Core Group of Friends: Premeds or not?

[Lion-O]

I was curious how many people's core group of friends are premeds. My situation is that I have no premed friends... I barely know any premeds. But I've always wondered if having premed friends leads to stress and competition, or alternatively, cooperation and bonding. Does this situation help or make worse the whole process?

Also, if you do mainly hang out with premeds, how did this situation come about? I'm assuming if one is a biology major, there is a higher probability of this happening. I've heard multiple times of groups of premeds living together... is this common?

Alas, I guess I just want a glimpse into a world (or, perhaps a community?) that I feel distant from... left out of.

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[Pinkertinkle]

Nope, they're pre busi, pre optometry, pre law.

 

[missbonnie]

have a few friends that are pre med or are already in med school, but wouldn't call them core. most of my core friends are in the creative fields. keeps me sane.

 

[DD214_DOC]

My core friends aren't even in college. Most are military, the rest are just out working.

 

[Perrin]

My girlfriend is Public Relations - Pre-Law
The rest are, pre-vet, political science, business, manager of dominos, and civil engineering

 

[personal jesus]

thank god no

 

[Samus Aran]

Unfortunately yes, except my best friend who is an accounting major. But most are either pre-med or are doing one of the other pre-health tracks while majoring in psyc or something like that.

 

[34140]

I am a business major, so i dont have a lot of friends that are premed, but do know quite a few that are premed, and the competition is stiff. THey won't tell you ANYTHING about ANYTHING. they hide their grades,and stuff. adn its creepy. My freinds from BUS. share stories successful and not so. so this is a weird turn for me, but I was expecting it, so I think I came out on top

 

[spaz]

my only close friends who are premed are a couple friends from high school with whom i still keep in touch. there is definitely some bonding, e.g. complaining about classes, MCATs, secondary apps etc and in general supporting each other through this long process.
although i majored in bio, my closest college friends i met outside of class. they're in law, education, business, engineering, etc.

 

[felipe5]

i definitely have friends that are pre-med, but my core-friends are definately not......its actually a nice breath of fresh air when i come home from dealing with some of the hardcore pre-meds in my classes

 

[hamhamfan]

Huh? What friends?


Well, I guess you could say that perhaps half are in pre-health and the other half are going into teaching.

 

[Spitting Camel]

Mostly yes, but they are nothing like some of the ******s that post on this site - present company excluded. I was all good with med school until I started to read the posts from some of my future colleagues. Yikes!

You know I love most of you, but ugh...

 

[PreMedPoohBear]

I only have one other friend that is pre-med. The rest of my friends are pre-physical therapy, accounting, business, education, English, and psychology, so I have friends that are interested in different subjects. I'm not competitive with my pre-med friend; she's actually considering changing her major, but I try to motivate her to stick with it if she actually wants to do it, which I believe she does. I'm also trying to help her with her extracurricular activities. Other than her, I don't really know any other pre-med majors at my school, and the ones I know I just don't associate with them because of our differences not because they're pre-med.

 

[DrJ2B]

I have a few friends that are pre-med, but, indeed, my core group of friends include people who are into vet medicine (best friend), fashion merchandising, business, computers, retail, forensic science, math/comp sci, and etc. I love them because they do not mind listening to me about my pre-med life and keep me sane with their experiences. Without my friends, I would be in Bellevue by now! FRIENDS RULE! We should all thank our friends (family too) for all the support!

 

[stoic]

Let's see.... I have friends that are premed/medschool. But I'd say only one or two of them is in my "core group."

I will, concede, however that many of the people in my "core" group are majoring the sciences or enginering.

 

[nikibean]

I'm a post-bac, and I'd say that of my "core" friends, most are river-guide hippie types that I hang with over the summer and have known for 4 years to 25 years in one case. Thank goodness my boyfriend is an artist, otherwise I would go INSANE. In my program, I have about 3 good buddies I hang with, although I find everyone to be relatively friendly. There are a few that bug the living #$^& out of me, but I just remind myself that everyone is insecure and we're all stressed over the MCAT which is now 5 days away (!).
That's my experience. Stay grounded and be kind to each other - remember, you're working in care, and nobody is going to give a $#% if you had the top A in physics in college. Patients are going to care if you're kind to them and are attentive to their needs.

 

[SwineLake98]

My closest friends come from the activity I am most involved in, which is theatre. There are a lot of English and Education majors, but there's also things like Religion, Psych, and Philosophy. I do have a group of science friends as well, but come to think of it, really only 2 of my friends are pre-med (althugh I do know others). One of them is actually also involved in theatre and is, um, my ex-boyfriend. The other one I met before we even started college voluntering at the Children's Hospital here, and we've always had a little bit of unspoken competition. So, I think it's good to have a few around for support and understanding, but I think that things could get really tense in a group of pre-med students who are together all the time. (Heck, it gets intense when 15 sophomores have been in the organic lab for too long.)

 

[jlee9531]

my core group of friends all do various things...
optometry school, phd programs, masters--> dental schools, a couple med students, classical concert coordinator for performances located in asia, wedding planner, white house staff, etc...

so having a nice mix is nice. tho i didnt haev many premeds friends to turn to during the app process...or during ugrad...but thats what sdn was for right?

 

[lotanna]

Hmm, well my best friend is in dental schl, other close friend is pre-med and I've many friends who are in medical schl, and many others who are pre-med, whom I spend countless hrs offering advice and support
But 2 of my really close friends are in law schl, others are techies/IT peeps.
Sometimes its great to be able to talk to someone who understands ur situation, the whole draining process and all.

 

[TheRussian]

I would say that the majority of my core friends are pre-med and most of them are science majors like myself. Perhaps for some this leads to more stress but for us it is more of a shoulder to lean on. It just makes it easier when there are 5 or 6 of us that are willing to work together and help each other out when studying for a test or when doing a particularly tough problem set. For me it was a good support system and the fact that everyone in the group is smart helps too. Last year we all actually lived together in suite style dorm housing. It makes it easier to wake up for a 9 am physics class when there are 4 other people doing the same thing. The 5 of us walking to class and grumbling under our breath while most of the school still sleeps...good times good times.

 

[Entol]

There is no such thing as a pre-med friend. Only a pre-med enemy. Go gunners!

I would say that the majority of my core friends are pre-med and most of them are science majors like myself. Perhaps for some this leads to more stress but for us it is more of a shoulder to lean on. It just makes it easier when there are 5 or 6 of us that are willing to work together and help each other out when studying for a test or when doing a particularly tough problem set. For me it was a good support system and the fact that everyone in the group is smart helps too. Last year we all actually lived together in suite style dorm housing. It makes it easier to wake up for a 9 am physics class when there are 4 other people doing the same thing. The 5 of us walking to class and grumbling under our breath while most of the school still sleeps...good times good times.

 

[TheRussian]

There is no such thing as a pre-med friend. Only a pre-med enemy. Go gunners!

Umm...when they give you the answers to a problem set because you have had a tough week...yeah they are friends. Competition is overrated anyways. If people spend less time trying to figure out how to beat the next guy and more time trying to actually learn the material then being a pre-med would be much more fun.

 

[Blade28]

In college, only 2 of my good friends were pre-med. (Both are in med school now.) My other friends went into computers, econ, marketing, business, law, and slacking off.

 

[brats800]

nah most of my friends are all off my swim team...some of the others are athletes from other sports...i don't exactly go to the library all that often, which is where the premeds like to hang out

 

[snapdad]

I've only got one core friend who's premed...the rest are either "just working" or are in law, business, or grad school. One's an MS4 as well...she's a great source for "seeing what lies ahead." The premed friend and I aren't really competitive...it's more like we know what the other is going through, so there's a support thing going on. Same with when we took the MCAT...she helped keep me on track while studying, definitely.

 

[Tiki]

Most of my core friends are bio majors. Only one of them is pre-med, the rest are going to graduate school or are going to teach. I am not competitive at all with the one who is pre-med, maybe because she is a year behind me. I try to give her as much advice about the MCAT's (which she is taking in a week ) and on the whole application process.

I don't really hang out with non-science people that much at school though. I do have one really close computer science friend, but all of the rest of them are majoring in the sciences. Guess I just have more in common with them.

 

[Entol]

lol, I was kidding ;-) My bad!

Umm...when they give you the answers to a problem set because you have had a tough week...yeah they are friends. Competition is overrated anyways. If people spend less time trying to figure out how to beat the next guy and more time trying to actually learn the material then being a pre-med would be much more fun.

 

[musiclink213]

i have one core pre-med friend. She's a year ahaed of me, but we're taking a lot of the same classes next year, because of the class availibility of my school. I'm not competitive with her at all because I have no reason to be. She's not hte enemy. But most of the other premeds, i can't stand. They're all so competitive, even with their so called friends. Well, actually, I have one more premed friend, but he's a post-bac, who is working on his masters and finishing premed requirements at the same time.

Other than that, my friends are going into education, psych, PA, computer science, and I have no clue how I met them, but I am oh so glad I did. they help keep me sane,.

 

[TheRussian]

lol, I was kidding ;-) My bad!

That's okay, I figured you were. Just used in an excuse to post my opinion on gunners and to emphasize that having pre-med friends rocks

 

[umass rower]

My best friend is pre-med, but he's doing it as a physics major, and he's doing PhD/MD, so I'm not sure he really counts fully. The rest of my housemates (most of my better friends) are History, Marketing + Finance (with minors in Bio and Spanish), Engineering, and one waste of life (that's the one I hate). Other close friends are mostly humanities-type majors, although I do have several throughout the science/math/engineering spectrum.

 

[Thundrstorm]

I have alot of acquaintances who are pre-med just b/c we spend so much class time together, but none of my core group of friends are pre-med. My best friends are history/women's studies, criminal justice/psychology, education, pre-vet, ecology/biology majors. My friends and I have similar senses of humor, but not necessarily similar academic interests.

Any friends/potential friends I've had before who were pre-med were either so competetitive or stupid/mean about grade comparisons, that we just never became close friends. It doesn't matter to me if my friends are pre-med, but it just hasn't worked out tha way.

 

[noclouds]

no premed core friends. even though i'm a bio major and have a lot of pre-med acquaintances, i mostly hang out with my pre-law, pre-business, pre-finance, film-studies, engineering etc etc friends. very glad cause i can keep up and be aware of what's going on in their fields as well.

though sometimes it's a downer when they don't really know all the pain and premed madness you're going through - mcats, ruthless grade curves, lab, all the waiting and $$$ throughout the app. process. these are the times when my 2 premed "mentors/friends" a couple years ahead helps.

 

[Olanzapine]

When I was in college, most of my friends were pre-med. It just gave us an easy topic to talk about, plus we helped each other out with info on med school related stuff. SDN wasn't really popular back then.

 

[avicoo]

None of my friends are pre-meds...(a few good pre-med acquaintances but that is not really the same)...mainly because I am a non-traditional pre-med I guess.

I would second what others have said about SDN being great in the case that your friends aren't pre-meds.

OH...If only I had found you sooner SDN!

 

[thekaratekim]

none of my friends are premed. a few from the school i transferred from, and some old high school friends but i dont considered them a part of my core group of friends. when i did talk to any of them, we only seemed to talk about premed stuff...

im a soc major. my boyfriend is a history major.