I read an interesting essay once entitled The Pre Med as a Metaphor of Antipathy The author was IIRC a basic science professor trying to understand why pre meds were such jerks and whether the qualities selected for by the pre med process were necessarily the ones that would make for an exemplary physician Taking the pre med curriculum was among the most depressing experiences of my life a relentlessly grinding competitive exercise in rote memorization of material that held little interest or applicability for me I felt bad for people who took organic chemistry and biology because they were actually interested in those subjects they were trampled in a horde of people who had come from the top of their high school classes and were trying to beat the curve inexorably normed to a C B to get into med school I certainly witnessed a reasonable amount of cheating and I m sure there were more egregious things happening out of plain sight I was amazed when I took the MCATs at the level of security and anti cheating measures in place They did basically everything except a retinal scan but I suppose such things are necessary The question of course is whether such learned behaviors and coping mechanisms can be switched off Talk