New Office of Pre-Health Professions is a campuswide resource

Undergraduates can easily get lost on the winding road to health professional school—be it medical, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy, or vet school, among others—but now, RIT’s new Office of Pre-Health Professions gives them both a roadmap and road-side assistance.

Students from any major can prepare for health professional school as long as they fulfill the prerequisite courses and application requirements, said Amber Charlebois (“Dr. C”), director of the Office of Pre-Health Professions. Planning ahead is essential for students to become competitive candidates, and the pre-health advising office helps them navigate the application process, whether they are studying for their entrance exams and writing their personal statement during their third year or waiting until after they graduate.

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RIT

Amber Charlebois is the director of RIT’s Office of Pre-Health Professions

Charlebois provided committee letters for 30 students applying to medical and dental school during the admission cycle this past June. Five of the applicants were third-year students, six were graduating seniors, and the rest were alumni. This reflects a national trend where gap years are becoming the norm and students are entering medical school later. Twenty-four is now the national average age of students accepted to medical school, she said.

Students can use the additional time to gain more experience, take entrance exams, and complete the nearly yearlong application process to health professional schools.

“We’re trying to change the culture to recognize and embrace the idea that any additional time spent getting ready for medical school is going to make you more competitive,” Charlebois said. “A gap year or two, used strategically, could make you a much better candidate and give you the maturity that can highly increase your chances of getting in. I think we need to start calling it a growth year instead of a gap year.”

The new advisory office helps students plan their course load to ensure they are taking the right sequence of science and math prerequisites and maintaining a high grade point average. An adviser helps students stay on track and learn to balance academics, research, and professional experience. Depending on the health field, students will need to complete between 60 to more than 1,000 patient-care hours. Different ways to gain clinical experience include volunteering, shadowing, working as EMTs, patient-care and pharmacy technicians, and medical scribes, or animal care assistants for students in pursuing veterinary school.

The office encourages students to volunteer for community service, conduct research, and explore leadership opportunities. Charlebois works with the Health Professions Advisory Committee, comprised of faculty and staff from across campus, to conduct mock interviews for students. Alumni participate in these practice interviews and lend their insight through panel discussions and “White Coat Wednesday” events. Charlebois’ office helps students prepare personal statements, collect reference letters, study for entrance exams, and apply for scholarships.

Charlebois encourages new students to visit her office “early and often to begin their journey together.” She shows them how to plan their four or five years at RIT and take advantage of opportunities to build their resumes while keeping academic excellence a priority.

“I ask first-year students to focus solely on doing amazing in their courses,” Charlebois said. “The minute they feel that they are struggling is when they need to ask for help. They need to be proactive and to keep their GPA strong and competitive. Then, they can start thinking about adding patient-care hours to their schedule.”

The pre-health professions office also helps educate students about all the possible health professional careers. For instance, a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) education takes a holistic approach to becoming a doctor and admission requirements to these programs—while still rigorous—are not as steep as for traditional allopathic medicine (MD). Interested students can take advantage of RIT’s affiliation with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and apply early for a seat in osteopathic medicine school upon graduation. This option, which does not require the MCAT exam, is available for prospective students and RIT students enrolled in their first or second year of study.

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RIT student Morgan Long is president of the Pre-Health Society student club.

Charlebois, who joined RIT last year, created a centralized office for pre-health advising that would be easily accessible to students from any major. So far, most students interested in health professional school are enrolled in the College of Health Sciences and Technology, College of Science, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts, and the School of Individualized Study. Charlebois is also advising two students from the medical illustration BFA program in the College of Art and Design.

When Charlebois arrived at RIT, she formed a student advisory board consisting of nearly a dozen pre-health students from multiple colleges to help develop the program and provide insights about resources and events to offer.

“Their feedback helped me modify the existing Premedical Studies Seminar upper-level course (which students take as they are getting ready to apply to professional school) into a more inclusive experience by decreasing the number of credit hours to zero and delivering it as both a synchronous and asynchronous class,” she said.

The student advisory board spun off into the Pre-Health Society, an academic club that will launch this fall to continue its efforts.

Morgan Long, a third-year biomedical sciences major from Victor, N.Y., is the president of the Pre-Health Society.

“We hope to be a resource-based club,” Long said. “We wanted to make a community for the pre-health population to have a place for everyone to get their questions answered.”

Pre-health advising services originated in the College of Science, then moved to the College of Health Sciences and Technology, and last year, moved to a central location in the University Studies division within the School of Individualized Studies. Charlebois also supports pre-veterinary advising in collaboration with Larry Buckley, senior associate dean of the College of Science.