Despite low attendance at Saturday’s “Medical Student for a Day,” Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine isn’t putting away the scrubs.
About 15 undergraduate students met in Irvine and Grosvenor halls from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday to experience an OU medical student’s schedule in OU-HCOM.
But the low turnout did not diminish student organizers’ hopes of offering the introductory program annually.
“I would love next year to be even bigger and better with a bigger turnout on the undergraduate campus,” said Ashley McNeil, president of OU-HCOM’s chapter of the Student National Medical Association. “We hope to offer it to more offices and departments so that we can make more students aware of the school that’s here and what we have to offer.”
This was the first year OU-HCOM has offered the “Medical Student for a Day” event. It was a collaboration between the Minority Association for Pre-Medical Students, the Student National Medical Association, the Office of Multicultural Student Access and Retention, and OU-HCOM.
During the day, undergraduates asked questions to a panel of second-year medical students, broke into groups and were given a medical case to solve, similar to those researched by current medical students.
Undergraduates were also taken on a tour of the college, visiting the anatomy lab — where students perform dissections on cadavers.
“Until today, I wasn’t really sure what medical students do on a day-to-day basis,” said Theotis Daniels, a sophomore studying pre-med biology. “This is a good opportunity for students.”
Undergraduates also heard from John Schriner, OU-HCOM assistant dean for admissions, who described the application process and spoke on the increasing competition within the college, with the increasing number of applications.
So far this year, OU-HCOM has received 3,962 applications to fill its 140 incoming student positions for fall 2012, following a universitywide trend in increasing applicants, Schriner said.
“The application can be a very daunting and overwhelming process,” Schriner said. “I hate to say it, but you just have to work hard.”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
