I admit, I have been avoiding this one for quite some time because I am pretty sure I am going to start a massive rant about something that most of you probably don't care about. So, please just don't read this if you're not in the mood for my rant (rather go check out my much lighter, easy-going blog here, hehe some self-advertising)....
Okay so recently I have been doing all my applying to universities because I am almost finished with school. I have found this application process very stressful, and in general the idea that I have to choose what courses I want to do for the next 4-8 years. I want to do medicine, I know what a hard life it is said to be and how hard the course is (especially here in SA because of the often horrible community service years). But no matter how much I try to talk myself out of it, as cheesy as it sounds, its just like it was meant to be. I can't describe why or how but I just know its what I want more than anything. So here in Cape Town, we have the best university in Africa and ranked 200 in the world, UCT. It is literally like my dream university and all I want is to study medicine there. But it is very likely that I will not get in. My marks are not terrible I am getting a mid A grade point or average and I am working really hard. But despite this, I am still about 7% off from my goal. The university has implemented a system to try bring more equality after Apartheid about 20 years ago. So what they've done is they say that black students need 10% less in their average to get into exactly the same course that I want to get into. This means that if something as small as the colour of my skin, a physical feature that in no way defines us or our academic ability, I would get into my course without an issue. I am not undermining the wrongs of Apartheid but this system, in my opinion is completely flawed (although I won't go into that now). The other thing to do with my wanting to get into medicine is the requirements they have. This is absolutely no exaggeration when I say that they (for white students) want you to get 90% average for each of your subjects. This is crazy. A good doctor is not simply defined by their intelligence. And I have spoken to many many doctors who say that the difficulty level of the course in no way entails you to be so clever that you are one of the maybe 3 people in your school receiving marks like this. One last thing, while I am in full swing, who says that those people who are getting these kind of marks will be good doctors? Yes, maybe they will catch concepts slightly quicker than someone like me, but just because you reach these requirements doesn't say that you are caring, or compassionate or good with people or anything else that being a doctor would entail. So many clever people simply choose it because of the glamorous idea of becoming a doctor if you are clever, but I don't think they quite realise what they are doing when they take a course that they don't actually want to do and later drop out. They are taking away the spots of people like me. Sure, they got in, they have the right to take it and all, but I am just upset and mad that UCT haven't considered the fact that these marks, for the large majority of people, are unreachable. Please don't comment and say that to be a doctor you need these marks, etc because I understand how I could sound unreasonable. But look at it from my perspective. It has left me angry and upset, and I am left trying to choose alternate courses to get into medicine a bit later, although that adds like another 3 years to my studying time. I don't know, just a rant that most of you can't relate to... but to answer the question, that is it.
