Do science profs hate med school wannabes?

[gravenewworld]

so i am trying to apply to medical for this up and coming cycle and I need to ask for some letters of recommendations from professors. i know some of you on here are science professors, and I was wondering what your opinions are of "premed" students. i had a math professor and chemistry professor who really took me under their wings and tried to get me to go to grad school for a phd, but i kind of shrugged it off and said "maybe". i know they will be upset if a ask for a LOR for medschool, and i kind of feel like an ass for asking for one. i never even told my profs that i wanted to go to medschool until after i graduated so that they wouldn't have any biases towards me. lol i remember my Pchem professor taking delight in the fact that so many premed chem students bombed on his exams. so do science profs. really hate students that want to pursue medicine for a career? do they feel that professional schools suck away the best students from persuing academic/research science as a career?

 

[JasonRox]

so i am trying to apply to medical for this up and coming cycle and I need to ask for some letters of recommendations from professors. i know some of you on here are science professors, and I was wondering what your opinions are of "premed" students. i had a math professor and chemistry professor who really took me under their wings and tried to get me to go to grad school for a phd, but i kind of shrugged it off and said "maybe". i know they will be upset if a ask for a LOR for medschool, and i kind of feel like an ass for asking for one. i never even told my profs that i wanted to go to medschool until after i graduated so that they wouldn't have any biases towards me. lol i remember my Pchem professor taking delight in the fact that so many premed chem students bombed on his exams. so do science profs. really hate students that want to pursue medicine for a career? do they feel that professional schools suck away the best students from persuing academic/research science as a career?

If you're a good student, I sure as hell rather have you as a doctor then the other bombers.

I'd say they might be happy. We need good doctors.

 

[Moonbear]

No, we don't have anything against people who want to go to medical school. However, there is a certain attitude among people who *think* they want to go to med school and who really *shouldn't* go to med school that will drive us all bonkers. They're the ones who aren't interested in learning anything, just memorizing enough for the exams and then quibbling for points if we put something on the exam we didn't spoon feed them. They don't care if they actually learned anything or know the right answer, they just want to find a loophole to beg for one more point. They always come in with the complaint, "But if I don't get at least a B in this class, I won't be able to get into med school." I try to answer tactfully with something like, "Have you thought about alternative careers?" because the real answer is, "And rightly so!"

If your profs have tried to talk you into grad school, definitely ask them for a letter of recommendation! I try to talk all my best students into grad school, joking that they're too smart for med school (it's become a bit of a comedy routine in our lab...we have an undergrad doing a research project who is fantastic...I tell her she's too smart for med school, and one of the other faculty members tells her she's too smart to go to grad school when she can go to med school and make a lot more money, at which point one of the grad students chimes in with a really loud "HMPPHH!"). But, the reality is that if they really want to go to med school, they are the type of students I really want to be physicians because I don't try to talk them into grad school unless they really show they know how to think about things and have a depth of understanding well beyond the average student. They're the ones that I will wish well no matter what they want to do with their future and have no reservations in writing a glowing recommendation. I sure as heck don't want to have someone who spends all their time trying to learn as little as they can to pass a class and then quibbles over the remaining points to become a physician. Enough of them already slip through into the med school.

 

[Bystander]

"Pre-med, PITA, and prima donna" all begin with "P."

 

[Moonbear]

"Pre-med, PITA, and prima donna" all begin with "P."

So does "professor." Where were you planning on going with this?

 

[Pengwuino]

No, we don't have anything against people who want to go to medical school. However, there is a certain attitude among people who *think* they want to go to med school and who really *shouldn't* go to med school that will drive us all bonkers. They're the ones who aren't interested in learning anything, just memorizing enough for the exams and then quibbling for points if we put something on the exam we didn't spoon feed them. They don't care if they actually learned anything or know the right answer, they just want to find a loophole to beg for one more point. They always come in with the complaint, "But if I don't get at least a B in this class, I won't be able to get into med school." I try to answer tactfully with something like, "Have you thought about alternative careers?" because the real answer is, "And rightly so!"

I heard this EXACT same thing when i was sitting in on a conversation with a few of my professors. Word for word. The same ol "all they want is the A", "they don't show any interest in what the subject matter is" etc etc.

 

[Bystander]

So does "professor." Where were you planning on going with this?

Same place the thread's probably going --- nowhere. "Pre-meds" who "announce" themselves are PITAs --- "pre-meds" who do their undergrad work as their own business get where they want to go. People who hunt excuses not to ask for letters from faculty from whom they've taken classes need to grow backbones.

 

[Zantra]

gunners will always be around. They tend to ruin it for everyone else. Don't go to your professor for a rec unless you're sure it will be a glowing one

 

[gravenewworld]

I'm pretty sure i'll get good ones. I aced my ochem professor's class and also did research in computational chem with him. I had a ton of classes with my one math prof, also did some independent studies with him (hilbert spaces and galois theory), and always did really well. I just emailed them today and asked (thanks to moonbear's encouragement). It will be interesting to see what they write back in response.

Same place the thread's probably going --- nowhere. "Pre-meds" who "announce" themselves are PITAs --- "pre-meds" who do their undergrad work as their own business get where they want to go. People who hunt excuses not to ask for letters from faculty from whom they've taken classes need to grow backbones.

i agree, which is why i think it is better that i enter now as a nontraditional med school student.