Hi! I’m a premed sophomore at Hopkins. Allow me to give you a very long and thorough answer to your short question. I would describe the “premed culture” in this way:
[ul]
[li]Busy - It’s kind of a given that if you’re premed, you’re doing a lot inside/outside the classroom. It’s actually kind of funny. I’ll be studying / hanging out with my pre-med friends (you’ll see that a lot, killing two birds with one stone), and usually at least one of them will get bored or distracted and start surfing the Internet. And after maybe an hour (less if there are pressing assignments due), I’ll start hearing, every 10 minutes or so, “I should be doing something productive right now” or “I’m making bad life choices right now.” It’s not an expression of guilt; it just feels weird to be relaxing for too long.[/li][li]Passionate - Most people who are premed have “something else” that they’re passionate about–research, social justice, sex trafficking (Baltimore’s pretty notorious for it), etc. You can see it in their conversations, ECs, classes, and what they’re doing when they have down time. Moreover, there are many groups, events, and speakers devoted to discussing the interconnections between some of these things and medicine, which is really cool IMO. [/li][li]Not collaborative, per se - I think that the students you were talking to probably said that specifically to dispel the myth that we’re cutthroat. But here is a number of reasons why I do not consider us to be “collaborative”: [/li]
- Most of us understand the material without assistance.
- If there is something we don't understand, we'll probably go to the professor / teaching assistants / help rooms / tutoring sessions first.
- The people who are most likely to collaborate, friends, usually have different majors and take different classes. Even the prereqs get taken at different times.
- There's not much room to make friends in large lecture classes, because most of the time, they aren't interactive like that.
- It is a lot less efficient to study together, and it takes a lot of time and energy to be invested in the success of multiple people. At the end of the day, our own coursework is priority #1.
- Lol, depending on the subject, there's a good chance that everybody's confused.
I think that you would see more collaboration on a hard problem set or the night before a big exam than at any other time. And of course, we would take the time to help someone who asked us to. But generally, the only support we’re giving each other is moral support. Collaboration is not our default state, if you know what I mean.
[li]Not very integrated - There’s no, like, premed dorm or premed meet-and-greet, lol. But this is a good thing IMO. For one thing, no one’s going to judge you if you decide to quit being premed. Secondly, if you do want to be premed, you can jump right in; we aren’t exclusive or cliquey.[/li]
If you want to get involved with the premed community, you can join a premed group or honor society, go to events hosted by these groups, or attend informational sessions about med school apps. If you don’t want to get involved, you don’t have to; many of my friends don’t at all, while I do. Whatever choice you make has advantages and disadvantages. The good thing about getting involved is that you can meet a lot of really interesting people, get really good advice, and make a lot of connections that can lead to shadowing, volunteering, and research opportunities.
The bad thing is that if you have low self-esteem (like I do), and are surrounded by all of these “picture-perfect premeds” who have confidence, intelligence, and long lists of accomplishments, it can give you an inferiority complex. I think this is what drives the rare few people to do things like purposely choose an easy major to get a high GPA (I’ve literally had someone tell me this), pretend to be passionate about things to get a leadership position, or do what they think med schools want them to do instead of what they love.
[li]I will note that I think that the premed culture inadvertently discourages people who are interested in or should be considering other health professions, just because there are so many of us and so many events specifically tailored to premed students. [/li][/ul]
As for the professors, I don’t know who told you that they’re unreachable! You can go to their office hours, or just talk to them after class, email them, etc. I would say that there are a few professors who aren’t the nicest. The most likely thing you would see in those cases are a condescending attitude to your question, or a very no-nonsense, no-leniency kind of mindset, if you wanted an extension on an assignment or something. Most are very nice, however. Although their capacity to help you may be limited; they have office hours for maybe 2 hrs, twice a week, so they may refer you to their teaching assistants instead. And not all professors have research positions available for their students, so that’s not necessarily a given either.
