Had to talk my niece off the ledge and she hasn’t even started undergrad yet! Her counselor recommended a plan to have her graduate in three years with I forget how many hundreds of hours of volunteer, research, and some other nonsense. My poor niece was appalled. When is she going to have time to just be a kid in college? I told her that she just needs to focus on the big two, GPA & MCAT. The volunteer and research she can do over the summers. She doesn’t have to do everything and especially not all at the same time. Now I see why a certain other forum has some of the angriest premeds I’ve never met. It’s ridiculous the schedule they plan out for these kids.
At my current CC I’ve met a ton of premeds who are now prenursing because the advisors and some teachers scare them away from medicine. If you don’t get A’s in everything, have hundreds of hours of volunteer, and are first author on ten articles you don’t stand a chance… ridiculous. I think some of these “advisors” are mad they didn’t follow their dream so they crush anyone else who is trying. 
The really cool thing is that I’ll be a third year when she is a first! Might even see if we can get accepted to the same school. Uncle Croooz has to keep his eye on his niece…more like my fist on dem little boys…grrrrrrrr 
Totally agree.
My own experience is that advisors don’t know what they are talking about. According to them, I had no chance to enter Med School. Also according to them I had to take placement tests to see if I was fit to take Gen Chem I and Stats (instead of telling me, just write to the dean for a waiver, which I actually did).
As far as I am concerned, they are less than helpful. Just a bunch of chair keepers, feeding on the hopes of students (now of course, you can’t make a generalization). But that has been my own experience.
My actual (or real) advisor was the admission director at my MD school.
I know what you mean regarding the advisors at college. It honestly took me a good while (a few years) to be ok with not engaging myself with any and all activities pre-med, taking 24+ credits in college, and Acing all of them, while saving a small village from polio.
I believe that whether one is a non-trad or not; don’t burn yourself out before you start. That is definitely a recipe for disaster and will, in fact push good people from medicine all together.
Kudos to you “Uncle Croooz” for being a rational and down to earth example to follow. This premed stuff is hard enough without all the tight rope walking extra curricular’s involved.
I just think it’s a new way to tell people they don’t have what it takes. Instead of coming out and saying it, they present a scenario that is not sustainable yet present it as though it is what “all those who get accepted do.” I was 24 and the physician told me I was too old…at 28 the advisor at a school in Florida told me I was too old…I over heard my chem. professor telling one of her “prize” students that me and a few others would never get into med school…
At this point I’m too old to care what anyone says but I definitely am not going to allow these idiots to crush my niece’s dream that she’s had since she was four. Her specialty has varied but never the desire to be a physician. She attended science magnet schools for middle school and high school.
I told her to check with me before the advisor. I really only want her to check-in with them because of committee letters or some other political crap but not to take any of these absurd advice. Really! 24 credits, plus volunteer, plus research…for three years… WHY??? Definite retardation.
These idiots have all the advice, yet, amazingly, are not doctors themselves!!! Hmmmmm, how did that happen???
The thing I have heard admissions people say over and over - “MCAT - the great leveler…” Dear Lord, let the young lady experience COLLEGE!!! Good advice Uncle Croooz!!
My older brother had many difficulties getting in to medical school until he ditched his undergrad advisor and just did it on his own. Now he has been practicing as an OB/GYN for several years! He loves his job and is a great doctor.
It is precisely because of these people that there is a market for premed consultants. I’m not mad at the consultants because they are fulfilling a need that the advisors have created due to their incompetence. I don’t think all advisors are bad unfortunately I haven’t met one that knew what they were talking about. In this day and age of the internet you would think they would know better and give better guidance but it’s as if they are doing some kind of social experiment with our young people.
I agree that the best advice is to contact a few schools. When I applied to PA school it was with the advice of the Dean. He took me under his wing, via email, advised me, and I was accepted. He had left by the time I was accepted but if I had listened to my school’s counselor I would have spent another two years taking courses and doing volunteer work that I didn’t have to do.
Please accept my apologies for the harsh tone. I’m just very upset that ONE conversation with this person was enough to almost derail over ten years of a dream. Instead of encouraging a young Afro-Cuban female to become a physician they instead make it seem like she has to scale Everest or something…I think everyone should be encouraged but especially those of us from disadvantaged backgrounds. I’m talking more socio-economic than race.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time…but if you’re a counselor I guess it’s “one bite at a time and you have to do it in five bites…remember only those who are serious are able to do it.”
smh
when I had to get abdominal surgery a few years back, I mentioned to the GI fellow, who was a woman, about OldPreMeds she insisted I tell her story. She was from upstate NY in a school majoring in nursing and 3 years in she wanted to change to premed. Her advisor discourage so much that she never even applied to US schools but went to Saba. on USMLE she was in the 98 or 99 percentile. Why did she go to GI? during clinical rotations she met some docs from an all female GI practice who were so supportive that she choose the field.
There is a line for advisors from realistic and appropriate review of a student’s chances to actively and cynical discouragement. I will say in advisor’s defense that they have to deal personally with many of the same kinds of people who inhabit SDN. No wonder why advisors seem cynical and burned out
- redo-it-all Said:
My own experience is that advisors don't know what they are talking about.
So true. My first college advisor had me start out as a pre-med by taking 12 units, with one science course - quite the opposite approach but still rings of "I'm new here."