Princeton vs Yale

Wildwood11
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:59:56 +0000

However, if you add up the typical pre-med majors- Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Biology and Psychology- that alone is about 200 majors a year. Then you add in a number of very strong chemistry majors, a handful of engineers and a large but unknown number of shadow pre-meds who major in softer subjects like politics, sociology and Woodrow Wilson- and you’ll see the potential applicant pool to medical school could easily be at around 400 students a year. Obviously a handful of biology majors will go on to earn PhDs- but excluding them- the others would want to go to medical school if it were a viable option.



I find this paragraph to be full of baseless speculation and somewhat insulting to the many students of all those majors cited that have absolutely no interest in medical school and never did. It’s probably just a fraction of psychology or chemistry majors that ever plan on applying to med school, to single out a couple. Of course, there are lots of kids in all majors that consider becoming a doctor as a passing thought, just as they consider many other careers, but med school is a huge time/money commitment and it certainly isn’t for dabblers. You have to really be able to see yourself as a doctor for a lifetime before you choose that path. Many kids fortunately realize early on that the career is not always as easy or glamorous as the tv shows make it out to be. And there is some self-selection among applicants at every school because, for one thing, many people will decide they just don’t love the type of science needed enough to excel at it. However, I bet almost every capable student who goes in with a real vocation for medicine, and those who along the way suddenly find a passion for it, will be motivated to do what they need to do to get where they want to go. And I would remind you that rankings for med schools is a lot less significant than it is for law schools, as the degree is very controlled and doctors, barring special circumstances, will always have jobs available.