Oh, hell no. Back in my basic science days, course directors would e-mail the class to make sure we had them, if necessary (mainly if patients came in to talk about their condition with the class. It was considered professional to dress up and wear the coats). Nowadays, getting to wear jeans and abandon the coat is a big deal. It’s lovely not to have to iron something in the morning.
The coats aren’t even really required third year. In psychiatry, you are told not to wear them. I mostly keep mine because the pockets in those suckers are amazing. Seriously. You wouldn’t believe the amount of crap I stuff into my pockets. There are five (!) pockets in those coats and they are large enough to hold many medical books, published for just this purpose. This is especially valuable when wearing a skirt or scrubs. Hell, with scrubs, the number of pagers would sometimes drag my pants down (http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com/). The coat eliminates all these problems.
Re:hazing.
I’ll I’ve got is a story that isn’t even mine…
http://ahyesmedschool.blogspot.com/2005/04/tales-from-crypt-ii-bat-out-of-hell.html