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The Batta ion
November 4, 1982/Page 1B
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A&M medical school respected
by Diane Yount
Battalion Reporter
I The Texas A&M College of
Medicine began in 1977 with no
building, no accreditation, no
reputation, and only 32 stu
dents.
Now, in 1982, the school is
about to move into its own new
building, it has received an un
usual five-year accreditation
from the Liaison Committee of
Medical Education, its reputa
tion is growing, and more than
500 students have applied for
J entrance into the Class of '87.
> "We will be conducting inter
views until April,” William E.
Ward, associate dean for Stu
dent Affairs says. “We expect to
actually interview 300 students
out of the hundreds of applica
tions we receive. From those
500, we will get a class of about
40 that will graduate in 1987.”
The process of getting in and
put of medical school takes
many years. Beginning with
undergraduate work, entrance
tests, and interviews and con
tinuing with classroom studies,
dinical work and more inter
views, the time it takes to become
doctor averages 10 years,
although it can take as few as
[eight and may seem more like
15.
“The interviews to get into
medical school aren’t very high
pressure,” David Barnett, a
[senior at Texas A&M says. “It's
pretty relaxed but even so, you
mow you have to impress the
interviewer.”
Starting with their first year
[of college, students attempting
to get into medical school must
[always keep that goal in mind.
‘1 liked the medical program
[at A&M my junior year in high
bool,” Andy Dean, a fourth-
tar medical student says. “I
knew I wanted to go to A&M so 1
wasready to study hard to get in.
I was accepted as a sophomore.
Iliyas the only school I applied
Texas A&M is one of the few
Imediral schools in the country
accepts applications from
lundergraduate sophomores,
Ward says. Most schools require
accept at least junior standing.
o” feel like I had a distinct
advantage,” Dean said. “I didn’t
have time to get burnt out on
school like some other people
did.”
During the interviews, each
student is given a tour of the
school’s facilities in Temple, in
addition to a tour of the Texas
A&M campus. Each interview
takes two days and introduces
the student to the entire medical
program.
The Texas A&M program in
volves two years of classroom
work in College Station and two
years of hospital work in Tem
ple. The first year is mostly
studying courses such as ana
tomy.
“I studied like Eve never stu
died before,” Philip Sissons, a
medical student, said. “It was
class work all day. Pretty much
from 8 to 4.”
Sometimes study goes beyond
books.
“The first day of school we
bad three or four classes in the
morning and then we walked
into lab,” Sissons said. “There
was a body there.”
Both Sissons and Dean recall
that first day of school.
Dean: “At first all you see is a
big slab of skin. You never really
know what to expect. It was a
little easier for me because both
of my partners were repeating SS
the course.”
Sissons: “I was the first one to 5s
cut. Right down the back. You jjss
have depersonalize the cadaver. ==:
We named ours Elsie.”
Dean: “Ours was a red- SEE
headed man with a big tattoo. ==
He died of heart failure. You =§§
know, some of my classmates said==
that they would never donate }EE
their bodies to science after that ==
class, but I will. My mind won’t =55
be there so why should I care?” §3
Sissons: “You don’t see the EES:
body’s head, until 75 percent of £5
the class is finished. It’s not that ESS
bad. The first thing that strikes 5||
you as being really human is the 555
hand. What’s more human than
a hand?”
Phil Sissons
Classes dealing with subjects
such as human anatomy are
taken in the first and second
years of school. These classes
currently are conducted in faci
lities on campus, mainly in the
Teague Research Center. The
new medical building, located
on Highway 60 past Wellborn
Road, will be ready for occupan
cy in February. A new medical
library next to the building is in
the design stage.
“We hope to have ground
broken for the library in a year,”
Dean Ward said. “Right now our
medical library is in the vet
school and doesn’t get as much
use as it should.”
Sissons rates the current faci
lities for first- and second-year
students as very adequate.
“As a matter of fact they are
pretty,good. You can’t beat the
microscopes,” he says.
During the second year of
studies, some of the work load
occurs oitside of the classroom
and laboratory. Students visit
the offices of local doctors in a
program that is unique to Texas
A&M — the preceptorship
program.
“It was really nice to get a
brief glimpse of the various doc
tors practicing their speciali
ties,” Sissons said.
Ward also is enthusiastic.
“The patient response to this
program has been overwhelm
ing,” he says. “We hope to con
tinue this program. We feel it is
an advantage to the student.”
After second-year finals are
completed, the students have
about three weeks in which to
move to Temple.
“Boy, was that a disaster,” Sis
sons said. “We had three weeks
to get everything packed and
over to Temple. I was lucky. My
wife came and found a place fhr
lllllllllllllllll
OFFICIAL NOTICE
General Studies Program
Students who plan to Pre-Register for the Spring j==
Semester in the General Studies Program are §!|
URGED to pick up a Pre-registration Form in SEE
Room 100 of Harrington Tower from Oct. 26 thru Sf
Nov. 12.
us to live.”
For those students who wish
to live close to the Veterans
Administration Hospital, the
medical school provides housing
on the grounds. The price for
each student is about $90 a
month.
“The price is pretty cheap,”
Dean says. “Nothing like College
Station.”
The third and fourth years in
volve the student in “hands-on”
experience. During the junior
year, each student serves various
clerkships in surgery, medicine,
pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics
and gynecology. During this
clerkship, the student gets to see
and diagnose patients under the
guidance of doctors and hospital
interns.
“A lot of students at other
schools complain that they do
scut work — I Vs, blood-drawing
— we got to work closer with the
interns,” Sissons says. “I would
make first line decisions on some
patient’s care and the intern
would check my decisions. More
or less, half of the service was
mine.”
The demands of medical
school can be trying.
“The third and fourth years
See MEDICAL page 7B
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