Why premedical education is disconnected from medicine

Education
December 22, 2015

Premedical education has become disconnected from medicine. Rather than helping students evaluate whether medicine is right for them or preparing students to enter the discipline, the premedical gauntlet encourages students to blindly discipline themselves according to rigid criteria.

For example, during a recent trip to the pre-health advising office at my university, my advisors presented me with the “A.C.E. checklist.” It includes the three accomplishments every candidate should have before applying …

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Why premedical education is disconnected from medicine

Want to become a doctor? Don’t be so sure.

Education
October 1, 2015

Recently, my friend “Tim” told me that he no longer wished to become a doctor. He had already taken the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and all his premedical course requirements. But a summer shadowing physicians whom he described as  “always unhappy” convinced him to cut his losses.

“I worked hard the last three years,” he explained to me. “But I don’t want to be miserable forever.”

Medicine is a demanding and often …

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Want to become a doctor? Don’t be so sure.