SMDEP - Amherst College

Summer Medical & Dental Education Program (SMDEP) Surveys

Compilation of surveys completed by Amherst students who participated in the following SMDEP sites:

Case Western Reserve U…………………………………………………………………………………….…2

Columbia …………………………………………………………………………………………………................4

Duke……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6

Howard ………………………………………………………………………….................................................10

University of Nebraska……………………………………………………………………………………….11

University of Texas at Houston……………………………………………………...……………………13

Yale…………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………….14

Thank you to Rebecca Dago ’11, Keemi Ereme ’11, Meron Hirpa ’11, Maikha Jean-

Baptiste ’10, Scarlett Johnson ’11, Jennifer Kang ’10, Eunice Lee ’11, Chibuzo

Uwakaneme ’11, and Ysabel Woody ’12 for sharing their SMDEP experiences.

1

Case Western Reserve University 2008

What feature of the program was the most beneficial?

Clinicals! Being able to shadow physicians and stand in on surgeries was without a doubt the best part of the program. The classes were much more basic than I expected and didn't help me at all, but meeting people in different fields and talking to them about med school/residency/specializations helped me to focus my path as a pre-med student. Learning how to intubate and deliver babies was also pretty awesome

Did the academic enrichment classes (Biology, Chemistry, etc.) help with any of your Amherst classes?

No. The classes they offered were extremely basic and definitely not even close to being up to par with Amherst classes.

Did they have a writing component? Reading?

They offered a writing course for people who wanted to start preparing their personal statements for medical school. I think this class was really just what you made of it - some people ended up with completed personal statements that they were able to get edited by fellow students, the instructor, or doctors, while others did only what was required of them. The program required all of the participants to read The Kite Runner and My Sister's

Keeper. We had a teleconference with the Duke SMDEP program to discuss the latter book, but honestly the reading assignments didn't factor very heavily into the program.

What kind of projects did you have to do? Any large-scale/major projects?

Everyone was required to complete one group research project about a topic of his/her choice and present their findings at the end of the program. Pretty standard.

How many doctors did you shadow? Dentists? Please describe your experience and include the department you were in.

3. I was able to shadow an opthalmalogist, a heart surgeon, and a dentist. I was only supposed to be shadowing the ophthalmologist, but after letting us watch a cataract surgery for a while, he took us to stand in on an open heart surgery. The dentistry one was interesting but less so. This might just be because I'm not pre-dental though.

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Did your program have more of an emphasis on/more resources for predental students or pre-medical students?

It did a pretty good job of balancing the two. There were workshops (learning to intubate, deliver babies, make molds of your teeth, etc.) for both groups of students.

Did you have any interviews? If so, with who? Please elaborate.

We had one interview with the head of the medical school. She sat down with each of us, reviewed our records, and gave us advice on maximizing our chances of admission.

Was there a Dental/Med school fair?

Yes.

What was your stipend? Did they pay for your flight?

Stipend was $700 and they did cover the airfare.

How was the food? The city you were in?

The food is cafeteria food. Probably better than Val though. Cleveland is not high up on my list of favorite cities. There was a clear divide between the

Case campus and the rest of the city that was not quite as nice. Downtown

Cleveland does have some cultural opportunities that are pretty cool though.

What’d you do on your free time? Were their any places you feel are a “must” for people to go?

Hang out with people, go downtown, find places to eat. There was a gelato place not far from the dorms that we went to a lot, and a pizza parlor (Mama

Santa's) that had really delicious thin crust pizzas. I also went to the

Botanical Gardens, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Museum of Art, an Indians game, and the House of Blues while I was there. And for people who are into music, there were regular jazz concerts somewhere near the dorms during the summer.

What did you NOT like about the program?

I wasn't a big fan of some of the people, to be honest, but that's to be expected. I also sometimes felt as though because I was East Asian certain people thought that I shouldn't be there. And last thing, some of the staff would forget how old we were and act really patronizing from time to time. It was annoying, but you kind of just deal with it and focus on the positives as best as you can.

3

Columbia University - 2008


The opportunity to talk to the T.A.’s who were current medical and dental students at Columbia about their experiences in med/dent school and getting into the school. The seminars about medical school admissions and the individual appointment with one of the deans of admission were also very helpful. In addition, the opportunity to explore the Columbia University medical facilities was great.


The organic chemistry and physics classes helped me a lot in preparing for my Amherst classes.


Yes, we had weekly group seminars during which we discussed the short story we had read and written a short response paper on.


We did not have any projects.


Each student was given the opportunity to shadow three different physicians/departments. I shadowed a physician in the neo-natal intensive care unit along with two other SMDEP students. I also shadowed a group of residents in the Internal Medicine department. It was extremely helpful for me to shadow physicians in those departments because the hospital back home does not have an NICU department or a large Internal Medicine department.


The program had equal resources, seminars, and shadowing experiences for both pre-medical and pre-dental students.


I had a meeting with one of the deans of admissions. I was able to ask her a lot of things about applying to such a competitive school such as Columbia.


Yes, there was a fair at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New

Jersey.


$1,200. No, it did not cover my flight. There were a limited number of transportation scholarships you could apply for which I had not known about.


Meal plans were not available so we had to eat out or buy food from the grocery stores for every meal. But since we were in Manhattan, food was never a problem.

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Manhattan. Saw a lot of Broadway shows, the Macy’s 4 th of July fireworks, went shopping in Soho, 5 th Avenue, and Chinatown, went on the Circle Line

Cruise, visited the Museum of Natural History and a bunch of art museums, went to Central park and the zoo, and ate at a lot of restaurants.


Our schedules were really packed on some days, for example, we had a few days that went from 9:00 to 6:00 straight with only a lunch break. But other than that, I liked everything else about the program.

5

Duke 2008


I think the organic chemistry class was the most beneficial. The material related directly to what we did for a good half of the first semester here at

Amherst. I felt very prepared and did very well in my class here at Amherst because SMDEP and introduced me to the fundamental concepts.


See above. The biology class did not help so much because it focused heavily on Cancer for some reason.


There was a writing seminar. It was not too helpful because the professor had very low expectations. The professor taught at a local high school where students did not really try so he really enjoyed working with us but did not get us a lot of constructive criticism.


We had to do a final project in Bio about a genetic disorder. There was a skit involved and we presented it in front of the entire SMDEP group.


We did rotations every Friday evening. During the summer I shadowed doctors in the psych ER, ER, Pediatric ER, NICU, and the ICU. It was so fascinating and really fun to shadow these various departments. By the end of the summer we realized we could shadow whenever we got a chance. Once you made contacts with doctors it was really easy to e-mail them and come in again for scheduled surgeries if you wanted. A lot of my friends did this. I made contact with a Psychiatrist there but was unable to do further shadowing due to strict HIPPA regulations.


It was geared to pre-medical students. We had a dentist come and talk to us for an afternoon about dental school but that was it.


We had med-school interview workshops every week. The people that ran the interviews ranged from different doctors and staff at Duke. These were really useful because they doctors took it very seriously and gave great feedback. We also had patient interviews with actors. It was really fun to take turns interviewing the actors. We then had to come up with a diagnosis and treatment by the end.


There was a medical school/dental school fair one weekend.


$700 stipend. I believe that they did pay for my flight.


6

We were in Durham.

The breakfast and dinner food was HORRIBLE. For lunch we had credits and could eat anywhere on campus. The Duke campus food is great. For some reason they served us at this grill place on campus for dinners and the food was inedible.

We could not really access the local city, only on weekends when we had program sponsored activities.


In our free time we studied. In the evenings the TA’s held office hours. The program academically was very intense. On the weekend they had activities for us such as trips to the mall/ movies, and a local waterpark. One weekend my friends and I dove to Myrtle beach in NC. We also went out to Chapel Hill one weekend. The area itself is sort of boring but the other people in the program are really fun. A group of us used the gym a lot together. The gym facilities are really nice.


The food was horrible. All other aspects of the program were great. I really felt like I learned a lot and it gave me confidence to go back to Amherst and do well in my courses. I also made a lot of great contacts.

7

Duke University - 2009


The Organic Chemistry course and getting to meet other pre-med students with similar interests. It was a fun time getting to know people. They do fill your days from dawn til dusk but it nice to get to know your peers on the program. They also do a really good job of choosing the TAs and RAs.


Organic Chemistry. The professor really broke down the chemistry aspect of organic and that helped provide a foundation upon which we could build for organic. I’d taken Biology a few times before and the biology professor was not very good. So that was a waste of time but I’m not sure how helpful it was for people who hadn’t taken bio.


Yes. There were textbooks provided during the six weeks for each course.

The extent to which you used the books depended on the class.


Yes, we had a group project in biology where we split into groups of four and did skits/performances on some interesting conditions and detailed how it related to biology.


Duke was only for pre-med students so we only shadowed doctors. We were able to shadow five doctors, one every week. We went to many different departments in the medical, surgical intensive care units or emergency units.

We were also able to shadow doctors on the weekends if they were available and you connected with someone in a department that you found interesting.

So some people were able to shadow more than five times.


Pre-medical students because it took place at Duke University Medical

Center. I’m not sure if Duke has a dental school.


Yes, you could schedule interviews but you had to do them on your own time.

Most people were able to have interviews but I wasn’t because all the available times were taken by time I signed up. The administrative provided there numbers and told us we could call them to schedule a telephone interview if we weren’t able to have one over the summer.

Was the Dental/Med school fair?

Yes, at UNC Chapel Hill


Yes they paid for the flight and I ended up getting about $700.


The food we were served for breakfast and dinner wasn’t very good but they gave us money for lunch anywhere on campus and the had a lot of eateries

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available. We were in Durham, which is a fairly nice time. It seems kind of dead ober the summer, like Amherst is because there aren’t many college students around. But the do have the American Dance Festival over the summer and you can attend. People went this summer and they really enjoyed it.


The common rooms were really nice with big screen tvs and comfy chairs and dvd players. We stayed up many nights watching movies and eating.

People went clubbing almost every weekend and they had fun. Depends on what kind of club scene you’re into. There’s also a waterpark around there that’s supposed to be really good but we weren’t able to go this year because of the recession. There are ZipCars on campus, so you can go more or less anywhere if you have a zipcar card. People went to Myrtle Beach for 4 th of

July!


It was too short. If it were about a week or two longer, you could get more out of it academically and socially. They also pack our days way too much but

I didn’t mind it because I enjoyed getting to know everyone and being at

Duke for 6 weeks. Otherwise, it is a great program.

9

Howard University -2009


The Shadowing. You really got a taste of what it’s like in different fields plus you could talk to med-students who answered a lot of questions.


No, It may have been this program site. But the classes proved to be very unhelpful for me and other students who I’ve kept in contact with from the program and have expressed the same sentiments.


Yes but it was also kind of useless. Although some of the readings were interesting.


Just small papers, homework, and tests.


I shadowed 1 doctor, 1 resident, and 3 med students in the OB/GYN department. I also shadowed 2 doctors in the Diabetes department.


The program did provide a lot of resources for us to use when applying to med school and what to do to make us the best applicants. They also gave us great financial advice for handling the med school loan process and what happens afterwards.


We had an exit interview which served as a mock med school interview.

After the interview we got pointers on what we did right and what we did wrong.


No


Yes. They only paid for travel if you were more than 250 miles away and they only paid up to $500.


The food was ok. We ate in the hospital cafeteria. Washington, DC was a lot of fun!


Went to some clubs, Chinatown, monuments…there’s a lot to see and do in

DC.


The classes, especially because they were from 9-5 everyday.

10

University of Nebraska - 2008


Shadowing


Not really. A few people slept through them.


When we broke into individual sessions with our TAs, we would have occasional reading and writing exercises about certain topics.


There was one main project at the end in which each group was assigned a health topic/concern and was supposed to research it and present information about it as well as come up with a game plan or way to help low income or rural areas dealing with that issue and (theoretically) implement it when we returned home.


We were randomly assigned to departments. I did a clinic (worked with med students), family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine and surgery. Surgery was epic: the surgeons were friendly, we saw numerous

ORs, got up close and personal. Within my time there I saw a heart bypass, jaw removal, and below the knee leg amputation (we were even allowed to touch the gangrenous foot that was removed and to hold a piece or warm and bloody tibia). Each shadowing experience was for four hours. Emergency medicine was a hit or miss depending on whether you got a trauma night.

Apparently pre-med students who were also considering pre-dental were allowed to go shadow a dentist if they expressed interest and planned early in the program.


There were a lot less dental students and it felt like they were catered to a lot more because of it, forming stronger relationships with the administrators in charge.


We had a mock med school interview with a TA (med student) and then a real interview with Dr. Pamies.


No.

11


Our stipend was $1000. They also had travel scholarships for up to $750 if you were traveling from far away.


The food and amenities at the place we stayed were high quality. The city

(Omaha) was not the most happening place but the weather was decent and a park was nearby. If you were friends with someone who had a car, then you actually left the place you lived in and got to experience the night life and explore.


In our free time we mostly just relaxed. We went to the movies a couple of times, and did a little ice skating. Occasionally we’d play volleyball in the sand lots nearby. The “fun” activities they planned for us were a baseball game and a trip to the zoo.


If you did not have a car or access to one then you really missed out on a lot of fun and never really got a chance to explore. Public transportation was basically nonexistent. The fun activities weren’t really within my interests. I really wish we could have had more shadowing experiences. Also, forming relationships with physicians and doing additional shadowing on the side was highly discouraged (which I thought made no sense).

12

The University of Texas Dental Branch and Medical School at Houston- 2008


Speakers, workshops, labs, discussions on medical/dental school admissions and simulated interviews


No


No


Project on healthcare and community. I ended up doing a project on immigrant healthcare in the Unites States.


I shadowed two doctors in the pediatrics and Emergency Medicine departments. The program did not have emphasis on shadowing.


No, resources for both professions were available equally.


We had simulated interviews for admissions to medical/dental school.


No


$600 + $10 for food everyday, No


Food was not too bad. We ate at a hospital cafeteria and were given $10 for food.


The program paid for us to go to an Astros baseball game. I mostly spent time with friends and went to museums, parks, concerts, beach, and malls. People should check out the museums and go to an Astros game.


The academic enrichment courses were not that great with the exception of anatomy labs. We actually learned anatomy with real cadavers, so that was great.

13

Yale - 2007


I liked the lectures from people in different medical specialties.


Yes I felt that Orgo did give me a head start when I came back to Amherst.


Yes


N/a


2 doctors, 1 emergency room doctor and 1 pediatrician. I was disappointed that we only had 3 shadowing experiences, otherwise it was helpful.


I think they did a good job of trying to balance it.


No

Was the Dental/Med school fair?

Yes


$600 for 6 weeks, no flight


Food was decent as we ate at the hospital cafeteria. I was in New Haven


The program had activities planned like beach trips, a mall trips, and movie nights. We also explored New Haven going to some clubs, the circus, movies and shops and the gym at Yale.


I did not like the fact that the Orgo class was taught by someone who was a grad student but hadn’t taught the subject before. It’s been a while so I don’t remember all the issues but I remember coming away thinking that I could have done something more productive with my summer. I think the stipend could also be a greater amount.

14

Yale 2009


Shadowing and the close exposure to medical students were the best parts of the program for me. And all of the great people I met!

Did the academic enrichment classes (Biology, Chemistry, etc.) help with any

of your Amherst classes?

I’m not really sure yet because I haven’t taken Physics yet at Amherst, and am just beginning biology (we haven’t covered in detail most of the material that we went over in advanced bio at Yale).


I had a writing and communications class. In this class, we worked on writing our Personal Statements for med school and on various healthcare deliveryrelated topics. We had reading assignments for this class.


Our main project was writing our personal statements.

How many doctors did you shadow? Dentists?

Please describe your experience and include the department you were in. I shadowed twice in pediatrics and once in the ER. My experiences were very good. The doctors all really wanted to get me involved and tried to make sure

I saw everything. I especially enjoyed my experiences in pediatrics. I didn’t shadow specific doctors, so I was able to float around with various physicians, which gave me exposure to the different styles of practicing. And the kids were just adorable.

Did your program have more of an emphasis on/more resources for pre-

dental students or pre-medical students?

My program had no pre-dental portion.


We did not have a formal interview, but we did have a small-group meeting with Dr. Forrester Lee, Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of

Multicultural Affairs. It was a nice, intimate discussion in which we had to dress as if it were a medical school interview. He asked us and participated in conversation with us about various social issues such as race and poverty.


The medical/dental school fair was wonderful. There were many schools from all over the East coast, in addition to some from the Midwest and the

South. There were a total of 40 schools represented there, and Yale hosted the fair for both the Columbia and UMDMJ SMDEP program sites. The fair was very beneficial and I learned a lot.


We got a $600 stipend plus ~$17 a day for food. We received two stipend payments of $250 during the course of the program and the remaining $100 about a week after it ended. They did not pay for my flight and participants in the program were not eligible for the SMDEP travel scholarships since Yale does not have a dental program.

15


The food was decent. We ate in the hospital cafeteria, which was actually pretty good. Only problem was, it is a hospital, and they have a kind of small menu rotation. New Haven has a TON of excellent restaurants, so be sure to hit some of those up. The city is cool I guess. If you like to go out, there’s a few clubs about 3 blocks away from the med school dorms. But be careful traveling on your own and walk in [large] groups at night because it can be kind of dangerous at night.

What’d you do on your free time? Were their any places you feel are a “must”

for people to go?

In my free time, I occasionally went to Yale’s Payne Whitney Gym. I also volunteered at the local YMCA a couple of times, teaching the kids about the human body and health. As for “musts,” there’s this really, really good ice cream place on York Street (I’m sure you’ll hear of it) and Buffalo Wild

Wings’ 10 cent wings on Tuesdays is definitely a fun time (go with a big group). The beach is pretty cute as well, and the New Haven Green (a park) is nice as well.


The classes involved a lot of work, but I guess in the long run it was beneficial.

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SMDEP - Amherst College

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