Wired Magazine: "Top 5 Reasons to Dislike Pre-Med Students"

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premed is not a real major in college. It's just a cult:D

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i wish they trained doctors like they trained pilots.... most pilots could easily be mechanics(believe it or not, if you work on a major airliner as a mechanic you make 6 figures) they call them flight engineers or other words... but pilots are among the brightest professionals out there... and they're selfless... if anything they're underpaid and underapperciated... what makes them that way is the fact that if they screw up... even once...THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE.... so usually they have their own lives in their hands as well as yours.... ask a pilot if he knows anyone who died flying a plane next time you fly cross country... bet you my life his answer will be yes... you just don't learn from your mistakes as a pilot... most mistakes you make flying you can only make once.
 
i wish they trained doctors like they trained pilots.... most pilots could easily be mechanics(believe it or not, if you work on a major airliner as a mechanic you make 6 figures) they call them flight engineers or other words... but pilots are among the brightest professionals out there... and they're selfless... if anything they're underpaid and underapperciated... what makes them that way is the fact that if they screw up... even once...THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE.... so usually they have their own lives in their hands as well as yours.... ask a pilot if he knows anyone who died flying a plane next time you fly cross country... bet you my life his answer will be yes... you just don't learn from your mistakes as a pilot... most mistakes you make flying you can only make once.

So the moral is, doctors should have more heart.

Can't disagree with that.
 
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lol @ the comment "if a pilot makes a mistake THEY'LL DiE!"

The 9/11 hijackers flew, lots of celebs fly, and yes, numerous pilots have flown while under the influence. A commercial pilot's license only requires about 250 hours of flight experience and the minimum age is 18- compare that to 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of medical school. Pilots are also protected from making mistakes by computerized safety mechanisms, the co-pilot, and let's not forget- Auto Pilot:

otto.jpg
 
lol @ the comment "if a pilot makes a mistake THEY'LL DiE!"

The 9/11 hijackers flew, lots of celebs fly, and yes, numerous pilots have done flown while under the influence. A commercial pilot's license only requires about 250 hours of flight experience and the minimum age is 18- compare that to 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of medical school. Pilots are also protected from making mistakes by computerized safety mechanisms, the co-pilot, and let's not forget- Auto Pilot:

otto.jpg

Best Movie of all time!!
 
Personally, I cant stand ppl that do number 3, and it seems to be commonplace from what Ive seen. Ppl join Premed club become president, Vp, secretary or whatever and then the club doesnt do anything the rest of the year, same thing with alot of other Clubs too. I hope and am pretty sure that ADCOMS can see through this insincerity. (sp)
Thats why i made my own club:D;)
 
As far as grade grubbing goes, I definitely do not try to "beg" teachers/TA for a couple points that will bring my grade 0.5% higher. There are teachers which allow students to get re-grades, but have to write an explanation of why. This especially happened in both Organics, where 80% of the class would turn in a re-grade, but only a few would actually get points back :rolleyes:

I find it funny when I go to a teacher's office hours to see what questions I got wrong on an exam, and after looking at it, they are always surprised that I don't find anything wrong with it. Usually, if I do bad, it's because i F'ed up on the test, and nothing more(well....unless everyone else bombs, then that calls for a riot).
 
Reading comprehension on this site sucks, generally. Ugh.
 
The responses in this thread are classic.

I would expect nothing less from the lot of you.
 
..... JFK jr. and that yankee or red sox pitcher whoever he was.... also there was a plane wreck here in socal last month... or recently... in corona.... four people died.
 
i wish they trained doctors like they trained pilots.... most pilots could easily be mechanics(believe it or not, if you work on a major airliner as a mechanic you make 6 figures) they call them flight engineers or other words... but pilots are among the brightest professionals out there... and they're selfless... if anything they're underpaid and underapperciated... what makes them that way is the fact that if they screw up... even once...THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE.... so usually they have their own lives in their hands as well as yours.... ask a pilot if he knows anyone who died flying a plane next time you fly cross country... bet you my life his answer will be yes... you just don't learn from your mistakes as a pilot... most mistakes you make flying you can only make once.

I'd definitely have to disagree with that one. Pilots' mistakes are just like doctors' mistakes...it's only the big ones that kill people. And just like doctors, it's always the bad ones you hear about. Drunk or sleeping pilots and immoral or money hungry doctors aren't representative of the whole population. Pilots make lots of mistakes like runway incursions, incorrectly following ATC instructions, incorrect autopilot and avionics modes, and so forth. Just most of the time there's another guy on top of their game that can point it out and give the pilot a chance to fix the mistake. I can give you that pilots should be well payed, but I just can't see them being paid more. On that note, I also don't think doctors, specialist or what not, deserve 300+ a year. Just don't see anyone being worth that. Would be nice to see people help others just to help.

And personally, I hold a commercial licence with a jet rating and 550+ hours of flight time...I don't know anyone who has died.
 
And personally, I hold a commercial licence with a jet rating and 550+ hours of flight time...I don't know anyone who has died.
Dang, I bet veggieswirl wishes he hadn't bet his life on that one...there are lightning bolts being hurled from heaven as we speak.
 
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how the heck did this get turned into a convo about pilots?
 
okay i guess i was wrong... i'm a girl by the way. But if you read what I wrote.... i said next time you fly cross country ask the pilot if he knows someone whose died flying... may be a bit of an exaggeration... but barely. The guys flying with passenger airlines cross country.... probably have a bit more than 550+ hours under their belts... just my guess. Or am i totally and completely wrong? correct me if i am. I'd never fly a plane but have two cousins in the industry... neither are pilots either. My grandpa was a pilot for 40 years... and i'm not sure how many people he knew who died... but he knew a few. And i might be wrong on this too, but not all pilots make big money... at least to my knowledge.
 
okay i guess i was wrong... i'm a girl by the way. But if you read what I wrote.... i said next time you fly cross country ask the pilot if he knows someone whose died flying... may be a bit of an exaggeration... but barely. The guys flying with passenger airlines cross country.... probably have a bit more than 550+ hours under their belts... just my guess. Or am i totally and completely wrong? correct me if i am. I'd never fly a plane but have two cousins in the industry... neither are pilots either. My grandpa was a pilot for 40 years... and i'm not sure how many people he knew who died... but he knew a few. And i might be wrong on this too, but not all pilots make big money... at least to my knowledge.

In many ways, you're not that far off. Yes, most pilots flying big Boeings/Airbusses cross country between major airports do have more than 550 hours, but many people flying regional jets for the same airlines do not. I'd be willing to bet though, that most of the pilots you may have spoken with who knew someone who died were military trained. There's no equal to military aviation training, but it comes with a price. Fatalities aren't frequent, but they are virtually unheard of the in the civilian training side. Simply put, the harder you push, the better you get...but the more it costs when you screw up. It used to be that commerical aviation was dominated by military trained pilots, but that has changed a lot. So has the safety of aviation. I would be willing to put a fare amount of money that most people who entered aviation in the last 15-20 years did not know someone who died. And if they did, I am almost certain that they were military trained. Things are a bit different for the 30-40 years ago range. And of course there are always exceptions.

In many ways, medical and aviation training are similar. There's a lot of responsibility, so each step is small and thoroughly supervised. You spend hundreds of hours in "school", then start to work under the supervision of a pilot while flying copilot. Many pilots flying regional jets as copilots only make 30-40k a year, but it should be realized that this is very analogous to residency. They're still flying under supervision, gaining experience and training. It is expected that they will move up to the bigger birds in the next few years which is where the real money starts.

What I'd love to see show up in medicine from aviation is the team approach. Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 (all commerical) require a pilot and a copilot on every flight. Really nice to have a buddy double check you. Medicine has nothing like that once you get out of residency/fellowship. Heck, based on my experience, put a handful of 3rd or 4th year med students together and they're going to get it right on 9 out of 10 patients (not that I want try it). Put one med student and they're going to kill 9 of 10 patients. It's amazing what teamwork can do. Of course, it's not terribly efficient always, but that's another story.
 
People who do #3 are unethical scumbags. People who do #5 shouldn't be going into medicine (why are you entering a field you have no interest in?). The other points are simply a product of fierce competition, and I think it is understandable that some premed students end up fighting and manipulating the system to try and get better grades.
 
i pride myself in not fitting into any one of the 5 things listed...especially #1. my anatomy professor even came up to me after a test and told me that the difference between me and other people that had done well before was that I had done well as a result my genuine curiosity in the subject and passion to learn as much as possible....the good grade comes as a byproduct.

You could have at least waited a moment to see if anyone wanted to put you on the back first...
 
i know a flight engineer type guy(my cousin), and he was in the coast guard... and i know someone else... who was in a different cousin on the same side's(the other aviation cousin, a flight attendant's) wedding with me, who was a medical corpsman in the navy, and casualities weren't constant or anything, but they do happen. So yeah they were both military trained and they both watched aircraft go down.... the corpsman dragged their charred bodies out of the planes... that's how my cousin met her marine veteran husband and the corpsman... they were in Okinawa and she would be there because of work.
 
hahah yeah i never tell people I'm pre-med. If anyone asks I just say i'm a biology major and I plan to teach in the future. There's some kind of social stigma among college students that takes shape whenever one states that they're "pre-med". Maybe its all the yuppie type A personalities that give it a bad name...


or maybe its this guy from Van Wilder: http://www.movievillains.com/images/bagg.jpg :laugh:



edit: Especially at UT-Austin where everyone and their sister is pre-med
 
People who do #3 are unethical scumbags. People who do #5 shouldn't be going into medicine (why are you entering a field you have no interest in?). The other points are simply a product of fierce competition, and I think it is understandable that some premed students end up fighting and manipulating the system to try and get better grades.

Sweeping statements are so cool. I wish more people on SDN would do that.
 
hahah yeah i never tell people I'm pre-med. If anyone asks I just say i'm a biology major and I plan to teach in the future. There's some kind of social stigma among college students that takes shape whenever one states that they're "pre-med". Maybe its all the yuppie type A personalities that give it a bad name...


or maybe its this guy from Van Wilder: http://www.movievillains.com/images/bagg.jpg :laugh:



edit: Especially at UT-Austin where everyone and their sister is pre-med

This longhorn is going to mince you by the horns!! :mad:
 
In many ways, you're not that far off. Yes, most pilots flying big Boeings/Airbusses cross country between major airports do have more than 550 hours, but many people flying regional jets for the same airlines do not. I'd be willing to bet though, that most of the pilots you may have spoken with who knew someone who died were military trained. There's no equal to military aviation training, but it comes with a price. Fatalities aren't frequent, but they are virtually unheard of the in the civilian training

I work in a job where we charter a lot of small planes; 206's, beavers, helicopters, caravans, we use them all. Most pilots have to build experience on these small outfits to move up, and 550 hours is nothing. That's one summer of flying a helicopter for us. Anyways, up here, fatalities are not uncommon at all. I hear about them all the time. And I'm not talking about NY, I'm from another state.
 
i wish they trained doctors like they trained pilots.... most pilots could easily be mechanics(believe it or not, if you work on a major airliner as a mechanic you make 6 figures) they call them flight engineers or other words... but pilots are among the brightest professionals out there... and they're selfless... if anything they're underpaid and underapperciated... what makes them that way is the fact that if they screw up... even once...THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE.... so usually they have their own lives in their hands as well as yours.... ask a pilot if he knows anyone who died flying a plane next time you fly cross country... bet you my life his answer will be yes... you just don't learn from your mistakes as a pilot... most mistakes you make flying you can only make once.

I would not say pilots are among the brightest professionals out there. I work closely with a lot of them, most are just regular guys. I would also not categorize them as any more 'selfless' than the rest of us. There is a joke that goes around up here: "Whats the difference between a pilot and his aircraft? The plane stops whining when you shut down the engines." Now don't get me wrong, they do have a lot of responsability in the air, and I very much appreciate what they do.
 
There is a joke that goes around up here: "Whats the difference between a pilot and his aircraft? The plane stops whining when you shut down the engines."

Don't forget "What's the difference between a pilot and God?"...God doesn't think he's a pilot.:)
 
makes me remember.... we were watching the movie the omen, and the anti christ kid never gets sick... and my cousin like... dammit any pilot could be the anti christ.... maybe they all are! she said they do health screening like crazy.
 
yeah, i knew some pre-meds who did this stuff. on the other hand, i also knew a lot who were really ****ing smart, drank beer more than they studied, had sweet ECs, were breathtaking writers, aced their MCATs and had 3.9s.

all point-grubbing whiny bio majors with fluffy ECs and no writing ability are pre-meds, but not all pre-meds are point-grubbing whiny bio majors with fluffy ECs and no writing ability
 
No. Colbert gets pretty boring.
 
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