McNeese student success regarding med school admission

McNeese State University graduates have experienced extraordinary success in gaining admission to medical schools.

“Gaining acceptance into medical school is extremely difficult,” said Dr. Mark Wygoda, head of the McNeese Department of Biology and Health Sciences and chair of the McNeese Health Professions Committee. Last fall, eight McNeese graduates entered medical school.

“Nationwide, only around 42 percent of the roughly 43,000 applicants to allopathic (MD) medical schools gain acceptance each year. A similar situation exists among the nation’s 26 osteopathic (DO) medical schools, where only 39 percent of the roughly 12,000 applicants gain admission,” according to Wygoda. “We are quite proud of our students and they have proven themselves to be among the top premedical students in the nation. The acceptance rate for last spring’s graduating class was 100 percent, a level of acceptance our graduates have obtained no less than four times in the last 10 years.” 

Wygoda attributes the success of McNeese’s premedical program to several factors, including rigorous course work which helps prepare students to do well on the Medical College Admissions Test, a national exam required for all medical school applicants, the knowledgeable premedical advisers who provide excellent guidance and special programs tailored specifically for premedical students. 

The application process and preparation for the medical school interview are as important to gaining admission as the students’ undergraduate course work, grades and national test score.

“We have a seven-member health professions committee composed of college of science faculty members that assist the students with the medical school admissions process,” Wygoda said. “Most of our upper-level classes are small enough for the professor to get to know the students well enough to provide our health professions committee with meaningful, personalized comments. These comments are very helpful to us when we prepare the student’s letter of evaluation to send to medical schools.” 

The process of preparing these letters is multi-faceted and includes a review of various documents, including faculty evaluations, letters of recommendation received from off campus, a lengthy personal statement written by the student and the student’s grades.

“Students also are interviewed by the health professions committee as a whole. The interview provides us with a wealth of information about the student’s personality and motivation and at the same time gives students an opportunity to test their interviewing skills before being interviewed at a medical school,” he added.