What’s It Like Being Pre-Med at Harvard?

In freshman year, Amav C. Khambete ’27 learned how to think like a scientific researcher.

For Khambete, who had a robust high school science education, some of the introductory life science courses felt too repetitive. So instead, he opted for Life Sciences 50: “Integrated Science” — a year-long, double course that introduces students to an interdisciplinary approach to the sciences.

“I felt like in high school, I already accumulated enough knowledge that’s the same as the curriculum,” Khambete said. “I feel like taking those classes would just be filler classes.”

But Khambete’s pre-med experience is not a universal one. For many pre-med and pre-health students, the pressures of the Harvard environment — combined with limited advising — can make for a challenging four years.

‘Not an Adequate Enough Pre-Med’

For students from backgrounds underrepresented in healthcare and medicine, navigating the pre-med scene at Harvard can be challenging.

According to Esha Ahmad ’25 — who serves as a pre-health Peer Advising Fellow — the pre-med experience can be “pretty lonely, especially if you’re a first-gen, low-income student. There’s not a ton of resources to support you along the way.”

Ahmad — who hails from a public school background — recalls struggling a lot more than her pre-med peers in freshman fall.

“The second week of school, there were people joining research labs, and I had never done research, and I had no idea I had to do research,” Ahmad said. “That was super intimidating.”

“I felt so behind,” she added. “I just felt like not an adequate enough pre-med.”

Certain classes do offer extra coaching sessions and office hours for students who need more support. But according to Tia S. Patel ’27, “there’s only so much that they can do.”

“I think that definitely created tension within some of the pre-med classes,” Patel said.

According to Pavi Balachundhar ’27, much of the pre-med experience in classes hinges on previous science experience.

“A lot of the critical thinking and approaches to a lot of these scientific questions come easier to people who have had more of this background in science,” Balachundhar said.

For students with a less robust science background, even reaching out for help could be a scary process.

“The fact that we only have two pre-professional medical-related advisers is very tough,” Ahmad said.

‘The Best That They Can’

Harvard’s pre-med and pre-health advising team is led by associate director Oona B. Ceder, assistant director Rob Harrington, and part-time adviser Chris Gilbert. The team hosts programming at the Mignone Center for Career Success, which includes pre-health orientations, workshops, and panels.

In an emailed statement to The Crimson, MCS Interim Director Deb Carroll wrote that the unit’s programming is “designed to give students and alums the information they need wherever they might be in their exploration or application process.”

“I think we’re lucky that we have two advisers who are larger than life, so they do the best that they can to service — I believe it’s roughly 1,300 students at Harvard who are pre-med,” said Ayush Noori ’25, a pre-health PAF.

While Balachundhar has found meeting with her adviser “helpful,” having only two full-time advisers for the entire pre-med population means that students often have to schedule appointments far in advance — oftentimes up to a month.

This timing is “far enough out to be deterred from going to them for some questions,” Balachundhar added.

Katie S. Garcia ’25, a pre-health PAF, said that students who are not pursuing traditional pre-med concentrations can also face more significant hurdles with regards to advising.

While most of the life science concentration advisers know a lot about the pre-med track, advisers in departments like English and classics likely do not have the same knowledge, according to Garcia.

Annmarie R. Raschella ’26 — a pre-med student pursuing a concentration in linguistics and romance languages — echoed the sentiment.

“I have not had any advising whatsoever for any pre-med thing,” she said. “Even if I tried to talk to my concentration adviser about it, they’re just kind of like, ‘Yep. Sounds good.’”

Despite the limited advising availability, however, M.H. Hans Bach-Nguyen ’26 said he has found that there are still ample resources, including pre-med house tutors and upperclassmen peers.

In addition to leading events at MCS, the pre-med/pre-health team trains and supports a larger network of advisers, which includes proctors, house tutors, concentration advisers, and pre-health PAFs.

Each of the upperclassmen pre-health PAFs are assigned roughly 70 freshmen each year, with the goal of not providing “authoritative guidance,” but rather pointing students to pertinent resources and offering reassurance, according to Noori.

“We’re a first point of contact for pre-medical students who are nervous, are struggling, are feeling — are struggling with self-doubt or lack of self-confidence, or overwhelmed by the tsunami of classes,” he said.

‘Collaborative’ or ‘Cut-Throat’?

With such a preponderance of pre-med students on campus, the culture and sense of connection can vary widely.

For Noori, Harvard’s pre-med track selects for caring people.

“The fundamental reason why pre-meds want to become pre-meds and eventually become doctors is because they have a internal mission to serve others,” Noori said.

“Because of that uniting quality, many, many — if not most — pre-meds in my circle of friends are wonderfully compassionate, very collaborative, and care deeply about their community, their tribe, and more broadly, the world,” he added.

Not everyone agrees.

Raschella classifies pre-med culture into two broad categories. The first includes those pursuing stereotypical science majors and extracurriculars.

“I feel like the cut-throat comes in there more,” Raschella said.

“Where there’s more time for extracurriculars, there’s more competition to get into them,” she said. “They’re competing with the same people in class as they would be for those types of jobs or those types of opportunities.”

Raschella categorizes the second category of pre-meds as those who are studying a wholly separate field. These students have less overlap between their pre-med and concentration requirements, meaning they have less time for the extracurriculars that feed into a cut-throat culture, she says.

Garcia said that “extracurricularly is where people get a little more competitive, whether that’s like research or like clinical experiences.”

Garcia also pointed to a reluctance to take gap years, despite the fact that, in recent years, 75 to 80 percent of Harvard applicants to medical schools have applied in senior year and later.

If gap years were more common, Garcia said, “it would save people a lot of stress.”

The work that being pre-med demands could also raise mental health concerns, according to Bach-Nguyen.

“One thing I do find a lot with like pre-meds especially is just mental health services at Harvard are generally lacking,” Bach-Nguyen said.

“The work is hard. The fear of the future is hard,” he added. “It doesn’t take lots of analysis to think about how desperate some pre-meds might feel.”

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi contributed reporting.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.