Tulane University

[Nik]

SecondChance,

I got accepted to Tulane University for Engineering/premed and also a combined seven year accelerated BS/DO program with UNECOM. I am still trying to decide. How do you compare Tulane's premedical preparation? Is competition stiff? Was your GPA too low only because you couldn't study or was something wrong with the school? I would like to be a D.O, as I agree with their philosophy, but would like to give it a shot and become an M.D. with a research career first. Any advice, anyone?

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[SecondChance]

Nik:

My GPA was low b/c I didn't care about grades. That's all. I considered myself a theoretical thinker, so once I grasped concepts I moved on to another topic. I rarely, if ever, studied for tests so, of course I faired poorly with respect to memorization tasks. But that's not to say I was a poor student. In fact, I published a paper in my Junior year on visual perception, which I presented at a Cognitive Science Symposium in Atlanta. My professors were excellent - every class I took at Tulane was tought by a PhD (that's not the same for everyone, I was a little lucky) - many were world renowned. You may want to investigate some of the professors that I, in many ways, consider heros: DR. Radu Bogdan, chair of the cognitive studies department was one of the most brilliant men I have ever met - his theories on mental representation, and other 'higher cognitive functions' are revolutionary, (although many consider him wrong) often crossing the boundaries of philosophy, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and computer science. Dr Chinua Izawa, cognitive psychology; Dr. Cris Koutsougeras, Neural nets, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence; Donald P. Gaver, III, Ph.D., Interfacial flow in the lung, cell mechanics, pulmonary mechanics, mathematical modeling of biological systems. I cannot tell you about Tulane's pre-med program, in fact, Tulane does not offer a formal pre-med, rather advisors will often structure a 'custom' major program by incorporating bio-med & chemical engineering courses with your particular interests etc. I have several friend who did this and are doing quite well in highly respected MD programs.