the field. However, that would likely require QM as a prerequisite for organic chemistry, which is a course program that makes little sense for pre-med students. Hence, crude approximations, hand-waving arguments, and rote memorization are often used instead of trying to actually explain things based on more fundamental concepts like electron density. (This approach is sometimes called physical organic chemistry). Additionally, chemistry is one of the most patent-centric areas in the corporate university, and teaching tends to be a second-hand concern. The researchers with large grants aren't required to teach courses, so they farm the job out to temporary hires, grad students and this 84-year old who probably should have retired years ago.