What’s up with premed altruism and nobility?
As I have mentioned many times before, I feel like our education system was developed with altruism and nobility at its core. I have seen it all the way from elementary school to undergraduate university (though obviously much less so at higher levels at education). While I think it’s nice that we’re taught to do “good” things, I think it is very problematic when this obsession with an ideal world clouds our ability to think rationally and critically. One of the most common examples I remember is being taught over and over again that “desiring money makes you a bad person”, etc. I don’t want to talk about money today because that’s a big topic I want to save for another day, but suffice to say, I think making simplistic statements like “desiring money makes you a bad person” is pretty ridiculous and dangerous, especially at a time when we should be helping young people to think instead of shoving ridiculous statements with no context down their throats. I’ll just stop here with the whole money thing and say that if you’re going to judge someone, judge them based on not just how they use money, but also realize that there is diversity in personal preference regarding luxury and even diversity in how that relates to our moral obligations to share with others.
I am not saying altruism is a bad thing. Being unselfish and serving others is something I highly respect and value, and is an important quality we all need to have at one point or another, particularly in the medical profession. It does become problematic, however, when you start taking it to the extreme and believing that only altruism is good and selfishness is bad in everything.
We all need to be selfish at some point, and anyone who denies ever being selfish needs a reality check. If you’re reading my blog right now (and I’m assuming because you want to and find enjoyment/value in it), I dare you to ask yourself whether this isn’t a selfish act considering that you could be out volunteering or cleaning up the park or something more altruistic. If you agree with me that we can’t be altruistic all the time (or that even if we could, it’s unhealthy), then let’s keep going forward. Clearly, there are times when altruism isn’t in our best interests and it has nothing to do with being a good or bad person – sometimes it’s just a choice.
Altruism can be good and all, but how altruistic we are and when we are is going to be situation dependent. Even doctors need to be selfish and take care of themselves – they need to go home, see their families, rest, etc. A stressed out, tired, unhappy doctor is not going to be good for his or her patients. Balance is important.
Premed Altruism
I feel like in many instances premed students (i.e. students interested in applying to medical school) are overly altruistic and over apply the principle in situations that don’t warrant it. I’m not generalizing and saying all of them do this (because don’t), but I see it often enough that I feel it’s important to address. Basically, because of a combination of the idealism taught in our education system and how many young people think about the ideal, altruistic, selfless, noble physician (again, this is just my theory on why this happens), it seems as if a number of premeds place altruism above all else, to the point where the concept is irrationally misapplied. It might help to use an example.
Application Advice/Consulting: To Charge or Not to Charge?
I remember reading a thread on a well-known Canadian premed online forum about a new consulting company started by medical students for medical school applicants. The thread turned into a massive train wreck with a bunch of posters attacking the thread starter, basically crying that it was selfish to charge applicants for application advice/consulting, especially when there are “free help services” available. Well of course it’s selfish – then again, depending on your views, everything we do can be classified as selfish, but I don’t want to go down that philosophical path. Nevertheless, some people believe that as future, “altruistic”, physicians we should also have the altruism to not charge for providing consulting/admissions help – I hope you can see why that’s sort of a ridiculous claim.
It seems to me that it all comes back to money (oops, I thought I could get away from it). It seems as if some premeds believe that wanting money in exchange for a service is somehow wrong (what?) and that everyone should be offering help for free, especially people who are going to be future physicians (it’s not like physicians get paid, right?). But sarcasm aside, I hope you can see what’s wrong with this picture.
There’s nothing wrong with giving free help with medical school applications, but there’s also nothing wrong with charging for it. If people want to go ahead and pay for a service that they think will help them, what’s the big deal? Also, just because some services (e.g. interview help at your university’s support centre or something) are free, does not mean they are necessarily equal in quality to what might be provided by those charging (and in the same way, it doesn’t mean they aren’t better either – but there’s no reason to be narrow minded about any of your options). Again, it seems like there’s some sort of taboo with money, which is very weird considering that it seems holding down any job other than something to do with medical school admissions is somehow fine.
I mean, these are often times the same people who payed more than a thousand dollars for a MCAT preparation course – why is it okay for that to be a business but not medical school admissions consulting? This type of inconsistency in thought boggles my mind.
I mean, if I decided to charge people to read the articles on my blog, would that make me a bad person? I really don’t see how anyone could argue that. If I am providing some sort of value (which I think I am), and people are willing to pay for it, what’s wrong with that? Granted, people who cant’ afford to or don’t want to pay would be upset, but that has nothing to do with me being a good or bad person. I mean, I don’t hate Porsche because I can’t afford to buy their cars – I don’t think they are bad people because they make cars I can’t afford.
Picking Courses to Get Good Marks
There always seems to be a hot debate about premeds about how to go about picking your undergrad courses, and it’s often quite the dichotomy: do we pick courses that we think we’ll get good marks in, or should we be picking courses that interest us regardless of their difficulty?
Despite all the bickering that often goes on, and the argument of nobility that people should be studying in undergrad to learn and not for marks, the fact is that your education is whatever you want it to be. There’s nothing wrong with studying to learn or studying for marks. It’s your choice.
Yet for some reason, there is a prevalent feeling that those who who pick courses to get good marks are “bad” people undeserving of going to medical school and who will have a “rude awakening” when they realize they can’t handle the workload of medicine because they had an easy time in undergrad – that undergrad is about a time for challenging yourself. I mean, if that’s your philosophy that’s fine, but realize that’s no more correct than the philosophy that undergrad is about getting marks – because it’s your education and no one else’s.
It’s not like there is some absolute, universal truths about what postsecondary education is for, so it makes no sense for people to claim there is a right or wrong way to go about getting one.
Do what you want, but realize the consequences, that’s all. If you’re willing to sacrifice your marks for interest, that’s your choice. Ditto for sacrificing interest for marks. Both are fine, do what you want.
So what?
All I’m saying is we got to be rational about things and not project opinions on other people as if they are facts or universal truths.
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- What do I want out of my university education?
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- Wow, has it really been a month…
- So This is What It’s Like to be “Below Average”
- May to May – a year in the pursuit of happiness
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Comments
While there’s nothing intrinsically “selfish” about MCAT prep courses or admissions counselling for-profit, I’d say that both – and especially the latter – are downright exploitive. There’s no shortage of premeds with more money than sense who will pay for advice which (a) is absolutely available freely and (b) is not superior in any way because it comes from current med students.
Admissions requirements and class statistics are readily available without charge. While I’m sure that many premeds can be convinced that there is value in receiving advice from med students or former admissions committee members, I question whether they are actually getting anything worth paying for.
That there is a market for such things doesn’t make it right. You also seem rather cavalier about cost issues in medicine. We are relatively insulated from this insofar as physician services go thanks to public health insurance, but the fact that physicians need not operate as a professional charity does not preclude situations where NOT charging a patient for something is the right thing to do. Physicians don’t work for free, but there are issues of professional responsibility with respect to vulnerable or underserved populations.
I should also point out that there’s a world of difference between a trained physician working for free on rare occasions and med students charging for advice. It’s not as if they have any particular expertise to impart – there are no special tricks to admission, and I can’t say that I can say what I did right other than having a good enough GPA and MCAT, community involvement, some research, and a good interview and references. My interview counselling so far hasn’t worked either.
What this entry means to me:
Lesson: Synthesize your own belief and value system, and justify it for yourself. Find, research, understand, analyze, and evaluate other belief systems, and if necessary, adapt and add/replace components to your own, potentially improving your own system.
And I agree with JoshNS regarding academic counselling being exploitive. I see how MCAT courses, because they target a standardized test, provide some value in which they provide good preparation tools and exam-taking strategies, but really, good admissions counselling other than GPA and MCAT would be something like 1) read and understand Josh’s blogs, 2) gain multiple real-world experiences (anything unrelated to school/anything that cannot be tested by multiple-choice), and 3) developing confidence and maturity on the way (all free!)
when picking courses, just remember you are paying for it.
No need to learn pay to learn something that is easy, even if you do want to become a doc some day.
Just a comment on the amount of Alturism present in the educational system. Forgive my lack of research but I am curious as to know if that is really the result of the system, or the teachers who underestimate the student’s ability to think rationally and critically. I personally don’t see too many philantropists coming out of the educational system despite the amount of alturism, so I can’t help but wonder if we are underestimating the youth’s ability to think rationally. I am currently in grade 12 and am maintaining a very high average in one of the best schools in the province, as a child I would not consider myself prococious or anything, but I wouldn’t easily accept any form of idealogy or belief despite loving to hear different perspectives and ideas. Maybe I am a bit of an idealist in this situation but I do not think that the youth are truly having ideas imposed upon them because it is a part of growing up and maturing that you learn to question and think for yourself. Now having spent a fair amount of time with younger individuals I can honestly say that I really underestimate their intellectualism sometimes. I think that the teachers of the educational system do the same and do not really understand how intellectual the youth really are, all of this plus the fact that they have to teach a wide range of students in a class it is much easier for them to slap a generic and blatent idea on the board that won’t result in any of the students doing anything crazy because their teacher told them to.
This is the first article I have read on your blog and was intrigued enough to comment, looking forward to reading more and possibly hearing your response to my unresearched opinion.
Also I am in the process of writing applications for a competative university program so if anyone can offer me guidance or editing in terms of context it would be greatly appreciated.
This is an interesting thread because it really does reflect the general debate about public versus private. The argument for increased quality, as well as that of market freedom (ie. freedom to undertake an enterprise) are often invoked in favour of privatization (whether we’re talking about healthcare, netneutrality debates, fisheries etc.).
I think what you’re missing in your analysis Josh, is that protection of public goods is sometimes necessary in order to ensure that EVERYONE is better off. When people responded ardently against med students charging for admissions consulting services, it is because those who posted did so on a public forum that has as one of its core principles empowerment through shared knowledge and discussion. If we as a society, or as potential applicants to medicine, find it acceptable that people begin to charge for some of the information that would otherwise be available freely on the med forums, we create a tiered system wherein access is denied for some (whether that be for geographic reasons, monetary reasons etc.). This disparity in access is actually a serious problem as far as medical school admissions is concerned because it perpetuates class systems already in place- affluent individuals from major urban centres continue to be able to preferentially access resources which in turn help them occupy positions of power and authority in society.
So, if we are interested in attempting to level the playing field (which is already extremely skewed toward the status quo via MCAT courses, access to summer jobs, time spent studying instead of working etc.) we do need to speak up in favor of shared information for the public pre-med good. Does this make med students who want to offer this service “bad people”, probably not, but in my opinion it is short-sighted and does a dis-service to the movement for a more diverse (financially, culturally, geographically) medical profession.
Hi Joshua,
I am really glad you wrote this article. I agree with most of what you’ve said, especially the part telling us to think for ourselves and not project our own morals on others. It’s a smart thing to do, whether you are a premed or not.
-Sherry
I’m not sure how premeds or med students can make the argument to themselves that they’re doing everything with noble intentions for the sake of helping others. If any of us really wanted to help others we’d be working at a soup kitchen full time rather than spending 12-15 years and huge amounts of money becoming doctors.
One of my psych profs in undergrad told me about his experience in his zoology undergrad program in the States. He told me it was full of premeds that were crazy competitive. Some would even manufacture fake notes and distribute them to whoever missed the class just hoping to trip them up. That’s pretty extreme. I heard the same thing happened at UBC. This may not be super relevant but I find it interesting how far people are willing to go. At U of A quite some time ago, there were instances where people would quickly switch the signs pointing to organs on a specimen during a bellringer.
MedHopeful @ Premed101
I’m so glad I decided to subscribe to your RSS Feed!
I posted this in the previous entry, but I suppose you hadn’t seen it:
First of all let me just say that your articles are fantastic. I thoroughly enjoy reading them and they are also very informative for medhopefuls such as myself.
I had a question that maybe you could answer. I’m currently at UTSG for Life Sci. I’m taking the following courses:
Full year:
Biology
Calculus
Physics
Sociology
Half Year:
Organic Chem
Physical Chem
2nd year Astronomy
Pyschology
A History Seminar course
After first year, I am considering transferring to York’s Biomed program as I find that although I enjoy the challenge of U of T, York may be beneficial for my future (I dream of being a U of T Med School student).
My question is, how do the medical school calculate the GPA if I have transferred institutions. York would simply give me credit for the courses I’ve taken at U of T, so I assume med schools will use both transcripts (from each university) in assessing my GPA? Also, I’m currently getting a 3.7 GPA at UTSG. Assuming that there is truth to the belief that UTSG is the hardest life sci program, do you think I can attain a higher GPA at York given I use the same input of dedication and hard work?
Thanks a lot for all your help! I also read your posts on SA. Keep it up man, you’re helping so many people!
Vatsal