<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am a parent of high school student who is at Boarding school in new England Area. My D is considering Wellesley Premed program, and we''d like to know how much percent of the premed program actually got into medical school after 4 years. And also we'd like to know how Wellesley Premed program is run and managed. We'd appreciate your infor about Wellesley Premed. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>I don’t remember the exact percentage but I remember it being quite high. </p>
<p>Wellesley does not have a pre-med program per se. You can take the classes you need to meet pre-med requirements (bio, chem, physics, etc) and have whatever major you like. Completing the requirements is not that hard, but it does require a bit of planning (you don’t want to have to cram everything in senior year). </p>
<p>There is a pre-med advisor and an advisory committee for applications. They start meeting with you your junior year if you are interested in applying to medical school, and they are there for advice throughout the entire process. They also sponsor events to talk about medical schools, the application process, the MCAT, etc. </p>
<p>If you decide you are still interested in medicine, but either do not want to attend medical school right after college or look into a similar field later on in life (public health, biostatistics, etc), you can add yourself to the mailing list so that even after graduation, you will get updates about events, deadlines, and fellowships.</p>
<p>If you have more specific questions, it may be helpful to contact the Pre-Med Advisor directly: Sheila Brachfeld-Child, Department of Psychology. Her contact information is: <a href=“mailto:sbrachfe@wellesley.edu”>sbrachfe@wellesley.edu</a><a href=“781”>/email</a> 283-3145</p>
<p>There is also more information here: [Health</a> Professions](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/CWS/students/healthgs.html]Health”>http://www.wellesley.edu/CWS/students/healthgs.html)</p>
<p>I think its something like 75%. My daughter is a '12 and in the program. Check out this link: [Biology</a> After Wellesley | Biological Sciences | Wellesley College](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/alumnae.html]Biology”>http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/alumnae.html) </p>
<p>We love the school, and after she spent last summer at another school taking physics, she realized how special the education at Wellesley is. Go Blue!</p>
<p>The number that I always hear tossed around is upwards of 70% go on to top med schools (the other 30%? maybe they go to just “good” med schools, or decide to take a year off, etc). Regardless, the percentage is very high & pretty amazing in comparison to other schools & programs. Wellesley has a very strong pre-med major, and several of my friends are pre-med students. I’ve never seen a bunch of harder working women, with the amount of hours they dedicate to their studies and doing research/completing their work while maintaining involvement with other organizations & even sometimes, having some fun with friends. </p>
<p>The wellesley college website will give you all the nitty gritty details about the pre-med requirement, how many labs need to be taken, what to major in as a pre-med student, etc. I also recommend that your daughter, if she comes here, join the Hippocratic society, which is for pre-med students and future doctors. I know that there are a lot of pre-med students and that the advisors for those students are extremely approachable and intelligent, and I think the structure, while I don’t know it personally, must be pretty good because of how many future doctors come out of the program. If you would like to speak with current pre-med students I would advise calling the admissions office & seeing if they could set you up with a student to answer your questions. Or I can ask some of my pre-med friends if you have any other specific questions :)</p>
<p>Hoppipolla, there is NO pre-med major. You cannot graduate from Wellesley with your major on your transcript as “pre-med.” We are a liberal arts college and as such, do not have pre-profressional majors. If you choose to complete courses required for medical school, you can, but your major is not “pre-med”</p>
<p>Since there is a high percentage of acceptance to medical school does that make the pre med track not that difficult at wellesley. I know that any pre med track at any college is very difficult, but did your friends find it easier than say their friends in different colleges who were also in premed?</p>
<p>My D is not pre-med, but I would say that in her experience the course work is not easy at Wellesley. She has taken a couple of summer classes at another institution and found it to be MUCH easier. She also had friends at another institution taking the same foreign language as her the same term - the other students got more credit for it (5 hours vs 4) and covered only half of what she covered in her class. They even used the same textbook - D’s class finished it half-way through the term and began on another textbook; her friends used the first textbook the entire term.</p>
<p>I have a friend who was pre-med at Wellesley–she certainly did not find it easy! She is also taking a year off before applying to med school, which I think is not uncommon. I know that quite a few people in her classes got into really good med schools, and that the premed advisor(s) are <em>very</em> involved in helping students do their best to get into med school. From the casual observer perspective I think that Wellesley does a very good job by premed students.</p>
<p>At many colleges freshman biology/pre meds are quite common. For various
reasons, e.g., organic chemistry etc., a large percentage decide the pre med
sequence is not for them or they just don’t wish to become a doctor. Does anyone
have a rough attrition statistic (%) for Wellesley?</p>
<p>Curious – Thanks</p>
<p>David</p>
<p>I don’t know what the attrition statistic is for Wellesley, but something to keep in mind is that Wellesley doesn’t “screen out” pre-meds. In other words, the school supports ALL students who decide to apply to med school. This is not always the case at some universities/colleges, where some will only support the top students in their application, so their med school admit rate might be skewed. I hope this makes sense.</p>
<p>In other words, to be pre-med at Wellesley, it is up to the student to say so and take the appropriate classes. You don’t have to have a minimum GPA in the pre-med track courses or have a minimum MCAT score. Certainly, the advising is personal enough so that depending on your overall credentials, advisers and faculty can give students realistic information and advice and applying to schools.</p>
<p>JA- Thanks for this positive information. It would seem that if the
70% accept rate to medical schools is accurate, then Wellesley is working
with ALL the students who wish to keep plugging away and moving
forward with the pre med course sequence. This is good making the
tuition expense worthwhile. </p>
<p>If someone has contradictory info I’d like a response.</p>
<p>.02 David</p>
<p>I agree 100% with jacinth_ambrose. By her own admittance my friend is not the strongest med school applicant in terms of performance in science courses, but she has never been dissuaded from applying for med school and the pre-med advisor gives her the same amount of advice as anyone, tailored to her particular situation. The pre-med advisor tends/tended to be rather blunt with her about the challenges in her application, but never unfair or discouraging.</p>
<p>I’ve been through the system, and have to add that I was thoroughly impressed with the pre-heath advisory board at Wellesley. They do make you go through many hoops early on (e.g. declaration of coursework, extracurriculars, grades, scores, etc… are due to the advisory board like the Nov before you even apply, and all your rec letters are due in by March), and that can be annoying, but they make sure that you are prepared. </p>
<p>For students who are compliant with their timeline, the advisory board will bend over backwards to help you, even if you apply after you’ve graduated. I applied to veterinary schools, which the board was not nearly as knowledgeable about. But every time I was stumped, but couldn’t get straight answers from admissions no matter how hard I tried, Sheila herself would pick up the phone and work things out for me. Or if I had several questions about how to input this or that on my application, Sheila would schedule the time to call me and explain. She is in regular contact with many medical schools and have great relationships with them, so she is someone who can really vouch for you. </p>
<p>And furthermore, the first year medical/veterinary school curriculum is a joke if you’ve immersed yourself heavily in the sciences at Wellesley. This is not true if you’re one of those people who only take the required pre-reqs and not any other sciences for fear of hurting your GPA. So if you do go to Wellesley as a pre-health student, I would highly encourage you to take as many upper level sciences as you can because it will invariably help in the professional curriculum. (Don’t take the accelerated classes though… because medical schools don’t care if they’re accelerated, and THAT will only hurt your grades)</p>
<p>One thing I will say though, is that students early on in their pre-health track (1st years and sophomores) will feel very threatened when they walk into Sheila’s office for a consult hoping to make a good impression. That’s because at that point, all she can do is look at your grades for the courses you’ve taken and comment about that. She is frank about your chances based on what you show her. But something to remember is that until you’ve taken your MCAT, have made other achievements in your life, completed internships and shadow/volunteer opportunities in the hospital (i.e. just a little before you actually apply), you can’t assess your chances very well. It’s kind of like if a high school sophomore went to the guidance counselor and said “look, I got straight A’s, what’s my chance for Harvard???” You can’t expect her to pat you on your head and give you a gold star for having a 3.7 GPA when you’ve only taken half of your classes. And you can’t blame her if she kind of scowls at a poor GPA and gives you the “you’re chances aren’t good if you keep going the rate that you are” talk.</p>