How Much is too Much?

These days, competition seems to be on the rise in every part of life. It is not enough anymore to just attend classes and earn good grades. That does not guarantee you a successful life in the way it used to. Burnout has become a more in focus word that occurs in the lives of countless undergraduate students. They lose energy and motivation to get the degrees they were so passionate at achieving back when they first entered college. One of the largest fields that undergraduate burnout occurs is in students wishing to attend medical school. There is competition for everyone to earn a 4.0 in difficult classes like Physics, Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry. The idea of earning anything other than that mark is seen to set you up for failure when applying to medical schools. Countless students stress themselves out to no end ensuring they earn top grades in these classes, devoting hours on end to drilling the information in their brains. On top of all these classes, students that wish to attend medical school must have well- rounded applications. To obtain these perfect applications they must devote hundreds of hours to shadowing medical professionals as well as getting thousands of patient care hours. There is also the idea that you must have your name on published research, or the medical school board will toss your application to the side. All these expectations place impossible standards on students wishing to attend medical school. Their time is constantly being filled with resume builders that will put them ahead of their classmates. Due to this, their mental health begins to suffer. They view that no matter what they do to load their application, it is not enough compared to their other classmates.

The system of getting into medical school is designed to weed out the weaker applicants. However, some may argue that the steps you must take to construct the perfect application are too taxing on anyone. Perhaps there is the perfect candidate that checks every box of what makes a good provider, but they earn a 1.5 in organic chemistry. They may think that they are no longer cut out for medical school and give up. There is so much stigma around having perfect grades when in reality that is almost impossible. The system is set up to force all the applicants into complete exhaustion and for only a sliver of students to fully make it through. A number of older doctors will exclaim that it was much easier to get into medical school in their days. Some may argue that to be true, others state that it is not. However, a consensus can be made that it is incredibly difficult to construct yourself to be the perfect medical school applicant.

There must be a way around all the burnout undergraduate students face when attempting to get into medical school. In terms of medical school itself, new protocols such as pass-fail classes have been set in place. The overall number grade you earn in classes matters less than just earning a passing grade. This relieves a small part of stress medical students face. However, in terms of undergraduate classes, making them all pass fail would not work out as well. That being said, there are other concepts that may help lessen the stress of undergraduate students. Setting up peer support networks on campus for students who are taking the same premed classes may help with studying for exams as well as talking through certain stressors. Also, a program set up to get students into contact with recent graduates who went through applying to medical school recently would help ease some nerves students may have. Finally, having more open conversations about the fact that you do not have to be the absolute perfect applicant to make it as a medical provider will break the stigma.

Medical school will be stressful, which is inevitable. But, burning out as an undergraduate, can be avoided. Reminding yourself that working hard in your Physics and Organic Chemistry classes is all you can ask of yourself and remembering to give yourself grace whenever possible.