Exhausting

It's crazy to think what is required by medical schools today. Beyond general proficiency--dare I say mastery--in the sciences, one must show the ability to write a complete, error-free, and deep essay in a period of 30 minutes, as well as have the ability to analyze in-depth art criticism essays on the Verbal Reasoning part of the MCAT. Good times.

Beyond this, one should Shadow doctors for a semester (or longer); one should show a commitment to the community, which isn't quite as difficult or vexing a thing, but is heavily time consuming; one should have a background in undergraduate research, which is baffling to me, given that any sort of substantial research as an undergraduate seems at odds with your status of being in the process of developing the skills and knowledge base needed for such research in grad school; further, one should have letters of recommendation from Faculty members of attended schools. At the smaller UW schools this is of no real concern per se, but being at UW-Madison, even as a neurobiology major, my classes are about 150 people per class on average. How is one exactly expected to develop a rapport with faculty members at Madison?

All of this is incredibly draining which I suspect is the intent of it. It's not exactly supposed to be easy to get into med school, nor should those who act whimsically get in willy-nilly. Even still, I can't help but ponder if this is the right choice. I certainly don't have all of the above characteristics (even if I fulfill 3/4 of the above), and the entire process has left me so anxiety-ridden that I'm not so sure working with people is appropriate anymore.

One thing at a time though.