Cadaver dissection in pre-med

[btpayne13]

I've been looking at schools that I want to apply to for doing pre-med, and I've ran across one impressive one. It offers human cadaver dissection labs and guarantees to offer clinical experience in hospitals, private practice clinics, rehab centers, and geriatric care centers. The school also claims to have a 70% acceptance rate into medical schools for their students.

So my question is, are human cadaver dissection labs unique to pre-med programs? How valuable is this experience when applying to med schools? How is the 70% acceptance rate?

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[VneZonyDostupa]

If I were you, I would carefully question what they mean by "cadaver dissection lab". Assuming they even HAVE a human cadaver, it would likely be a prosection, that is, the professor will do the dissection and you'll look at the results.

Human cadavers are insanely expensive, which is why even some medical schools have moved toward prosection or digital dissection.

 

[guyski79]

I was very fortunate to be able to do a full-on cadaver dissection as an undergrad.

I'm not sure how much this helped me in the admissions process. It certainly did help, but I would guess that it wasn't all that much.

It's still an amazing opportunity that most people don't get. I highly recommend it.

 

[LizzyM]

I've been looking at schools that I want to apply to for doing pre-med, and I've ran across one impressive one. It offers human cadaver dissection labs and guarantees to offer clinical experience in hospitals, private practice clinics, rehab centers, and geriatric care centers. The school also claims to have a 70% acceptance rate into medical schools for their students.

So my question is, are human cadaver dissection labs unique to pre-med programs? How valuable is this experience when applying to med schools? How is the 70% acceptance rate?

Which medical schools? Do they count DO and off-shore in the numerator? Who is included in the denominator? Are students who would like to apply discouraged from doing so if their file is weak? Do they refuse to write a LOR for those students and then not count them in the denominator? Do they have weed out classes than thin the herd so that only the strongest pre-meds survive? A 70% acceptance rate is crazy high so either they have very few premeds (I once heard that my college had a 100% acceptance rate to med school but that was because it averaged about 1 applicant every 3 years) or they are fudging the numbers.

 

[guyski79]

The advising office at my undergrad also gave me a document showing about a 73% acceptance rate to US allo schools.

Now, that does include reapplicants, but the mid to low-70's figure is consistent year to year in all documents they gave me.

I should add that my school doesn't do committee letters, so that's not a component of the weeding process.

 

[username456789]

Which medical schools? Do they count DO and off-shore in the numerator? Who is included in the denominator? Are students who would like to apply discouraged from doing so if their file is weak? Do they refuse to write a LOR for those students and then not count them in the denominator? Do they have weed out classes than thin the herd so that only the strongest pre-meds survive? A 70% acceptance rate is crazy high so either they have very few premeds (I once heard that my college had a 100% acceptance rate to med school but that was because it averaged about 1 applicant every 3 years) or they are fudging the numbers.

I've seen quite a few undergrads advertise crazy acceptance rates (90-100%), which of course looks great to naive high school students (and as we all know, half the kids who show up to college their first day of freshman year are "premed").

And of course most of these rates are due to the factors you listed above, most namely the refusal of the committee to endorse anyone they don't view as a slam dunk candidate.

 

[LizzyM]

The advising office at my undergrad also gave me a document showing about a 73% acceptance rate to US allo schools.

Now, that does include reapplicants, but the mid to low-70's figure is consistent year to year in all documents they gave me.

I should add that my school doesn't do committee letters, so that's not a component of the weeding process.

They shouldn't be counting reapplicants.... just sayin'. Or they should count reapplicants but also give you a "first time applicant" acceptance rate. It is a total scam if the first time applicants get in 35% and including reapplicants 70% meaning that slam-dunkers reapply and help the numbers where as less steller applicants who are rejected the first time out just walk away and do something else.... it's hard to judge this stuff but suffice to say that 70% of the pre-meds on cap& gown day are not headed directly to med school after the first application cycle.

 

[MichaelRW]

I've been looking at schools that I want to apply to for doing pre-med, and I've ran across one impressive one. It offers human cadaver dissection labs and guarantees to offer clinical experience in hospitals, private practice clinics, rehab centers, and geriatric care centers. The school also claims to have a 70% acceptance rate into medical schools for their students.

So my question is, are human cadaver dissection labs unique to pre-med programs? How valuable is this experience when applying to med schools? How is the 70% acceptance rate?

This is a bit obscure but I know that The College of Saint Scholastica (Private) in Duluth Minnesota does cadaver dissection for their A+P class. I used to listen to the podcast for the course (the professor is one of the best lecturers I've ever heard, and makes physiology much more simple than any other prof. I've ever heard lecture on physio.) and they definitely got the opportunity to do full on human dissections, though they did "share" one cadaver among each small group of students. So, yeah it may be exceedingly uncommon, but it certainly does exist at a few schools.

 

[psipsina]

We had cadaver dissection at Tulane during undergrad. It was an awesome class and confirmed my fascination with the inner workings of the human body. I don't think the prior exposure to the information was that big of an advantage but having figured out how to dissect efficiently and study for anatomy practicals was.

 

[Doubtnichts]

My school does cadaver disections for anatomy. There's only one cadaver for the entire class (115 students) so all the labs share the disections, but you could walk into any of the labs if you wanted to. It was cool

 

[btpayne13]

I just emailed the head of the pre-med program at the college I was talking about. Once I get a reply, I'll let you know what was said.

 

[justdoit31]

I know of a few undergrads that had cadaver lab (most were at schools attached to a medical school but some were independent)- depending on the size of the school I have heard of 10-150 people sharing a cadaver. Also, I know of someone in my med school who went to a program and TAed for the cadaver lab and even he struggled to get through anatomy- what you see in undergrad and in medical school are at two totally different levels (in my opinion)...

I honestly was nervous about the lab and it really only took 3-4 sessions before I was completely comfortable with the cadaver so I wouldn't take a whole semester lab if you are just thinking it will help you be more comfortable come medical school.

 

[Melicopter]

My school has a cadaver lab for general A&P that is prosection, and only covers muscles and bones. There is a special summer class, however, where a small group does the dissection that will be used for the general class.

Our school has a very high premed acceptance rate (don't remember the number), but we have an amazing premed committee. There are regular meetings up to two years out where the head advisor goes over requirements, recommendations, the application process...

On the other hand, the meetings are not mandatory so all this will still be of the greatest benefit to those who are self-motivated. Still, these resources are incredibly helpful.

Long story short, I am certain there are differences in how well schools prepare premed students. On the other hand, this would be really hard to determine since many schools likely skew the numbers.

 

[btpayne13]

My school has a cadaver lab for general A&P that is prosection, and only covers muscles and bones. There is a special summer class, however, where a small group does the dissection that will be used for the general class.

Our school has a very high premed acceptance rate (don't remember the number), but we have an amazing premed committee. There are regular meetings up to two years out where the head advisor goes over requirements, recommendations, the application process...

On the other hand, the meetings are not mandatory so all this will still be of the greatest benefit to those who are self-motivated. Still, these resources are incredibly helpful.

Long story short, I am certain there are differences in how well schools prepare premed students. On the other hand, this would be really hard to determine since many schools likely skew the numbers.

What school do you go to?

 

[chman]

If I were you, I would carefully question what they mean by "cadaver dissection lab". Assuming they even HAVE a human cadaver, it would likely be a prosection, that is, the professor will do the dissection and you'll look at the results.

Human cadavers are insanely expensive, which is why even some medical schools have moved toward prosection or digital dissection.

At my CC they have cadavers, and it is pretty hands on from what I understand, although I have not taken the class myself.

 

[orthomyxo]

I've been looking at schools that I want to apply to for doing pre-med, and I've ran across one impressive one. It offers human cadaver dissection labs and guarantees to offer clinical experience in hospitals, private practice clinics, rehab centers, and geriatric care centers. The school also claims to have a 70% acceptance rate into medical schools for their students.

So my question is, are human cadaver dissection labs unique to pre-med programs? How valuable is this experience when applying to med schools? How is the 70% acceptance rate?

98% of all statistics are made up

 

[pooghe]

At my college undergrads do full human cadaver dissection and it is 5 to a cadaver. However, the class size is small and limited to people who earned a B or better in the pre-requisite anatomy course which was taught with models. It is an awesome opportunity and you should take it if you have the chance, regardless of the pre-med acceptance percentage. At the end of the day if you know what you are doing you can get into medical school from anywhere.

 

[Steeler7588]

My university's honors college offers an anatomy course every two years that's taught by the associated medical school's anatomy professors. The maximum class size is 15 (we only have 10 right now, though) and we do the dissections ourselves.

 

[red10]

98% of all statistics are made up

60% of the time, it works every time

 

[vandyfootball]

wow dude, you are choosing undergrad schools based on weather or not you get to disect dead human bodies.


MOST people choose undergrad schools based on things like: fit, academics, geographic location, money. But what do those ******s know, right?



BTW, there are schools out there that have 80-90 percent acceptance rates to med school (Vandy, Rice, NU, WashU, JHU--I know they screen their applicants but whatever, Duke, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, UPenn, Emory, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, UChicago, MIT, Caltech)
^^^ Pretty much every top 20 school under US News and Rankings

Most of these schools attract really intelligent students, so that may be a reason that they have such high acceptance rates.

 

[chman]

wow dude, you are choosing undergrad schools based on weather or not you get to disect dead human bodies.


MOST people choose undergrad schools based on things like: fit, pre-med acceptance rates. But what do those ******s know, right?

The OP did say something about acceptance rates. Just sayin.

 

[tncekm]

If I were you, I would carefully question what they mean by "cadaver dissection lab". Assuming they even HAVE a human cadaver, it would likely be a prosection, that is, the professor will do the dissection and you'll look at the results.

Human cadavers are insanely expensive, which is why even some medical schools have moved toward prosection or digital dissection.

Man, prosection would be nice. Tearing apart cadavers is pretty low yield. Ughh...

 

[Steeler7588]

Emory

Emory actually has very low acceptance rates, by top 25 private school standards.

 

[vandyfootball]

Quote:
Originally Posted by vandyfootball
wow dude, you are choosing undergrad schools based on weather or not you get to disect dead human bodies.


MOST people choose undergrad schools based on things like: fit, pre-med acceptance rates. But what do those ******s know, right?

The OP did say something about acceptance rates. Just sayin.

^^^ Right, but if pre-med acceptance rates is such a big deal for the op, he/she should go to a top 20 school that has 80-90 percent acceptance rate to med school.

 

[vandyfootball]

Quote:
Originally Posted by vandyfootball
Emory

Emory actually has very low acceptance rates, by top 25 private school standards.

I understand that Emory has a low (55 percent OVERALL rate for pre-meds) but that is because they don't "discourage" any pre-med student from applying.

If you look at Emory's charts for the past 2 years, students with at least a 3.5 gpa, and at least a 30 mcat score had a 80-90 percent acceptance rate to medical school So as long as keep your gpa above a 3.5/30 mcat score at Emory, and have strong ecs/lors/essays, you will be fine.

^^^ BTW, the same thing holds true for Cornell. Cornell students have a 60 percent overall acceptance rate, but students with at least a 3.4 gpa and at least a 30 mcat score had 80-90 percent acceptance rate to medical schools.

 

[Steeler7588]

I understand that Emory has a low (55 percent OVERALL rate for pre-meds) but that is because they don't "discourage" any pre-med student from applying.

A lot of the other private schools often mentioned (Duke, Harvard, Penn, etc) also don't discourage students from applying, yet they have acceptance rates of 80-90%. Emory has rates similar to my low-ranked state school (we don't do any sort of screening either), despite having a much stronger student body.

 

[surftheiop]

To throw in my two cents, I don't think its wise to go into undergrad with your sole purpose being getting into med school. If you go in too narrow minded there is a good chance you could miss out on something you would rather do. Going to college really opens your eyes to careers you had never even considered. (This is how I discovered medicine as an engineering major)

 

[metallica81788]

To throw in my two cents, I don't think its wise to go into undergrad with your sole purpose being getting into med school. If you go in too narrow minded there is a good chance you could miss out on something you would rather do. Going to college really opens your eyes to careers you had never even considered. (This is how I discovered medicine as an engineering major)

This.

Just go to the college you want to go to, not for any potential med school thing - you don't know if that's what you want to do or if you'll make it. There are so many high schoolers posting on here now about "what college should I go to just to get into med school, blah, blah"....

 

[chicubsfan]

To throw in my two cents, I don't think its wise to go into undergrad with your sole purpose being getting into med school. If you go in too narrow minded there is a good chance you could miss out on something you would rather do. Going to college really opens your eyes to careers you had never even considered. (This is how I discovered medicine as an engineering major)

 

[btpayne13]

I understand all of what you guys are saying. And whoever said that I'm deciding my undergrad school based on human cadaver dissection is dead wrong (no pun intended - oh, what the hell, it was). I never once said I'm going to a certain school because it offers cadaver dissection. I just said it was an impressive characteristic, along with its acceptance rate.

The reason I'm really interested in that school is because it's in my hometown, it's a well-respected, intimate private college, and it has a lot of opportunities for me to explore other things I might enjoy.

 

[red10]

The reason I'm really interested in that school is because it's in my hometown, it's a well-respected, intimate private college, and it has a lot of opportunities for me to explore other things I might enjoy.

go with this.
worry about the med school admissions stuff when you're actually in college. honestly, there's a very good chance you'll change your mind.

 

[surftheiop]

I understand all of what you guys are saying. And whoever said that I'm deciding my undergrad school based on human cadaver dissection is dead wrong (no pun intended - oh, what the hell, it was). I never once said I'm going to a certain school because it offers cadaver dissection. I just said it was an impressive characteristic, along with its acceptance rate.

The reason I'm really interested in that school is because it's in my hometown, it's a well-respected, intimate private college, and it has a lot of opportunities for me to explore other things I might enjoy.

Sounds like a good match so long as your willing to fork up the cash (or get a scholarship)

 

[tncekm]

go with this.
worry about the med school admissions stuff when you're actually in college. honestly, there's a very good chance you'll change your mind.

Or just not manage to have "what it takes". Of people who take the MCAT, probably 15-20% of them eventually get in. But, I'd say of people who start college wanting to become a doctor, 5-10% of them actually end up taking the MCAT! Do that math, lol.