The best premed course in the Philippines (from the perspective of a UP student)

I was reading the different posts in Narinig ko sa UP (Overheard at UP) when an incoming senior high school student (don't ask how she got there, haha, but her name is Hannah Abigail Agustin) asked "What was the best premed to get into the UP College of Medicine?" From that question, I answered the clearest answer which gave her exactly what she wanted. UP Diliman's BS Psychology program. Statistically speaking, they encompass the largest chunk of qualifiers into the College of Medicine, thus making it the BS UP Med Premed course of choice, excluding Intarmed. Furthermore, being at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (the past AS and thus the "center" of UPD according to some pundits), they get to be at the heart of all things UP Diliman, guaranteeing them an awesome college life AND sufficiently high grades necessary for qualification in the college.

That would sufficiently answer her question (though honestly I didn't want to go into full details myself in the thread, since I'm a BS Biology major myself, and I might give the impression that I'm labeling BS Psych majors as an "easy" course for getting into UPCM, so I just said "UP Diliman Psych"). Of course, the whole thread caught on quickly, as you know how open minded and "opinionated" UP students are. And honestly, poor child, if I were there I wouldn't know who to listen to. It's not like we all have labels of credibility there. Though frankly, some of the answers there are extremely far fetched. BS Mathematics? BA Social Studies (Area Studies)? Sure, there are cases when one or two people from certain obscure courses get through. But let's be realistic here mates. We want the safest premed when we choose a degree. Something that more or less gives us a direct path to it. Thus, here is a rough criteria for choosing degree programs ideal for pre-medicine:

(1) It prepares you for medicine, providing a background on the sciences that are usually taught in medical schools, such as, but not limited to, the following: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology.
(2) It allows you to get sufficiently HIGH grades for entry into the best medical schools. (You'll need at least cum laude for UP College of Medicine).
(3) It prepares you for the National Medical Admission Test, or NMAT. (90 is the minimum for UP CM. Most applicants have 99 or 99+)
(4) It provides you with a sufficient fallback if ever you fail to pursue medicine for some reason unbeknownst to me at this present time. (You can't just sulk if you don't go to med.)
(5) It interests you. (unless you just want to sleep in your classes all day)

Background and Grades, the premed uncertainty principle

Honestly, for most people (even UP students) no one course suits all of that criteria, with #1 and #2 being extremely difficult to reconcile (The health sciences courses, ideally the courses that prepare you the most for medicine, are notoriously difficult. To put it into perspective, UP Diliman, the flagship campus, had 15 Summa Cum Laudes. Meanwhile, UP Manila, the health sciences campus, only had 2, Paco and Bea, BS Biochemistry and Biology, respectively). I suppose if I were to break up the courses, I'd say there were three kinds of courses. Note: some courses don't fall into these criteria and thus will not be mentioned here. This is pretty much based on the popular premeds of choice.

A.) An "easy" course (I'm using the term lightly since no course is truly easy) that prepares you least for medicine. - I would put BS Psychology, Anthropology, Education here, since you can get a really high GWA with relatively less effort. I would also include courses like Area Studies, Behavioral Sciences and Development Studies (offered in UP Manila) since there is always at least one person from these courses that slips past. Employment is variable, depending on your specialization really, but it's usually corporate.

B.) An intermediate course which gives you a rough idea of what to study during medicine while having the right difficulty to ensure that you can still get high grades as long as you put your back into it. - I would put my own degree, BS Biology, here, since the course is challenging (Curse you Math 17) but many of those in the batch still proceeded to graduate with honors (with one summa). I would include BS Public Health and BS Medical Technology in this too since they also have relatively more Latin honor graduates than other courses in the health sciences. I'd also put BS Biochemistry and Chemistry here too, since they still garner plenty of cum laudes, though their course is honestly also quite difficult (though they don't have duty, so I wouldn't class it under the next criteria). These are usually the pure science courses, which usually require masters for decent employment opportunities.

C.) A hard course (health course usually) that can completely prepare you for the lifestyle (yes it's a lifestyle) of the health sciences and professions though usually has a toll on one's grades since the subjects are both physically (duty) and mentally (hard) taxing, and there are some rumors about profs deliberately lowering grades (curving down? is there such a word? haha) to discourage their graduates from going to medicine. - BS Nursing is the epitome of this. Graduates have pretty much already worked with doctors at this point, and some of them even chastise interns. Basically anything in the health sciences falls under this. Nursing. Pharmacy. Physical Therapy. I suppose Public Health would fall under this as well, but I separated them since they usually do well enough to proceed with medicine anyway, while people who usually pursue the other courses here usually just stick with their chosen career. BS Molecular Bio and Biotech also falls in here, since I've heard they have a high mortality rate. The ADVANTAGE of these courses however is that you have a definite fall back if you don't proceed to medicine (providing you past your licensure exams mehehe).

The NMAT

What about the NMAT? Honestly, the NMAT is a really easy exam. If you've taken the UPCAT, it's exactly the same, taken four years later. Thus, you would have grown more intellectually, and thus the exam gets easy. I included it in the criteria since I've noticed that some courses do better in the NMAT than others (I think BS Biology excels the most, with only their Social Sciences pulling them down, but other degree like PH, Bio/Chem, and anything science related also garner high scores). Generally, a BS degree should give you all the necessary information you will need to ace the NMAT. It's just a matter of preparing for the exam, and just using your wits (half of it is an IQ test, so I'm sure you'll know how you'll do there). There are plenty of review centers as well, but honestly the best thing to do is just listen in class when the pertinent NMAT subjects are taught to you :)

Fallbacks

As for fall backs. Well, honestly, the best courses for falling back on are the ones with a firm industry. I would say the health sciences are the most secure in terms of job security among the other courses I've mentioned above. The sciences (both pure and social) would usually entail two tracks of careers, academe/research, and industry/corporate. Unfortunately, some degrees lack the latter, such as my own BS Biology degree, making job finding rather difficult if you fail to pursue medicine or other graduate degrees. I'm lucky I found a job at the Mind Museum hahaha. If you have the money to pursue medicine though, this shouldn't be a factor. You should take the last factor into consideration, which is interest in your chosen premed, just in case you start to realize that med isn't really for you after all.

Interest

Interest. Interest. Interest. Basically, you need interest in the course for two reasons. One, you're going to be willing to study the degree and all its components despite having no intention of pursuing it as a career in the future. Two, you wouldn't mind pursuing it if you decide you don't want medicine anymore. Put it into perspective. Your real preparation for your intended career doesn't begin until you're around 20-22. You're just preparing for your preparation during your undergraduate degree. You better fricking like it. So, you choose a course that really intrigues you. I chose BS Biology in 2008 since I loved Biology in high school and since I honestly didn't mind pursuing a research and or academic career if I didn't pursue medicine. Oddly enough that's what happened, but I have no regrets whatsoever, since my job in the Mind Museum looks extremely promising and very rewarding.

So, I can't decide your premed for you. But I can give you a rough guideline on how to choose the ideal premed for you. :) I hope anyone who reads this learns from it :)

Things to remember when applying for the College of Medicine in UP.

The thread in question was written due to one's certain interest in UP's College of Medicine. Thus, here are some pointers that you must take into consideration if you ever plan to pursue this.

1. UP tries to democratize admissions. - What does this mean? It just means that it tries to get as many people from as different backgrounds as possible. Thus they put a quota on the number of Bio students, and try to get in some students from different backgrounds, such as Computer Science, Dev Stud, Fine Arts, etc. Of course, grades and NMAT are the absolute criteria with these courses as well, so if you decide on pursuing these courses, do your best.
2. It's harder for girls to get in. - WHAT!?! That's sexist! Here me out. Girls usually have higher grades than boys. Unfortunately (or fortunately for boys), UP sets a 50-50 cap on the student population. Thus, girls compete among themselves, while guys do the same. As girls have higher grades, that means that the minimum grade to be in a secure spot is higher for them than for boys, making the competition a lot tougher. As for why there's a quote in the first place, no one but the insiders know. Perhaps it's to stop a male drought? Perhaps it's because women tend to get pregnant and stop studying? I don't know.
3. There are 160 slots total. - 40 are automatically allocated to the Intarmed, leaving 120 slots, 60 for each sex. 10 of those in a batch would be MD/PHD students who opted for the 8 year program :)
4. BS Psych usually gets the most applicants - They usually garner around 30 slots per batch. BS Bio UPD gets around 20, while Bio UPM gets around 15 into the college.
5. Some have it lucky. - There are certain slots allocated to the children of UP doctors. They're affectionately called "anak ng diyos". Just keep this in mind.
6. UP has RSA (Return Service Agreement) - You need to serve the Philippines for 2-3 years, within 5 years, before you go and do whatever you want in your life. Haha. Think of it like this. UP is subsidized by the government, so you're technically a government investment. They need to maximize their cash, so you can't blame them for doing this.
7. There are also allocated slots of people from the provinces. - UP Med has something called the Regionalization program, where they get one person from each region to study in the college, and send them back to the provinces to do their return service. If you're from the province, you're lucky. :)
8. Study study study. - Grades are more or less 80% of the criteria used for selecting whether you get into UP. You're gonna need at least a cum laude to get in, and if you're from a school other than UP, you better be a magna or summa. :)
9. Your CV doesn't mean anything. - Unlike ASMPH, which asks you to submit a CV, and UST which requires certification from your different organizations, UP doesn't ask for that. There are only three things they look at, your grades, your NMAT, and your interview. I suppose what you did on your CV will help you on the interview, but aside from that, just study if you really want to get into UP.
10. UP isn't the only med school - There are many others, so if ever you don't get in, there are plenty other ways to serve the people. Patients won't care where you graduated from. And honestly, if you want to get into UP solely because it's UP, then honestly you're not the kind of student that deserves to get into UP. :)

Hope it all helps :)

On the UPCAT

I'd like to apologize for the lack of activity on this blog for the past few weeks. A lot of things have been going in my life which have prevented me from being as verbal as I would usually be given the ample amount of free time. Today marks the end of hopefully one of the last hell weeks I shall experience in my undergraduate life. It's been a crazy few days, marked by exams plus the continuation of our thesis protocol, and though thesis is still not done, I'm grateful that my other academic requirements are sorted out so at least I can focus on things one at a time again.

But first, let's talk about something that really piqued my interest last weekend. The University of the Philippines College Admission Test (or UPCAT) results for those who took it in August 2012 has finally been released last Saturday, which I'm sure caused thousands of students to rejoice, and tens of thousands more heartbreaks among the Filipino student body. I know my statement seems hyperbolic, I mean it's just one school among thousand others in the country. But UP is a special university. The University of the Philippines is considered to be the undisputed, peerless, national university in our country. Those who enter (and leave, after much suffering) the University are considered to be the ultimate cream of the crop of our country. This, coupled with the fact that it is cheaper than Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle, makes it the ideal choice for those who want the best education they can possibly get this side of Asia.

I remember when I first took the UPCAT on August 2, 2008. I overslept, which means I had to go to the testing center in UP Clark without showering. I arrived there just as the queue was starting to dissipate, thus, I crept behind and fell in line right at the end. We ended up taking our exam in the Library, where it was made into a makeshift testing center strewn with dozens and dozens of cheap mono bloc arm chairs. At least it was cold. I couldn't really remember the test questions that well, but there were two things that were extremely vivid for me. The first was the difficulty I had in taking the mathematics portion of the UPCAT, which can be attributed to my atrocious background on maths in high school. The second thing that struck me was the shock that I received upon turning the page and discovering that more than half of the reading comprehension portion would be in Filipino (sigh). I eventually left the testing center around 12 NN, and slowly walked through Clark, depressed, eating the sandwiches Mom eagerly prepared for me to eat during the test. I never anticipated the fact of passing the UPCAT, for me the examination was way out of my league and I truly felt like I was unworthy to enter the University and be deemed an "Iskolar ng Bayan". Not to mention the fact that I deliberately put quota courses on my application form, banking on the notion that "If it's meant for me, it's meant for me" (I believe it was BS Biology and BS Nursing for UP Manila, while I put BS Biology and BS Chemistry in UP Diliman, hah). Fate eventually dictated things differently however, and taking this exam would change my life permanently.

It was around February when I found out my UPCAT results. A week prior to the release, I already discovered online that I passed the University of Santo Tomas Entrance Test (or USTET), with both my choices up and ready, namely BS Biology and BS Nursing. I was fully psyched to go to Manila now, I didn't even bother taking the local AUFCAT (Angeles University Foundation... you get the picture). I was chilling at my friend Ron's house when I suddenly opted to check the UPCAT application form page. After numerous refreshes and many gritted teeth, I eventually saw my name of the website. 2009-16678, ROZEE, WILLIAM DEREK F. MANILA. BS BIOLOGY. You can imagine the ecstasy I was feeling then. I passed my first choice on my first campus! Talk about a dream come true. It took me a few weeks to eventually persuade my mother to allow me to go to Manila, and eventually she succumbed to my desires. We went to Manila around March to confirm my slot in UP Manila and to retrieve my recognition certificate from the Department of Immigration. I first saw UPM. It was underwhelming, and extremely bleak, but oddly enough it had a cozy vibe that just felt right for me. The campus, though not the lush beauty of UP Diliman, was still better than any of the surrounding schools in the vicinity. Seeing all the health science majors all around me also caused me to be more excited as well, causing me to finally realize "damn, I'm going to a premed, I'm preparing to be a doctor". Oh what bliss.

Long story short, now I'm hear looking back on when I first entered the University. It's rather melancholic, considering I was expecting to be here for around 5 years longer. Alas, that seems to not be the case anymore, and after this March I shall say goodbye to my dear UP Naming Mahal. I shall truly, truly, deeply miss you UP, you're one of the most important things that has ever happened to my life, and I'll never forget all the bittersweet moments you and I had together. To pass UP was a privilege that only so few can ever achieve, and I'm truly grateful that I was able to experience your majesty, if only ever so briefly. Thank you so much.

To pass the UPCAT is an honor. But it is not only that, it is also a privilege, and to attain that privilege, one must pay for it. You won't pay in cash (some will argue that you will but it's relative), but you'll pay with your soul. Why's that? You will never be the same once you enter the university, I guarantee it. And as an Iskolar ng Bayan, you have to give back what you gained in UP to those that need it most, Filipino people. UP isn't only a training ground for the best and brightest. It's also a training ground for the future heroes of the country, those who use their smarts for the betterment and development of our dear nation. To the new Iskolar ng Bayans, seize this once in a lifetime opportunity. Why UP? Simple. You'll never be the same, but you'll never be better either. ;)

I'll continue my tirade another time. I've been sleep deprived for days and I must catch up on shut eyes, or else I'll gain weight. Lol. I hope to talk about med school as well as the concept of a hell week.

Hwyl!