Are nearly ALL freshmen premed?! A WTF moment.

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Tartheheel

Tartheheel

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Is it just me, or is almost EVERY😱 incoming freshman a premed??? Seriously, EVERY single incoming freshman I met on campus so far was premed (I am an upperclassman taking summer classes here). It just makes me wonder, why are soooooo many incoming freshman dead set on medicine..? Have shows like ER, House etc. just painted a somewhat glamorous view of what it’s like to be a doctor?? They just seem so naïve when they come in; little do they truly realize the really, REALLY long, difficult journey that lies ahead of them.

This is a conversation I overheard between a few incoming freshmen at an on-campus freshman camp; they were registering for classes…
…
“So…like…what medical specialty do you wanna go into” asks one of them.
“Dude…I used to want to be a neurosurgeon, but I mean…it like…just seems to take too long you know. So my next best choice is like…dermatology….”
“Well…I am just going to be a surgeon…that way I’ll have some variety you know…and I’ll like… make a lot of money while I’m at it”
(a few seconds later)
“So..what are you majoring in..?”
“I am most likely going to double in Philosophy and biomedical engineering”
“Well…I’m doubling in Biomedical engineering and Physics…”
“Nice…”
“What med school do you want to go to…”
“Meh…I’m thinking…Hopkins is pretty good…it’s number one…so yeah…Hopkins…or wait…well…any of the top 5”
….
I am like…WTF :laugh:!?!? All this time I’m wondering…have you even taken Physics/Chem/Orgo yet?!!?? They haven't yet begun their undergraduate education, and yet they’re talking about stuff people don’t even start seriously thinking about until their 3rd year in med school 😱!

Have any of you experienced such WTF moments related to incoming freshmen?

Disclaimer:
I mean no offense to ANY freshman 😳, (I was one not too long ago, and can very much relate to many of you) AND I’m not an SDN troll. I’m just genuinely curious…and kind of looking to be entertained by reading similar experiences. 😀
 
This is because college freshmen don't know what it's like to be a doctor. They also have no idea what kind of determination it will even take to get into med school. At this point, they are supposed to be dreaming. They just need to snap out of it before classes start or they'll be in some trouble.

I wouldn't really attempt to be the one to bring them down to Earth, because they will lash out at you. Let them discover the beginnings of this process on their own, or go redirect them to MDapplicants.com if they are really spouting some s%($. 😀
 
It's the Grey's Anatomy Generation!
 
I think the honest percentage at my school is probably close to 40%. there are a fuggin ton of them, but they're exactly as you described.

they have their noses way up in the air about how they're going to be doctors, but you should see the grades they get in the freshman bio lab that I teach. the most humble students are usually the ones putting in the work to get the best grades, and they'll probably end up in a good med school. the ones who brag nonstop about being premed will probably end up a reapplicant with a crappy GPA like me 😀
 
Oh yes...the undergrad parade of delusion.
 
If you really want a kick, sit in on some of those intro. bio/chem/physics classes a couple years later and see the pre-meds slowly get weeded out. I actually enjoy it.
 
yep! Most of my friends were pre med comming in, and by the end of 2nd year they had switched to pre law, or just something completly different. One became a religion majoy, two eventually went into PT (like 4 yrs post grad). Mainly because of Orgo and orgo lab at our school. The teacher wasn't the best and has a super low rating on ratemyprofessors.com. Now basically everyone I know is a lawyer or about to finish law school, or about to take the bar in july. :-\
 
my freshman class was the same way, until our gen chem 2 professor brought out his weedwacker and now by junior year its pretty much a rolling meadow with a few weeds still left here and there.
 
Yeah, I agree with you. For us it was Intro bio, from first to second semester we lost about 50 kids that had to repeat (and this is at a small school). There are some weeds still, but they truly have not researched what they need in order to succeed. Most of them haven't started shadowing/volunteering/etc. and will never make it through application season. Oh well, I'm meeting the incoming freshmen within the next few weeks (orientation leader here) and I'm going to be blunt with them about what they have to do to have a chance. No reason to lie to them.
 
The high attrition rate was the thing that first attracted me to the premed life.
 
In a couple of years lots of these freshmen will find their true passion in fields such as political science, business management, broadcast, accounting, or perhaps the all-encompassing pre-law umbrella. When asked, they will remember nothing of ever being pre-med and will claim they have ALWAYS wanted to do X, where X is the current major they fell back into. A typical conversation with these people in a couple of years may go as such:

You: Hey so and so, long time no see..how are the classes going.
Former pre-med: Not bad. Actually, awesome. Business management rocks.
You: I thought you were pre-med?
Former pre-med: I was never pre-med..I've always been in the business school.
You: So why were you in all of my premed classes first two years?
Former pre-med: <silence> I wasn't...really in the classes. I kind of sat in, cuz I thought medicine was MAYBE for me, but nah, didn't like it.
You: Oh, I see... did your decision to switch have anything to do with the fact that you failed out of organic chem I last spring maybe?
Former pre-med: That never happened. I love business.
You: Oh, ok.
Former pre-med: Who's upset? Me? Not me! I love business! You should be upset! After all the future of medicine sucks, and you're going to be in debt, yada-yada, etc. Good luck with that one buddy!! <Here's my favorite line:> I COULD have done medicine, IF I wanted to, but no thank you! Not for me!
You: Of course you could have...
Former pre-med: I know! I love business! Now, leave me alone.

By the time you hit senior year, there will be a fraction of the original premeds...maybe 25%.
 
I see this plenty in my little 4 year state college, too. Being a couple years older than the main demographic of the "premed" street hooligans at my school, when the inevitable question of "What's your major/are you pre-med?" comes around, I just sigh and mumble something about biology and forensic science.
 
Hm, never noticed that, but then again, both my original major and the one I switched into later had nothing to do with medicine (Economics and Japanese). Only one of my 15 or so college friends was ever premed, and she was one who did follow through and goes to NYMC now.
 
this is what orgo is for.
 
At my school my incoming class had 300 people out of 700 who were self-declared pre-med. I don't think there are even 100 left after sophomore year 😛
 
I absolutely HATED when the past year (my freshman year) in bio lab, we would have to go around the room and say what our intended major was. It was like...if we were really pre-med, we had to say it then, because these professors are on the pre-med committee and they need to know that, but it drove me crazy because all but one or two people would be pre-med (and usually those people were pre-vet). I feel very, very ahead of the game though, simply by already investing a lot of energy in this...maybe my SDN addiction will pay off. I'm not sure that more than 5% of the freshman pre-med put in any time towards anything...oh, I don't know...clinical? 😛 And they seem to think it's very optional. Unless of course, alcohol poisoning counts as a clinical experience...

Oh well, better chances for me! :laugh:
 
OP...let me guess you go to Duke to (very clever-Tar the Heel). I have noticed that the premeds at Duke are especially rapid, but orgo and bio usually silence about 75%. By the way Dean Singer before she left mentioned about half the incoming class considered themselves premed.
 
Tartheheel said:
Is it just me, or is almost EVERY😱 incoming freshman a premed???
Click to expand...

An inordinate number are. Which is why it's often futile to give too much premed advice to freshman and high schoolers on here, and why many of us advise them to enjoy college and try many things. Because we all know most of them won't still be premed by the time it would be time to apply.
 
It's not House, it's not ER, it's just that lots of people think they are going to be a doctor when they graduate HS. Either that, or that's just what they tell people because they have no real idea of what they want to do yet (which is fine).

Back in 1996, I started as a freshman and I was sort of sure that I wanted to go to medical school. I came from a small town where most of my classmates didn't even go to college and even fewer wanted to be a doctor. Then I arrived at my big public school with roughly 4500 fellow freshman and it seemed like everybody was pre-med. Over the next few months I seriously started wondering about the odds of even getting in with so much competition. The summer after my sophomore year, I volunteered 25 hrs/week at a local hospital for 4 months just to see what it was all about it a hospital. I came away loving it and committed to going for medical school.

Took a little work. Didn't get accepted the first go around. Stuck to it and got into a "top 10" medical school and now enjoying life as a resident in a big name academic hospital.

In the end, all those "premeds" found something else they liked to do. I'm sure some got weeded out by Orgo. Some found callings in other areas. Some dropped out of school. But finding the somebody that actually truly wants to go to medical school? They aren't as common as somebody would have you believe.
 
Trismegistus4 said:
Since there's no such thing as a major in "pre-med," why would you have to say that when asked what your intended major was?
Click to expand...

Some schools do have a "premed" major or a premed track within other majors. But most people tend to say premed because they think it sounds like they are going places in life.
 
Tartheheel said:
Is it just me, or is almost EVERY😱 incoming freshman a premed??? Seriously, EVERY single incoming freshman I met on campus so far was premed (I am an upperclassman taking summer classes here). It just makes me wonder, why are soooooo many incoming freshman dead set on medicine..? Have shows like ER, House etc. just painted a somewhat glamorous view of what it’s like to be a doctor?? They just seem so naïve when they come in; little do they truly realize the really, REALLY long, difficult journey that lies ahead of them.

This is a conversation I overheard between a few incoming freshmen at an on-campus freshman camp; they were registering for classes…
…
“So…like…what medical specialty do you wanna go into” asks one of them.
“Dude…I used to want to be a neurosurgeon, but I mean…it like…just seems to take too long you know. So my next best choice is like…dermatology….”
“Well…I am just going to be a surgeon…that way I’ll have some variety you know…and I’ll like… make a lot of money while I’m at it”
(a few seconds later)
“So..what are you majoring in..?”
“I am most likely going to double in Philosophy and biomedical engineering”
“Well…I’m doubling in Biomedical engineering and Physics…”
“Nice…”
“What med school do you want to go to…”
“Meh…I’m thinking…Hopkins is pretty good…it’s number one…so yeah…Hopkins…or wait…well…any of the top 5”
….
I am like…WTF :laugh:!?!? All this time I’m wondering…have you even taken Physics/Chem/Orgo yet?!!?? They haven't yet begun their undergraduate education, and yet they’re talking about stuff people don’t even start seriously thinking about until their 3rd year in med school 😱!

Have any of you experienced such WTF moments related to incoming freshmen?

Disclaimer:
I mean no offense to ANY freshman 😳, (I was one not too long ago, and can very much relate to many of you) AND I’m not an SDN troll. I’m just genuinely curious…and kind of looking to be entertained by reading similar experiences. 😀
Click to expand...

And if you go to UNC, you know what I'm talking about when I say that the freshman aren't going to have to take chem in Venable. *Jealous of new science complex*
 
This is why the attrition rate in premed is so high. Freshmen premeds know about all of the advantages of becoming a doctor without realizing the difficulties. Hence, they all think they can be a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins. In some ways, I am glad that the admissions process is so grueling. Many of those who start premed simply do not understand medicine and should not become doctors.
 
Trismegistus4 said:
Since there's no such thing as a major in "pre-med," why would you have to say that when asked what your intended major was?
Click to expand...

Sorry, should have clarified! The professors are all on the pre-med committee, so they wanted to know if we intended to follow that advising track.
 
At my undergrad, 800 of 1,300 freshman designate themselves as pre-med their first year.

I'd say fewer than 100 survive. Maybe closer to 50.

The history and government departments are littered with ex-premeds. :laugh:
 
ssquared said:
At my undergrad, 800 of 1,300 freshman designate themselves as pre-med their first year.

I'd say fewer than 100 survive. Maybe closer to 50.

The history and government departments are littered with ex-premeds. :laugh:
Click to expand...
Haha, yeah...

A classmate of mine from orgo got an F in orgo and D+ in analytical chem...so much for that MD. I'd feel sorry for her, but she was kind of a ****, so I don't.:meanie::laugh:
 
Yes, nearly all freshman are premed, the same way as nearly all accepted applicants think they are going into a surgical specialty like orthopedics, plastics or neurosurgery!

Just like the conversation you posted, they think there's variety in surgery (LOL! Try the same procedures over & over for years & years....), and money in surgery (not as much as the rumors tell them) and that it's all going to be a piece of cake just like high school was. A lot of it is just simply that people really haven't been exposed to much yet.

Reality usually hits people somewhere along the line. It's just a matter of when.
 
I went to a ugrad that was considered to do a good job at getting students into medical school, so yeah, it seemed like everyone was premed, and this was way back in 1995. The first bio course is usually a huge weedout class -- I think that plays out at most schools. Why? I don't really think it's TV shows. It's just that people are impressed when you say you're premed, and incoming freshman don't have lots of exposure to other fields.
 
My roommate just recently "decided" medicine wasn't for him. He says its because he would be wasting his talent in a field other than business. Nothing to do with that C in bio, the C- in orgo, or the F in plant bio. No sir, nothing at all.
 
This thread is just too funny. During my undergrad, I knew all the people in the pre-med club. NOT ONE is a doctor. Two are nurses, several teach biology and the rest fell into some other cracks.
 
I wonder about this a lot myself. I see so many underclassmen at my school who are pre-med and clueless. After running the gamut of pre-med coursework, volunteering at a hospital, summer program, shadowing and now having suffered through the MCAT, I honestly feel for them as they have no idea. However though I guess it's good to have that idealistic view about everything at that age or else they really wouldn't make it.
 
let the young souls dream big, why care? :laugh:

in regards to the original post, i think many freshmen students who start taking classes in the summer before their first year, are pre-meds
 
They are until organic chemistry...and when they hear only 50% of applicants even get accepted to med school
 
thanks to sdn i'm no longer as ignorant as i was, and i'm sure many freshys our there will now claim the same =D
 
I was a pre-med student entering college and I changed to pre-pharm.

No, it wasn't because the classes were too hard (Not to brag, but I was the only person to get a A in Orgo I. Again, not bragging but I'm just saying I'm not....academically challenged so to speak). I merely began to do more research on both fields and I did a personal assesment of the lifestyle that I want to live and what profession fits my character traits. I chose pharmacy because of that (not because it's better or worse than medicine, it's because it fits my interests and character).
 
At our open house for accepted students a few years ago a parent asked about admissions into med schools and one of the faculty boasted about our high rate of acceptances. The same parent followed up by asking how many freshman come in as pre-med and don't end up applying. The faculty member said "We don't have those statistics, ....but you wouldn't want to know" Everyone laughed.
 
Its not that these kids are stupid that they switch from pre-med majors to business or something else. Its that they deep-down don't care for science.

Everybody is good at something. Just because they can't do pre-med courses doesn't mean they failed as a human.
 
My favorite was the guy who lived on my floor my freshman year. He was "pre-med" from day one. Spent all his time playing Madden and waxing his car. Failed Chem 100 (i.e. chemistry for non-science majors) and English 101. Failed almost everything 2nd semester. He kept saying he was "pre-med" right up until the day he was dismissed.
 
AmoryBlaine said:
My favorite was the guy who lived on my floor my freshman year. He was "pre-med" from day one. Spent all his time playing Madden and waxing his car. Failed Chem 100 (i.e. chemistry for non-science majors) and English 101. Failed almost everything 2nd semester. He kept saying he was "pre-med" right up until the day he was dismissed.
Click to expand...

If you are going to get thrown out, might as well do it in style.🙂
 
Calc based Physics was harder for me than Orgo for me... Just so damn boring. should have taken that easy ass algebra based one... lol
 
Law2Doc said:
If you are going to get thrown out, might as well do it in style.🙂
Click to expand...

I have to admit, I admired his tenacity. He was, of course, planning to become a surgeon.
 
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