To be premed or not to be premed? That is the question.
By Ally Siffringer UA’28 and Jim Stellar
Ally and Jim met in a remarkable 1 credit freshman psychology seminar course in the fall term of 2024 . We connected over her thinking about premed and his past, from many years ago, of doing the same thing. What are the heart and head (cortex and limbic system) components that go into such a pressurized and important decision, and what is she thinking so early in her academic career?
My freshman seminar class, “How the Brain Decides,” taught by Dr. Stellar helped broaden my view to many different opportunities I could possibly explore. Despite our generational gap, I felt as though Dr. Stellar and myself were very similar in that we both heavily considered going to medical school. Although Dr. Stellar (who I will now call “Jim”) had decided his freshman year that he was bio-premed, but changed to bio-pre research in his junior year. I am a bit more unsure. Currently I’m a psychology major with a bio minor, and still on the fence about medical school. After some conversations with Jim I’ve come to consider other options such as lab research and the pursuit of a PhD in neuroscience. The question I must ask myself now is whether I’d like to put in the work and attend medical school, or if I’d like to slightly shift gears and pursue a career in research. Either way, Jim and Ally just decided that she would take organic chemistry next year as a bellwether of what she will do in this decision dilemma.
Something quite important that comes along with the college experience is planning your semesterly schedule. This is arguably one of the more stressful times of the year for college students, especially myself, because it directly affects your workload, academic progress, and of course your career track. If I choose to go the premed route, I would be required to take classes like organic chemistry, for example, which happens to be quite challenging. Whereas if I decided against premed, organic chemistry wouldn’t necessarily be required to take but definitely useful. As I’m still unsure of the path I want to take, I discussed with Jim what my options are for schedule planning. After an in-depth discussion we decided that it would be wise for me to take organic chemistry next semester as even if I decide not to go to medical school, the class will still benefit me and my education.
This process described above seems to rest on two factors that we will now briefly explore: 1) Learning from experience or experiential education, and 2) having a mentor and connecting as equals despite the difference in age.
Experiential education: One of the most powerful ways of learning isn’t by reading or studying, it’s by actively doing something. As I explore all of my possible career paths, I must learn by experiential education. That is why this summer I plan on taking an EMT course as I am a member of UAlbany’s student-run volunteer ambulance service otherwise known as Five Quad. Since becoming a member, this agency has widened my view on the medical field and inspired me to dive deeper into my interests in emergency medicine, while also feeding into my interest in neuroscience. Both experiences (my EMT course and taking organic chemistry in the fall) will be intense and immersive, yet reflective. Reflection is just as important as the task itself; it can come after or during the experience. When we reflect, we’re letting the neocortex process and learn from our emotions (limbic system). In other words, this crucial step of reflection allows us to find meaning and identify values that will make decisions easier for our future selves so we can discover which path is correct for us. Hopefully once I complete my EMT course and organic chemistry, I will have a stronger grasp on my career interests and what I want to pursue long-term.
Mentoring as equals: What separates us is not as great as what divides us even though professors are in charge of the classes that students take. When it comes, mentoring one needs to be a two-way street and that happens best if the student and professor have a deep human professional communication. Notice that she calls me “Jim” which I encourage as it drives better heart-reason reflection. Now I say “heart reason” reflections after a quote we often use in this blog series from the 1600s mathematician and philosopher, Blase Pascal. He said, “The heart has reasons of which reason does not know.” We unite that with our view from modern neuroscience that the neocortex that does our cognitive planning gets value judgment inputs from our emotion-processing limbic system. But the limbic system does not tell the cortical system how it got that input. Its “reasons” come from experience, like the old adage about touching a hot stove – once burned, twice shy. But that is not how we plan cognitively. We use abstract symbolic logic and make a recipe for ourselves, like the next semester’s course schedule. We build in experience, like taking organic chemistry. Then, we talk to each other about how it feels. Is organic chemistry telling us something about our career plans that we did not know until we took it? Here is where a trusting professional but deep human connection with a more experienced mentor comes in. It can be in those conversations that feelings emerge or at least get more clearly represented in our thinking, even if we could not anticipate them in advance.
