Pre-Med Facts

Pre-meds are generally suspicious, hard-working and politically conservative, a study of more than 1000 pre-medical students at seven colleges by a professor at Wesleyan University has revealed.

The survey, supervised by psychology professor C. Hess Haagen, director of the Consortium for the study of Premedical Education and its Outcomes at Wesleyan, surveyed 687 male and 377 female seniors--as well as a sampling of non-premeds--at Amherst, Bowdoin, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarth more, Wesleyan and Williams.

The major conclusions of the two-year project are

*Pre-meds view themselves as disliked by their peers

*Pre-meds are politically and socially more conservative.

*Pre-meds, as the stereotype has it, work more.

and, contrary to rumor.

*Pre-meds feel that cheating incidents in their courses are relatively rare.

Haagen's conclusion? Pre-meds, he says, are a different breed: "Persons who aspire to a career in medicine enter college with a set of attitudes, values and motivations that distinguishes there from their classmates."The Weselyan Argus   The Wesleyan Argus