New Pre-Med Group Holds First Support Panel Discussion

A new organization intended to aid pre-meds, the Committee on Premedical Education (SCOPE), hosted its first official acitivity night, a panel discussion in the Science Center, which was attended by 123 students.

Melinda A. Hakim '97, a founder of SCOPE, said she started the organization to "locate various roots of pre-medical angst and then provide resources to help students feel more comfortable about their decision to be pre-med."

The panelists, all first-year students at Harvard Medical School, included Tony Chen '94, Reshma Jagsi '95, Moe Lim '95, Stephanie A. Nonas '95, Mark T. Osterman '95 and Jean M. Ou '95.

The event centered on the panelists' discussion of their experiences applying to medical school, particularly the issue of "PMS," or "pre-medical syndrome."

Osterman attributed the prevalence of PMS at Harvard to the belief that the admissions process is a quest for a mythical "Holy Grail."

To fight PMS, Chen said, "the consensus is to relax."

Jagsi, who concentrated in government as an undergraduate, told students that "med schools want people who do what excites them. You don't need to work in a lab."

The panelists urged students to consider whether medicine is really for them, citing an increasingly limited job market.

"By 2002, one out of four doctors will be unnecessary," Chen said.

Prior to the panel discussion, SCOPE president Hakim outlined the group's future plans.

She said the organization plans to produce an "intensive report to investigate the dynamics of various pre-medical classes on campus, exploring issues such as student-professor and student-TF interactions...and the fairness of the curves."

SCOPE also hopes to "improve [first-year] advising through campus-wide events, and through maintaining a close rapport with the Office of Career Services," Hakim added. "[First-years]...should not have to struggle to get legitimate, exhaustive pre-med advice."

Hakim said SCOPE is in the process of creating a web site for pre-medical students, and that the group will continue to sponsor various campus-wide events, ranging from panels with admissions officers from various medical schools to informal study breaks.

Students present at the discussion said they welcome the new organization.

"It'll help to have a support group," said Cristina M. Delgadillo '99. "Since I plan to be a non-science major going to med school it'll be good to find people like me."

Kathryn J. Ruddy '99 said she thought the panel discussion was "really good, though it was probably more helpful for people closer to the application process. I won't be able to use a lot of what they said until later."

Nonetheless, she said, the organization has value.

"Pre-med advising definitely seems to be lacking so it seems like a good idea," Ruddy said.