["Sociological Forum, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nFor some time now, medical education research has documented increased levels of undesirable outcomes as a byproduct of professionalization, such as decreased mental health and increased burnout. Whether or not some of these trends begin at an earlier point remains a primary gap in this research. We introduce the concept of boredom proneness to this research, proposing that students' sense of the flow of time is an important factor, and outline how this affects their health throughout their undergraduate studies. Trait measures of boredom tap into not merely momentary discomfort with a context or situation, but a deeper existential challenge of socially‐induced discordance with a self in time. This study uses unique data following three consecutive cohorts of pre‐health undergraduate students in a small liberal arts college through all 4 years of undergrad (n = 530). We use random intercept autoregressive structural equation models to show how burnout, mental health, overall health, social support, and a novel measure of boredom proneness change throughout time. We find that trait boredom is highly time‐invariant. Importantly, we find that boredom is a potent predictor of burnout and decreased health (mental and overall health) over time. In fact, boredom is a more potent predictor of worse mental health than the same measure from prior waves.\n"]