#7 Medical School

If there's anything in terms of career choice that Asians like, it's going to med school ( or other medical related fields such as nursing or pharmacy school) There is only but a handful of career paths Asians choose upon leaving High School. One of these paths is the Medical field, where around 40% (this precentage may be a bit inaccurate) of Asians initially choose going to Med School at the start of college for several reasons (this is in a particular order, yes it is): pressure from their parents, the money, to help people, and pressure from their parents. You may even hear Asians say, " I pretty much have no choice," more so they're 'forced' to like med school right at the get go. Some Asians may try to convince you that it was solely their decision to be premed/prenursing, but little do they know it was a subconscious decision infused by years and years of pressure from their parents they've recieved. On a side note, I agree that there those Asians who do choose a career in the medical field not because of the money, but it is something they'd really love to do. But the pressure that I'm talking about would never come from their parents if the medical field wasn't such a high paying profession. To put it simply, Asians like medical school because they know their parents like medical school.

Keep in mind, that we say "initially" choose, because we're empasizing that upon entering college, many Asians practically default themselves to being premed. But eventually (usually by the second year of college) a big percentage of these Asians will eventually change their career paths because they soon discover the nature of being a striving pre-med student sucks: not to say they now hate medschool, but they've come to realize that they hate the way to get there. Those Asians that do remain, love the competitiveness, highly-difficult classes, science courses, extreme demand for studying, and endless involvement in research, internships, and clubs related to medical school- that a premed is forced to live through all 4-5 years of college. Occassionally, there are certain Asians who have switched their majors to a non-science major, but still plan to go to medschool, as a way to 'dodge' some of the obstacles or at least alleviate the pre-med journey. Overall, if you take a survey of Asians that have changed their majors at least twice, odds are many of them were formerly premed, or at least have considered it.

If anyone wants to see the true essence of competition between Asians it's in Premed Asians. In classes, even though it is sometimes necessary that Asians must work/study together, Asians are known to witheld certain things from each other when it comes to this. In fact, some Asians absolutley despise having to help other Asians in the classes they're in, especially when it won't directly benefit them. Not to say they'd intentionally sabatoge one another (at least not that I know of), but there's nothing better that premed Asians like than knowing that they're doing better (in their classes) than other Asians.

This is even more evident when MCAT season comes for pre-med Asian hopefuls. As tough as the test is, and as much time, sweat and effort it takes to prep for such a crucial exam, Asians dont ever study together, or even talk about the test with other Asians planning to take it.

On the other hand, there's nothing premed Asians enjoy doing more than criticizing other premed Asians that study too much or are involved in too many premed related activities. Actually let me restate that: there's nothing premed Asians enjoy doing more than criticizing other premed Asians that study more than they do or are invovled in more activities than they are. They know for a fact in the back of their mind they too should be studying just as much, but to make themselves feel better about not doing so, they ridicule those that do. They get good laughs to say the least, but in the end they know they've got to 'step it up' eventually.

Though there are plenty of Asians who are humble about their pre-med successes, there are definitely plenty of Asians who boast about them as well. Outside of knowing they've done better than other Asians in the premed life, but being able to rave about it is the next best thing Whether it be with close friends, everyone, or in a blogger, Asians are known for inconspiciously showing off the grades they recieve, amount of clubs/medical fraternities they're involved with, or the research they're a part of.

note: as mentioned earlier, there are but a handful of career choices Asians like upon graduating high school. The rest, (business administration and engineering) will come in future posts.