Since most pre-meds will never become doctors, a few words of advice:

[Goro]

Take a look at this.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/don-t-know-major-other-152819352.html

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[Astra]

>Since most premeds will never become doctors

Savage.

Unfortunately, the type of people who don't become doctors aren't the ones who browse SDN

 

[Lawpy]

Yahoo unfortunately has some serious issues with their accounts being hacked and data stolen. The business is doing poorly and its upcoming takeover by Verizon is thrown into question because of Yahoo's terrible management. I don't think it's a good source at all, even though Yahoo Finance was pretty good back in the old days.

EDIT: here's the original article from CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/15/why-college-grads-cant-find-jobs-commentary.html

 

[JustAPhD]

I've noticed that many new grads are woefully unprepared for the real world. Pre Med students are no exception, and perhaps are worse than their peers. Most likely a result of denial that they won't get into med school.

Unfortunately, the type of people who don't become doctors aren't the ones who browse SDN

I wouldn't say that. SDN is quite popular, many SDN'ers don't become doctors. You just don't see them often because they either don't stick around or don't post regularly.

Yahoo unfortunately has some serious issues with their accounts being hacked and data stolen. The business is doing poorly and its upcoming takeover by Verizon is thrown into question because of Yahoo's terrible management. I don't think it's a good source at all, even though Yahoo Finance was pretty good back in the old days.

That's not really the point. Remove the data and the article still addresses a problem that newly minted college grads are facing.

 

[kb1900]

"

• Almost 71 percent of survey respondents indicated that they visited college career services two times or fewer.
• Nearly 35 percent said they never stepped foot in career services.
• Of those who used their career services department, only 36.6 percent rated their overall experience as a 4 or 5, with 5 being the highest rating

"

thats just sad. im thankful to have chosen a school with arguably one of the best career centers. i came in with the attitude of going to medical school but knew that having a really strong plan b was important

i never really even embraced the prospect of not getting into medical school but i did choose to work a job that 1) translated into skills required for being a physician and 2) was a pretty good fall back and at the very least provided me with a strong employment history

 

[Lawpy]

That's not really the point. Remove the data and the article still addresses a problem that newly minted college grads are facing.

I wasn't discussing the point. I was simply questioning the source of the news and happened to note the irony of Yahoo Finance given their own problems. Luckily, they reposted the article from CNBC, so I posted the original source anyways.

 

[kb1900]

Yahoo unfortunately has some serious issues with their accounts being hacked and data stolen. The business is doing poorly and its upcoming takeover by Verizon is thrown into question because of Yahoo's terrible management. I don't think it's a good source at all, even though Yahoo Finance was pretty good back in the old days.

EDIT: here's the original article from CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/15/why-college-grads-cant-find-jobs-commentary.html

yeah yahoo has basically gained some kind of "living-dead" status as far as im concerned. its a pitty bc, like you said, it wasn't terrible back in the day. it was my family's homepage on our computer for like 5 years!

 

[Astra]

yeah yahoo has basically gained some kind of "living-dead" status as far as im concerned. its a pitty bc, like you said, it wasn't terrible back in the day. it was my family's homepage on our computer for like 5 years!

fantasy football is a major reason yahoo is still around. Also, their acquisition of Tumblr.

 

[LizzyM]

The fact remains that >55% of all people who apply to medical school don't get in. When you consider those who are pre-med and never take the MCAT or who take the MCAT and do so poorly that they don't bother applying, the proportion of pre-meds who don't get in skyrockets. Even getting accepted to medical school is no guarantee of being a doc as there is a small proportion who wash out for one reason or another (sometimes life throws you a curveball -- through no fault of your own-- and plans have to change).

What could you do if medicine was not in the cards?

 

[Lawpy]

The fact remains that >55% of all people who apply to medical school don't get in. When you consider those who are pre-med and never take the MCAT or who take the MCAT and do so poorly that they don't bother applying, the proportion of pre-meds who don't get in skyrockets. Even getting accepted to medical school is no guarantee of being a doc as there is a small proportion who wash out for one reason or another (sometimes life throws you a curveball -- through no fault of your own-- and plans have to change).

What could you do if medicine was not in the cards?

But this depends on the definition of a premed. I personally think a premed is someone who has successfully taken the MCAT and is about to apply to medical school. And someone who is currently applying to med school becomes an applicant until they get accepted somewhere.

A large fraction of college students pretend to be a premed without having a clue what the journey entails. Successfully clearing the MCAT and fulfilling the prerequisites are pretty much the defining hallmarks of someone seriously planning on pursuing medical school.

 

[efle]

What could you do if medicine was not in the cards?

Getting a very high GPA is a huge concern for premeds. Getting a very high GPA is a lot harder in most or all of the great fallback options like engineering. That's one of my biggest criticisms of this entire process, being premed can make it risky to try and have a good Plan B, or even to explore unfamiliar topics outside the bio comfort zone.

Similarly, according to the AAMC grids there are thousands of people every year that are almost done with straight As in their major only to find out the MCAT is insurmountable. Its really seems like trying to play this game sets a lot of people up to be miserable with their bio/psych degrees, with no interest in grad school and no good options with their bachelors.

Not that I have any solutions to propose. Just seems to me that many premeds will not become doctors and will be worse off for having spent 3-4 years trying.

 

[EEtoPre-Med]

It has been really nice to be getting an engineering degree for this reason. Is it worth all of the extra work? I don't know. But it is nice to know that I could get a job if I don't get in.

 

[kb1900]

Yahoo was really the first internet 'super site" if you will. Yet, even with its "living-dead" status, which it has for several years already, it is near the top, of web pages visited per day. Yet, they never seemed to be able to take all those eyeballs and turned into revenue and profit. However, many highly successful PC technology and internet companies reach some zenith and, like new movie stars and hot rookie ball players, burn out and fall in the "where are they now" column. Having been in and around PCs, networking, and internet starting in 1982-83, I have watched many a company vanish quickly. I have often thought if I ever put up a Halloween graveyard, I would make the tombstones read with the names of dead technology companies.

BTW, and completely trivial of course, I used to love watching the Simpsons Halloween shows as their opening was an erie sweep into the town cemetery sweeping down to the tombstones. Each year they would have names of some "dead" category of things. One year it was all the New York area department stores closed, reminding me far too much of my youth

@Goro EJ Korvettes, Gimbels, A&S, Kresges, Woolworth, Gwirtz,

hahaha if you don't, i will! thats a hilarious idea

 

[Jillofalltrades]

Getting a very high GPA is a huge concern for premeds. Getting a very high GPA is a lot harder in most or all of the great fallback options like engineering. That's one of my biggest criticisms of this entire process, being premed can make it risky to try and have a good Plan B, or even to explore unfamiliar topics outside the bio comfort zone.

Similarly, according to the AAMC grids there are thousands of people every year that are almost done with straight As in their major only to find out the MCAT is insurmountable. Its really seems like trying to play this game sets a lot of people up to be miserable with their bio/psych degrees, with no interest in grad school and no good options with their bachelors.

Not that I have any solutions to propose. Just seems to me that many premeds will not become doctors and will be worse off for having spent 3-4 years trying.

I think this is an interesting thinking point. There are countries out there where students apply to med school straight out of high school. The "pre-med" process essentially requires planning for 3-4 years of classes and EC's, so many students do end up making their decision to pursue medicine that first year. The only differences are that you can drop out of the pre-med process at any point during undergrad, and you can choose to pursue medicine later on in life.

That leads into the question what is undergrad meant for. Is it simply a time to develop skills (communication, people skills, teamwork, etc)? Or is it a time to get training for a marketable job? I realize that those 2 things are not mutually exclusive, but there is obviously a gap in the job markets for someone with a cultural anthropology degree (and no desire to go to grad school) and someone with an engineering degree.

I know there are people out there who manage to major in something more practical while completing their pre-med requirements, but with the requirements list growing every year it seems like, this puts an immense amount of stress on the 4 years one has in undergrad. I wanted to major in art history, but the absence of overlap between the requirements and the timing of when courses can be scheduled made it virtually impossible to graduate in 4 years and have all the pre-med reqs done. Sure, there's always the option of gap years, but no one wants to go in and plan a 6-year time line when theoretically it can be done in 4.

I personally would not be opposed to a trimming of the required courses list, but I highly doubt this will ever happen.

 

[freak7]

fantasy football is a major reason yahoo is still around. Also, their acquisition of Tumblr.

I prefer the ESPN version.