Sounds like a great program; thanks for letting us know about it. For those who are interested, the HEAL-X webpage can be found
here.
Mary, it's obviously too late for me as I'm a senior resident at this point (!), but just throwing out some questions I would have had as a premed with a PhD:
- What PhD fields are acceptable to the program? For example, mine is in pharmaceutical chemistry and earned through the chemistry department, not through the medical school. But I worked at a cancer center doing drug discovery. Would I have been qualified? What about people in other medically relevant fields such as behavioral sciences, ethics, statistics, clinical research, computer science, or biophysics?
- Does someone with a PhD need to go back and take any missing undergrad prereqs, or can upper level undergrad/grad classes be substituted? For example, if I hadn't taken a year of freshman biology with lab, would I have needed to?
- Are applicants to this program eligible to apply ED?
- Do they get consideration for Tulane's scholarships like regular applicants do?
- Are the interview and admissions decisions made separately for HEAL-X? Specifically, can an applicant with a PhD who is rejected from HEAL-X still be accepted to the regular four year MD program or vice versa?
- Can applicants get credit for graduate classes that overlap with medical school classes? For example, I took graduate biochem and pharm. Would I still need to take those classes again? If not, how would that be handled, since you appear to be using an organ block system?
- What happens to accepted applicants whose PhD graduation gets delayed? Are they automatically deferred until the next year, or do they have to go through the whole app process a second time?
Thanks again for taking the time to let us know about the program and answer questions.
Thank you for your questions; I appreciate your taking the time to ask for clarification for the sake of others who might be interested.
Our program is for students with PhDs in biomedical sciences; that said, we currently have students in the program who have PhDs in chemistry, mechanical engineering, biophysics, and chemical engineering. So a degree in science coupled with demonstrated interest or work experience in a medically-related field might make you a strong candidate. We currently don't consider applications from students with PhDs in non-science fields.
We don't have specific prerequisite courses, but it would be necessary for an applicant to know biology, chemistry, physics, and math.
Our application timeline is abbreviated; students who are submitting an application through AMCAS in the next few months will be admitted in October and will begin classes in January, so there's really no opportunity for Early Decision. And because the class is so small, we don't allow deferrals. Exceptions could be made on an individual basis. The HEAL-X applications are considered separately from regular applications; however, since HEAL-X decisions are made so early, there is plenty of time to apply to the regular program if you're not accepted. Students applying to HEAL-X may be considered for the same scholarships as regular students.
As you point out, the HEAL-X program is systems-based and integrated; all students in a cohort are working in the same module at the same time, and in each module - say Musculoskeletal - you will have physiology, histology, microbiology, pharmacology, genetics, etc. In this model, getting 'credit' for graduate classes does not really make sense.
I hope this answers your questions. Thanks again for asking.
