OP-ED: If You Want to Be a Doctor to Help People, Why Are You Wrecking the Curve?

Look, I get it. You’ve wanted to be a doctor your whole life, and Harvard Med doesn’t care much for sub-3.9 GPA-types. You’re not going to let a little thing like Organic Chemistry get in the way of your hopes and dreams.

And it’s great, really. You love helping people; can’t stand the sight of suffering and all that. But something’s been bothering me. Something doesn’t fit, and I have a question for you.

You do realize you’re not helping anyone by making the mean of every midterm you breathe on five points higher, right?

We’ve got dreams too, you know. I’m sorry if I can’t quite match the tenor of your ambitions, but that doesn’t mean you can turn us into your stepping stones.

It didn’t have to be this way. I'm pretty sure that you single-handedly pushed my GPA below the threshold for at least a dozen internships, and I know at least three people who are going to be stranded after graduation because of you.

None of this would have happened if you had just been a bit more chill about that final. But you weren't, and look where we are now.

So yeah, I hope you have a great career bringing aid to the suffering and being a beacon of hope to the bereaved.