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Andrew Barfell ’11, a third-year medical
student at the University of Cincinnati, also
found himself among a very elite few. “It’s
not super common for undergrad programs
to have human anatomy-based classes,” he
noted. “There are a couple schools that make
you do a zoology program, so a lot of my
peers had done work on animal structures,
but very few of themhad done anything with
human cadavers.”
Offering human structure and function
courses where students actually interact
with human bodies is just one way that
Cedarville’s premed track is giving students
a running start in the high-pressure world
of the American medical school.
Numbers Don’t Lie
According to the American Association
of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there were
49,474 applicants to med school in 2014.
How many were accepted? A striking 43.2
percent were given the green light to attend
med school last fall, or 21,355 applicants.
This wasn’t a blip in the numbers, either.
Over the course of five years, from 2010
to 2014, the acceptance rate at American
medical schools has been about 45 percent.
In contrast, 79 percent of Cedarville’s
premed track applicants have been accepted
into medical school over the same five-year
period, putting its acceptance rate percentage
in the rare air of some of the highest-rated
premed programs in the country, such as
Duke University (85 percent) and Cornell
University (67 percent for 2010).
Former Yellow Jackets are now preparing
for careers in medicine all over the Midwest
and beyond — University of Michigan,
Indiana University, University of Iowa,
the Medical University of South Carolina,
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
(in conjunction with Case Western Reserve
University), and Temple University.
“If you are getting almost 80 percent
of your seniors into medical school, that’s
a number any institution would be proud
to have,” said Geoffrey Young, AAMC’s
Senior Director of Student Affairs and
Programs. He served as Dean of Admissions
at the Medical College of Georgia – Georgia
Regents University and on admissions
committees at the Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School, Rutgers University, and
Virginia Commonwealth University School
of Medicine.
“Medical school is extremely competitive.
To have that rate would suggest the students
are academically well prepared and engaged
in the kinds of experiences medical schools
are seeking in their applicants.”
Solid Beginning
Premed students at Cedarville typically
earn a Bachelor of Science degree in biology
and take medical school track courses.
During third year, students interact with
human bodies in the Structure and Function
I and II courses.
“Cedarville’s human anatomy course is
a lot more intense than other programs,”
Barfell recalled. “[Assistant Professor of
Biology Cindy (Myczka)Wingert ’01] had us
learn all the muscles, the bones, landmarks
on the bones; we memorized the origins,
insertions, the actions of all the muscles,
innervations, and blood supply [of all the
muscles]. It was really extensive and a lot of
it stuck with me.
WhenAndy Johnson ’14 showed up the first day of gross anatomy class at theUniversity of
MichiganMedical School last fall, he was caught off guard. “About half of my classmates
have degrees in the realm of biology from schools like Harvard, Yale, and Michigan,” he
said. “Very few had ever seen a cadaver before, and even fewer had spent significant
time studying a cadaver like each anatomy student does at Cedarville.”
by Clem Boyd
THE ADVANTAGE:
FROM
CEDARVILLE
TO
MED SCHOOL
Cedarville Magazine
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