How do they criticize without being mean?

[geldrop]

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I never met with a premed advisor, but I am wondering after reading that post from UC. How do they go about criticizing you without making you feel like a failure of a human being. I guess it requires a special type of person to be a premed advisor.

On a side note, those advisors were at some point probably premed students and just couldn't hack it.

 

[bridgie]

you have to understand that the nature of the job is to minimize applicants to medical school. I have cried AT LEAST 4 times in my premed advisor's office throughout college. He kept telling me not to apply, i'll never get in, blah blah. The day I insisted that I was finally biting the bullet and applying, he became very supportive. It was a marked change. Once I ACTUALLY applied his job turned into helping get in.

It is all about the undergrad's insti. stats. how many apply v. how many get in.

they dont want you to apply but if you do, they want you to get in.

it is a crappy job. i could never pummel people's dreams like that.

 

[geldrop]

What do they suggest you do if you don't apply? What other career things do they suggest. I don't see why they would discourage anyone from applying even if they have a 3.0. I mean how does it matter to them. The more people apply means the more students teh school's have to choose from. Maybe they should just suggest you apply and remind you that a backup plan would be wise.

Are they as bad as Simon on American Idol or like Paula?

 

[tms]

my premed advisor was the worst. i think he told everyone with a gpa under 3.5 that they had VERY LITTLE chance of getting into medical school. although that was terrible to hear, it is statisically proven (at least from the numbers he presented). i think a lot of the negativity comes with dealing with pre-meds everyday (just imagine how many gunners visit the advisor per day). most of us didn't question getting in until after we started applying and we realized that there is not rhyme or reason. i mean, back in the day, i thought, "I'm 'premed', i'm getting top scores on exams, i work hard...med school acceptance...NO PROBLEM" Boy was i wrong...however, imagine how the advisor has to sort out all those fragile egos. I'm not saying the the system is right...but considering that 1/5 of us will actually get into medschool is a reality we all must be presented with.

In any event, it felt really good to send my advisor an email saying...BOO-YA....sub 3.5 and an acceptance after my second interview. how ya like me now....BEE-ACH!

 

[DW]

Originally posted by geldrop
I don't see why they would discourage anyone from applying even if they have a 3.0. I mean how does it matter to them.

Well, my personal inclination is that pre med advisors (especially those at "top" undergrads across the country), end up discouraging as many borderline applicants as possible. Why do I think that? I think sometimes they're more in the business of keeping their premed acceptance rate ostensibly high than actually counseling people interested in applying to medical school. That just comes from anecdotes from friends at different schools and things i've read on SDN , but thats just my two cents 😉

 

[MSV MD 2B]

hi, my premed advisor told me that i should probably look into something else. i was crushed (such was my self-confidence at the time) and took her advice to ehatr and did sosmethig else. it wasn't until after graduation that, in talking to my friedns i was todl that she had told them that also and they didnt' pay attention to her. i was the only dummy that did. However, I am back as a nontraditional student and the pre med office is nicer than ever and relaly helfupl in helping me to get into medical school.

 

[loyen]

The pre-med advisor at my school is feared by many. But, while he isn't the nicest of guys, he isn't going to lie to you. Hes been there for 30 years - whether you like how he talks to you or not, he knows his stuff. That's his job.

And his job is to keep the student acceptance percentage as high as possible - and he does that by telling borderline students that should start exploring other options.

My favorite moment - he calmly looked over a students credentials, grades, MCATs, etc. He looked her right in the eye and just said "well, it looks like you never REALLY wanted to go to med school anyways."

Yikes.

 

[relatively prime]

I think pre-med advisors are meant to be reality checks. If you're thinking about applying to med school... most people you encounter will encourage you and say "of course you'll get in! you're such a nice person!" or something routine like that... so the pre-med advisor is the one who gives it to you straight. I know a lot of pre-meds at my school are pretty clueless as to how competitive med school admissions is until it's almost too late. Maybe some pre-med advisors are just interested in keeping the acceptance ratio high.... but I think most of them also want to give new pre-meds a clue about what they're in for.

 

[Biodude]

Heh, all these posts have been very informative. I can see that my pre-med advisor isn't an abberation. The last time I went into his office, he told me that I should maybe consider going into being a college professor instead of a physician. I have nothing against college professors, and in fact we do need to have educators in order to go into each of our professions, but I have no interest whatsoever in becoming a teacher.

I also heard one story about a girl that went into my pre-med advisor's office...he looked at her file and suggested that she should change her major from biochemistry to something else 🙁

Well, the acceptance rate from my school is quite high (around 85%), so I guess my pre-med advisor is just trying to be realistic. I didn't realize that it was such a rough job. But, I'm still a freshman. My GPA is bad, but I've got plenty of time to improve it, so I don't know why my pre-med advisor is even now trying to discourage me from going through pre-med.

I guess I understand how they try to operate...like everyone else has said so far, they are just trying to help people figure out how difficult it is to apply and also the commitment level required. One time, a student went into my pre-med advisor's office and said, "I want to be a pediatrician." After that the conversation goes like this:

pre-med advisor: "You want to be a pediatrician? So you want to be a doctor?"
student: "No, I hate doctors. I love kids, though, so I want to be a pediatrician."

Interesting, isn't it? Some people just don't realize...

Medical school is a huge commitment. I mean, at the very least, it's around 7 years after undergrad before you can go out and actually work as an attending physician. About 75% of biology and biochem majors at my school begin as pre-meds in their freshmen year (the rest want to become science teachers, go into research, go into another healthcare field, etc.)

By about their senior year, it goes down to about 25% (that's not including people who decide to change their majors, btw).

 

[merlin17]

wow...after reading some of the stories on this board, i think our premed advisors must be on the extreme end of friendly. i have never heard of someone being discouraged from applying to medical school. what they do do, however, is make sure that kids don't apply to only top tier schools. i feel like half of their job is to convince kids who have been gunners for life that going to a school that usnews ranks say #20 does not mean that they are failures for life 🙂 they also try to make sure that we know what we are getting into.

 

[MSV MD 2B]

i think too that really and truly some students have not considered anything else. there is a whole world of careers out ther even within the biomedical sciences so maybe they should just expose students to other things instead of discouraging them from medicine. if there is something esle for that student, the exposure should take care of it. i geuss it is also a test of the stduient's tenacity. if they hang on despite being repeatedly discourage, then they have their heart in it. that maybe is what they are looking for.

 

[DrMom]

Originally posted by relatively prime
I think pre-med advisors are meant to be reality checks. If you're thinking about applying to med school... most people you encounter will encourage you and say "of course you'll get in! you're such a nice person!" or something routine like that... so the pre-med advisor is the one who gives it to you straight. I know a lot of pre-meds at my school are pretty clueless as to how competitive med school admissions is until it's almost too late. Maybe some pre-med advisors are just interested in keeping the acceptance ratio high.... but I think most of them also want to give new pre-meds a clue about what they're in for.

Exactly!

 

[lola]

my pre-med advisor is awesome!! back when i was in college i wasn't sure i liked her too much. she was always encouraging me to explore other fields and didn't seem too eager to advise me about medical school. in hindsight, i think i really needed to explore other options and am glad i did. now that i have found that medicine is truly for me, she has been nothing but supportive! i have heard that she sometimes discourages weak students from applying, saying they will not get a strong committee letter, but i think some of these students need the reality check.

 

[UCLAMAN]

Originally posted by relatively prime
I think pre-med advisors are meant to be reality checks. If you're thinking about applying to med school... most people you encounter will encourage you and say "of course you'll get in! you're such a nice person!" or something routine like that... so the pre-med advisor is the one who gives it to you straight. I know a lot of pre-meds at my school are pretty clueless as to how competitive med school admissions is until it's almost too late. Maybe some pre-med advisors are just interested in keeping the acceptance ratio high.... but I think most of them also want to give new pre-meds a clue about what they're in for.

word to your mothers 😀

premeds usually always get the "of course you'll get in!" line. although ucla didn't have a premed advisor i think having someone tell you you suck is a good thing. applying to medical school is not a cakewalk and receving more criticism than lip service(while may not be as pleasing to the ear) can really help an applicant fix things that are weak on their apps. people get enough lip service from their friends. a harsh reality check is important in this process. in the end its always up to the discretion of the applicant to take some of the advisor's advice or not.