Mormons and medical school

One of the silent demographic trends is the growth in the number of Mormons. Mormons just have bigger families than other white people (Utah has by far the highest non-Hispanic white Total Fertility Rate in the country), plus they put a lot of effort into proselytizing for conversions. I never thought much about Mormon demographic growth until a couple of years ago when I went to a screening at the Fox Studio in West LA for this little low-budget comedy called "Napoleon Dynamite," which was an odd experience. Most of the people invited to the screening, with the exception of us scrungy film critics, were the usual bright young things who work for the studios, except they were all so wholesome. And they just roared with laughter at all the jokes in the movie that I didn't get. That was my introduction to Mormon Hollywood.

Well, it turned out that "Napoleon Dynamite" (here's my review in The American Conservative) was one of the most profitable films of 2004. My younger son has modeled his laugh ever since on actor Jon Heder's. A whole lot of teenagers across the country, it seems, get Mormon humor, even though I'm too old and over-the-hill to understand what is slaying all the Mormon hipsters.

A reader writes:

I'm a student at a midwestern medical school, and in our class of 200 or so, about 20 of the students are Mormons. I've lived in India, England, and in a few different parts of the U.S., and never in my lifetime have I met a group of people more similar than these Mormon chaps. It's as if they are all cut from exactly the same mold.

There are few if any Mormons in this state. Every single one of these guys is from out of state, typically Utah, but some from other Southwestern states like California and Arizona. They are all graduates of either BYU or U of U. None of them have facial hair. They all have "business" haircuts. They all wear check shirts and khaki pants to class everyday. They are all married with 1 or 2 kids. They have all done 2 years missionary work in some third world country. They never come to the med student parties, since they are not allowed to drink. Nice people though - they never engage in any gossip, and will help you out if you ask for any assistance. If you get them talking about politics, you'll discover they're Republican. Though they tend not to form deep friendships with non-Mormons. Oh yeah, did I mention that they're all dudes? No Mormon women at our medical school.

Now you might think I'm exaggerating on account of anecdotal evidence. But believe me, these guys are everywhere. When I was interviewing in 2003-2004, I ran into 2-3 Mormon guys everywhere I went to interview, including Columbia, Case Western, Emory, etc. And these guys were exactly the same as the ones I've described above: clean cut, 1950's people out of "Leave It To Beaver" with 2-3 kids and 2 years missionary experience.

They say Utah only has one medical school, and that's why so many of these guys are all over the place. But then again Utah is a tiny state, and all else being equal, I don't think that they would need more than 1 med school. I asked one of the Mormon guys if he planned to go back to Utah for his residency, and he told me that in Utah there's too many professionals of all kinds, so it's very hard to get any kind of good job there.

I don't think Mormons in general have higher IQ's, but I think that since they are not allowed to drink, smoke, party, gamble, or any other fun stuff, they are all ultra productive, and even the mediocre ones are able to channel their hard work into success. And medical school does not require all that much in the way of brains (i.e. analytical skills): it's mainly a lot of rote memorization.

Everyone knows about the large number of Jews and Indians in medicine, but in a few years there will be a massive number of these guys too. And you probably won't even notice it because they'll be unassuming Northern European average white guys with nondescript last names like "Smith" and "Young."

By the way, here's my posting on the weird first names you sometimes encounter among Utah Mormons, like EdDean, ElVoid, and LaEarl.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer