I remember on my first day of classes at the University of Rochester, I felt both nervous and excited for what lay ahead. I walked into Hubbell Auditorium and looked around at all the other students in the room. We grabbed our seats and waited for the professor to come in and begin his lecture. He was an older man, and as he waited for us to become quiet I could tell that this was not going to be an easy semester. He looked up at us and asked how many of us were pre-med students. A good number of students eagerly responded, only for him to hit us with reality and an honest statistic. He told us ⅔ of us most likely would not make it to medical school.
This was the first of many realizations that made me feel like our campus environment doesn’t fully support pre-med students. Now I know you probably think I’m just being ridiculous or dramatic given the high respect towards medical professionals and the complexity of the pre-med program. College is hard enough for pre-med students as well as those pursuing other interests, and in my experience it’s hard to find encouragement no matter what you study. I honestly don’t know how many times I have faced eye rolls, subtle chuckles, or “wow, I used to be pre-med too,” as a response when explaining what I want to do with my life. This makes me feel as though people are subtly hinting that pre-med is not accomplishable and that most of us will inevitably fail at some point.
Professors seem to think that if they just test us really hard (it’s alright if the average is about a 50%) they can curve it later to make the difference. This has become one of the most disheartening things about college that we honestly just have to “get used to” because it’s not like it will change any time soon. I understand that classes are large and that some people will inevitably not test well, but every other class manages to have the average be, well, average!
I am both a humanties and a science major here at the University of Rochester. Even coming from being top in my class in high school, just like everyone else was before coming here, it has been really hard for me to adjust to how we are tested and graded. This has made quitting so tempting. If I just stuck with my humanities major my GPA would probably be much higher, and I would not have to go through the mental battle of not really knowing where my grades are until the end of the semester when the class is curved. I really think that our University should have more encouragement and preparation for those who come into our pre-med program, because I think this mental battle is probably some of the reason people change their path of study (I know other things like life, future plans, etc. also factor in but this is definitely a part of it in some way).
College should be about learning what interests you, learning who you are, and learning where you want your life to go. It should not be about “weeding out the weak” or seeing who can manage everything and still succeed. Unfortunately, I feel it is far too often feel the later, whether that is intended or not.
I realize that the statistics are a reality, and I am by no means suggesting they make classes easy, I’m just questioning the attitudes and mindsets of other people. The number of students that graduate pre-med is significantly lower than the number of student initially pre-med, but each student is different. We experience different things that may change our minds, we grow, we learn about subjects and opportunities that we never even knew we would be interested in. For example, my sophomore year I found public health, something I had never even heard of before. I fell in love with it and added on a second major. I am NOT crazy for still being pre-med. Yes, it is hard, but I honestly am so happy and proud to be a pre-med student and I would support any other student that told me they are too. I truly wish we all just learned to support our fellow students as they struggle, succeed, and even consider new opportunities.
I am hopeful that as a student body and school network, we will all learn to appreciate each other and everything we have to offer. I know that I could never succeed as a Film & Media Studies or History major, so I really appreciate those of you who pursue those fields, and hope that eventually more people will learn to appreciate and accept all forms of study, without the eye-rolls or the superiority complexes.