Like many of my peers, I came to Stern with my course schedule basically all planned out. Throughout my three or four years, I would take four lecture and laboratory courses, a variety of classes for the biology major, in addition to organic chemistry, physics, statistics and all the other classes needed to be pre-medicine. In Stern, it seems like a lot of students are on some sort of pre-health or science track: medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, or one of the many other health-related fields of study that are available.
One of the interesting benefits of majoring in a health-related field, is that there is not one particular track you need to follow. While this holds true for many professions, one advantage that being pre-med has in American universities is that it is a course of study and not a major. Theoretically, a student could major in whatever topic they want, such as biology, chemistry, political science, or art history. Aside from their chosen major, each pre-med student would be required to take the prerequisites for medical school, including the basic sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), organic chemistry, specific math classes, and a list of other social sciences, all of which medical schools expect their incoming students to know before starting their first year of med school.
My question is this: why is the biology major the default and most popular major for those who wish to be part of the health care world? There are many so classes offered in Stern that are often overlooked by students who are focused only on their career aspirations and the courses required to get them there. Oftentimes, students ask “what is the easiest class to fulfill requirement X,” in the hopes of boosting their GPA with an easy A. I can’t deny that a strong GPA is important for applying to graduate school. But I also believe classes, which may not specifically pertain to your major or career, must not be overlooked. We have the opportunity to learn almost any subject at a liberal arts college. It is frustrating when I see many of my career oriented peers focus only on what they believe will help them in the long run, rather than broadening their horizons academically while in college.
A school that combines both the arts and the sciences offers a wide variety of classes, which allows students to study subjects that don’t just contribute to their career aspira-tions but to also explore anything the student might find interesting. For example, I am pre-med, while also majoring in Judaic Studies. That is the benefit of attending a liberal arts school like Stern; I can major in something that I am passionate about, like Judaic Studies, while also completing my requirements for medical school.
Education is not only about learning those skills that will prepare a person for their career. It bothers me that I often see and hear my peers lament the extensive general education requirements at Stern. It seems to me that they don’t see the opportunities that these diverse classes offer them. If the purpose of college were to merely prepare students for their next step in their career, then the entire concept of liberal arts core requirements would be superfluous. I believe that there is a method to the seemingly pointless madness that constitutes a liberal arts bachelor’s degree. Information does not exist in a vacuum; everything we learn is interconnected. Just as one cannot truly understand the Torah without its commentaries, each subject in its own way, provides insight on another subject. Imagine learning history without reading the books that were culturally popular at the time, or learning biology without knowing concepts from chemistry. History and literature, biology and chemistry, are all connected. Beyond the subjects themselves, there are also important skills you develop through a liberal arts education. In some classes, you learn to analyze a reading, so that when you pick up the textbook for another class, you have learned to focus on the important passages. In others, you learn how to think critically, so that when you are in class or are doing homework, you know how to ask the right questions. Choosing only those classes that are easiest, and not thinking seriously about which classes we take, prevents us from being able to gain as much as possible from our limited time at Stern. We must challenge ourselves to take the more demanding course, to follow our interests and learn something new.
And don’t worry, you can still be pre-med.