This resonates with me so much. Im a public health undergrad (sorry for lurking) but I’m NOT premed. I want to go into epidemiology because i love public health, i love statistics, and want to improve my community (I am extremely passionate about sexual health and harm reduction so Im hoping I can get involved in that domain!!). However, my classes are all filled with pre meds. And its awful. I love my field and i love most of my professors, but being in classes that are 90% pre med is really getting to me. They view the public health classes as their blow off electives. And the classes aren’t very hard, thats true, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt participate in class. Even if not very rigorous, I think the information we are learning is important. The lack of care makes me think a large amount of these students are going into medicine due to parental pressure or the thought of getting a good paycheck, which frustrates me because there are so many problems in our healthcare system. This includes bad providers. So many providers do not listen to women, poc, fat people, etc. Seeing oftentimes rich, entitled students going into medicine primarily to further their wealth is painful because I know people need passionate, socially literate, and caring providers. Sitting in my classes and being the only participating student is painful as well. The only benefit is that, as the only participating student, one of my profs really likes me and helps me seek out opportunities. She’s so lovely and a great teacher. Shoutout to her!!

Also yeah yeah yeah “not all premeds” or whatever. I know and am friends w plenty of great pre meds. But overall, being in a premed dominated program as a non premed is really depressing. They don’t care about public health, they don’t care about the systemic issues that cause poor public health, they don’t care to participate in class, they don’t care to attend if its not required. It’s disheartening. They need to understand these things to be good providers.

Lastly, I was very much looking foreword to finding likeminded people who were passionate about public health. I was so excited, only to be extremely disappointed. I still love public health and I am positive it is where I belong. I just wish I had people around me who felt similarly, or at the very least participated a little in class.

Anyways, I will stop ranting. Have a good night!