<p>so im considering going premed. im going to be a freshman this fall, so i know ive got time, but can someone who is premed, or has friends that are premed tell me just how hard it really is? how hard is it to survive this? and how many get weeded out?</p>
<p>I've heard it's a combination of how hard your school's program is, your aptitude for science, time management skills, and sheer willpower to tough it out for how hard premed is.</p>
<p>Pre med simply means that regardless of what your actual major you need to complete certain courses that are required for applying to med school and those are generally two years of chem, one of bio, one of calculus, and one of physics. For many, science and math courses can be hard. The two semesters required of organic chemistry turn out for many to be the make or break courses for the decision to try for med school -- there are scores of med school wannabees who have a change of heart when they hit organic chemistry.</p>
<p>Premed is going to be a completely different college experience than what is considered the norm. Premed, or a sucessful premed, requires constant studying. Not simply to memorize, but to immerse yourself in and understand the material. Your day should really be going to class and studying, with of course the occasional break. But you are going to have an exponentially greater amount of work than most of your peers. If you decide not to major in sciences, it becomes difficult because you have to take many tough science courses along with your major requirements. Although people feel as though they "have time" before deciding, to be in the best stead, you really should decide within the first semester. Although difficult, it can be very rewarding, and I encourage you to think long and hard before deciding, because if significantly impacts a college experience.</p>
<p>Hello there...
Premed is HARD...but worth it.
1-Premed study more then the norm. They have to study alot more to get those As. They study consistely to get the grades they want.
2-Competition- Some schools like UofToronto have brutal competition among premeds. This happens when marks are bell curved. Hopefully they are not at your school.
3-ECs. They have to do things like ECs, research and etc. So on top of studying they have to worry about ECs.
4-MCAT-yes another thing premeds have to worry about on top on ECs and marks.
So premed have four things to worry about and not alot of time so if you want it go after it.</p>
<p>If you have a real interest and passion in being a doctor of some type, the difficulty of Pre-Med is worth it. It is a very respectable career path, but if you do not really have an interest it will not be fun. It always depends on the school, but I think it's hard everywhere to some extent.</p>
<p>depends on the person, the school, and the major outside of the premed requirements. there are plenty of people who take part in the 'normal' college experience who do very well academically and get into elite med schools, including atheletes from all divisions</p>
<p>tmacgirl is right about the requirements to get into med school. What I would add is that (3) is very important but often overlooked until too late. an unofficial requirement to get into med school, BTW, is exposure to the medical field. This is often thru volunteer work in a hospital or other medical setting. I would urge you to do this right away (frosh year). It may be that you find you love the field and in that case you'll be more motivated to do the coursework. Or you may discover that it isn't fit, in which case you haven't wasted too much time on the wrong path.</p>
<p>Incidentally I strongly encourage internships and real-world exposure for everyone, no matter their intended career path. Budding PhD's should get a job in a lab to see if that's how they really want to spend their career, pre-laws should work in a legal setting to see if they like the work, and so on. You might be surprised how many people announce to themselves and the world "I'm going to be an X" even though they don't know very much about what the career is really like and if it is a match for their interests & preferences.</p>
<p>thanks for all the great advice guys. i was just curious if like, my fascination with life, with one's health, with healthcare systems, etc was reason enough to pursue a career in medicine. i revere the field somuch that it seems like that isnt enough aka i havent had like a moment of pure inspiration or anything like that. i just want to help people, and i want to make a difference. the only problem i have in fearing the life if a premed is that im scared of math and science. dont get me wrong, if i try really hard, i can be pretty good at it, but im just scared. u guys think if i get over this fear, and just work my arse off it'll all work out? bc my work ethic is like...whoa...haha and i dont think id mind the consistent studying, etc of a premed...what do u think?</p>
<p>
[quote]
i was just curious if like, my fascination with life, with one's health, with healthcare systems, etc was reason enough to pursue a career in medicine.
[/quote]
In the medical field, maybe. As a doctor, no.</p>
<p>Let me explain. You have a strong interest in the medical arena, so that gives you some clues about to the overall direction of your work life. It does NOT mean you would enjoy the day-to-day life of a nurse or doctor. You need real-world experience to find out.</p>
<p>The problem is that a lot of HS kids don't have a lot of exposure to the working world, so when they find an interest only one or two things come to mind. In medicine, for example, it's typically "be a doctor". However there are literally thousands of different jobs that involve you in the world of medicine. You could work in basic research. You could work in applied research, developing a new drug or treatment. You could work in politics or as a lobbyist on health-care policy, choosing between the local/state/national level. You could be an accountant working in a hospital or other medical setting. You could be a statistician focusing on public health and helping set up effective health care for an entire community or state. You could work in public health in other areas such as management. You could work in nutrition. You could work in a marketing or advertising field, perhaps trying to educate people on better health habits, perhaps selling a useful product or drug. You could be a hospital administrator. You could work as a physical therapist or speech pathologist. And hundreds of more options. The point is that each of these is involved in health care but they allow a person to build a career that focuses on their strengths, interests, and preferences rather than just assuming "medicine == doctor"</p>
<p>You might decide to start out pre-med, but I would advise you and anyone else contemplating medicine to get real-world experience as soon as possible and also to work with the counselors at your career center to discover ALL the options out there for you and spend some time figuring out which ones might be right for you. Done from the start of college it's a relaxed and interesting search; done senior year it's rushed and unpleasant.</p>
<p>If you've struggled in math and science, you could always consider other majors and professions where you could still be involved in the heatlh care field. Majors in public health, political science, and economics could all be used to be invovled in the policy side of healthcare, allowing you to make a difference by changing the system.</p>
<p>But if you really want to be a doctor, and you think you can do well in your science classes, go for it.</p>
<p>yeah that'strue. what could i do in health if i went to law school instead? and what exactly does a masters degree in public health get you?</p>
<p>Sorta related but sorta not really question: I had a friend who was doing premed, I guess had been doing it for years but I don't really know, who suddenly claimed to have "no free time at all". And I mean "no free time" in the sense that she couldn't stop and chat with me once a week for 10 minutes because she didn't have 10 minutes to spare, and she couldn't sleep more than 4-5 hours a night because she had no time to spare, not "no free time" as in she couldn't go on weekend beach trips or whatever. </p>
<p>Needless to say, it's "had a friend" not "have a friend" because it's a bit hard to be friends with someone who won't even speak to you for a few minutes for 6 months straight. She said it was because of the premed thing but I call bull, I've had weeks where I work for 100+ hours and I still managed to have time to do other things as well. You just need good time management skills.</p>
<p>mmm yeah i see where ur coming from blahdeblah</p>
<p>some of my cousins are like that</p>
<p>would biomedical engineering count at pre-med or something else?</p>
<p>Pre-med is difficult, there's no doubt...the classes, the MCAT, a nation wide acceptance rate to med school of lower than 50%...it all adds up.</p>
<p>however I would venture that a lot of the "legend" of pre-med difficulty comes from the sheer number of people who start off as pre-meds freshman year and then realize it's not what they really want to do, or it's just too much for them. MikeMac really hit the nail on the head here in just the medical field occupations, but it's something that is across the board really in all fields: Many HSers don't realize all the jobs that are available to them in this world. Many start thinking seriously about "what they want to be when they grow up" and the things that get tossed around are doctor, lawyer, architect, engineer, teacher or businessperson. Many people "forget" about professions like interior design, pharmacist, social worker, librarian, or dentist and so on. There are also plenty of professions that people simply aren't aware of. If I wasn't in medical school right now, I'd be pursuing graduate schooling for a job that I never even realized existed until my freshman year of college and I didn't imagine that I'd enjoy it until the summer after my junior year.</p>
<p>It all adds up to a lot of people starting out as a pre-med when they shouldn't have even been leaning that way. You'd be surprised how many get through with that first chemistry test and immediately reconsider. The rest of their time in school they remark about how they couldn't cut in pre-med and how it was so tough. Their comments to anyone who is premed or thinking about premed create a cachophony that makes the difficulty of being premed seem monumental. Throw in the people like Blahdeblah (no offense) who tell stories about losing pre-med friends (for the record, I think that losing friends/social life, simply b/c you're pre-med is inexcusable - you make time for the things that are important to you), and it just adds to it all.</p>
<p>Agrophobic, biomedical engineering is different from premed in classes and difficulty. Biomedical engineering takes more technical courses and math course beyond calculus. Oh and one other plus: NO ORGANIC CHEM!</p>
<p>Almost every premed student I know changed their mind after taking the first semester of General Chemistry. That either says that they weren't into it or the professor was really evil. Your call.</p>
<p>Pre-med is difficult, but probably not significantly more than a regular science major, since the organic chemistry class required for pre-med and bio is less difficult than the one the chemistry majors have to take. As stated in one of the previous posts, a lot of people also drop out because they just jumped on the bandwagon without thinking about what they got themselves into or they didn't know what else to do.</p>
<p>UXAMalex09....most biomedical engineering fields (especially artifical organs/tissues fields) requires Organic Chemistry. If you are a premed, you HAVE to take OChem, there is no way around that.</p>
<p>I hear the Biomedical engineering is defenitly one of the harder paths to med school...</p>
<p>pre-med is easy to finish.</p>
<p>The Perfection you will need to finish is the hard part. Same thing with PharmD</p>
<p>There may be alot of you that will want to become doctors but of all of you, maybe 1 if that will succed. The truth is, is that you are wasting your time posting on a message board, while there could be somebody else in the same situation Volenteering at a Hospital and such.</p>
<p>If you want to be a doctor then dont do Engineering, your an idiot if you choose that. If you dont think you can become a Doctor but want the same sort of intensity, become a PA, is 105 weeks just to much for you, then become an RN.</p>
<p>Not everybody can be a doctor, but everybody can make equal or a greater impact in the lower paying jobs of the medical field.</p>