My D is admitted student and considering pre med studies . How is the advising program for pre health ? Is she assigned one immediately at start of school or does she need to make an appointment? Does the university support all candidates who wish to apply? Are there committee letters written on behalf of each candidate? How strong is the preparation at Tulane for the pre-med student? How large are the Bio and Chem classes? Aside from the creative scholar program how successful are the candidates? How easy is it to obtain research with a prof or a shadowing opportunity during the school year? Does the university help obtaining these or is it up to the student to find one which can be difficult. Thanks!
My daughter is a 2nd semester freshman on a premed track. You will be assigned a regular advisor and then encouraged to also set up time with one of the professional track advisors a couple of times each year. It is the students responsibility to proactively set up time with the professional track advisor.
I am currently a biomedical engineering major and a pre-med student at Tulane and th 1711 is correct. There is no official “pre-med major/program” unless you are in the creative scholars program or the dual admissions program. The regular pre-med program is more of a set of guidelines provided that covers basically the prerequisites of most medical schools. These guidelines include extra activities, volunteering, job shadowing, and most importantly courses to take. There are 2 pre-health advisors and you can set up an appointment online at anytime. Though technically not assigned, your daughter can contact them whenever she feels like it. Her freshman advisor will also know some more details regarding pre-med stuff because many students at Tulane start out pre-med. The pre-health advisors mostly guide you along in the rigorous schedule that pre-med students follow. The actual implementation of those guidelines and schedules is up to your daughter.
As for committee letters, the pre-health advisors are not in charge of. They can definitely get your daughter in contact with the people writing committee letters, but they will not do it for your daughter nor do they guarantee every candidate will receive a committee letter since “pre-med” isn’t an official label in the system.
I don’t know what you mean by does the university support each candidate, but I know that the mentors your daughter will have will help her significantly in her pursue of medical school.
As for the strength of preparation, the classes are rigorous and all of the material covered on the MCAT can be taken as a class. They have the schedules worked out for many majors to accommodate pre-med classes. They offer mock interviews, connections to MCAT study programs, and can locate local clinical experiences for your daughter. All of the other special stuff that will make your daughter standout as a good med school applicant will depend on how actively your daughter is reaching out to faculty and engaging in the community.
Intro Bio and Chem classes are large lecture hall style classes. Typically they will have 150-200 people in lecture. If your daughter decides to attend Tulane, I recommend Donahue for Chem.
Success really depends on the applicant’s proactiveness as “pre-med” isn’t really a major. If your daughter gets good grades, scores well on the MCAT, completes her necessary clinical experience, etc., she will be a good candidate. Tulane puts more responsibility on the student rather than the program because it really is up the student to prepare him/herself for medical school.
Research with professors depends on your daughter’s major. Some major is easy. Others take some more connections. I can comment more if you know your daughter’s major.
Again, no. Tulane doesn’t actively help students obtain positions in labs. Faculty will offer opportunities and there are internship sites designated specifically for Tulane students that they can apply for. The university itself will not, say, email your daughter with “Hi we would like you give you a position in a lab. Here’s a list.” There are also societies (pre-med society, SSE honors society) that will send out notifications of upcoming opportunities.
To summarize:
Tulane definitely has opportunities
Help and guidance is available in many places
Compared to many other universities, opportunities are easy to obtain
Ultimately it is still up to the student to make him/herself a desirable med school candidate