"I really like science, but I can't imagine spending my life playing with test tubes," said Stephen N. Oesterle '73. "I have a big interest in people, too. As a doctor, I think a can realize both of my interests."

Dr. Paul Arkema, Winthrop House pre-medical advisor, said, "People who might otherwise have gone to research science are now flooding into medicine."

According to Frederic J. Fox '68, pre-medical advisor at Adams House, there is much more money available in combined M. D., Ph.D. programs than there is in graduate or postgraduate programs in biology, chemistry, or physics.

For those who, as President Pusey once described them, "insist on seeking their private goals in social terms," medicine is a logical alternative. Society and government are calling for the delivery of more health care to those who previously have not been able to afford it.

Five years ago the call was for doctors with an interest in scientific research, according to Dr. Daniel H. Funkenstein, an expert in medical trends and a psychiatrist at the Harvard Medical School.

According to Funkenstein, "The reinforcement of students by their peers, society, the government and foundations has shifted away from science to the work in the community. The delivery of health care has become the 'in thing.'"

In the cities there is currently one doctor practicing medicine for roughly every 10,000 people, while in the suburbs there is one doctor for approximately every 700.

"I think there are at least a few more people entering medicine because of a burning desire for social reform," said Fox.

"Students are making their own assessments of where the problems of today's society are and in most cases, these problems come back to medicine," said Dr. Leroy A. Resch of the University of Buffalo.

"Population control, the squandering of resource, pollution-all of these are related to medicine. Health is involved in many social problems-poverty and malnutrition, for example," he said.

One Radcliffe senior who plans to attend medical school next fall said, "I wanted to have some concrete skills to offer to the community. I think medicine is very compatible with that goal."

"I think I can do a lot more for the community as a doctor than I can in any other way," said David C. Chin '71, who plans to enter Harvard Medical School next fall.

Eric G. Wedum '71 said he thinks that the political activity at Harvard over the last three years has contributed to the rise of medical school interest.

"My class entered when Vietnam, poverty, and civil rights were really becoming burning issues. We were charged with a desire to help mankind," he said.

"Some decided to go to medical school, while many others decided to major in government, planning to do social service through politics. I was one of them, but I have slowly discovered that politics wasn't for me. I don't think I could be comfortable as a politician, but that I could be as a doctor," he said.