Premed clubs (PMC) re scams. Or that’s how I’ve always seen them. I acknowledge that they do host useful events and speakers once in a while, but to the average member they’re a bunch of con artists and here’s why.
- They overcharge you – During clubs sign-up they usually charge their members a higher fee, despite having large memberships. Running a premed club is low cost and here they are racking in $20 from hundreds of people that join. And what do you get for the expensive initiation fee? Usually just a bland t-shirt that you would be embarrassed to wear. What services do they provide? Practically nothing that a person can’t get for free.
- They prey on your fears – The people who will would join a pre-med club are those who are considering a field of medicine. Many premeds in fear that they won’t be competitive for medical school get tricked into joining the club. They believe this will help their application and the premed club exploits this to trick everyone who is thinking of medicine to join, making it seem like a must to enter medical school. In reality, admissions committees know what these clubs and give little notice to such clubs.
- The club leaders get all the benefit and the members none – So while you write down on your application that you were in the premed club, the group leaders are writing that they managed a group of 500 students and organized educational seminars. What contributions did you do? None. It’s all politics in the PMC and all the gunners know it. They will sweet talk you into voting them and then sit at the top and laugh. It’s a pyramid scam, all the benefit flows to the top and the bottom is left with nothing.
- Members are obnoxious – why would you want to surround yourself with hardcore pre-med students who would backstab you to improve their admission chances? These are the people who will ask you about your GPA and MCAT scores after you get them back. They will probe into your life, trying to find what extracurricular activities you do so they know what they’re up against. They will ask you for information and a second later use it against you. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer – premed club members live by this motto. Stay far away.
- Most members don’t make it into medical school – For a group that’s so die hard on getting into medical school, the PMC has a low success rate. The majority of the leaders are not the role models they should be. They have bad grades and bad personalities. Many decide don’t apply to medical school and those who do, plenty are rejected. PMC are full of doctor wannabes that don’t want to do the necessary work to get there.
Admission committees can smell the premed club bull****. In fact, most university students can too. Spend that time doing better things and finding better extracurricular activities.
Having said all those nasty things: I realize that there are some truly genuine and nice people in the PMC. In fact, some do make it into medical school but I want to point out that they are the exception. These people would have made it there with or without being in a PMC.
Similarly, for totally clueless students the seminars, talks and information sessions are helpful. But it’s nothing that can’t be found on the Internet or from asking medical students or even senior students. If you want to join a club that has a high statistics for getting into medical try tutoring. For some reason, the tutoring club – which was quite small with less than fifty members – had quite a lot of successful applicants. Perhaps someone can explain this phenomenon?
[…] Why You Shouldn’t Join the Pre-Med Club […]
Really your theory is based on the assumption that the PMC’s job is to serve you when in actuality it is reversed. The spirit of the PMC is to have a bunch of pre-medical school students come together and discuss and relate their passions. It is the type of situation where you get out what you contribute. And the acceptance rate from a PMC to an institution? Medical school historically has a record of turing away 3 applicants for every accepted applicant. That is just following the rules of consistency. I won’t address the first statement and I have already addressed the fifth. In terms of the second, where do the people get the notion about PMC=(easy acceptance into Med-School) *prior* to PMC joining. It is absurd! Plus, it is a fallacy to state what medical schools (and for that matter pre-med students in general) think and don’t think without evidence. And you fourth statement goes back to your flawed reasoning about forknowing how medical school admission staff judge your app. so, all rules up to this point (excluding statement 1) have been addressed. now, i think your fourth statment is partially correct. as for being obnoxiouse, well that is a little extreme and relative. however, pre-med and med students have to be competitve in school. they are faced with one of the toughest challenges facing any student. their hiring rate at work and acceptance into med school, residency program, and other things are based extremely heavily upon their class rank, GPA, MCAT, and extracurricular involvment.