No one ever said that being a pre-med student is easy. In fact, being a transfer student only makes it about that much harder.
I remember my very first night on campus, during orientation while I sat in Ballroom A, as I explained to my fellow transfers why I chose to become a pre-med student double majoring in History and Pharmacology. However, I had barely gotten into why I chose those exact majors before I was jumped on by a rather ravenous and over competitive fellow pre-med student.
“Did you start doing any research yet? What about shadowing?” The second she uttered those sentences, I think my eyes would’ve rolled into the back of my head and been stuck there were it not for common human decency. As students in a school where a fair majority of the population is pre-health or pre-med, competitiveness should be expected, right? We’ve all met that one student, who jumps on you like a hyena and suddenly, this person whom you’ve never met in your entire life, wants to know about your entire academic history and your resume just because they’re trying to determine how you measure up next to them.
In a dog eat dog world where our entire future is determined by our undergraduate years, being pre-med only means that the vicious competitiveness will increase by tenfold. You will always be competing against someone-whether it’s for the curve breaking grade, for that incredibly coveted internship at a top-tier medical school or even for something as mundane as volunteering. This kind of competitiveness is even more apparent online with those infamous “Chance Me” threads online on sites such as College Confidential and Student Doctor Forum, where students anonymously post their grades, scores and extracurricular activities to gauge their chances at certain medical schools. And this is where the problem begins. No matter how much we compare ourselves to others and try to see where we stand on that incredibly competitive scale, there just isn’t a simple answer to what will eventually bring that acceptance letter to our front door. There is obviously no denying that there are certain cut off scores or minimum thresholds we have to cross, but the more we adhere to this cutthroat uber-competitive culture, the more we are taking away from what might actually make us stand out in a pool of outstanding students.