Get Some Non-Pre-Med Friends!

Last year, I wrote a post called Get Some Pre-Med Friends. I stand by every word in that post! If you haven’t already, please go back and read it! It’s so important to have friends who have the same goals as you—becoming a physician. Pre-med friends understand your struggle, keep you motivated, help you stay on track, and can share pre-med opportunities with you. Even if you find just one or two, you’ve found gold and I promise you it will be a friendship you’ll look back at and be glad you had.

With that said, I think you also need some good non-pre-med friends. Let’s face it, there are many more people walking around you every day on campus who have no intention of going to medical school, and that’s a good thing! Find you a good group of those people and give yourself a break from all the “uptight” (I can say that because I definitely was one) pre-med students.

Don’t be a pre-med snob. I promise you that there is nothing better about you than anyone else just because you’re pre-med! Don’t let any of your pre-med clubs or the fact that you may get to wear scrubs when shadowing make you think that!

Here are some of the benefits, in my opinion, of having friends who aren’t pre-med:

They provide much needed distractions.

I remember being hunkered down in my dorm room or the library with my roommate or my line sisters or other college friends who were premed also. Those were rough times and even though you don’t mean too, sometimes you start associated those people with the pre-med struggle and that can be overwhelming sometimes! While I love all of them, we spent a lot of time even outside of the dorm room and the library talking about being pre-med. Every conversation somehow found its way back to biochemistry or AMCAS or shadowing or research. While it’s great to have people to bounce things off of related to the pre-med track, you don’t want the conversation with friends to always go back to medical school. It can be daunting!

[A piece of advice here also is that you should have a discussion with your closest pre-med friends about sometimes getting together and NOT mentioning medical school at all! They probably want a break from talking about it just as much as you do and it will definitely make your friendship stronger.]

The beauty of having non-pre-med friends is that other than casually asking you how your classes are going, they’re probably not going to be talking about the last or next organic chemistry test or about how well they did on their last MCAT practice test. And this gives you the ability to relax around them and just have some fun.

In a previous post, I talked about the need to give yourself a break from being pre-med sometimes, I promise you that’s sooooo much easier to do when you’re with someone else who isn’t pre-med! Now, with that said, don’t lose your mind and only make friends with people who aren’t pre-med or, worse, who have no aspirations in life. We don’t need them rubbing off on you. And certainly don’t spend too much time out kickin it and acting like you’re not pre-med with them because that physics and orgo will still be around when you get back!

You’re going to need them later!

Most of my closest friends are not physicians. And that’s a good thing! Yes, it’s great to have physician friends who you can consult and refer to later when you’re in practice. But you’re also gonna want to know teachers, accountants, attorneys, bankers, etc. That’s what all those people walking around campus who are not pre-med are going to become! The world isn’t full of physicians only and your friends circle shouldn’t be either! So don’t start that habit now, branch out and find yourself some good non-pre-med friends.

Choose them wisely!

You should choose all your friends wisely, that should go without saying. As a college student (and for life in general, really) it’s important that you realize which people you associate with have your best interests in mind and which ones are there only to smooch off of you and bring you down. Leave the latter group of folks alone! People who want to see you succeed will do their part to help you succeed. They don’t have to be pre-med like you to want the best for you.

—

I hope this post was helpful. Have you found some pre-med friends AND some non-pre-med friends. Make sure you have a solid group of each.

Feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message if you have any thoughts or questions!