Premed In the Time of COVID-19

Lehman College is home to over 500 registered premedical students. (Photo credit: Perla Tolentino)

By Natalie Nunez

With the recent coronavirus pandemic crisis, the preparation and application process for pre-medical students who hope to enroll in medical school has changed. Applicants have had to adjust to constrained circumstances, from taking online lectures and lab courses to preparing for a shortened admission exam. 

Lehman is home to 500 active pre-med students, and those who plan to start medical school in 2021 will be applying this year. Dr. Scott Calvin, director of Lehman’s pre-health program, said, “I expect that in this environment some of the people who were planning to apply to medical schools this year will decide to wait a year.”   

The application process usually begins in May and takes nearly one year, but this one will be unlike any past cycle. Application portals opened on May 4 and 5 as planned. However, allopathic schools will now begin reviewing applications on July 10, rather than June 26, as previously scheduled. 

Medical schools traditionally prefer letter grades and for students to take prerequisite classes, particularly in-person lab courses, but these standards will change amid COVID-19 circumstances. 

A recent Association of American Medical Colleges survey indicated that 78 percent of participating schools will accept pass/fail grades for prerequisite classes taken between January and August of this year, and 76 percent will accept online lab courses for the spring 2020 semester. 

Students planning to volunteer or shadow doctors this spring and summer also face challenges, as most clinics and physicians have cut non-essential personnel including students, because of social distancing. This might present gaps in students’ applications.  

As the COVID-19 outbreak had led to the closure of many medical labs and related facilities, some Lehman students who were planning to do research to gain further science-related experience will not be able to do so. 

“I was supposed to work at the NIH this summer and increase my immunology experience. It could also have led to several publications, but the pandemic has caused them to cancel the research,” said Ezekiel Olumuyide, a 20-year-old junior biochemistry major.  

The MCAT, which can take months to prepare for, has also been adjusted due to the pandemic. The exam was shortened from seven and a half hours to five hours and 45 minutes, by eliminating unscored portions of the exam that would have been used to create future exams to allow for more sittings per day and reduce the number of examinees in the room.

Sabrina, a recent Lehman graduate who will be taking the MCAT this year, shared her concerns with the recent admission test changes, “It can be a disadvantage for those who have practiced taking the longer exam. Now we will have to change our approach to the test.” 

She added: “All of the changes have definitely caused added anxiety. My set plan has had to change to accommodate the climate.” 

Test dates in April and May were canceled and more dates in June and September were added to compensate for the cancelations. Examinees will also be allowed to wear gloves and face masks, to help avoid the spread of the coronavirus. 

Applicant interviews, which begin as early as September, will most likely be conducted virtually for the upcoming cycle, as medical college campuses are now closed indefinitely. In a March 19 statement, the AAMC encouraged medical schools and teaching hospitals to conduct online interviews for the time being. 

Despite the feeling that the application process can be an even more stressful process with the adjustments, Lehman students are still motivated to enter the medical field.

Kristian Punu, a 21-year-old junior majoring in biomedical science said, “The pandemic and its repercussions have cultivated my aspiration to use medicine as a platform to advocate for the less fortunate. People living in underserved areas tend to be more affected by this negatively.”

Dr. Calvin encourages those students who planned to apply this cycle to continue moving forward in the process. “Doing so will work in your favor, but also shows consideration and sympathy to those who truly need to wait for a year.”