The Chronicle

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News
Last update: 11/5/07 at 1:15 PM EST

Media Credit: GLEN GUTTERSON Many undergraduate premed students find themselves considering whether a career in medicine is right for them.

Still premed?

Whether the answer is yes or no, you're not alone.

Last year 122 members of the Class of 2007 applied to medical schools across the country. Of these, 103 received offers of admission. One doesn't need to have slogged through Math 32, however, to realize that these numbers are probably less than the number of "premed track" students that entered Duke as freshmen in 2003.

On the journey to becoming a physician, the premed phase is a period of questions, self-reflection and deciding if medicine is the right career choice.

"Even in the freshman year, we encourage students to start exploring [their commitment to the premed track]," said Daniel Scheirer, director of the Office of Health Professions Advising and associate dean of Trinity College. "Do they know what life in a hospital is like, what being around sick people is like and can they handle a stressful environment? These are questions that need to be answered."

Programs like the Career Center's Health Careers Exploration Program aid students in answering the questions by providing opportunities to work directly with both patients and health professionals, a service premeds said is helpful.

"HPEC is amazing," sophomore Connie Chai said. "I was paired up with a cardiothoracic surgeon over the summer, so I had the opportunity to watch open-heart surgery in the operating room."

Student organizations also encourage premed students to volunteer and gain experience within the medical community. Last year, junior Bilal Lateef and senior Nandini Palaniappa felt the need for a mutually supportive organization of premed students and co-founded a chapter of the American Medical Student Association at Duke.

"We wanted to start a chapter at Duke because we realized there was no umbrella organization, which is rare among schools," Palaniappa said. "We could use it as a way to facilitate communication between students and staff. We also wanted to create a network of students, so it was easier to be aware of opportunities available and easier to seek out peer advice on what classes or professors to take."

AMSA has instituted an informal mentoring program, matching up juniors and seniors with freshmen and sophomores.

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