To the Editor:
There has been a lot of fuss lately about the PLME program's decision to start implementing its new applying-out policy immediately rather than waiting five years for a new batch of PLME students to matriculate into the medical school.
I'm a senior in the PLME program, so this new policy doesn't affect me personally. But I still think it's misleading for students to claim that this is extremely unfair or, as Simon Liebling '12 phrased it, a "dangerous precedent for these administrative bait-and-switches" ("WTF, PLME?" Nov. 12). The PLME program certainly never tried to "bait" applicants by advertising the ability to keep Alpert as a safety school. Those who applied to the PLME program with the specific intention of getting a stress-free chance to apply to Harvard or Yale Medical Schools were at best seriously misjudging the program's purpose or, at worst, trying to have their cake and eat it too. The Alpert Medical School and the PLME program have enough benefits in their own right that the "apply out" card shouldn't need to be a selling point.
I sympathize with those who have had to take CHEM 0360: "Organic Chemistry" (if it's any consolation, I did, too) or pay for MCAT classes like other pre-med students. But those who are so reluctant about Alpert Medical School really shouldn't have applied in the first place. The PLME program was clearly intended to be an eight-year continuum and unfortunately, when you don't use a product as directed, the warranty is void.
Rahul Banerjee '10 MD '14
Nov. 12
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