<p>If anyone could tell me about the pre-med experience at Amherst, I’d appreciate it.</p>
<p>I have a couple questions:
~I’ve never been to visit Amherst–is there a hospital w/in a reasonable distance that students can volunteer/shadow at? Are there places nearby where students can get internships during the school year?</p>
<p>~I’m also curious about Amherst EMS–being a volunteer EMT in college sounds like an awesome experience. Do they get to drive ambulances to the hospital, or simply stabilize the patient while waiting for an “official” ambulance to arrive?</p>
<p>Any other thoughts/opinions on the difficulty of the pre-med classes at Amherst compared with other schools or anything else in general would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>No formal pre-med at Amherst. There are many students who majored in bio, neuroscience, etc., that have gone on to med school, however, and even apparent or two on this site that sit on med school admission committees.</p>
<p>1) There's no hospital, the closest being in Northampton. However, there is a clinic pretty close by, and when all else fails, there's always UMass.</p>
<p>2) ACEMS is pretty much there as an emergency dispatch on Saturday nights to help resuscitate critically intoxicated students. I'm sure they handle a lot of other emergencies, though, but if you join up with ACEMS, there's a pretty good chance that you'll spend most of your time reviving drunks.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I'm well aware of the fact that pre-med isn't a major...I'm actually planning on majoring in neuroscience. If anyone could tell me more about the neuroscience offerings over there, that'd be great. Is it a really popular major? </p>
<p>That's kinda sad that ACEMS doesn't do much more than "reviving drunks"...having a good volunteer EMS program is something I want in a college. </p>
<p>How about the research opportunities: are there psychology and neuroscience professors doing cool stuff over there? Does not having a hospital nearby limit the amount of neuroscience research that can be done?
(for example, I worked in a hospital this summer and they had this awesome fMRI machine that could record brain activity, but I would assume that Amherst doesn't have one of those because it costs millions)</p>
<p>Neuroscience is not an enormously popular major because it has the most required classes of any major, 16 I think. It is an interdiscplinary major, that entails taking classes in bio, chem, physics, and psych, in addition to taking the introductory neuroscience class. I don't know much about research opportunities and such, but I know that the professors here do both research and teaching, and opportunities are there for the ambitious student.</p>
<p>I am an Amherst grad who is now a physician-scientist. Liberal arts colleges provide excellent training grounds for young scientists; in fact, a number of small colleges send more students to Ph.D programs per capita than any major university. In recognition of this, the National Science Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institutes provide generous support for research programs for undergraduates at Amherst and many other colleges with strong science programs. If you choose to do a research thesis project, you will work closely with a professor on his/her project. There will be no competing graduate students or post-doctoral fellows. There also will be opportunities to publish your research. You can check with each of the different science departments to see what the professors are doing and find out what they are publishing. </p>
<p>Having given my boost for sciences at liberal arts colleges, I also would argue that science there is different than at a major university or medical school. The core infrastructure, the critical mass of scientists who are working in diverse fields with different expertise, the large community of grad students and fellows, and the graduate level courses/visiting lecturers are not there. These are the types of environments where much of the major work in the biomedical sciences are being done now. My suggestion would be to work at such a research university for one summer if you are seriously considering a career in science to see what a research career is like on a day to day basis. There are many Amherst alumni doing medical research who are willing to help sponsor summer students. Additionally, Amherst students do very well at competitive programs such as those offered at the NIH for college students.</p>
<p>In terms of what it is like to be premed at Amherst, I would talk with current students to find out what courses are like there. I have worked in medical school admissions so I also have that perspective. I can say that Amherst premeds tend to major or sometimes double major in a variety of different fields, and do very well in terms of medical school admissions. Historically, there is about a 90% acceptance rate. Candidates who do well there should gain admission to a top medical school. Another advantage of attending a small college, is that professors will know you personally, and can write strong letters on your behalf. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I fully agree with the post by "pmyen." I've followed this thread and will paste a response that I had previously posted on a similar AC thread last year. The question was whether the AC pre-med/neuroscience education is compromised by the lack of a grad school. Here's what I said:</p>
<p>"The presence of a graduate school is both an advantage and disadvantage. Undergraduates will compete with graduate students for lab positions, and for the attention of the PI's in the lab. And you need to understand that sometimes undergrad and grad neuroscience programs don't interact so smoothly - there's a lot of administrative bureaucracy that doesn't always serve the "little guy" (you) well. Furthermore, even at [prestigious graduate programs], there is substantial pressure on Profs to generate grants $$ and publications, and this means that teaching skills and time must suffer. </p>
<p>At Amherst, teaching undergraduates is the focus. That's all they do. When faculty get reviewed for tenure, grants and publications are discussed a bit, but the real emphasis is on teaching evaluations. That's what Amherst professors do: they teach. They spend lots and lots of time honing their message and their lecture and their delivery to make sure that it conveys the facts and excitement of the field in the most effective way. You can't do that if you're writing grants and publishing papers to survive the next review cycle.</p>
<p>Your goal as an undergrad neuroscience/premed major should be to learn as much as possible, and this is always best accomplished with a great teacher, who can dedicate time and energy to mentoring you, particularly in small classes with individualized attention. As a product of the Amherst Neuroscience program (and now an MD/PhD Neuroscientist and Professor at a top Neuroscience grad program for over 15 years), I can tell you that I regularly interact with other AC Neuroscience grads, and they are among the most productive and influential scientists in our field. To a large degree, this reflects the fantastic teaching and mentorship of AC faculty, like Steve George, Al Sorenson (now retired, but who shaped the program in ways that still impact its effectiveness), Lisa Raskin, and more recently, Sarah Turgeon, among others. </p>
<p>I recently co-taught a Ph.D. neuroscience course with another AC Neuroscience grad, and though we left AC almost 30 years ago, we consciously shaped this new course content and instructional style after courses we took under Al Sorenson and Steve George. If anybody wants a real treat, and has any interest in neurobiology, just go sit-in on one of Steve George's lectures. You'll be blown away. Even his final exams were amazing learning experiences."</p>
<p>Agreed, Amherst Alum81E. I took a physiology course with Steve George and it was a fantastic experience! Amherst's strength in the sciences are great teachers who love their fields and are dedicated to their students. My experiences in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics were outstanding. I have forgotten much of my PChem as my work focuses in molecular genetics but I still remember one of the final exam questions: Imagine the universe and describe it if Planck's constant was 6.626 x 10 \34 instead of 6.626 x 10-34 joule-seconds. Like the humanities courses, the science courses encourage students to think outside the box.</p>
<p>Very true! I remember cramming for my first Chem 11 mid-term freshman year and thinking I knew the material only to find a test with 4 questions on it! I don't remember much now, but one of the questions asked something about how much energy there was in sunlight coming through a window 3 feet above the floor at a certain angle. All I remember is that the class average was around 50%. If you got 3/4 right, you got an A. As I recall, about half the "Pre-Meds" starting having second thoughts after that test. I know I did. </p>
<p>My eventual girlfriend ended up pursuing Art History and English after that. She flat out dropped the sciences all together! It wasn't that she couldn't do it. Most of my classmates were top students (if not, THE top student) in high school. She just realized that there were other interests that she had too. Now she's a Latin Professor at one of those Ivy League schools. </p>
<p>I remember starting out as an intended Neuroscience Major. I thought, "How cool is that!" That was one of the reasons I chose Amherst. My ILS course was "Mind." I was psyched. But my Chem 11 grade was pretty average and I started to get worried. My pre-med advisor told me not worry about what my major was. If I wanted to go to med school after Amherst, it wouldn't be a problem. He told me to study whatever I wanted. This was an opportunity that I would never have again. Learn about anything and everything. You will have plenty of time to specialize later. He was right. My eventual major? Religion. Go figure. Started out in Philosophy. Then I got interested in Eastern philosophy, which was in the Religion department. Whatever. Then I discovered Bob Thurman (Uma's father). And that's where I landed. It was a great journey. And I'm so glad I listened to my advisor.</p>
<p>Now, I'm a Neuroradiologist with interests along the lines of yours, I suppose. I'm in private practice, but one of my Amherst classmates is in the same field and she teaches at a residency program in Cali now. She was a Neuroscience/Fine Arts double major. She did her thesis on Navajo sand painting as I recall. fMRI is cool, but check out MEG (Magnetoencephalography). MEG may have a brighter future in functional imaging. It's measuring direct intracellular electrical currents in neurons of the brain, not some residual oxygen metabolite. Doesn't it make more sense to measure the actual impulse, rather than try to read the footprints in the sand? Here's a website that I found that explains MEG if you're interested.</p>
<p>Don't worry so much about the little things. Do that stuff over the summer. If you really want to do research, real bench research (yuch!) then you can certainly find it at Amherst. But if I were you, I'd expand my horizons a bit and learn about Art and Music, history, liturature, etc. You'll have your fill of "stabilizing patients" when you get your residency. Don't worry. You won't get THIS chance again.</p>
<p>BTW, I took Organic Chem at the Harvard Summer Session. MUCH easier to get an A! I heard Silver's course was killer.</p>
<p>Uro, I'm an Amherst prospective with a strong interest in neuroscience (including fMRI and MEG (and EEG too, read my post on the Brown forum)). Can I PM you about you brain imaging/Amherst?</p>