As a sophomore, Glynias decided to register as Harvard’s only joint concentrator in music and anthropology—a rare mix combining her interest in music with her passion for archaeology.

Glynias attributes her positive experience in her joint concentration to the small class sizes in her fields of study.

“One of the hardest things about Life Sci was that there were 600 people,” says Glynias, adding that her biggest music class to date has had an enrollment of a mere 35 students.

Du agrees with this sentiment, adding that small classes tend to appeal more to students.

“Ec10 [is] a very large class, [but] the thing that made Ec10 so rewarding was that it is almost entirely taught in section, whereas premed courses are taught in lecture,” says Du.

Several premeds also note that the premed atmosphere at Harvard can at times be “suffocating.” Students have frequent problem sets and typically work late nights and spend hours in lab.

Although students like Du, Glynias, and Hsu say they switched out of premed after discovering their interest in another academic discipline, Michelson and Ceder say that there are many students who choose to leave the premed track because they receive a bad grade on their transcripts.

“Some students come here and ... they might get the first C of their lives, and it’s a shock,” says Michelson. “I think there’s some misinformation that they’ve heard that they’ll never get into med school, and that’s actually not true at all.”

“Medical schools really don’t just look at your science and overall GPA,” says Ceder, adding that factors like personal experiences, extracurricular interests, and diversity also play an important role in the admissions process.

MINING THE OPPORTUNITIES

Many students attribute their desire to explore fields outside of medicine to the wealth of opportunities that the College provides.

“I think it’s nice for people to explore around,” says David Wang ’12, current president of the Harvard Premedical Society. “At Harvard there’s a great premed track, but I don’t think it’s for everyone.”

Du says that realizing that he enjoyed the immediate applications of economics meant that a career in finance would be more suitable.

“I can literally take what I learn in class and immediately apply it to what is happening in the world,” Du says.

Glynias, who plans to spend her summer on a joint thesis project, says that she plans to keep her career options open.