Why is it that the majority of pre-meds on this site are self-rightous, judgemtal...

[labbook]

Why is it that the majority of pre-meds on this site are self-rightous, uptight, quick to judge and insult? It almost makes me want to change major when I think that these people will be my future colleagues.

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[Hannah]

You think OTHER people are so judgmental? Re-read your recent post to me dude.

 

[bluegill]

I think that the pre-meds on this site are not indicative of pre-meds in general. You will find a higher proportion of "gunners" on this site. Most pre-med people spend their free time thinking about things other than getting in to med school, not on web sites that will help them get admitted.

And gunners are much quicker to get angry, defensive, judgmental, etc, because they are often wound up tighter than the core of a baseball.

Before you start with the "how dare you call us gunners when you yourself are on this site" rhetoric, know that I have already come to grips with who I am... a med school nerd, and a former pre-med gunner (to a degree).

 

[DJ W.R.]

Originally posted by labbook:
•Why is it that the majority of pre-meds on this site are self-rightous, uptight, quick to judge and insult? It almost makes me want to change major when I think that these people will be my future colleagues.•

labbook:

Although I don't completely agree with your statement, I can definitely identify with you in being nervous about the attitudes of your future colleagues. I think that a lot (not all) of premeds are way too up tight for their own good. They obsess, stress and panic about getting into medical school as if it is the ONLY thing that exists for them in this world. I think that this tends to make them pretty bitter and reactionary. Let's all take some time to really examine our true motivations for going to medical school...they often get muddled in the incredibly crappy and dehumanizing admissions process. Relax, if you're qualified, motivated, and a quality human being, you WILL get into medical school...

 

[Ryu]

It's a phase which will pass away very soon once they got in.

 

[MAAT]

Originally posted by Ryu:
•It's a phase which will pass away very soon once they got in.•

I don't know Ryu, after that it's stressing about passing classes and then boards and then residency...

It's been said here before lots: the whole process sucks and until that changes many will continue to react the way they do. After all, all of the jerk doctors (and we all no one) come from somewhere.

As a side note, I generally think people here are pretty good. Sure, there are always bad apples, but there are a lot of great people and ideas here as well.

SEEK THE POSITIVE
MAAT

 

[kris]

I agree with MAAT, and I've said as much before.

I've "met" some very witty, intelligent, thoughtful (and stressed out) people here, and their diversity of interests will shock you if you give them a chance to get to know them.

Try to read posts as generously as you can. People here aren't usually ill-willed, but can turn on you quickly if you don't give them a fair shake.

--kris

 

[Vader]

Because who else has anything to do besides be in front of their computer on Friday/Saturday nights?

Actually, people on SDN are MUCH friendlier and mature than those on other sites which will go unnamed. As the poster above stated, there will always be a few bad apples, but it's better to stay focused on what you're doing and not let them get you down. Who knows... one day you may be treating one of them!

 

[doughboy]

The mentality never ends. I agree that once you get into med school then its the same new game in a new stadium. You have to get good grades, people want positions in clubs and student council, people suck up to the professors. All in an attempt to make them look better than their classmates. Then you start rotations and then the gunners really emerge...kissing ass, stabbing you in the back, making you look bad, hogging the good patients, not sharing info. It never ends and your only hope is that people see through those people and realize they're not normal. Plus, residency is like applying to med school again...you need to send the app, get rec letters, take boards. Its a never ending cycle. I have people in my class that just never give up the pre med mentality.

 

[Popoy]

Originally posted by Vader:
•Because who else has anything to do besides be in front of their computer on Friday/Saturday nights?

Actually, people on SDN are MUCH friendlier and mature than those on other sites which will go unnamed. As the poster above stated, there will always be a few bad apples, but it's better to stay focused on what you're doing and not let them get you down. Who knows... one day you may be treating one of them! •

Ditto.... or meet them or be your classmate

 

[kris]

Originally posted by doughboy:
•The mentality never ends. .....Then you start rotations and then the gunners really emerge...kissing ass, stabbing you in the back, making you look bad, hogging the good patients, not sharing info. ....•

Really? I'd love to hear more about this. I can't imagine trying to step all over my classmates, but at the same time I don't want to be the naive one who gets to be the doormat!

I see what Joyce's question is now on that gunner thread--is there a happy medium?

Maybe this is best on the gunner thread, so I'll post this over there (in the lounge).

Back to analyzing pre-meds....

--kris

 

[lilycat]

In talking to my friends who have a few years of med school completed, and just after going through my brief orientation, it does seem like the premed mentality is alive and well even once people are in med school. Residency applications essentially can be like applying to med school all over again, and at times, the process definitely seems to bring out the worst in people.

 

[Hannibal Gabriel]

Ack. That pre-med mentality really never goes away. You will beat yourself to death in medical school if you constantly obsess about being the big cheese numero uno. I believe once you get in, your FIRST goal should be to GRADUATE. If you graduate from medical school, people will call you Doctor just the same, and there are NO *****s who graduate from med school. If you make it through, you at least do know your ass from a hole in the ground. I find that when I put less pressure on myself, I generally do at least as well and usually better than when I stress and obsess, and I enjoy life a hell of a lot more. And your patients really won't care if you remember right there at the beside what the globin chain composition of HbA2 is or if you have to sneak off and look it up; what they WILL remember is whether or not you have the personality to deal with other human beings without constantly trying to upstage or belittle them to boost yourself up.

 

[Sm00th13]

The way I see it, it's just a ego-trip, more like a quick rush. YOu have to understand it's human nature to try to outdo everyone. Too bad med school has gotten to a point where it's a race to see who gets to the finish line first, and in the process we tend forget why we want to be doctors in the first place. My advice, just deal with it, b/c the world's full of @$$holes. I think God place them on this earth to make things interesting.

 

[brhill]

I think alot of it is the medium itself. I know for me personally, at least half the stuff I write reads totally different. Of course, I don't know that until someone goes ape-**** on me. The lack of personality in "type" makes stuff sound way more uptighty and/or serious lot of times. In person you can disagree and say, "Bah! That's total B.S." and everyone chuckles and its no big thing. Here, you say something to that effect but way more sugarcoated and all hell breaks loose. Of course this is just my opinion and the only reason I'm even saying this is because I have major physics homework to do right now. Perhaps I'll go scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush...

 

[mcwm4]

These people are in all fields, you just have o know how to a) avoid them, b) put them in their place. I would recommed just keeping to yourself, relaxing and ejoying college. It worked for me, I put in the time when needed and now I am 9 monthes from graduation and I still enjoy my life. It's all about your own priorities. But seriously you need to relax.

 

[Oliver Lang]

This site is not more judgemental than The Princeton Review site.

I agree with Hannah who said that the guy who made this post is judgemental himself for judging 8000 people in once sentence.

A lot of premeds are uptight from what I see. Especially that thread with that girl who says that she is extremely competitive that she sits in on other's classes. Not everyone does this and I think that it is strange. I do think that the whole admissions process forces premed students to be indifferent to anything but themselves. It is not all their fault. In medicine there is a lot of pressure and people have different ways of handling it. There is pressure through the whole stretch up to the businesses that gang up on doctors to steal their earnings. Try getting charged 50 times for one application error sent online!

 

[Jamier2]

Originally posted by brhill:
•Perhaps I'll go scrub the bathroom floor with a toothbrush...•

Bah! That's total B.S.

 

[relentless11]

Just my two cents, but yea i do see some pre-meds are all the things you said. But ya know what? Who cares! Its your job to forget about this junk as there are far worse people out there in life. You deal with PEOPLE, which means there will be good, bad, and what not out there. And as someone mentioned in here, the person who made this post is cleary judgemental themself. And annoyed about those certain pre-meds so much that they had to vent it out on here.

I have learned that i am also judgemental, and yea i just right here judged the poster. And i probably am wound up too tight. I believe that there has to be some sense of competativeness when it comes down to something like this. You can't do it without feeling like you have to compete with someone. Or feel a bit concieted(albeit that is a bad thing). I competed in sports as a kid, you sometimes won't get the confidence to win, without thinking you're better than the next guy.(Even if you're not)

 

[Oliver Lang]

It's the old "I know you are but what am I" routine all over again.

Deeming someone "Judgemental" is indeed the definition of Judgemental itself.

If you are afraid of being judged then medicine might not be the best thing to shoot for. You will be judged all the time.

 

[srlondon]

Unfortunately, you're going to find that there are going to be a lot of colleagues out there who thoroughly repulse you no matter what you go into. I certainly haven't had trouble finding them in my 4 yrs of med school. But the key is to ignore the people who irritate you whenever possible and to try to find the people you get along with and hang out with them. Yes, there are some people that you might like at your school if you give them a chance.

 

[commymommy]

I think most of the people here are really great, actually. Everyone has the occasional off day, and at times it is probably easier to take it out on someone in the cyberworld...but these people here are actually really supportive and interesting....look for the positive!

Kris

 

[princessSMT]

i think that the key to not letting yourself get bother by or caught up in the whole "pre-med" scene is to surround yourself with NON premeds. I must say that i have very few friends that i would consider "pre-meds"--even if they ARE premeds (haha).

I dont truly know, but i'm expecting that the people i meet in medical school in general will have good souls and know how to be a friend. Going into medicine requires some sort of perspective on life and on the world. BUT in order to guard against the possibility that it WONT change, I'm applying to mostly "lower-tier" medical schools. Thats the way i want it.

those are just some of my thoughts!

 

[FunkaDesi]

Try to read posts as generously as you can. People here aren't usually ill-willed, but can turn you on quickly if you don't give them a fair shake.

--kris

What do you mean kris???
You are wery dirty.

 

[Ex-InfantryMedic]

Hannibal, you have hit the nail on the head!!! Wonderfully! Yes, becoming a doctor does seem to require you to single-handily ace massive PHYsic/Orgo texts while being a MasterPiece theater writer while on your spare time you philosophize on the greatest ethics issues and then find time to rescue 4 people or 2 children (whichever comes first) per AMCAS rules and for bonus try to rescue stranded cats from trees for Grandma while your undergrad reserach thesis is published right next to the Human Genome Project in Science! Slight Herculien effort is required but it is supposed to expose your perserverence. Hang in there, and you find that being competitive with others only puts you on a bigger treadmill trahn most in this rat race. However, if you learn to foster only the best YOU can do, then you lose interest in what everyone else is doing. The pre-med attitude falls away if you have reach self-actualization. Be all you can be. (Just Kidding) HaHa. Which is the final point. None of this struggle or pain is worth it if you laugh at yourself, or look back and say "I couldn't have done it better or made the same good choices if I had ten more chances" because that is indeed true. I doubt whether anyone on this board could have better choices if they had to do it again. Just choosing to be a doctor tells me that a person is striving and challenging themselves no matter what their potential. If they weren't, they would be lawyers and MBAs. A "pre-med attitude" will fall away if a canidate fells comfortable and secure and ready to learn by making mistakes. Medicine is an art as well as a science. And as Hannibal says, a patient won't even know what a glycoslyated HbA2 is anyway...they just want you to say,"well, we'll get your sugar down and YOU will be alright." Hope is a powerful contagion. Good Rx too!!! 8)

 

[brhill]

Originally posted by Jamier2:
•Bah! That's total B.S. •

What are you trying to say? That your'e smarter and better than me? Are you implying that my house is filthy and I never clean? Was that code for, " You loser, you'll never be anthing or anyone"?
I would go on but I have something in my eye...I think it's a plank.

 

[different strokes]

Originally posted by princessSMT:
•i think that the key to not letting yourself get bother by or caught up in the whole "pre-med" scene is to surround yourself with NON premeds. I must say that i have very few friends that i would consider "pre-meds"--even if they ARE premeds (haha).

I dont truly know, but i'm expecting that the people i meet in medical school in general will have good souls and know how to be a friend. Going into medicine requires some sort of perspective on life and on the world. BUT in order to guard against the possibility that it WONT change, I'm applying to mostly "lower-tier" medical schools. Thats the way i want it.

those are just some of my thoughts!•

Why do you call them NON-pre-meds if they are. It is really not good to be judgemental.

 

[different strokes]

To EX-infantry medic:

Do not berate other fields of study. You don't know what they are like unless you have tried for them and went through it all.

 

[commymommy]

That is true. I know that my husband was even surprised sometimes by the things that we had to do in just a masters program (not that I am comparing a masters in mol. bio to a med school degree...don't get me wrong here!)

He was sometimes shocked by what they expected us to know for exams, do in the lab and write. For example, I took a neuropharm course that had us memorize every second messenger system, production of neurochemicals etc...to a painful, painful degree!!! We had to regularly read and discuss scientific papers, take these brain buster exams that left us all in a puddle on the floor and write a 30 page minimum paper....He survived this with me and won a new respect for science majors in grad school.

Again though, I'm NOT comparing this one class to the rigors of medical school...no pouncing please...I just think that there are many professions that are difficult...I mean...imagine becoming a PhD organic chemist!! That takes brains and stamina, eh!

Kristen

 

[different strokes]

 

[different strokes]

 

[Ex-InfantryMedic]

I will apologize different strokes for my tone. I agree 110% with you. After reading your reply, I reread my post and now do realize my tone was far too overstated. I only meant to interject some sarcasm about the "perceived" difficulty of the pre-med path. My father has his degree in banking and even majors like business and teaching can be quite challenging if approached with the respect they deserve.
In one sense, pre-med is easier than most majors in the sense that one must only suceed in 1 year of physics, (algebra at that) vs. an engineer. A pre-med only needs a year of calculus compared to the advanced differential math of many other science fields. One year of organic is not as bad as chem majors taking analytical and p-chem and perhaps bio-chem at once.
So I will retract my previous post and just say the pre-med path can seem overwhelming at times, but so do most other degrees as well.
BTW, my wife has a degree in poly-sci, and is a flight attendent for US Airways. Even though it requires only a HS Diploma, I envy her patience of dealing with literally planeloads of people daily who may wish to blame the F/A for the delays of modern air travel while remaining responsible for the safety of all aboard. Most passengers assume that since she is a flight attendent that she is relatively "dumb" compared to themselves. However she must remain steadfast cheerful as per company policy even while the same delay that keeps her passengers from their destinations keeps my wife from getting home. They'll in the same boat.
momofthree: I like the medicalspouse web site. Excellent. I am glad to know someone cares about the significant others of pre-med hopefuls, as our pain is also their pain. Thanks for the link!