“I’ve always been attracted to science, and felt that medicine was an ideal path in that it could combine my scientific aspirations while allowing me the opportunity to help other people,” he writes in an e-mail.

Hsu decided to shadow a physician during his sophomore year, an experience that did not “click.”

Hsu, who had previously attended two major science conferences and had found himself intrigued by a life in research, ultimately decided to pursue graduate school in biology rather than medical school.

“Those conferences really showed me the breadth of the field and inspired me to join that world of research,” he writes.

According to Hsu, the heavy class load he has undertaken as a premed—which includes courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics—complemented his OEB coursework and broadened his education.

Students and administrators also say that the structure of the premed track makes it initially appealing to many.

“If I say I’m premed, I know what courses I can take and what I can do,” says Oona B. Ceder ’90, assistant director of premedical and health career advising at OCS.

Ceder adds that the stability attached to the medical profession generates cultural and economic pressures—especially among first-generation college students—to become doctors.

“Students are interested in making a living and medicine has always carried a valid reputation as having a fairly sure employability and income attached to it,” says Ceder.

THE PREMED EXPERIENCE

Many students come to Harvard having excelled in the natural sciences and mathematics during high school, and assume they should become doctors because they are good at those subjects.

But some discover they have academic passions that lie elsewhere.

For Glynias, this realization came when she enrolled in the popular premed course Life Sciences 1a.

Glynias says that she did not find the course material compelling, which  prompted her to explore other fields of study. Her freshman spring, she decided to enroll in an ancient art history course, a choice which significantly impacted her decision to stop pursuing the premed track.

“The subject matter was interesting and science was not going to be worth it, so I stopped taking premed classes after that,” Glynias says.