<p>The example I always give when talking about competitiveness in general is this:</p>
<p>When I was in either gen chem or gen bio (back in ~2009 so I don’t remember which), I was studying for an exam in the bio library. There was a concept I was having an issue with, and reading wasn’t helping, so I legit asked the person closest to me if they had any idea. Didn’t know this person at all, all I knew was (from looking at their books) that they were studying for the same thing that I was. They spent 15 minutes explaining it to me, which cleared everything up.</p>
<p>This was in a class where grading is 100% based on a curve. So helping me could, in theory, hurt them. But they still helped me just the same, taking time away from their own studying. And this is not uncommon at WashU.</p>
<p>Was this person pre-med? I have no idea. But there’s a decent shot that they were considering it was a pre-med required class.</p>