I am interested in pre med and wanted to know which school would provide the better pathway? I cannot find information on the core in Liberal Arts but am not interested in a heavy arts/history core if that is the case. I was also wondering for pre med if the core biology and chemistry courses are the same of does a student in the science school take those core classes within the school or in the Liberal Arts school? How large are the intro courses for pre med? thanks…
You are confusing the way Tulane is structured with other schools. You are accepted to Newcomb-Tulane College, (NTC), which contains the five undergrad schools. Besides the two you mention there is Business, Architecture, and Public Health & Tropical Medicine. Which school you end up being associated with depends entirely on what major you choose. If you pick chemistry, for example, you will be in SS&E. There is no Chem major choice in SLA. Alternatively, if you choose anthropology as a major, you will be in SLA. If you choose finance, you will be in the Freeman School of Business.
Now of course you can be any major and be pre med. Being pre med only means that you take the courses all med schools require: 4 semesters of Chem with labs, 2 of biology with lab, 2 of physics, English that has expository writing requirements, and I think most want Calc these days, but the pre med advisors help with all of that. Then you take the MCAT, apply to med schools and hopefully get accepted. While most med school applicants are science majors, there are a healthy minority that majored in music, philosophy, history, etc. In fact Tulane has a program called Creative Premedical Scholars which allows for early acceptance into Tulane Med without taking the MCAT, and requires a non-science major. You can search for the link on the Tulane home page.
So to get to your question, those chem, bio, physics and calc courses are identical no matter your major or which school you are associated with. Many students are undeclared until the end of sophomore year and so have no affiliation except for the umbrella NTC, which is really the affiliation most students feel anyway. There may be courses in chem and physics offered by SS&E for non-science majors, but I am pretty sure they wouldn’t count for a pre med student. The intro courses you would be taking can be large by Tulane standards, 75-200 give or take. Still, this is much smaller than the typical public and many other privates. Most of your classes will be 10-25, depending on your major and other choices.
Oh, and the core curriculum is largely set at the NTC level, with tweaks in each of the schools. But if you are a science major, there is not a heavy arts/history core at all. Even if your major ends up falling in SLA, the major itself will take care of the kinds of courses you are talking about, and your pre med courses will take care of the rest other than foreign language.
Hi… that was very helpful. I was under the impression I had to pick which of those schools I wanted to apply to.Now i i have a much clearer understanding. Thanks again
It is one of the things that makes Tulane fairly unique among highest level research universities. Also, it is why it is easier to double major at Tulane than at many other places.
We live in Louisiana and have a family friend who has a very high position in the Tulane Medical School organization. When we went to Preview Day for Louisiana residents, he attended with his daughter and had a long talk with my daughter. He advised her to major in a liberal arts subject and minor in a science discipline. He feels like medical schools are looking for more well-rounded students. The nice thing about Tulane is a student can take courses from any department–that makes it very attractive.
Thank you for your input. As long as I take the necessary courses to score well on the MCAT exam that logic makes perfect sense to me. I was under the impression they wanted to see very high level additional science courses as a preparation for medical school.
That was the thinking for a long time at most med schools, although they have always admitted people with non-science majors. I want to second what @luckymama64 said about the “new” trend. The overemphasis on science majors is waning. I only put new in quotes because Tulane has been ahead of its time on this for quite awhile. Tulane for a long time has had the Creative Premedical Scholars Program which I mentioned above. The requirement being that you are NOT a science major, or more precisely that you are a liberal arts major. For some reason business majors are not eligible for that program, even though that is not a science major.
Wow, @fallenchemist, I just looked up that program at Tulane. That is AMAZING. That might even sway my daughter to Tulane.