The pressures of Pre-Med students are unlike any other major. We know that in all majors, jobs want experience. But if you plan on going to Med School, there are many other aspects that you must consider.
The bar is set high and many people can’t reach the ultimate goal of being a doctor. Senior, Chevonese Allen, is experiencing all of these pressures as she graduates this upcoming May with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.
“When I was younger I always told my mom ‘I’m going to be a doctor’ and that was just it,” she said.
Grey’s Anatomy inspired her to be a heart surgeon, but she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to reach that goal.
“As long as I do anything in the science field, I’ll be pretty much happy,” she said.
The road to Med School is not an easy one. She is about to graduate with a B.A., but still has about 10-12 years of schooling left.
“If I go to grad school it’s probably going to be another 2-3 years and if I do decide to go to Med School that’s an extra 4 years,” Allen said.
Pre-Med students are expected to build up their resume by researching, interning, and getting into a residency which can easily add up to an extra five years or more, she said. If a student decides to specialize in Med School like being a neurosurgeon or cardiac surgeon additional schooling is added.
“If you are thinking about going to Med School and being a doctor, they want you to have like straight A’s and you always have to have a perfect record, which I obviously don’t have and so it’s pretty hard,” she said.
All of the stress combined can lead students to have extreme anxiety in college, a time that is supposed to ensure some of the best memories of their lives.
“I have C’s and I got a D last semester in Biochemistry. It’s one of the most important subjects ever that you need for Medical School. I’m so worried because I’m like, how are any of the medical committees that interview me ever going to take me seriously if I got a D in Biochemistry? It’s a serious thing,” she said.
Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry are two of the most important subjects. They are worth more than others, she said.
“I passed my Organic Chemistry with a B, but some people got C’s or failed with F’s. How are you going to come back from that? For Med School, they look at all your grades. Even if you repeat the class, they’re going to be like ‘Oh you failed. Why did you fail that class?’” Allen said.
She plans on doing a post-baccalaureate program in Grad school that will help boost up her GPA and exemplify her resume with volunteer work besides planning to conquer her MCAT.
Med School has the unrealistic expectation of perfection. How can you be perfect when college students already have to juggle ten things at a time? Some students aren’t lucky enough to just be able to focus on schooling. Many students work long hours at jobs and involve themselves in extracurricular activities. This expectation causes students to only strive to pass the current test.
“Most people in my major don’t actually study to learn, they just study so they can take the test and pass the test. So they can have the A they need in the class,” she said.
They don’t realize that the learning never stops even when you’re a doctor, you always have to keep reading and staying on top of stuff, she said.
A lot of people stop once they get to a certain stage of schooling because you are steadily going into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
“One year of med school is pretty much a hundred thousand dollars, that’s one year of med school, and you have four years to go through,” she said.
Even when you graduate and become a doctor, you can’t live “the high life” until probably 10-20 years into the future after you paid off all those bills, she said.
As years go by, the stress continues to build up where we see many students changing majors and attempting to figure out what they want to do.
“It’s a lot of stress and most people drop out or switch majors a lot. Even if you make it to how far I am as a senior and then graduate with their Bachelor’s and go on to Med School. Most people drop out of Med School like their first or second year because they realize that it’s a lot of pressure,” Allen said.
Despite what people think, Allen describes the nonexistent diversity of the medical field.
“Especially because I want to be a doctor, it’s mostly filled with white males and you’ll have the occasional minority. Women are mostly nurses, they’re not necessarily doctors,” Allen said.
She already has two disadvantages: being a woman and being African-American, she said. But one step at a time, she is working to change the field.
Allen says that her courses at St. John’s University are mostly filled with people of the Middle Eastern descent but there is a pretty equal ratio of men to women.
Students may think they have their life planned out but things change. They don’t realize until they "fail a class, don’t get a good grade, the internship they wanted, or volunteer work they needed" and that is the point where you may have to rearrange everything Allen says.
These Pre-Med students are the people who may save your own life one day. These are the pressures they face on a daily basis.
“I just think of the fact that I’m going to get wherever I want to be someday. It’s also that I like what I’m doing so even if I fail all my tests and fail my classes, I still think, you know, I enjoyed that class. It was interesting to me. I’m focused on the end and that, yeah, I’m going to make those big bucks someday,” Allen said.
