Do you know someone who quit pre-med?

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pnasty said:
What do they want to do now?


My roommate was pre-med and now wants to be a cop....SWAT is preferred
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my best friend was pre-med but then he failed orgo and is now living in a VAN down by the RIVER.
 
Lots...too many to count. Not suprised really, considering there are a lot of people who go to college thinking that they want to be a doctor because its a cool profession and all. Then realize how much crap they have to read and know and failing intro to bio/chem. They wind up in business school or history.
 
OrganLibrarian said:
my best friend was pre-med but then he failed orgo and is now living in a VAN down by the RIVER.
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Is his name Matt Foley? I think he was a motivational speaker at my high school.
 
Let's see...

80% of the pre-med people in my class no longer are.
It's a fact that many people will quit after first semester bio, but mainly, after chem lab or o-chem. Others find that they hate science. Others find that they don't want to go through 8 years of school (minimum).

So I feel special now.
 
My mother was pre-med...now she's an artist in New Orleans...
 
One of my exs.

She's in Pharm school now. I think she's still kinda bitter that I picked up my interest in medicine fairly casually during college and got in, while she was one of those set-on-being-a-doctor-since-age-5 types and did not made it through.
 
EVERYONE was a pre-med when they entered my college. Theatre pre-med, history pre-med, art pre-med....and then they all realized that they had to like science and dropped it. It's like they tagged on the "pre-med" so their major sounded better.
 
pnasty said:
What do they want to do now?


My roommate was pre-med and now wants to be a cop....SWAT is preferred
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My buddy who applied to medschool last year decided after not getting in that he didnt want to go through the process anymore. He now wants to be a state trooper in NJ.
 
thehero5000 said:
It's like they tagged on the "pre-med" so their major sounded better.
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HAHAHA...yea I totally remember thinking the exact same thing my first year.
 
thehero5000 said:
EVERYONE was a pre-med when they entered my college. Theatre pre-med, history pre-med, art pre-med....and then they all realized that they had to like science and dropped it. It's like they tagged on the "pre-med" so their major sounded better.
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did you go to wash u? haha
 
BrettBatchelor said:
In true cliche form, both people that sat next to me in intro bio are no longer pre-med.
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Same story here (seriously). One became an English major, the other dropped out.
 
BrettBatchelor said:
In true cliche form, both people that sat next to me in intro bio are no longer pre-med.
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Haha, that's awesome. I love it.

I had a few buddies that have been gung-ho premed from day one but will probably never make it in. It's too bad, they're both good people, they just weren't poured from the right mold, I guess.
 
rup47 said:
He now wants to be a state trooper in NJ.
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Meow, did you know why I pulled you over? Meow. You should really slow down meow
 
i was an English major/pre-med in college and dropped it after 2nd semester. i was too immature and didn't want to do the work...fast forward ten years, and here i am getting ready to matriculate. life's funny. you never know; some of those folks who dropped it might come back when they truly understand how much it sucks to work in a cube.
 
jjmack said:
did you go to wash u? haha
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UCSD - that place is a pre-med factory. I'd venture to say that it is the pre-med capital of california.
 
hardy said:
Don't know him personally, but Jerry Greenfield from Ben&Jerrys was premed at one point.
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Maybe we all better re-think this medicine thing, there are no 3 a.m. emergency calls because they ran out of cherry garcia; unless its at a phish concert.
 
I went to Furman University in Greenville, SC. Oddly enough, I was the only pre-med I knew that didn't go to med school straight out of college. I take that back, there was one girl in my freshman ochem class who said she wanted to do premed but is now in grad school with no medical aspirations. Anyway, I didn't experience the attrition that seems to be stereotypical of premeds, for some reason. Maybe c/o 2004 was just a good year at my school.
 
KAI1927 said:
Maybe we all better re-think this medicine thing, there are no 3 a.m. emergency calls because they ran out of cherry garcia; unless its at a phish concert.
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Sadly, the Phish concerts are no more. So it's an even less stressful job, the ice cream world.
 
My roommate was premed and now wants to become a polymer chemist (she'll be at Case Western as a PhD student in the fall).

My best friend was also pre-med, but has now decided to go into psychology/sociology.
 
Bluntman said:
One of my exs.

She's in Pharm school now. I think she's still kinda bitter that I picked up my interest in medicine fairly casually during college and got in, while she was one of those set-on-being-a-doctor-since-age-5 types and did not made it trough.
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I have a similar story. I have some good friends who had wanted to be doctors since they were like 5 years old. I always wanted to do computer science. I casually went in to the medical field and got in. They struggled and are now going to dentistry or pharmacy. I know it bugs them because they're awfully quiet when I tell them good news. 🙁
 
Yeah I know one: me.

I was pre-med for about a semester then I freaked out, decided I couldn't do it and switched fields. Then I started working... yeah, and now I'm back.
 
thehero5000 said:
UCSD - that place is a pre-med factory. I'd venture to say that it is the pre-med capital of california.
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Try UMich. We're #1 in white applicants, #3 in asian, and #5 in black applicants. Are we the pre-med capital of America? (Edit: we're tied for #1 overall number of apps with Berkeley, 605, for 2005.)
 
I know a few. Now, one is a nurse, one actually came back to medicine after a few years off and will be starting med school this fall, one works in a research lab, and one wanted to be a dentist last I heard.
 
thehero5000 said:
UCSD - that place is a pre-med factory. I'd venture to say that it is the pre-med capital of california.
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LOL...I did my ugrad at UCSD too! Makes it even funnier that I had the same thought about people tacking pre-med onto the end of whatever major they entered to make it sound better-than-worthless. :laugh:
 
happydays said:
Try UMich. We're #1 in white applicants, #3 in asian, and #5 in black applicants. Are we the pre-med capital of America? (Edit: we're tied for #1 overall number of apps with Berkeley, 605, for 2005.)
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Wait just a second...I have this subtle nagging feeling that UMich is actually...wait for it...in Michigan, and not in California! 😉
 
ayznshorti said:
My roommate was premed and now wants to become a polymer chemist (she'll be at Case Western as a PhD student in the fall).

My best friend was also pre-med, but has now decided to go into psychology/sociology.
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Funny. I was a polymer chemist, and now am going to be a doctor!
 
Bluntman said:
Wait just a second...I have this subtle nagging feeling that UMich is actually...wait for it...in Michigan, and not in California! 😉
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I meant the "pre-med factory" part.
 
happydays said:
Try UMich. We're #1 in white applicants, #3 in asian, and #5 in black applicants. Are we the pre-med capital of America? (Edit: we're tied for #1 overall number of apps with Berkeley, 605, for 2005.)
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Whoa...what's the accept rate?
 
Oh I know heaps of them
My best friend switched to pre-pharm, after bombing the MCAT & having no luck applying so she's taking the PCAT & doing the pre-reqs she didn't have done & applying
BrettBatchelor said:
In true cliche form, both people that sat next to me in intro bio are no longer pre-med.
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ditto, except it was my chem class
We were all in Intro Chem together
Another switched this year after no interviews & is going to apply to dental school
Another switched to poli-sci & is going to law school
Another partied to hard, got pregnant & dropped out
Another failed Micro & switched to poli-sci (pre-law) however, didn't apply to law school this year, is instead working on the MRS degree
One decided it'd take to long & require too much time, so she switched to nursing
2 weren't pre-med to start, they were chem engineers
 
My freshman year, alot of the upperclassmen told me that by 2nd semester, there would be a great shaking, and after 1 year, there would be an even bigger shaking. It was true....after 1st semester like 30% of the class had switched to business or communications (which to me is the official undecided major). After 1st year, more like 50% had changed their majors. Now that OChem and Genetics is done, more like 75% is gone.
 
yeah as bad as it sounds the attrition sharpened me b/ I was a solid B- student in my intro classes and knew I would be toast if I didn't step it up did much better as college progressed. My old roommate and I were very competitive, he didn't see things through and I think that is a big reason why we don't talk too much anymore
 
I met a woman in her 30s who is now a housewife and was still bitterly complaining that she didn't get into our state med school because all the rich kids with connections got in instead....

An absolutely brilliant girl I know was planning on doing MD/PhD, but she decided that she didn't want to have to waste her time patients, so now she's going to do a PhD at Baylor...
 
I had TONS of pre-med friends and very few of them actually stayed with the course. It's weird because altho they would have been my competition had they actually ended up applying, I actually felt a twinge of sadness everytime I heard of someone switching out. 🙁
By senior yr I developed a thick skin where I asked people who had told me the week before that they were pre-med, what their future plans were....you never know....
 
Everyone around me was pre-med. Literally. Everyone!

They are ALL going to med school...it is pretty crazy
 
The fact that they dropped out of pre-med is a great thing. It allows for them to find a career that will make them happy because obviously their desire for med school wasn't strong.

I wonder how many people actually stick with any major they first choose? For many, they are completly different people at 22 compared to 17/18.
 
colt said:
I wonder how many people actually stick with any major they first choose? For many, they are completly different people at 22 compared to 17/18.
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I finally got it right on the third try.
ChemE -> BioE:Biotech -> BioE😛reMed
 
Yeah... me ~

I was pre-med for my first semester, then went nuts: dropped out and got married. Did the stay-at-home mom routine for about 10 years (and was fairly miserable). Now I'm back, pre-med again.

I think I'm much more focused, and KNOW that this is what I want to do - I'm doing this for me (and not my parents, grandparents, etc).
 
Saluki said:
I met a woman in her 30s who is now a housewife and was still bitterly complaining that she didn't get into our state med school because all the rich kids with connections got in instead....
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Do you think there are really that many applicants that get in from connections? It seems like most adcoms have some sort of decision making process that isolates themselves from things like this...unless you have a rec from some big shot. There cant be that many people who have one of those tho, right?
 
Bluntman said:
I finally got it right on the third try.
ChemE -> BioE:Biotech -> BioE😛reMed
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I just kept adding majors.... Looking back I wish I had just stuck with one and done really well in it... But too late now 😛
 
eastsidaz said:
Whoa...what's the accept rate?
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Around 50-60%

here's the 2005 data:
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2005/mwhite.htm

Here's the data for 2003 and 2004:
Of the University of Michigan seniors and alumni/ae who applied to medical school in 2003-2004, 54.4% were accepted (vs. 47.8% nationally). Specifically, of the 591 individuals from UM who applied, 322 were accepted, and 300 matriculated. University of Michigan ranked number 3 in the nation for the highest number of graduates matriculating in medical school in that year. Consistently, University of Michigan graduates are represented in the entering class at top medical schools in the nation.
 
Well, my school doesn't have "pre-med" as a major or program, but I know a lot of people who started off wanting to go to med school and changing their minds.

My roommate --> nutrition
My friend from high school --> poly sci
Another high school friend --> working as an engineer

etc.
 
happydays said:
Try UMich. We're #1 in white applicants, #3 in asian, and #5 in black applicants. Are we the pre-med capital of America? (Edit: we're tied for #1 overall number of apps with Berkeley, 605, for 2005.)
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Drives me goddamn nuts too. Seems my major has become the official pre-med major of choice... and you all have sucked me in.

On topic, I have a friend who got an A+ in Honors Bio and Organic Chem before deciding he wasn't interested in medicine. Not everyone changes because they can't hack it!
 
happydays said:
Of the University of Michigan seniors and alumni/ae who applied to medical school in 2003-2004, 54.4% were accepted (vs. 47.8% nationally).
Click to expand...

I would have thought UMich would have a better batting average than that.
 
TheMightyAngus said:
I would have thought UMich would have a better batting average than that.
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That's cuz it's a free-for-all school. We don't have a committee that influences peoples' decisions.
 
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