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I definitely agree with what you say about medicine. It's not always that simple though -- some people really feel parental pressure on their lives. And it's no
by asianexpress 15y ago
I definitely agree with what you say about medicine. It's not always that simple though -- some people really feel parental pressure on their lives. And it's not just parental pressure, it's peer pressure too. On top of societal pressure.
I attended Yale and it feels like everyone is pre-med or trying to get into finance (consulting or investment banking). You sort of feel out of the loop if you're not doing these things (I was one of the dozen computer science majors in my year).
A lot of these people don't see the problems until it's too late. The perception by society is that being a doctor is a stable well-paying job -- most people don't take into consideration, like you said, all the tuition costs, and years spent in school.
If you go to Yale, you're expected to achieve great things -- that's just the societal pressure. Not everyone deals with it well. So some hide in the "safety" of what society expects, rather than pursuing their dreams. These people would be too embarrassed to pursue their dreams, if it meant say, being unemployed for years or working a minimum wage job. I suppose that's more of a pride issue, but sometimes it's borne of a want to please others (while unfortunately forgetting about self)
That said, she's not even at the school yet -- she'll probably change her mind when she gets there. Plenty of people do once they're given a chance to think for themselves in a new environment. But plenty of people also ending up burning out because they've pursued pre-med or finance without it really being their calling, or love.
- BlackJack 15y agoI think she's already here since the article says "Earlier this fall." But yeah, I'm a CS major at Yale too (sophomore), and I almost went the finance route. Over the summer I realized that doing something interesting >> any amount of money. A lot of kids here are pre-meds or future IB/consultants, but there are also a lot of kids who aren't and do all sorts of awesome things. This year, there's also a much bigger interest in startups. Yale Hackers, HackYale, more speakers/tech-talks, YEI coding workshops, and a lot of other things point to people working on cool projects and doing what they like.
- asianexpress 15y agoAh nice! Yeah, I'm a part of PaperG which was part of the beginning of YEI (I think they say we're the first funded startup to come out of it). It's really awesome how things have grown in the last couple of years. I was pretty excited when I heard about HackYale -- something that should have been done long ago. Feel free to contact me if you have questions about startup/Yale/CS stuff
- BlackJack 15y agoWhat's your e-mail? It would be great if there was a better network for Yale students to talk to alumni. We have that career network but search is terrible unless you're looking for people in big companies. Actually, this gives me an idea... :)
- asianexpress 15y agoHaha, indeed -- the Yale alumni database is super useful, but of course, you won't have access to that quite yet. YEI is helpful for tapping part of the network, but you're right, there's no real good way to do it. You can find me at victor.cheng@paperg.com