This student’s pre-med … and ashamed of it!
By Don Wong
I am proud to be a Bruin. I am proud that our basketball team
won the National Championship. I am even more proud to be
graduating this year. But I am ashamed to admit that I am
pre-med.
For every single quarter of the past five years it’s been the
same scene: The first day of class is spent trying to cram 450
students into a 300-capacity lecture hall. And if that isn’t bad
enough, the ever persistent whine of "I have to get into this
class!" permeates the room.
Then comes the worst part: the end of class. That’s when 150
pre-meds charge the professor and try to get a PTE number. Armed
with every conceivable reason  both genuine and fake Â
they doubtlessly fail. So, they head off to the undergraduate
advising office to plead their case with the administrators.
Kicking and screaming the whole way, just to be first in line.
Now, I am truly ashamed to be associated with such a group.
Whenever I tell people I’m pre-med, these images automatically pop
up into their minds. Yeah, I know it’s a stereotype, but it really
is that bad. But what scares me is that these pre-med "students"
are our future doctors.What a brave new world that shall be.
We all know UCLA is overcrowded and underfunded. But that’s the
price we must pay for a $4,200-per-year quality education. I know
it sucks, but for one-on-one attention you have to pay $30,000 a
year at a school like Pomona College. No one said life was
fair.
And one more thing to all pre-meds: stop harassing all the
professors and administrators about getting into classes. They want
to accommodate all of us, but their hands are tied too.
Just some food for thought.
Wong is a fifth-year student majoring in biochemistry.