center, or an individual from a dean's office
who is actively involved with student advising.
The advisor will generally have set office hours
and require that appointments be made in
advance so as to ensure that adequate time will
be allotted to meet the students' needs.
Students at any class level--and even
graduates--should feel free to seek guidance from
their school's premedical advisor. Naturally,
the nature of the advice may vary depending on
the stage of the student's career and a variety
of other factors. The possible issues at different
stages are reflected in Appendix F, Table 1.
The general responsibilities that advisors may
assume in part or entirely, depending on the
school, can be grouped into five categories.
1. Academic advising. This may involve guiding
individuals in selecting a major,
or, if necessary, changing it, helping to
select and schedule courses, and ensur-
ing proper sequencing of courses.
2. Support services. This may cover a broad
spectrum of activities--being merely
a good listener or sounding board for troubled
or overworked students. Advisors
may also help students who are caught in some
bureaucratic maze with the
administration, or assist those who are finding
the premed curriculum too chal-
lenging and therefore desperately need
guidance. A sympathetic and knowl-
edgeable advisor can be an invaluable asset in
all such cases.
3. Resource center. Many questions may arise
that require checking, such as spe-
cific school requirements, deadlines, and so
on. These may require access to ref-
erence sources or specific medical school
catalogs, both of which may be part
of the advisor's library. In addition, advisors
may have information files dealing
with preparing for the MCAT, medical school
interviews, sample essays, and a
list of summer job opportunities, all of which
are useful for prospective appli-
cants. Some schools that have web sites will
provide space for their premedical
advisor to post information that may be tapped
into by high school students and
can serve as a useful recruitment
device.
4. Extracurricular programming. The advisor can
enhance the quality of the school's
overall premedical program by facilitating the
group activities of prehealth stu-
dents. Advisors are in a position to help with
planning extracurricular activities by
helping secure appropriate speakers to discuss
topics of relevance to prehealth stu-
dents. Speakers may include representatives
from medical schools and other
schools that train health professionals, and
alumni who can share their professional
experiences and/or discuss their work.
Frequently, the advisors may ask seniors to
relate their interview experiences. In this
case, a mock interview session may be
conducted and the advisor can then voice some
constructive criticism.
5. Facilitating admission. An important
function of premedical advisors is to actively
assist in the admissions process, which goes
beyond providing the documentary
information sought by the medical schools. The
extent of their individualized help
will vary. Clearly they should be able to
assess your chances for success, help deter-
mine how many and which schools you should
apply to, and answer any specific
questions. They may offer to read and/or even
edit your application essay and give
you personalized advice about how to improve
your interview performance. The
advisor may also serve as a useful source of
support during this stressful time, while
you are awaiting responses from the schools to
which you applied.
Finally, it should be noted that prehealth
advisors have a national organization, the
National Association of Advisors for the Health
Professions, P.O. Box 1518, Champaign,
Illinois 61824. The organization issues a
variety of publications and has a current list of
advisors. Its web site is
www.naahp.org.
It is the obligation of the advisor or
committee to provide the medical schools with sup-
porting information in your behalf (see pages
82 and 83). Some medical schools will utilize
their own recommendation forms that they send
out to be completed. Most rely on the col-
lege's forms and even accept them in lieu of
their own. Undergraduate schools vary in the
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