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does the horrific load of classes they have to take combined with the competitiveness of the process make them that way?

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I think this is the main reason, the pre-med kids I know work very hard because they so much pressure on them to get A's.

Another question I have, how much does GPA matter when med schools are reviewing applications? Does your MCAT score have more influence or is GPA the most important factor?

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Yeah, ed's question is really complicated, so I'm not going to type out my whole rational, it's safe to say that 90% of premeds/med students suck. Luckily I'm in that 10% that don't. Somewhere along the lines of college (freshmen year) I went from being a tightly wound anal retentative premed to someone that just stopped caring...I also was non-premed for a bit, I dont really know what caused the change, but when I got back into and even now I wasn't as gunner as I had been for grades...much happier now. I think I realized there were more important things to me than getting 100% on everything.

As for grades and MCAT it's best to do well in both (these 2 are the most important and are what initially gets you in the door for the most part) compared to really well in one and really awful in another. I'd say MCAT=GPA> MCAT>GPA >>>>>>>>>>>&gt ; GPA>MCAT.

While the MCAT is just a test, it tells medical schools a lot about how you handle pressure and workload, my MCAT was basically on par with my GPA, but I did have to explain a few lazy grades. Schools don't want to see you blow the MCAT out of the water but get Cs in class cause you are bored, likewise they don't want to see you get a 4.0 but a 25 on the MCAT, something is wrong with this picture. Shoot for 3.5+ and 30+, that being said, once you are in this range, the difference between a 3.5 and 3.8 is insignificant imo, but the difference between a 30 and 34 is SIGNIFICANT. Along those lines, don't get a 15 in bio and physics but then a 5 on verbal, that doesn't look good either...