Whether unsure about taking a specific course or exploring the medical field, about 70 students came to One Step Before’s Medical School Day Conference Sunday to learn a little more than what books or advisers offer.
Representatives from 13 medical schools, including admissions officers and medical students, staffed information tables in the Louis Room.
“Even if they don’t apply to schools we have here, you can get a lot of information about what schools want from students and what programs are available in a one-on-one setting instead of a view book,” said Crystal March, OSB outgoing vice president.
One Step Before, a satellite group of For Members Only, helps prepare students for medical school with advising, test preparation, conferences and resource materials.
OSB organizes Medical College Admission Test preparation classes on campus and keeps school information on file at the Office of African-American Student Affairs. Although the group is primarily for minorities, it is open to any student, group leaders said.
Giving students the chance to meet with recruiters and other premeds helped fill gaps in advising, which usually focuses on procedure, said some students who attended the conference.
“It’s not so much, ‘This is what you do now,’ as (it is) seeking out information about each part of the process,” said Erin Talati, a member of OSB’s conference committee. “It’s not a holistic approach.”
Weinberg sophomore Abby Kraus said she learned more about course requirements from other premeds and recruiters than from her adviser.
“Sometimes it’s in your favor if you’re ready to say, ‘This is how it helped me develop my interest in medicine,'” said Tangeneare Ward, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Chicago.
Weinberg sophomore Caroline Halverstam, who asked if hospital work aids in admission, said recruiters told her it could help her find a passion for medicine.
“Your interest in medicine comes through in an essay, but you should at least do it for yourself,” Halverstam said. “It’s how you learn if you’re really interested in medicine.”
The conference included a speech by Glenna Crooks on politics and public policy’s affect on today’s patient. Crooks teaches health policy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
Crooks told about 50 people how doctors who understand politics can team up to fight managed care programs and health maintenance organizations for patients’ rights.
“The other guys are more business people,” she said. “You are healers.”
When HMOs proposed to discharge women 24 hours after giving birth, a group of clinicians planned to study if the process harmed newborns, Crooks said. Because clinical trials usually take time and money, the clinicians and women’s groups turned to legislators to help make post-pregnancy hospital time a political issue, she said.
Crooks said health professionals can use politicians and the press to find a better alternative to medicine than managed care.
