Does anybody judge people who used to be pre-med?

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scalab

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If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
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Well, they were probably the smart ones.

Those of us who stick with it and apply to medical school get in less than half the time, and a healthy chunk of those are applying for a second cycle.

Yeah, they might not have been able to handle it. But I bet they got laid a lot more, had a lot more fun, and have waaaaay better chances of having some sort of normal life before they are thirty. Oh and they probably will have their student debt paid off before the rest of us even start getting a paycheck.

Wait, why the $&* am I still applying to med school?!?!?!?
 
I don't give a damn about what someone else chooses to do with their life. Why would I? If someone chooses to work their way up the In n Out ladder and become a store manager that makes ~100k a year, that's their own business.


BTW, if you don't know what In n Out is and have never experienced it, I feel very sorry for you.

:zip:
 
No. People have different passions. I know a lot of people who were pre-med that are currently in medical school who are not at all cut out to be physicians. They are incredibly intelligent and capable of going far in the profession. But, they have next to no desire to do it. They're in it because it's lucrative and their parents do it. I'm still surprised by how cool I think this profession is.
 
people's interests change over time....

if you look down at someone just for changing what direction they want to go in life, what will you do when you are treating a pregnant patient who tells you that she's a prostitute to help fund her drug habit.😕
 
Frazier said:
Yea, until you start making money like that... 😉
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so true!! I remember my first post-BSc job and the recruiter asked for minimum salary... I foolishly responded at least $30K (I thought that was a lot of $$ ...:laugh::laugh:). They started me off @ $35K, and within 9mos they adjusted it to about $43K which is what others in similar positions make at that company.

It was a expensive lesson in not doing ur homework (appraising ur worth) and ultimately I realized that even $50K isn't a lot of $$ especially in Miami!!
 
Silverman780 said:
people's interests change over time....

if you look down at someone just for changing what direction they want to go in life, what will you do when you are treating a pregnant patient who tells you that she's a prostitute to help fund her drug habit.😕
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How much?
 
I agree that those that used to be pre med may be the smart ones
 
I don't look down on people period. I do feel bad for those I know really wanted it, but didn't dedicate enough time or focus to achieving their goals and settled for something else. And I'm happy for those who realized medicine was not their calling and found something that sparked the drive in them.
 
Frazier said:
Yea, until you start making money like that... 😉
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Good one.

There are only two people who quit premed. Those who couldn't hack it, and those who could. If they couldn't hack it, there's no shame. It's a hard process that weeds out the majority.

If they could hack it, they obviously found something better suited. No shame there either.
 
PinkIvy08 said:
I don't look down on people period. I do feel bad for those I know really wanted it, but didn't dedicate enough time or focus to achieving their goals and settled for something else. And I'm happy for those who realized medicine was not their calling and found something that sparked the drive in them.
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👍
 
Only if they were arrogant and snobby about it. I definitely know some people in UG who I think couldn't handle it. But I also know others who said it was expected of them and all of their cousins were docs and that's what their family wants them to do. Didn't really seem like it was what they wanted. I also know some who I think could have made it, but had a change of heart. Better to realize that change before one enters med school.
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

Well, I was premed and stopped in 2002 or so. Granted, I still graduated college with a 3.45 (looked up the old GPA last night), but my math skills were horrible so I would've never been able to finish out the chemistry sequence and physics. I made a C in general chemistry I and had no clue what was going on in there. I expected to walk into class and talk about the science of chemicals 🙄. Obviously, I didn't take chemistry in high school. However, as we all know, it was a book full of damn numbers so I passed with a C. I don't know how since I had an F going into the final and only answered about half of the questions, lol.

I now have to investigate some financial "issues," I've taken a statistics class three years or so ago, and I guess my math development finally caught up because I "get it" more than I used to. For example, I'm using General Chemistry I as a Second Language right now, and it makes sense. Back in December 2001 when I finished general chemistry I dimensional analysis was something completely unrecognizable. Now I'm doing practice problems thinking "gee, what's the big deal?"

Interesting how life changes.
 
throughout all of college, i was planning on a PhD program in bioorganic chemistry. didn't decide i was interested in med school until the very end of senior year-- fortunately i had "accidentally" already done all the classes (and them some) and a lot of ECs that would help.

but anyway my point is that i definitely don't judge anyone who changes paths during college-- that's what those 4 years are for.

and even though i do know some people who dropped the premed classes because they said they were "too hard," i think it was more that those people just didn't really want to go into medicine and thus didn't have the desire to push through the difficulty. which i wouldn't judge them for either-- i started college as an english major (yeah, i'm all over the place 🙄) and dropped those classes after a year too.
 
My wife started off pre-med but ended up hating chemistry enough to realize she wasn't really interested in pursuing medicine any further. She figured if the basics didn't interest her, it wasn't worth dedicating her life to.

So she got a degree in computer science and is about to finish a PhD. She's incredibly smart, so if you assume everyone who drops pre-med just wasn't intelligent enough, you're a fool.

If you think everyone who makes it into medical school is a genius, you're likewise foolish.
 
I wouldn't be one to judge because I was one of them for a couple of quarters too. I started out pre-med, got frustrated the first quarter of my freshman year, switched out, became miserable, and am now back on the boat and happy as a clam.

It happens. If I find myself getting into the, "they probably just couldn't handle it" trap (which I'll admit, I've thought before), I just have to remind myself that there was a time that I couldn't handle it either.
 
armybound said:
My wife started off pre-med but ended up hating chemistry enough to realize she wasn't really interested in pursuing medicine any further. She figured if the basics didn't interest her, it wasn't worth dedicating her life to.

So she got a degree in computer science and is about to finish a PhD. She's incredibly smart, so if you assume everyone who drops pre-med just wasn't intelligent enough, you're a fool.

If you think everyone who makes it into medical school is a genius, you're likewise foolish.
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How long did it take her to realize that there's very little chemistry in medical school (or the day-to-day practice of medicine)?
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
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I certainly don't look down on the ones that had a change of heart. Medicine is not for everyone-no doubt about that.

The ones that bother me are those that were obviously doing poorly and would have had no shot, when suddenly, coincidentally, they came to the conclusion that medicine is a terrible profession and switched. These are the same people that blame teachers, textbooks, or the school in general when they aren't doing well in classes. It's never their fault.
 
thesauce said:
I certainly don't look down on the ones that had a change of heart. Medicine is not for everyone-no doubt about that.

The ones that bother me are those that were obviously doing poorly and would have had no shot, when suddenly, coincidentally, they came to the conclusion that medicine is a terrible profession and switched. These are the same people that blame teachers, textbooks, or the school in general when they aren't doing well in classes. It's never their fault.
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Of course it's their fault, we always look down upon inferior beings. Ex-premeds are quitters who have neither the cognitive faculties or manipulative tendencies that are required.
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

well i used to want to be astrophysicist. then i realized i wasn't smart enough. so i went to med school.
 
NPHisyourLord said:
Of course it's their fault, we always look down upon inferior beings. Ex-premeds are quitters who have neither the cognitive faculties or manipulative tendencies that are required.
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425-drew-baseball-1.jpg


Swing and a miss
 
Who cares? Why let yourself be defined by others?

Also, I don't know about you but I'm too busy to concern myself with the career aspirations of others.
 
thesauce said:
How long did it take her to realize that there's very little chemistry in medical school (or the day-to-day practice of medicine)?
Click to expand...
Probably not long, since her father is a physician. But the juice wasn't worth the squeeze to her. Chem, biochem, o-chem.. she didn't want anything to do with it. If she was going to be miserable, why go through it?

And she realized she didn't want to work with people/patients anyway.
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

No, I think college is the time when most people find out what they are passionate about. People change their mind all the time and I think that is part of learning and growing.
 
NPHisyourLord said:
Of course it's their fault, we always look down upon inferior beings. Ex-premeds are quitters who have neither the cognitive faculties or manipulative tendencies that are required.
Click to expand...

There's a dude who droped out of HMS. He just didn't like the profession. He's now a major writer and millionaire.
Needless to say i'm inclined to believe this is satire.
 
funklab said:
Well, they were probably the smart ones.
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This is often what I think. If someone says "I could have gone to med school," then sometimes I just smile and nod, but if they say "Yeah, I was pre-med, but I didn't want to go through all that," then sometimes I think that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea...
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

For the most part I tend to think they had probably wanted to be a doctor all their life for no apparent reason. As they got older and started to access what they really wanted to do with their life, they realized it wasn't for them.

Exact same thing happened to me with engineering.


And I'm sick and tired of all the people saying

"Well the ones who quit are probably the smart ones"

Quit trying to make yourself a martyr, I don't care how hard your going to have to work for it, but the world just isn't going to feel sorry for someone making 6 figures
 
serenade said:
There's a dude who droped out of HMS. He just didn't like the profession. He's now a major writer and millionaire.
Needless to say i'm inclined to believe this is satire.
Click to expand...

ding ding ding. You're a winner.

NPH
 
surftheiop said:
And I'm sick and tired of all the people saying

"Well the ones who quit are probably the smart ones"

Quit trying to make yourself a martyr, I don't care how hard your going to have to work for it, but the world just isn't going to feel sorry for someone making 6 figures
Click to expand...

+1 👍
 
I've always thought that the best decision you can make in college is to drop being premed. Being a doctor is only worth it if you really want it. Most freshmen and soph premeds I know don't know if they really want it. Figuring out that it's not for you is the best decision you can make in college. If there was anything else that would make me as happy as being a doctor I would do that, but since there's not I'm going to med school next year
 
armybound said:
Probably not long, since her father is a physician. But the juice wasn't worth the squeeze to her. Chem, biochem, o-chem.. she didn't want anything to do with it. If she was going to be miserable, why go through it?

And she realized she didn't want to work with people/patients anyway.
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That'll do it.

BTW, is your post-count real?
 
TheProwler said:
This is often what I think. If someone says "I could have gone to med school," then sometimes I just smile and nod, but if they say "Yeah, I was pre-med, but I didn't want to go through all that," then sometimes I think that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea...
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This. I'm glad I'm doing this and all, but I can't help but wonder what the epilogue is going to be, you know?
 
I feel bad for one of the guys I know... he's re-taken all the pre-med reqs three times and now decided to just drop the pre-med / bio major and go international business.

except now he's making a D in accounting I. Tried to help him since I actually made an A in accounting...
 
ILikeDrugs said:
I don't give a damn about what someone else chooses to do with their life. Why would I? If someone chooses to work their way up the In n Out ladder and become a store manager that makes ~100k a year, that's their own business.


BTW, if you don't know what In n Out is and have never experienced it, I feel very sorry for you.

:zip:
Click to expand...

Haha! Suck it other states! They're headquartered in my city 😉
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

That post makes you sound like a jerk.
 
scalab said:
If you meet someone who "used to be pre-med" or if you know someone who stopped, do you think less of them? Even if they say something like "I realized I really love law or education," do you privately think they just couldn't handle it?
Click to expand...

No, but it sounds like you do. To which I say, a hobby usually occupies the time that you spend thinking less of them. Or a puppy. I like thinking about puppies.
 
funklab said:
Yeah, they might not have been able to handle it. But I bet they got laid a lot more, had a lot more fun, and have waaaaay better chances of having some sort of normal life before they are thirty. Oh and they probably will have their student debt paid off before the rest of us even start getting a paycheck.
QUOTE]

As bad as this sounds, I beg to differ.
Click to expand...
 
docelh said:
There are only two people who quit premed. Those who couldn't hack it, and those who could. If they couldn't hack it, there's no shame. It's a hard process that weeds out the majority.

If they could hack it, they obviously found something better suited. No shame there either.
Click to expand...

👍 Here's where I stand.
 
surftheiop said:
And I'm sick and tired of all the people saying

"Well the ones who quit are probably the smart ones"

Quit trying to make yourself a martyr, I don't care how hard your going to have to work for it, but the world just isn't going to feel sorry for someone making 6 figures
Click to expand...

I also give this a...

+1 👍
 
Why do people act as if medicine is the most challenging subject? And why do people assume that if someone decides to not go into medicine, it's because that person "couldn't hack it". That's such a stupid and pompous thing to say. Maybe that person chose something else just because medicine didn't interest them anymore after some shadowing experiences, maybe that person chose something more difficult such as phsyics. Get off your high horses. LOL @ the idea that medicine is filled with the world's most greatest geniuses. More like the world's greatest memorizers. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
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