Pre-med in Wesleyan U?

johnwesley
Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:12:29 +0000

NSM (natural science and math) majors are treated pretty much like hot house flowers at Wesleyan. This is because the facilities are so sophisticated and the competition from the largely humanities and social science oriented student body is so minimal. While more glamourous majors like Film and American Studies generate a lot of buzz around campus, NSM students tend to labor with their lights under a bushel; deep down inside they know they have the best combination of undergraduate science opportunities anywhere, but, so far it is one of the best kept secrets in America.

A typical example is the Astronomy Department–by no means a giant as such departments go-- but, thanks to a lot of pluck and dedicated faculty they do solid, cutting edge research. And, unlike Berkeley and Rice it can’t operate without the help of undergraduates; on a per capita basis, more Wesleyan undergraduates are listed as co-authors of scientific papers than any other college in the country.

It goes without saying that the pre-med program is pretty good, too; >90% admission rate to med school.