Brown PLME vs Yale

justanotherkid
Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:11:33 +0000

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for your wonderful insights and knowledge: it’s certainly opened my eyes to factors I hadn’t even considered (or known existed). However, after attending the recently concluded A Day on College Hill (ADOCH) pre-frosh event at Brown, and specifically after attending the PLME panel, I have a few (new) thoughts.

Dean Ip and jerzgrlmom both mentioned the lighter course requirements for PLME students for the Alpert School of Medicine. Also, a current PLME student at ADOCH talked about the relatively easy AP place-outs from those PLME required courses. That leads me to this thought: let’s assume for a moment that I am extremely interested in a humanities field and decide to fully utilize Brown’s Open Curriculum and take only the absolutely necessary science courses. Would I not be at an academic disadvantage upon entering med school? I know from personal experience how ephemeral science-based knowledge can be. In this scenario, wouldn’t Brown’s PLME create more trouble for me upon my arrival in med school? Would I not have to do a major restudying of the science material necessary for a successful medical school career?

Also, many of the student panelists and current PLME students at the session and jerzgrlmom all mentioned how much less stress PLME students felt as opposed to traditional pre-med students. Yet I understand that the path to becoming a practicing physician is full of stress. After four years of a relatively stress-free undergraduate career, wouldn’t I be greatly unprepared and unaccustomed to the tremendous stresses brought upon by med school? Combine that possibility with my first thought, and the first year at Alpert after a PLME undergrad career suddenly feels extremely uncomfortable.

That said, I realize that my thoughts wander towards the extreme, and are unlikely to be as lethal as I made it sound. However, I wonder if there is any merit at all in those thoughts.

Finally, Dean Ip said something very interesting at the session. She said to “go with your gut” when deciding at which college to matriculate. Even after the terrific ADOCH event, my gut still whispers “Yale” to me. Barring an unpleasant Bulldog Days experience, I feel that my instincts and how I feel about my prospective home (for four years!) is more important than any numbers or percentages or data.