Colbert speaks at MUSC

"Medical school essentially tries to kill you," Stephen Colbert told graduates Friday at Medical University of South Carolina. "If you survive, you get to help other people."

At the university's 180th commencement, students earned diplomas from the colleges of medicine, nursing, graduate studies, pharmacy, dentistry and health professionals — "who are much are better than health amateurs," Colbert said.

The actor and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" tempered the usual advice he gives graduates, which is to go make mistakes.

"The best thing I ever did was give myself the permission to be wrong," he said. "But I can't really give you that advice. I think it's irresponsible for me to tell graduates of a medical college to go out and make as many mistakes as you can."

He congratulated graduates on their transformations. "In the last four years, you've gone from 'I don't want to see that' to 'Hey, come look at this,'" he said.

Shola Gates, 31, of Lexington earned her medical degree and plans to pursue internal medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School in Richmond. She said the sacrifices to her free time were worth it. "I know I'm going to be independent pursuing the career I've always wanted," she said.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.