Are You A Lurker?




Are you a lurker? You know a lurker. Someone who lurks around the OldPreMeds forums without posting. Oh, sure you look at the forums. Maybe you just read them occasionally, sneaking in a quick peek every now and then. Maybe you are on them all the time, trying to glean every piece of information that you can. But still you don’t post. Perhaps you think, “well I am just starting out, I really don’t what I could to say.” We all started out that way, wanting to get back in the medicine but not quite sure how to do it. Everyone struggled to figure out what courses to take, how to master organic chemistry, and the best way to approach a professor to get a letter of recommendation.


Maybe when you read a question in someone’s posting, you think, “well I had to do that but I don’t know if I did it the right way.” So you don’t post. When you see someone vent about how difficult the last biology exam was, how much text books cost, or how hard it is to be so busy that you don’t spend any time with family and friends, you say to yourself, “yeah, I feel the same way too,” and you wish for a few words of encouragement. Still, you hesitate to post a reply just saying “hang in there, we’re all with you.”


Maybe you have a suggestion on how to tackle a certain physics problem, a little trick that got you through a tough verbal reasoning passage on an MCAT practice test, or how you are caught up in the middle of writing your personal essay. You can let everyone know you got an interview, and we can share in your success or that you got the dreaded “thin envelope” and we all can share a little of your pain. Or maybe it’s just to say “Hi, I’ve always wanted to be a doctor.”


OldPreMeds is a community created by members themselves. As the medical adage goes, “watch one, do one, teach one.” There are no experts here, just those who’ve gone before us, those who will travel with on the journey with us, and those who will follow us. So join us and post a reply, a short comment, or a small tidbit. Let us know if you’re doing something well, if you are having a difficult time, or that you’ll make it to the conference this year. Maybe just let us know that you’ve taken the first step on this long path to medicine. So stop lurking already and post!