Contrary to the campus-wide assumption that pre-medical students harbor deep-seated resentment toward students in the Program for Liberal Medical Education, the two groups tend to coexist peacefully - for the most part.
Because PLME students are accepted into Brown Medical School straight out of high school provided they maintain a 3.0 GPA throughout their undergraduate career, it is assumed they do not experience the stress of applying to medical school like regular pre-med students. They also have fewer required courses and do not have to take the dreaded Medical College Admission Test.
The lighter expectations, pre-med and PLME students interviewed by The Herald agree, allow PLME students to have a more pleasurable undergraduate experience than they would if they had to apply to medical school as seniors. But pre-med students manage to keep their envy at bay.
"I don't really resent them; I think if some pre-meds do, it's because they got rejected from the PLME program," said pre-med student Evan Werlin '08.
Werlin, who is taking CH 35: "Organic Chemistry" this semester, said he sometimes wishes he could be as carefree about schoolwork as his PLME suitemate and called their relationship a "playful rivalry." He recalled sitting at his desk studying for a chemistry exam on St. Patrick's Day while his suitemate went out to a party.
"But it's just worthless to be jealous when you have this much to do," he said.
Werlin added that jealousy might not even be the right word to describe how he felt because he had no desire to be in the PLME program.
"The thought of spending eight years anywhere at this time in my life is scary," Werlin said.
Pre-med student Kevin O'Brien '09 agreed that the commitment seemed overwhelming - even, he said, for some PLME students.
"I'm not resentful because most of them are still thinking of applying to other medical schools, so they act like regular pre-meds," O'Brien said.
In fact, in an average PLME class of about 60 students, only around four will leave the program and transfer to other medical schools, according to Associate Dean of Medicine Julianne Ip '75 MD '78.
"Most of the ones who are eventually going to apply out, I can pretty much tell by sophomore year," Ip said. She said she would assume a PLME student was considering transferring out of the program if she saw that the student was taking a second semester of Organic Chemistry - which is required for pre-med but not PLME students - or was taking an English class, also a pre-med requirement.
Ip said the most popular reasons for transferring out include hopes of better financial aid, personal reasons like a significant other across the country or prestige.
"Brown Med is not Harvard, is not Stanford, is not (Johns) Hopkins - yet," Ip said.
But she added that the PLME program still has a high retention rate because of all the benefits it offers its students.
Without the stringent requirements of the pre-med program, the PLME program easily allows students to concentrate in areas outside of the sciences. Ip said that roughly 60 percent of PLME students concentrate in the humanities or social sciences, a number "significantly higher than pre-meds."
"If you look at the pre-med requirements, it's almost a biology concentration," she said as an explanation for many pre-med students' decision to concentrate in biology. Werlin, a biology concentrator, said while he considered convenience when choosing to concentrate in a science, biology does interest him.
"A big reason why people apply to be PLME is so they don't have to major in science," Werlin said.
Ip felt that the lighter requirements allow PLME students more of an opportunity to explore their interests.
"We urge PLMEs to pursue their passions," she said. Ip added that the lighter load allows about a third of each PLME class to study abroad their junior year - something virtually impossible for pre-med students, who must take the MCAT junior year.
"That's the year pre-meds most point their fingers at PLMEs," Ip said.
However, PLME student Jamie Lincoln '06 said he has never felt any hostility from pre-med students at Brown.
"I have never run into a situation here at Brown where there was tension between me and a regular pre-med," Lincoln said. "The tension comes from individual courses," he added, referring to the second semester of organic chemistry and additional biology and mathematics classes that pre-med students must take.
Lincoln, a history concentrator, said he has enjoyed the opportunities that PLME has offered him.
"I think the time studying as an undergraduate is a great way to develop the personal and humanistic side of medicine," he said.
Lincoln plans to take next year off before returning to Brown Medical School in 2007. According to Ip, about 25 percent of PLME students take time off before medical school, higher than the number of pre-med students who take time off.
Ip said the difference could be attributed to the relaxed philosophy of learning that PLME promotes.
"I think the strongest part of the program is they get to pursue their own passions, and they are trained to work together. They didn't have to compete with each other; they've learned to work as a team - and doctors should do that," Ip said.
Lincoln agreed. "The PLME program creates a better environment for learning," he said, adding that "it reduces stress and optimizes personal educational needs."
When Lincoln first came to Brown, he was able to take full advantage of the University's Satisfactory/No Credit grading option because he didn't have to worry about applying to medical school.
"I thought the S/NC option was really exciting my first year," he said. At first, he took half his classes S/NC. But soon his "attitude changed and (he) didn't get as much out of them," so he switched to taking nearly all of his classes for grades.
"The stereotype that PLMEs take all their classes S/NC is an exaggeration of what's really going on," Lincoln said.
Ip said that even if PLME students take their classes S/NC, they must still obtain Course Performance Reports, so "even if we don't have grades, we have some form of assessment."
She stressed that PLME students are highly motivated and prepared for the medical world by the time they leave Brown.
"PLME kids do really, really well in the real world. It hasn't been as cutthroat for them, so they work well with others. They test well. They're good students," she said.
"I don't mind PLMEs because they worked a lot harder in high school to get where they are now," O'Brien said.
