ABSTRACT

In applying for professional training, applicants are advised to appear to be already what they hope to become. The essence and thrust of the socialization process in medical school is to yield the model professional who is idealized as a super individual in terms of autonomy, judgment, skills, commitment, and motivation. Student orientation toward medical school does not naturally drift in the direction of flexibility and individual accommodation. Individuals in everyday life are continuously in the process of embracing, presenting, and sustaining multiple identities. Failure to articulate identities in ways appropriate to different situations can create many kinds of interaction problems. Medical students indicated that the first stage commenced years prior to their actual application, when they began to search out, on the basis of research, counseling, advice, and rumor, the criteria that medical schools use to identify promising candidates for medical training.