Premed?!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I've been living a blissfully calm life of "finding myself" and now, after analyzing my life over winter break, I think I want to be premed. But I have absolutely no idea how to start preparing for medical school, or even if I'm completely set on going!</p>

<p>So, questions...
1) Out of all you gungho premed students, what makes you want to be premed? Why do you want to go to medical school?
2) How does one know, FOR SURE, that he/she wants to be premed? I'm about 80% sure right now, but I'm scared of starting the premed science series because I don't want to be locked in and then discover, halfway through, that I would rather be a professor or a lawyer instead!
3) Should I start taking the courses then, if I'm not that certain?
4) Is being premed really hell? I keep hearing people hate on premeds and hate on their competitiveness, and I'm not sure I want to surround myself with such competitive gradegrubbers (as they're described) after dealing with that in high school for four years...
5) Is the above myth ^ of heartless premeds true?
6) As a premed, what do you do?! And how does one start? I didn't do any research in high school, and now, starting college, I'm completely lost. Can I do research if I haven't taken any science courses yet?</p>

<p>I'm not really looking for specific answers to each of these questions, but I'm hoping that they give you an idea of where my mind is right now. I've just decided to shoot for medical school because 1) I want a job where I can help people, and what better way than saving lives every day? And a large part of being a doctor is compassion, in caring for patients and their well-being, and 2) I miss science. After a quarter of not doing anything science-related, I miss even holding a calculator.</p>

<p>ANY thoughts, ANY responses, at all, would be greatly appreciated. I just feel lost, and so any comments would help me! Thank you in advance.</p>

2

<p>2.) Spend time volunteering in patient care settings. See if you like it. That won’t tell you for sure, but it’s a good first step.</p>

<p>3.) Yup. The intro ones aren’t terrible.</p>

<p>Your #1 isn’t a particularly accurate reason; relatively few doctors “save lives” every day and in any case there are lots of jobs out there that “help people.” (In fact, every job, if done honestly, helps people. Nobody would give you money if they didn’t feel helped.)</p>

<h1>2 is actually a relatively good reason, if it stands up to the test of time.</h1>

3

<p>4.) Premed is competitive. But I think pre-meds get their reputation from the most outspoken ones, some of which are whiners about everything from grades to professors to whatever else. I’ve seen several pre-meds who complain to the professor about their grades (and pre-pharm as well ).</p>

<p>With that said, there are just as many pre-meds (and I would guess more) who are laid back in the sense that they aren’t cutthroat about grades. Sure, premed is competitive in the sense that you have to have good grades to get into medical school. But getting good grades has everything to do with you as a student and not what your fellow pre-meds are doing.</p>

<p>6.) Yes you can. I did anyways. Though a lot of people get their first position in research by contacting a professor whose class they did well in. I would say it helps to have a general understanding of the subject you are researching. At least on the basic level. But most likely whatever you are researching is going to be far beyond the scope of a general intro class anyway. You’ll learn more from being involved in the research for a number of years than you would from a class.</p>

4

<p>Go for it if you want. I hope you are not taking loans. But there are some screwy thing you need to understand about pre-med, and also college in general.</p>

<p>College has turned into a business. What is the ultimate goal of a business? Money. Colleges put a lot of energy and money into convincing everybody that you need to attend in order to be a somebody. Why do they do this? Because they are a business. That is what businesses do. They are a business with employees working for them (your professors).
How many new graduates can you take and put them into the field they’ve been studying for, and they will know exactly what to do? NONE.
A premed graduate should be able to walk into their chosen field and at least appear to know what to do. You just spent 4 years as a pre-med student, you should be able to at least walk into a hospital and have a clue what to do. Instead, you major in one of their poorly taught subjects and they call you “premed.” Then you can impress everyone with the word “pre-med” who doesn’t realize your not actual learning anything remotely close to what a doctor does. </p>

<p>One question. If you graduate but fail to get into a medical school, or you change your mind about going, will you feel qualified and confident that you could specialize in whatever the degree is?</p>

5

<p>Thanks everyone!! I’ve been checking this thread daily, and your responses have been very helpful. I’m going to go for it! At the very least, I’ll find out if it’s the right, or wrong, field for me.
BobbyRob, yes, I do. Not sure exactly what job I’ll have with a sociology degree, but I’ll manage :slight_smile:
Keep the responses coming, and I’ll be so grateful :D</p>

6

<p>1) Out of all you gungho premed students, what makes you want to be premed? Why do you want to go to medical school?</p>

<p>A desire to help people and an enjoyment of the biomedical sciences as well as experience in healthcare and an intrinsic interest in disease processes and treatments.</p>

<p>2) How does one know, FOR SURE, that he/she wants to be premed? I’m about 80% sure right now, but I’m scared of starting the premed science series because I don’t want to be locked in and then discover, halfway through, that I would rather be a professor or a lawyer instead!</p>

<p>Go out and work in the healthcare field. Get to know physicians. Do you think you could do what they do? Also, how much and how hard are you willing to work? Most physicians work 60-80 hrs/wk and it’s tough work (but it’s also quite rewarding from what I hear).</p>

<p>3) Should I start taking the courses then, if I’m not that certain?</p>

<p>Sure…it’s basically just freshmen physics, bio & g-chem along w/ o-chem and often biochem and a year of calc/stats, so mostly easy to moderately difficult freshmen-level courses</p>

<p>4) Is being premed really hell? I keep hearing people hate on premeds and hate on their competitiveness, and I’m not sure I want to surround myself with such competitive gradegrubbers (as they’re described) after dealing with that in high school for four years…</p>

<p>Hell? no. I’d say it’s really a lot easier than most people make it but that may just be me. I’ve found the courses to be pretty lowkey and easy; nothing like the music and psych courses I took in UG (I’m not kidding here).</p>

<p>5) Is the above myth ^ of heartless premeds true?</p>

<p>Umm… depends where you go. I’d say you’re going to find more of that on SDN b/c it’s anonymous and many of us feel you go online to get an honest opinion/honest feedback (and go to your mom/friends to get emotional support); as a result, many of us are probably harsher online than we would be in person. Personally, when I post something online, I want to hear the nitty-gritty difficult-to-hear stuff. I figure people online w/ no relationship investment are more likely to just say it like it is. On the other hand, in person I have never met a difficult premed, although on occasion I have met one who was a bit over-focused on doing well on the MCAT, etc., instead of enjoying life.</p>

<p>6) As a premed, what do you do?! And how does one start? I didn’t do any research in high school, and now, starting college, I’m completely lost. Can I do research if I haven’t taken any science courses yet?</p>

<p>Clinical work, volunteering, research, leadership…
You also need to have a high GPA (3.66 is the average to get accepted somewhere in the US) and a high MCAT (31.5 is the current average for acceptance and is around the 85th percentile).
It does take a lot of work and is competitive since 60% of students who apply each fail to get in anywhere.</p>

<p>Research may be difficult to get into w/o any science background but after a few lab sciences you should be able to get into a lab somewhere.</p>

7

<p>

To drop the MD bomb in bars.</p>

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<p>lol. Truth.</p>

9

<p>curm and GS, are you kidding or do you really believe in it?</p>

<p>Sometimes I suspect that the prestige factor (of the MD), rather than the financial reward factor, is the driving force, at least a part of it. At some low point of my child’s early college career when he was still somewhat reluctant to be a premed (about the time when he described the intro bio test as a “word vomiting game”), he once mentioned that the ego issue (believing that he is academically capable of doing it) keeps him going. He used to dislike the way bio is taught and how the students are tested, but it turns out that he is very good at this game, including all the bio classes he took this semester.)</p>

10

<p>I don’t know about GS, but I’m kidding. Indie film producer was more my style in bars. :wink: (I’m just kidding on that one, too.)</p>

11

<p>Well I wouldn’t just use it for the MD line. There’s also the credibility. “It’s righty loosey, lefty tighty. No, your wheels won’t fall off while you’re driving. Trust me, I’m a doctor.”</p>

<p>…nah, like Curm I’m also just kidding. It’s actually righty tighty, lefty loosey.</p>