Advice from a medical student, be careful what information you give to TAs and profs.

[Proudfather94]

I remember taking a class where I felt like I got along with my TA. We had the same name spelled differently and he seemed cool until I mentioned that I had a fiance. He started treating me differently and graded all of my assignments very hard. He ended up quitting towards the end of the semester and joined the army. My grade was on the border of a B and a B plus and asked my prof if he could round me up. He looked at one of our first assignments and literally said he felt the TA was too harsh and rounded me up.

What I learned and want to pass on is to keep you mouth shut about things that can make your ta or prof jealous. P

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[Sea Of The Leaf]

I perceived a similar pattern with maybe 3 or 4 professors and TAs at my school, but it was specifically over the choice to attend medical school.

I would never say it impacted my grades, because I don’t have any proof of that like OP does, but there was always a change in our personal relationship during class or office hours after they’d find out that I would be applying to medical school rather than pursuing research or academia.

I will add though that I’ve heard rumors that some specific professors will only give research positions to students seeking master’s and PhD postgraduate education within the field, and none to medical students as they feel they’re only using it to build a resume, but many of us have research experience so I’m not certain how accurate that statement is.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

I perceived a similar pattern with maybe 3 or 4 professors and TAs at my school, but it was specifically over the choice to attend medical school.

I would never say it impacted my grades, because I don’t have any proof of that like OP does, but there was always a change in our personal relationship during class or office hours after they’d find out that I would be applying to medical school rather than pursuing research or academia.

I will add though that I’ve heard rumors that some specific professors will only give research positions to students seeking master’s and PhD postgraduate education within the field, and none to medical students as they feel they’re only using it to build a resume, but many of us have research experience so I’m not certain how accurate that statement is.

As immature as I find a ton of premeds, the general disdain of profs towards them is fairly awful. A bio PhD was your choice, and the job market would be a hell of a lot worse if most of said bio kids went into research.

 

[Proudfather94]

I perceived a similar pattern with maybe 3 or 4 professors and TAs at my school, but it was specifically over the choice to attend medical school.

I would never say it impacted my grades, because I don’t have any proof of that like OP does, but there was always a change in our personal relationship during class or office hours after they’d find out that I would be applying to medical school rather than pursuing research or academia.

I will add though that I’ve heard rumors that some specific professors will only give research positions to students seeking master’s and PhD postgraduate education within the field, and none to medical students as they feel they’re only using it to build a resume, but many of us have research experience so I’m not certain how accurate that statement is.

My school had a pretty large disdain for medical students as well. I feel this information is important for premeds to know because it can make a difference between becoming accepted or not.

 

[Isoval]

As immature as I find a ton of premeds, the general disdain of profs towards them is fairly awful. A bio PhD was your choice, and the job market would be a hell of a lot worse if most of said bio kids went into research.

Everyone has a disdain for premeds. Even premeds have a disdain for premeds.

Most are extremely naive and will not be able to handle even the easiest parts of the process. The ones who make it further often bitch every day about their grades and talk about all the “cool s*** they’re doing to get ready to be a doctor” or some idealistic garbage.

I don’t necessarily think it’s unfounded prejudice having disliked many premeds even when I was premed. But if you’re grading, or interviewing, or otherwise involved in the provision of teaching, you should be impartial.

 

[eigen]

I will add though that I’ve heard rumors that some specific professors will only give research positions to students seeking master’s and PhD postgraduate education within the field, and none to medical students as they feel they’re only using it to build a resume, but many of us have research experience so I’m not certain how accurate that statement is.

As a related perspective, a huge part of accepting students in my lab for undergraduate research positions is how it will build / help the students career. And the simple truth is that students going into industry or graduate programs absolutely need research experience, and while students intending to go to medical school might benefit, it's not a necessary part of their preparation (outside of students wanting to go into an MD/PhD program or a research heavy specialty).

So while something like 50% of my lab are students intending to go to medical school, there are a huge fraction of pre-meds who interview with me and can't articulate a reason for wanting to do research beyond "checking a box for medical school", and they pretty much never get a position.

Also, being perfectly honest, while some of my best research students have been pre-med, all of my nightmare students I regret taking on have also been pre-med, which makes them a high-risk / high-reward group that I take extra care in screening.