An unprecedented five sophomores at St. John’s University have
been admitted to the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine’s PATH
(Pipeline Access to Health-Careers) program, in which selected
minority students get a taste of the world of medicine during their
undergraduate years and upon graduation are guaranteed seats at the
medical school. This is the first time five students from one
university have been accepted into the program and is particularly
impressive as 11 other undergraduate institutions participate and
only 20 students are accepted each year.
A sixth St. John’s sophomore has been guaranteed a seat at
SUNY-Buffalo College of Medicine through their Early Assurance
Program.
Sophomores Ankita Patel, Karnika Kapoor, Ruhul Alam, Javaria
Jabeen and Eris Fahim have been notified that they were admitted to
the Downstate Medical College and will spend the next three summers
exploring medical career opportunities as they meet and shadow
physicians on their rounds, pursue academic studies, work in
laboratories, attend workshops and generally prepare for the
rigorous academics of medical school. They will also receive a
weekly $200 stipend. During the third summer, after their
graduation from St. John’s, they will live at Downstate and take a
part of the first year Biochemistry course to somewhat lighten the
load of that year’s requirements, which are recognized as the most
difficult in medical school.
Adam Kornicki, also a St. John’s sophomore, has been admitted to
the medical school at SUNY-Buffalo under their Early Assurance
Program, which is open to “exceptional candidates from other
universities” who have demonstrated a high level of academic
competence, attained a 3.75 GPA and have completed at least half of
the premedical course requirements. He will not be required to take
the MCAT and is expected to pursue intellectual interests in
his remaining college years and maintain “a competitive GPA.”
Downstate’s PATH program is run through their Office of Minority
Affairs via a grant from the National Institutes of Health. It
offers minority and disadvantaged students who might otherwise find
it difficult to gain admission to medical school a chance to
improve their study and time management skills and to prepare for
the rigorous academics of medical school. While students can apply
to one of three tracks – Medicine, Allied Health and Graduate
Studies -- all of the St. John’s students applied for the medicine
track.
Once accepted, students are expected to maintain a GPA of 3.0 in
the sciences, although the academic performance to gain admission
was more stringent (usually above 3.5, although a student’s
background, difficulties, etc., are taken into account).
They must still take the MCAT (Medical College Achievement Test)
and score as well as the weakest score of accepted students in the
previous year.
Biological Sciences Professor Jay Zimmerman expresses pride in
these students commenting, ”This is by far the best our students
have done in many years, and is a real tribute to the quality of
students we have been getting. Isn’t this remarkable that at the
end of their sophomore year these young people are actually
guaranteed seats in medical school?”
Faculty and Staff Assistance was
Invaluable
Adam Kornicki is on track for a career as an orthopedic surgeon. He
reports that if it hadn’t been for Dr. Jay Zimmerman’s
encouragement, he would never have known about or applied to the
Early Assurance Program at SUNY Buffalo’s School of Medicine and
Biomedical Sciences. While that program is mainly for Buffalo
sophomores, their website states that “exceptional candidates from
other universities may be considered.”
“The application to the program was the usual college
application,” according to Adam, “[and] it required a one-page
personal statement, an unofficial college transcript and [my] SAT
scores.” He added that three letters of recommendation or a
pre-health committee letter were required. He chose the latter and
highly recommends this approach because few students at the
interviews had a complete committee letter.
Although he was interviewed at the same time as students from
Columbia, Emery, NYU, and Cornell, he “was very proud to be a St.
John's student…I think St. John's does a great job in preparing
their students in the sciences for those [who] take it seriously.”
He expressed his gratitude to Dr. Zimmerman and “especially Mrs.
Camille Pacia,” Assistant to Dean Robert Mangione of St. John’s
School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, “for their
patience and advice in the application and interview process.”