do advisors want you to fail?

[Og kingofBashan]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Why do prehealth advisors so often insist on adding more hours? Even when you tell them it's too much to handle, they give reasons like.. "oh, itll be great for __" or "oh, we WANT you to take on these challenges." And i noticed how it's always the women advisors who do this; male advisors do the opposite: they tell me to tone down the ours and "tread lightly". What's the deal why do they do that?

 

[thewzdoc]

Maybe they are trying to prepare you for real life?

 

[docmemi]

Why do prehealth advisors so often insist on adding more hours? Even when you tell them it's too much to handle, they give reasons like.. "oh, itll be great for __" or "oh, we WANT you to take on these challenges." And i noticed how it's always the women advisors who do this; male advisors do the opposite: they tell me to tone down the ours and "tread lightly". What's the deal why do they do that?

cause all advisors SUCK. well at least all of mine did.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

The collective knowledge of SDN is much greater than that of the advisors.

 

[marr]

I second that. Your best advisor is the med school website!!!

 

[adamj61]

The collective knowledge of SDN is much greater than that of the advisors.

that is for damn sure...I can't believe they give degrees to some of those people. Or worse yet, letting old PHD's like Mo Cleeland (ping pong kinetics guy) advise someone on med school...when they haven't done it, and have been removed from school for 50 years!

 

[fullefect1]

Maybe they couldn't get in themselves and they are trying to screw everyone else over just like they feel they were.

 

[DrThom]

Advisors don't want you to fail...

They would prefer if you didn't apply at all so you don't bring their acceptance averages down

 

[W222]

The simple answer: Yes.....yes they do want you to fail.

 

[susannaQ]

actually, my advisors advise me to go easy on the courses.

 

[Can U Feel It?]

I don't think that they necessarily want you to fail, but it is more likely that they expect you to fail. Think of all the people that start premed as freshmen and eventually change their focus to something else. Even if you make it through the prereq's and the MCAT, only 30-40% of applicants get in. So most likely of all the students who seek advice (freshmen to seniors) from the premedical advisor only somewhere from 10 - 20% actually end up getting in. So it's no wonder why they are so skeptical of premed students.

The bottom line is if you are determined to become a physician, give it all you got, and let the rest take care of itself.

 

[beriberi]

Seems like you have had a lot of advisors if you know how men act and women act (I would say that makes at least four advisors in your pre-med career.) Isn't that a bit much? (I can't imagine you would make such an assertion if you only knew one advisor of a given gender).

It sounds like it might be best to get to know someone who knows your strengths and weaknesses. They might help you. Or, you could always go to SDN where someone will always tell you what you want to hear. Yes, SDN has a lot of collective wisdom--it is just difficult to sort it out from the collective crap.

If people are always telling you that you need to do more (all of these terrible women for example) maybe the answer is that you should do more.

Just my SDN wisdom (or crap--hard to tell, isn't it?).

 

[freaker]

Oh, it's definitely crap. 😀

 

[W222]

I was frantically looking for advice during undergrad and spoke with anyone who would talk to me. I spoke with professors, spoke with Docs, spoke with admissions Deans, spoke with anyone and everyone. Each person gave me different advice so finally I said f-all of you, I am going on my own path. Work hard and do you own thing, it will work out. I had advisors and everyone telling me so many different things and really in the end, what do they know?

 

[woolie]

I was frantically looking for advice during undergrad and spoke with anyone who would talk to me. I spoke with professors, spoke with Docs, spoke with admissions Deans, spoke with anyone and everyone. Each person gave me different advice so finally I said f-all of you, I am going on my own path. Work hard and do you own thing, it will work out. I had advisors and everyone telling me so many different things and really in the end, what do they know?

I agree. Yes, they do want you to fail and no they don't want you to actually apply - because it WILL bring down their numbers. All true. I thought both the men and the women advisors were cr@p. If you have to kiss butt to get that committee letter then just do it, but otherwise, I would steer clear of the advising office if you value your premed career.

SDN has the best answers, what more can I say ? 🙂

 

[mikedc813]

Yup my advisor sucked. Oh well. Your undergrad school WANTS you to get in - their numbers depend on it. They want to be able to brag about their high acceptance rate to med school to attract high school students. So they'd rather weed out the people who they think won't get in by telling them to wait and apply later or to maybe reconsider medicine.

 

[gizmoduck]

My advisor is a Scottish guy who likes to drink so he pretty well rocks the Casbah. I'm going to miss him when I leave this school.

 

[KylieP54]

I had a horrible experience with my advisor too, she didn't wanna write my rec letter for medical school. Oh and I just love how they want you to take 30 hours and then proceed to tell you how much you suck....Mine actually said to me " have you considered social work???"

WHAT THE F---!!!!!!!!!!

I'm currently making a copy of my acceptance letter and mailing it to her.

 

[45408]

Sucks for you guys. My advisor rocked, and if it wasn't for her and her hard work, I bet I wouldn't have gotten nearly this far. She was telling me to take fewer credits actually (albeit I was taking 21, with two lab sciences and organic chemistry....).

 

[Medikit]

If you go above 2 science classes then you should cut out everything, so take 3 science classes max. If you take 2 science classes, take no more than 2 other classes. That's my advice.

Advisors don't really want you to fail perse, but I found that my advisors didn't really show much interest in me until I had proven myself by taking and doing well in difficult courses.

 

[Og kingofBashan]

What about 3 science classes (including 2 labs) and an upper lvl humanities? (15 hrs total) -that's pushing it for me, but won't don't have much else going on during the semester

 

[Medikit]

What about 3 science classes (including 2 labs) and an upper lvl humanities? (15 hrs total) -that's pushing it for me, but won't don't have much else going on during the semester

If you feel you're up for it. I wouldn't do it, but I needed serious GPA repair. I'm doing something like that next semester.

 

[Og kingofBashan]

It's always good to be safe and not have regrets, but then how will we know if we can do it if we don't take some chances, right?.. it's tough to decide these tipes of things. I'm thinking of meeting the teacher of the class i'm debating about, to help decide.

 

[nascentdoc]

My advisor was a bipolar freak. She was nice one day and a total cant the next. I think there existed a collective aversion toward her within the pre-med crowd (everyone tried to stay away from the b****). By the time pre-med interviews rolled around she had suddanly metamorphed into an angel. She even offered talk to the dean of School X for me but I didn't even apply there. Getting accepted to med. school was attributable to my own merit. No one, and I mean no one, helped.

 

[45408]

I know more than a handful of people who've stacked biology/chemistry/physics (I did it twice) without a problem. I get to take the MCAT early because I'm done with all the prereq's, so if you can take a heavy courseload, have at it.

 

[coolness]

My pre-med advisor, although nice, used to tell me that it was unlikely that I would be accepted to med school. At that time, she kind of depressed me and blew my hopes away. Also she told me to take even more units than I could even handle. I think the worst thing about her was when I asked her about something (eg Carribean medical schools), she would go on forever without getting to the point of answering my specific questions. So I had to make another appointment to see her because I had so many other questions.

 

[MEG@COOL]

Why do prehealth advisors so often insist on adding more hours? Even when you tell them it's too much to handle, they give reasons like.. "oh, itll be great for __" or "oh, we WANT you to take on these challenges." And i noticed how it's always the women advisors who do this; male advisors do the opposite: they tell me to tone down the ours and "tread lightly". What's the deal why do they do that?

My advisor has been fine so far.

 

[EMDream]

Why do prehealth advisors so often insist on adding more hours? Even when you tell them it's too much to handle, they give reasons like.. "oh, itll be great for __" or "oh, we WANT you to take on these challenges." And i noticed how it's always the women advisors who do this; male advisors do the opposite: they tell me to tone down the ours and "tread lightly". What's the deal why do they do that?

I always find that they are trying to make me take lighter loads. I get so annoyed, and have to argue with them to even get them to put me up to 18 credits. It's not like I'm a poor student thats struggling either. I want to sneak behind their back and overload!

 

[Og kingofBashan]

I want to sneak behind their back and overload!

Friends of mine have done that - gotten permission to take 21 hours, and did fine. Personally I am very cautious and skeptical about it because I have had a very rough first 2 years in college (with 14 or under loads). I don't doubt that it is possible, but what bothers me is how unwary my advisors are of my limitations when they insist on my taking that extra Humanities class along w/ PHYS, OCHEM, & BIO. These are bad classes to foul up in.