Premedical Program
About the Program
Course of Study
Washington College's premedical program attracts top students who want to pursue the sciences within a liberal arts environment. Small classes, close relationships with professors, research and internship opportunities, and the option to explore interests beyond medicine appeal to many students who anticipate spending at least seven years after college singularly focused on the study of medicine.
"One of the nice things about doing premed at Washington College is that you can study other things, too," remarks Maria Jerardi '94, a former chemistry major who is practicing family medicine at a community health center in California's Central Valley. As an undergraduate, Maria played field hockey and coxed for the rowing team, participated in sorority activities and in student government, and lived in the International House. She spent a semester in Africa and, after graduation, won a Fulbright Scholarship to study the incidence of diarrheal diseases in rural towns. She was headquartered at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh.
Maria earned a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and a medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine, and then spent three years in a family medicine residency program in Merced, California, where the emphasis was on obstetrics, pediatrics and emergency medicine.
"I've encountered a lot of medical students who, in premed programs at larger schools, had taken only biology and chemistry classes," she says. "There's a real benefit to being well-rounded."
Faculty
Four members of the natural sciences division, along with a representative of the philosophy department, comprise the Premedical Committee. The Committee members provide academic advising and career counseling, offer guidance with the application process, and help you make contacts with medical schools and other advisors. Students interested in allopathic, osteopathic, podiatric and veterinary medicine, as well as dentistry and optometry, should consult members of the Premedical Committee as early as possible in their academic careers and should attend all premed meetings.
