med school political climate

[velo]

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I'm going to be starting med school this fall and I was wondering if any current med students had anything to say about the political climate? As an undergrad I was pretty comfortably surrounded by my liberal breathern, but I was thinking the other day that it might be different in med school. What do you think overall? left/right leaning or pretty much 50/50? I guess it also might depend on where you go to school...I'll be in the midwest (wash u), so can anyone comment from personal experience? thanks!

 

[sacrament]

My class is about 80/20 in favor of liberal-leaners.

 

[Discobolus]

You will probably find medical school to still be pretty liberal. Some of my more conservative friends were discussing this phenomenom and that the number of conservatives in our class will increase when they are actually in practice.

 

[mdforme]

Most med students at the uni where I worked were quite conservative. I would say maybe 60% of the class was conservative with the remainder being mostly middle-of-the-road. The students were very racially diverse, but politically pretty conservative. Very different from my undergraduate also.

 

[8744]

I can't give you the exact numbers but most of my class are either Republicans or lean that way. We regularly booed or "hissed down" any professor who made any snide remarks about President Bush. We have our share of liberals but they sort of stand out because of their rarity.

A lot of the clinical faculty are Republicans and/or conservatives.

I'm sure medical schools in Yankeeland are a lot more liberal.

 

[Gleevec]

I think most medical students are socially liberal, but financially conservative (especially after they realize how high taxes are).

If you're smart enough to get into medical school, unless adcoms made a mistake, youre smart enough to realize that the US is not a theocracy, homosexuals aren't that big a deal and are people too, and that education is pretty important.

 

[daisygirl]

I think most medical students are socially liberal, but financially conservative (especially after they realize how high taxes are).

If you're smart enough to get into medical school, unless adcoms made a mistake, youre smart enough to realize that the US is not a theocracy, homosexuals aren't that big a deal and are people too, and that education is pretty important.

Not so if you've been bred in the South 😉 I'm JUST kidding. I felt the urge to post this b/c of panda's reference to Yankeeland

Back to the original topic.... I have no idea what what the political climate is in my class. I'm guessing that my class has a relatively even mix of political ideaologies.

Onto a bit of a tangent, It has been mandated that our class (and the other current classes) has to sit through a day of festivities known as Cultural Competency 😡 . On this day, I usually get an earful in terms of where people lie on the political spectrum (although of course, this is not the supposed purpose of this day). I can not wait for this year's day of cultural awareness 😎

 

[Jalby]

My class is pretty liberal (Keck/USC). I know 84% of the class is pro-choice, 8% pro-life, and 8% undecided. During the 30th aniversary of Roe V. Wade, someone put up pictures of aborted fetuses and also how abortion is the same as slavery and lemme just say our class was pretty furious.

 

[automaton]

how is abortion like slavery? seems to me pregnancy would be more like slavery. interesting comparison.

anyway to answer the question, my medical school is mostly a bunch of liberal help-the-homeless type of world saving crusaders. many are also religious, which compliments the world saving type. of course there are a few conservatives who are more libertarian. i don't really know very many republican conservatives in our class.

 

[CaptainZero]

I think there may be a trend towards the right should Kerry choose John Edwards as a running mate. He made his vast fortune as a malpractice lawyer and if he's in office, we can pretty much kiss any significant malpractice reform goodbye...

 

[Samoa]

Ugh! I absolutely hate it when my study group starts talking politics and policy instead of studying. We have a staunch conservative, an equally staunch liberal, and me, who's about as liberal as you can get without actually BEING gay, or subscribing to non-democratic forms of government. Seriously, I have to get up and leave, or find some way to ignore the whole conversation, or I completely lose focus.

 

[kutastha]

I'd say our class is about 75% left-leaning, with about 20% of the class' actually being liberals. It's Vermont, so it's not too surprising.

 

[Jet915]

Our class is probably 60/40 conservative leaning but all our professors are liberals it seems.

 

[ItsNotATumor]

Strangely enough, 1/3 liberal, 1/3 conservative and 1/3 moderates all sitting on their respective side of the classroom (left, right and center).

 

[velo]

Strangely enough, 1/3 liberal, 1/3 conservative and 1/3 moderates all sitting on their respective side of the classroom (left, right and center).

ha, nice. my favorite one so far

 

[gschl1234]

how is abortion like slavery? seems to me pregnancy would be more like slavery. interesting comparison.

anyway to answer the question, my medical school is mostly a bunch of liberal help-the-homeless type of world saving crusaders. many are also religious, which compliments the world saving type. of course there are a few conservatives who are more libertarian. i don't really know very many republican conservatives in our class.

Wow, that sounds like an awesome environment! May I ask where you go?

 

[Goober]

My class was decidedly liberal probably 70-75%. Well they are the ones that made the most noise anyways. When I got out into the working world I found that it is probably the other way around, most docs I meet are decidedly conservative. I am sure that it has to do with the fact that most docs that are in private practice are basically running small businesses and it changes the way you see things when you realize how much the government really interferes in both the practice and monetary aspects of medicine.