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rochagurl89

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...do you know (number or percentage) that started as premed (from freshman year) dropped it later?

just curious since ppl always say most premeds don't stay premed...

why would you say they switch?

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...do you know (number or percentage) that started as premed (from freshman year) dropped it later?

just curious since ppl always say most premeds don't stay premed...

why would you say they switch?

Up here in Canada, I'd say 99.9% switch b/c of their GPA.
 
I was just thinking about this the other day.

When I moved into the dorms as a freshman 90% of the people on my wing were Bio majors and Pre Med.

I am the only Pre Med one left, and most even switched majors to something easier too. I would say it was about 10-15 ppl

I think most switched because they had never really though about what being a doctor meant; they just said they wanted to be one cus it sounded good and would be exciting. My roommate literally got her idea for becoming a doctor from CSI!!! The rest switch becuase it was harder than they expected
 
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For some, it's the commitment. They don't want to spend 8 years of education plus three or more years working for 40K until they become "eligible" to make over 100K. After all, in another career path, they figure they'll be there much quicker.

On the other hand, there are those who just don't want to handle the coursework.
 
I'm 3/4 the way through my freshman year and I'm already seriously considering alternatives.
 
99% thanks to many reasons: money, grades, "well-intentioned" pre-med advisor who said "no chances":rolleyes:, marriage, kids, basically one word: life/reality.
 
about 65% of ppl I know switched by Senior year. Although GPA played a factor, many switched b/c they found something else they preferred over medicine.
 
It always seemed to me (at least from the pre-med society meetings) that the numbers would decrease by 50% each semester for each application year.

At my school it was the first semester of Inorganic Chemistry that was the weed-out class. Most pre-meds quit when they saw how hard the pre reqs were really going to be.

Plus, that was typically a sophomore class, so many had finally figured out there were more jobs out there than just doctors and lawyers.
 
In my experience >75% of self-described pre-meds never actually make it as far as applying to med school. Of those that apply, it seems like ~1/3 don't get in even after repeated attempts.
 
Some of these estimates seem a little high to me. For me:

- Probably about 50% of the people I met who were pre-med my freshman year actually ended up applying to medical school.
- Of that 50%, I would say that about 75% made it into medical school somewhere (either MD, DO, or Caribbean)

So that means 37.5% of the original pre-meds are actually going to get to live the dream.
 
According to my pre-health advisor: only 10% of freshmen pre-meds actually apply to medical school at some point and only 50% of that 10% get accepted. Thus only 5% of freshmen pre-meds actually attend medical school. :laugh:
 
I'm just guessing, but my freshman year everyone I spoke to in my classes were "pre-med." Had to be close to a 100...By the time I reached my senior year, I think 2 or 3 people had gained acceptances. Most were weeded out by the upper level chems and physics. Some even gen chem.
 
I go to a small liberal arts school. We started with approximately 25 "pre-med" majors, and only three of us are applying this year (two accepted). I think the above posters are correct. People go into college thinking they're going to blow everyone away going "I'm going to be a doctor!" and their family will be amazed and they will be this grandiose physician with little or no effort. And then they take chemistry and intro. biology... and get a D... and move on.
 
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Organic chemistry grades first of all. Then upper level biology and physiology classes. Then biochemistry. Then the MCAT. There are so many choke-points...it's like the bottle-necked effect of evolutionary theory...
 
Where do you guys go to school? My freshman year there were only a couple of premeds but my senior year there were hundreds of people applying.
 
Television convinces a lot of people that being a doctor is a really sweet job full of janitor closet hook-ups and naturally hilarious coworkers and patients that make every day a cake walk. Unfortunately its tough, it nearly forces you to put your personal life on hold until residency (marriage/kids), and has 1001 hurdles that can trip you before you reach the finish line.

To top it all off, at this finish line you're greeted with a punch in the stomach courtesy of malpractice insurance instead of cold water and a breather.
 
I go to a small liberal arts school. We started with approximately 25 "pre-med" majors, and only three of us are applying this year (two accepted). I think the above posters are correct. People go into college thinking they're going to blow everyone away going "I'm going to be a doctor!" and their family will be amazed and they will be this grandiose physician with little or no effort. And then they take chemistry and intro. biology... and get a D... and move on.
My school is similar to this, although often we have 1 or 0 get in.
 
Most "pre-meds" shouldn't even be described as such since many of them probably drop it within a semester or two of basic science coursework. Everyone is apremed coming in to college (seriously, a vast percentage of people think they are). Medicine is just a career choice many people default to coming in to college.
 
I can say yes most people that are pre-med switch. I was pre-med until i really thought more closely about it. And i'm a decent student, but yeah i hated gen chem. To me it seemed like medicine wasn't that creative, like you want things to turn out a certain way, and if they aren't that way-it's bad. I actually know a few residents and they seem very unhappy, like they were the children of wealthy parents and really didn't know what they were getting themselves into, everyone in their family is successful and goes to graduate school. Some people just say doctor cos it sounds nice. A doctor is a conventional success. Quentin Tarantino is an unconventional success. I have a young cousin-28, Mexican-American, scored 1380 on his SATs with NO prep and neither parent having a highschool education, and he enlisted in the Coast Guard his junior year of highschool and got a GED. A lot of people here would think that's *****ic of him. 11 years later he brings home 125K, he's graduated college, and he's regulated to 1600 hours a year(I think, around there, the industry is regulated). Here's a link of his position: http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/...yword=aircraft&hdAjaxKeywordWithOR=#aircraft#

He's an aircraft maintenance manager. My CPA dad just did his taxes and was like anybody bringin in this kind of cash should be able to do their own taxes. Any job in aviation totally kicks @ss. I used to want to be a pilot. If you think trying to become a doctor is hard-try becoming a pilot-you might die... NO JOKE! But... i don't think mankind should be flying air planes if we haven't prefected frozen pizza. He works very hard and is always covered in grease; his job isn't easy, but he TOTALLY LOVES WHAT HE DOES AND THE LIFE AND SOCIAL CONTACTS IT GIVES HIM! So most people entering college have no clue what they really want and really don't know whether or not they'll pass gen. chem... or like gen. chem. Money does matter and cousin frankie is very happy, i don't know how much he's been making(i only know how much he made this year), but he has 2 kids and NO read that NO loans, since he's about to buy a house my dad told him to take a mortgage, and he's like NO! And here's how good a mechanic he is- he drives a '59 station wagon that's been on the road since '59. Mechanics, unlike other professions(i come from my cousin vinny type people on my mom's side) love to brag about driving a beat up ****ty old car and how they can just keep breathing life into it. And believe it or not good mechanics(the guy at the corner shop doesn't count) make decent money. For someone with a certification to work on Boeing 767s, they'll bring home 75K a year, VERY MINIMUM.
 
I can say yes most people that are pre-med switch. I was pre-med until i really thought more closely about it. And i'm a decent student, but yeah i hated gen chem. To me it seemed like medicine wasn't that creative, like you want things to turn out a certain way, and if they aren't that way-it's bad. I actually know a few residents and they seem very unhappy, like they were the children of wealthy parents and really didn't know what they were getting themselves into, everyone in their family is successful and goes to graduate school. Some people just say doctor cos it sounds nice. A doctor is a conventional success. Quentin Tarantino is an unconventional success. I have a young cousin-28, Mexican-American, scored 1380 on his SATs with NO prep and neither parent having a highschool education, and he enlisted in the Coast Guard his junior year of highschool and got a GED. A lot of people here would think that's *****ic of him. 11 years later he brings home 125K, he's graduated college, and he's regulated to 1600 hours a year(I think, around there, the industry is regulated). Here's a link of his position: http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layoutscripts/swzl_salaryresults.asp?op=salswz_psr&hdOmniNarrowDesc=Aviation+and+Airlines&hdOmniTotalJobsFound=15&pagefrom=selectjob&hdSearchByOption=0&hdLocationOption=0&hdKeyword=aircraft&hdJobCategory=TR01&hdZipCode=91758&hdStateMetro=146&hdGeoLocation=Ontario%2C+CA+91758&hdCurrentPage=1&hdViewAllRecords=0&hdSortBy=0&hdJobCode=SC16000290&hdJobTitle=Aircraft+Maintenance+Manager+II&hdNarrowDesc=Aviation+and+Airlines&hdJSBoolDisplayAdvertisement=false&jobcounter=5&countertype=0&totaljoblistnum=15&rdbSearchByOption=0&txtKeyword=aircraft&hdAjaxDisplaySection1=1&hdAjaxDisplaySection2=0&hdAjaxKeyword=aircraft&hdAjaxKeywordWithOR=%23aircraft%23

He's an aircraft maintenance manager. My CPA dad just did his taxes and was like anybody bringin in this kind of cash should be able to do their own taxes. Any job in aviation totally kicks @ss. I used to want to be a pilot. If you think trying to become a doctor is hard-try becoming a pilot-you might die... NO JOKE! But... i don't think mankind should be flying air planes if we haven't prefected frozen pizza. He works very hard and is always covered in grease; his job isn't easy, but he TOTALLY LOVES WHAT HE DOES AND THE LIFE AND SOCIAL CONTACTS IT GIVES HIM! So most people entering college have no clue what they really want and really don't know whether or not they'll pass gen. chem... or like gen. chem. Money does matter and cousin frankie is very happy, i don't know how much he's been making(i only know how much he made this year), but he has 2 kids and NO read that NO loans, since he's about to buy a house my dad told him to take a mortgage, and he's like NO! And here's how good a mechanic he is- he drives a '59 station wagon that's been on the road since '59. Mechanics, unlike other professions(i come from my cousin vinny type people on my mom's side) love to brag about driving a beat up ****ty old car and how they can just keep breathing life into it. And believe it or not good mechanics(the guy at the corner shop doesn't count) make decent money. For someone with a certification to work on Boeing 767s, they'll bring home 75K a year, VERY MINIMUM.

whether or not you enjoy gen chem (or any pre req like physics or ochem or whatever) should not be a reason to shift away from medicine. i pretty much hated every pre req except for intro to cellular/molecular biology. but i stuck through it cuz i want to be a doctor.
 
About 40% of my class enters, but only about 5-8% end up actually applying. What is nice though is that less than 2% of those that apply don't end up matriculating. I'm not sure if this reflects badly on my school as being too tough on pre-meds or well in that we make good applicants.
 
I used to want to be a pilot. If you think trying to become a doctor is hard-try becoming a pilot-you might die... NO JOKE! But... i don't think mankind should be flying air planes if we haven't prefected frozen pizza. He works very hard and is always covered in grease; his job isn't easy, but he TOTALLY LOVES WHAT HE DOES AND THE LIFE AND SOCIAL CONTACTS IT GIVES HIM! So most people entering college have no clue what they really want and really don't know whether or not they'll pass gen. chem... or like gen. chem. Money does matter and cousin frankie is very happy, i don't know how much he's been making(i only know how much he made this year), but he has 2 kids and NO read that NO loans, since he's about to buy a house my dad told him to take a mortgage, and he's like NO! And here's how good a mechanic he is- he drives a '59 station wagon that's been on the road since '59. Mechanics, unlike other professions(i come from my cousin vinny type people on my mom's side) love to brag about driving a beat up ****ty old car and how they can just keep breathing life into it. And believe it or not good mechanics(the guy at the corner shop doesn't count) make decent money. For someone with a certification to work on Boeing 767s, they'll bring home 75K a year, VERY MINIMUM.
Medicine is not about money, so listing other jobs that make decent money doesn't make medicine less attractive.
 
Where do you guys go to school? My freshman year there were only a couple of premeds but my senior year there were hundreds of people applying.

At Cornell sooo many people start as pre-med (granted there are 3,000/class) and sooo many people drop it after freshman year. But here, our pre-med classes are deliberately made to be TERRIBLE. Cornell wants to keep it's med acceptances as high as possible and these classes serve as intential "root out" courses for anyone who might not be able to make it in. Not really fair of them, but it turns a large number of future applicants away and ensures that only the strongest apply. So yes, we have throngs of pre-med drop outs here.
 
...but i was in it for the wrong reasons. Dentistry or occupational therapy would be more my fit. I will probably go into dentistry, if i go into a medical profession. Most college freshmen are not mature enough to know they want to become doctors, imho.
 
At Cornell sooo many people start as pre-med (granted there are 3,000/class) and sooo many people drop it after freshman year. But here, our pre-med classes are deliberately made to be TERRIBLE. Cornell wants to keep it's med acceptances as high as possible and these classes serve as intential "root out" courses for anyone who might not be able to make it in. Not really fair of them, but it turns a large number of future applicants away and ensures that only the strongest apply. So yes, we have throngs of pre-med drop outs here.


If you think the Cornell premed classes are hard, try the engineering classes.
 
I actually started then quit for a while then went back to pre-med. I would say there were about 100 people pre-med and there were 9 that got into school the year we graduated. At my school, there were not a lot of people that drop out.
 
I can say yes most people that are pre-med switch. I was pre-med until i really thought more closely about it. And i'm a decent student, but yeah i hated gen chem. To me it seemed like medicine wasn't that creative, like you want things to turn out a certain way, and if they aren't that way-it's bad. I actually know a few residents and they seem very unhappy, like they were the children of wealthy parents and really didn't know what they were getting themselves into, everyone in their family is successful and goes to graduate school. Some people just say doctor cos it sounds nice. A doctor is a conventional success. Quentin Tarantino is an unconventional success. I have a young cousin-28, Mexican-American, scored 1380 on his SATs with NO prep and neither parent having a highschool education, and he enlisted in the Coast Guard his junior year of highschool and got a GED. A lot of people here would think that's *****ic of him. 11 years later he brings home 125K, he's graduated college, and he's regulated to 1600 hours a year(I think, around there, the industry is regulated). Here's a link of his position: http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/...yword=aircraft&hdAjaxKeywordWithOR=#aircraft#

He's an aircraft maintenance manager. My CPA dad just did his taxes and was like anybody bringin in this kind of cash should be able to do their own taxes. Any job in aviation totally kicks @ss. I used to want to be a pilot. If you think trying to become a doctor is hard-try becoming a pilot-you might die... NO JOKE! But... i don't think mankind should be flying air planes if we haven't prefected frozen pizza. He works very hard and is always covered in grease; his job isn't easy, but he TOTALLY LOVES WHAT HE DOES AND THE LIFE AND SOCIAL CONTACTS IT GIVES HIM! So most people entering college have no clue what they really want and really don't know whether or not they'll pass gen. chem... or like gen. chem. Money does matter and cousin frankie is very happy, i don't know how much he's been making(i only know how much he made this year), but he has 2 kids and NO read that NO loans, since he's about to buy a house my dad told him to take a mortgage, and he's like NO! And here's how good a mechanic he is- he drives a '59 station wagon that's been on the road since '59. Mechanics, unlike other professions(i come from my cousin vinny type people on my mom's side) love to brag about driving a beat up ****ty old car and how they can just keep breathing life into it. And believe it or not good mechanics(the guy at the corner shop doesn't count) make decent money. For someone with a certification to work on Boeing 767s, they'll bring home 75K a year, VERY MINIMUM.

time to cut back on the blow
 
At my school they say about 90% drop the biology major in the first 2 years or stay a biology major but go into another field than pre-professional (vet, dentistry, or med)
 
lol, never seen so many made-up stats in my life!! :laugh:

I definitely know some people who couldn't get the grades/MCAT scores they needed to and got weeded out...

I also know some people from my freshman class that are matriculating with me.

Does that mean 50%??? :cool:
 
where are people getting all of these percentages from? its likely you know very few of the pre med students at your school, so how do you come up with a percentage as to how many switched? is it posted somewhere?
 
where are people getting all of these percentages from? its likely you know very few of the pre med students at your school, so how do you come up with a percentage as to how many switched? is it posted somewhere?

these % are subjective impressions of each poster based on people they know.

it is not that difficult to realize that these numbers are not based on Nature, Cell magazine stats.

SDN is a public forum, it is not official statistical headquaters, so take everything you read with a grain of salt:rolleyes:
 
It's hard to tell at my school, because so many pre-meds, pre-vets, pre-pharm, pre-opt, pre-dent all take the same basic courses....so I don't really know who is doing what and where they end up. But amoung my friends and people I know...I'd say 25% ended up applying and, and maybe half of those ended up getting in.
 
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