Our struggles have remained largely private and individual--getting good grades, fitting into a social scene, managing our own affairs. At Asian-American Association meetings, I feel absolutely no esprit de corps but rather a suspicious inkling that everybody joins simply to pad their resumes. We have a stubborn, sad tendency to atomize into our individual selves. Hence the premed syndrome.

Last weekend, when I told my mother that I was leaving the premed track, she refused to let me hang up the phone until I promised to finish my premed requirements and take the MCAT. Left no other choice, I hung up on my mom for the first time. She fears for me more than she hopes for me, and for her the security of my future far outweighs the fulfillment of my dreams.

Her sentiment is a common one among Asian-Americans. Professors don't make any money, she told me. She said I wouldn't find a woman who would marry me, either.

I apologize to all the Asian-American premeds who really have a genuine interest in medicine. I know they exist. But many Asian-Americans are pressured into going to medical school, whether they admit it or not, and some even convince themselves that they made the choice for themselves.

Going to medical school is an easy choice for many Asians at Harvard because it is for many Asian students and their families the default career choice. Plenty of Asians have become successful doctors, so plenty of Asians take the path most traveled. Racial discrimination is relatively uncommon in science, where recognition and advancement hinge on correct answers and well-designed experiments, epitomized in lab reports and objective test scores.

IWRITE THIS, it would seem, at the risk of drawing the ire of many Asians and "politically correct" liberals at Harvard. I might even alienate some of my friends. But political correctness has come down to something too important to ignore: No one self-reflects.

Everyone covers up for everyone else, hushing every single innuendo, ignoring the obvious facts and doling out hollow compliments of every kind to every group. And since no one else will take a hard look at Asian-Americans at Harvard, Asian-Americans at Harvard will have to take a hard look at themselves. No matter what the politically correct say.