Hi! I’m a junior (stats: homeschooled, ~3.7cGPA, 31cACT which will be retaken, an AA degree dual-enrollment with a 3.96cGPA in college courses) who is graduating early. This was a late occurrence, so I’m really behind on getting a school list and essays together and everything. I’d appreciate some input on Hampshire.
I plan on attending an MD/Ph.D. program after undergrad. To get into these programs you have to have extensive independent research experience. Usually 2-3+ years. Is this kind of in-depth engagement with experiments available at Hampshire?
How is the pre-med track? How many people actually follow through and get admitted to a medical school?
I saw something about an entire lab dedicated to neuroendocrinology on the school website, can anyone tell me more about that?
If Hampshire professors don’t conduct research in your field can you work in a lab at one of the other 5 colleges?
Is there a cap on the number of courses you can take at the other colleges?
How rigorous are the science courses available at Hampshire? I read the course lists from this year, and all of the NS courses seem pretty 101-level, is this the wrong impression?
Also, what sorts of mental health resources are there on campus?
Is there an easily accessible pharmacy to pick up prescriptions?
Please ignore the old posts on this account, I used to use the internet as a dumping ground for my psychotic episodes so I wasn’t very coherent or reasonable. Thanks in advance for your replies!
While the proportion of students concentrating in the natural sciences is probably lower than other small liberal arts colleges, those students attend grad school at a higher percentage than most other colleges. Hampshire claims that 65% of their graduates earn advanced degrees (https://www.hampshire.edu/admissions/student-outcomes). They also have a high percentage of pre-med students who are accepted into medical schools. You will definitely have to take some courses at other 5-college institutions in order to complete your Med School prerequisites and/or PhD health sciences program. As long as your advisors and committee members approve, you can take a significant fraction of your courses at the other colleges.
The above info is second-hand from both my kids who graduated from Hampshire several years ago, both in the Humanities, but who had friends concentrating in Math and Natural Science disciplines.
My daughter was an RA in the residence halls, and she referred several students to health services for counseling, and they appeared to be well-equipped in this area. You would have to take a short bus ride to get to a pharmacy, probably the best choice is Amherst.