The Future Is Bright for George Fox Pre-Meds

As a freshman pre-medicine majoring in biology and biochemistry, it can be stressful thinking about the number of things I need to get done over the next few years to apply for med school. I have to keep my grades up, volunteer, get clinical hours, find places to get letters of recommendation, and prepare for the MCAT – a daunting six-hour required standardized exam.

However, with George Fox’s new partnership with A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA), it’s never been a better time to be a George Fox pre-med student. 

The Life of a George Fox Pre-Med Student

The biology and biochemistry program at George Fox combines intense learning and fun. I’m currently taking my second semester of General Biology, which is considered a difficult class, especially the lab portion, due to the sheer amount of knowledge required to learn.

While it is hard, it’s meant to prepare you for the rigors of graduate programs such as med school, PA school, etc. My favorite exams to study for are our lab practicums, as they involve application of our learning through identifying models, microscope slides, and dissected anatomy of different eukaryotic organisms.

Yes, it’s difficult, but it’s rewarding and truly interesting to see how organisms of all shapes and sizes live. It’s also preparing us for what we need to know in graduate school. It isn’t all exams, though, as we just took a field trip to the Oregon Coast to see some of the organisms we’ve talked about in class. 

About A.T. Still

A.T. Still boasts the first-ever Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) program. The institution was founded in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1892. The Kirksville campus is No. 1 for producing doctors in rural areas, and the university’s mission statement emphasizes the fact they are committed to serving underserved populations. 

This mission statement is something I think everyone at George Fox can get behind. As a Christian school, we are called to serve underserved populations, making this a great fit for a school to partner with.

A.T. Still SOMA is located in Mesa, Arizona. Founded in 2007, it ranks second in the nation for medical schools with the most graduates practicing in primary care (usnews.com). Being a DO school means students take all the classes an MD student would take, with the addition of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, a class that teaches future physicians how to diagnose and treat patients with their hands.

How This Partnership Helps George Fox Pre-Meds

The partnership will give pre-meds at George Fox, like me, an inside track to getting an interview with A.T. Still SOMA. Having this advantage is amazing in an extremely competitive medical application process where small details really matter. 

Once accepted, students will spend their first two years taking classes in Mesa. In the second two years, rather than do clinical rotations in Arizona, they will return to Oregon to do clinical rotations at hospitals such as Providence, Kaiser and OHSU. Ultimately, the goal is to then place these students into a residency program in Oregon, with an emphasis on rural areas.

The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects an overall shortage of 141,160 physicians in 2038, with the biggest shortfall being in rural areas. A.T. Still’s commitment to help address this is a noble endeavor, and I feel blessed to be a part of it through being a pre-med student at George Fox.

Financial and Career Considerations

One of the main questions I had when learning of A.T. Still’s mission to produce rural physicians is how that will work financially for students. The average medical school debt when not including undergraduate debt is $216,659 (educationdata.org). This is a massive number, but in areas of medicine such as surgery, where annual salaries often exceed $500,000, it can be paid off quickly.

However, in family medicine and primary care, where salaries are much less, that debt can be very difficult to pay off. My questions were answered, though, as programs such as the National Health Service Corps’ scholarship program will cover tuition and fees for students committed to family care in rural areas. In return, all recipients commit to being a physician in an underserved community for two to four years.

Programs such as these make paying off debt seem a lot less daunting, and makes family medicine much more appealing.

Shadowing Opportunities

Another significant announcement for George Fox pre-meds is the possibility of job-shadowing opportunities starting this fall. While some details are still in the works, a DO who graduated from A.T. Still and practices family medicine in Newberg at the Virginia Garcia Newberg Wellness Center is in talks with George Fox to have students shadow him throughout the year.

This is a big opportunity, as many med schools, including A.T. Still, like to see clinical hours, either through shadowing or volunteering. Specifically for A.T. Still, they like to see letters of recommendation from a DO, and the fact that this doctor is an A.T. Still graduate is definitely a bonus.

I know I’ll need several clinical hours, and opportunities like these to see people work in the profession I want to work in are important for two reasons – to make sure it is what I truly want to do and to help boost my application’s credibility when I do apply.

The Future is Bright 

This agreement with A.T. Still SOMA is a big step to getting more students from George Fox into med school, and then hopefully returning to be physicians in the area. Whether you’re a current George Fox student wondering if pre-med is a good path, or a high schooler looking to possibly attend, it has never been a better time to be a pre-med at George Fox.