Page F-2--Thursday, September 6, 1979-The Michigan Doily
So you wantto be a

doctc
By JOHN GOYER
Of the 7,000 freshpersons v
to Ann Arbor each year with
becoming doctors, lawyers,
professionals, only about 70
per cent-of those students
reach their goals.
Many of the students will1
drive because of disillusionn
the field, others because of ti
competi'on. And still others w
out, only to be rejected by the
their choice.
But it's clear that mat
professionals" have m
Lions-or no idea at all-about
store for them en route to their
MOST STUDENTS who i
some experience in these- f
agree on one thing : getting int
school or law school is not ea
50,000 students are admitted
schools nationwide each ye
80,000 apply. Medical is ev
competitive, with about 3
plicants nationwide vying-
16,500 open spots in medical sc
The intense professional sc
petition ,often plays a stron
many students' determinati
whether or not to strive to
schools.
LSA senior Tim Carpenter
decided as a freshperson to
medical school, but "then c
came along." He added that
in the class was one of his re
academics
It's not hard for even th
cosmopolitan of us to be
whelmed with the richne
diversity of Ann Arbor lif
we are first exposed to
we're all here for genera
same reason-to be edu
And a large part of that edt
is in the academic portion
University experience.
This section focuses ma
the academics side of life]
the University. The ins an
of academic survival and g
h>> insights into the entire p
are not laid out on your lap
orientation. We hope th
clear up some of the m
which makes up the ace
Y merry-go-round.
-The!

who come
ihopes of
or other
0,-or ten
will ever
halt their
,ent with
he intense
Vill stick it
schools of
buy "pre-
isconcep
t:what's in
r goals.
have had
ields will
o medicaly
sy. About
into law
ar, while
ven more

Join the crowd

dropping pre-med and enrolling in the
School of Natural Resources.
CARPENTER SAID parental
pressure was also a big factor in his
initial decision to try to gain admittan-
ce to medical school. "My father kept
saying, 'Boy, you know the family
would really be proud if you were a doc-
tor,"' Carpenter said.
"I wag pre-med when I came in,..but

(grading) curve," she said. "You're in
it for yourself."
Many students who persevere in their
effort toward professional' school say
they enjoy the sciences and they learn
to deal with the competition.
"I like the competion a little bit,"
Bennett said. "I wouldn't say I thrive
on it. I've never taken a science course
that I didn't like. When I go through the

'My father kept saying, 'Boy, you
know the family would really be proud
if you were a doctor'
-LSA senior Tim Carpenter

7,000 ap- now I'm definitely pre-question mark,"
for only said LSA sophomore Bob Krinsky. He
:hools. said that as a pre-med student, he ex-
hool com- perienced some "rude awakenings."
g role in Krinsky explained that "discoveries
ons about within myself, and with my performan-
ward the ce in chemistry" caused him to decide
against the medical school route.
r said he Krinsky said he just couldn't put in
apply to the time required to earn the 3.5 grade
chemistry point average needed to get into
difficulty medical school. "I would like to think of
asons for myself as spending five thousand hours
a week studying, but I wasn't doing it,"
Krinsky said. "I was miserable-I just
wasn't enjoying myself."
MANY PRE-PROFESSIONALS say
e most those expecting to apply to professional
over- schools should be prepared for the
ss and competition.
e when "At certain points, it gets a little
it. But ridiculous," said LSA senior David
lly the Bennett, a pre-med student. "People
icated. begin to lose their personalities." He
ucation added that pressure for grades
iof the sometimes drives students to cheat on
tests or falsify lab results.
inly on "I didn't expect the competition. I
here at didn't expect it to be so rough," said
nd outs LSA junior Valery Wiggins, another
general pre-med student. "In a way, it just
process made me stick with it more, to fight
during more-for the goal I wanted to achieve,"
is will she said.
iystery WIGGINS CLAIMED the competition
ademic turns students against each other.
"Sometimes people don't want to help
Editors you with a problem because they figure
-:..... if they help you, then that raises the

alternatives, I can't think of anything I
would rather do."
BENNE TT SAID many students
stereotype thie typical pre-med as
"highly competitive. First one in the
library, last one out," he said.
Before a test, Bennett said, many
pre-meds "harp on what's going to be
on the exam," because they are so con-
cerned about their grades. "Pre-meds
like bad weather," he added, "because
they don't feel so shitty being in the
library all day if the weather sucks."
And pre-meds party a lot, according
to Bennett. "After you spend all week in
the library you come out and you just
get totally blown."
BENNETT AND Wiggins both said
they are not pre-med because of the
money they could make as doctors.
"Doctors make too much money and
there's going to be socialized
medicine," Bennett said. "There's a
whole lot more too it than just lnaking a
lot of money-it/s helping people,"
Wiggins said.
Louis Rice, LSA associate dean of
academic counseling, said he advises
pre-professional undergraduates to opt
for a broad education.
"The pre-professional student will be
a more attractive applicant to
professional school if he or she will
think about enriching themselves in a
liberal arts education beyond that kind
of narrow preparation for professional
school," Rice said.
RICE ALSO said students planning to
go to professional school often have

Daily Photo by MAUREEN O'MALLEY
MEDICAL STUDENTS obtain much of their training in University Hospital. Huge numbeis qf freshpersons proclaim their
pre-med intentions, but most, for one reason or another, will never reach their stated goal.

misconceptions about entrance
requirements for those schools.
Students think that professional
schools take their grade point average
and other statistics and plug them into
a formula, according to Rice. But ac-
tually, he said, the admissions process
is a "highly personalized committee
decision."
Another misconception students have
is "more is better," as Rice puts it. He
said students often believe "if one cour-
se in biology is required, then two cour-
ses are better. If two courses are
required, then three courses are better.
I don't think that bears out."
Rice also said many students
erroneously assume they must identify
themselves as pre-med or pre-law while
undergraduates. "There is no accom-
plishment there," Rice said. Law or
medicine may be one of the student's
objectives, Rice said, "but it should not
be the only one.
In general, he said, "the idea is not to
beso concerned with what you think the
medical school or the law school wants,
not to be so overly concerned with what
you think will be appealing to them. If
you go about getting a reasonable
liberal arts undergraduate experience,
if you go about a well planned, substan-
tive experience, then all the rest of this
stuff (admissions into professional
schools) will work for itself."

Daily Photo
ALTHOUGH MANY students desire to attend classes in the Law Quad over which
this clock towers, the admissions competition is fierce and many pre-law stu-
dents, like their pre-med counterparts, become disillusioned with their chosen
field.




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