Those who know me have often heard me say "I have the best job in the world." I actually have an additional job now as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, but the job to which I am referring is Health Professions Advisor. Yes, I work with all those "driven, obsessed, competitive, narrowly-focused" pre-meds that everyone loves to hate.
I am emboldened to write this Viewpoint having just participated in the annual American Medical Student Association (AMSA) conference in Washington, D.C. I was asked to speak on the topic of re-envisioning the pre-med requirements, and I led an interactive session in which medical students and pre-meds engaged in a dialogue about what makes a good physician and how we should train, measure and admit students who hold those qualities.
I was impressed and energized by the students' insights and passion. I was treated to seeing former students, now in medical school, who are doing great things at their medical schools. I was particularly pleased to have over 20 Tufts undergrads, members of our AMSA pre-med chapter, in attendance. Finally, I was delighted to have dinner with this wonderful group of students that night.
The reality is that I work with the most committed, dedicated students there are. They are a very hardworking group that sacrifices many typical teenage pleasures and delays gratification for years with the goal of becoming a physician. They are almost uniformly, genuinely motivated to improve people's lives.
We demand much of them and for the most part, they meet our demands. Not to denigrate any form of study at Tufts, but does everyone realize that students earn as much credit for singing in the choir and doing yoga as they do for organic chemistry laboratory? Does everyone realize that a three-hour lecture class combined with three hours of lab per week earns the same amount of credit as most other courses that require only the three hours of lecture?
Yes, they study hard yet still get involved in every aspect of campus life, as well as many activities in the community at large. For a number of the years I have been at Tufts, one of my pre-meds has led that most respected student organization dedicated to service, the Leonard Carmichael Society.
If pre-med students are competitive and driven it is because we - educators who must grade on a bell curve, admissions committees that must focus on numbers, and society that demands extraordinary qualities, knowledge and skills of its physicians - make them that way by creating a most dichotomous system of preparation for medical school. Many will complain that pre-meds are really motivated by money or prestige, and if they really just wanted to help people they would be happy to pursue many other professions.
But Tufts students (and others like them) are rarely aspiring to be bank tellers rather than investment analysts, paralegals rather than attorneys or film splicers rather than film producers. They are aspiring to the professions that require the most of them - the most intellectual ability, the most commitment, the most responsibility.
We are at a great university that encourages active citizenship and community service. Fundamentally, that is what medicine is all about. At their best, physicians are healers who commit themselves to social justice and equal, quality non-judgmental care for all. That is what AMSA represents and it inspires current medical students and pre-meds to hold on to their ideals and become activists in the fight for this kind of medicine.
Tufts alums that hold that ideal started our AMSA chapter a number of years ago. The leadership that Jeff Holzberg, Prakhar Agarwal, Kristen Hardy and others showed this year enabled a group of 22 to attend that conference last week and come back to share what they learned with their fellow Tufts pre-meds. I am proud of them.
The next time you see a pre-med student in the library pouring over her biology textbook, ask her why she is doing it. The next time your roommate says no to a movie date, thank him for his willingness to sacrifice so that there will be quality health care providers when you get older. And the next time your best friend finishes his lab report and gives up his very limited free time to volunteer at a local nursing home, tell him you are proud to know him.
Carol Baffi-Dugan is Director of Health Professions Advising at Tufts and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education.
