Grove City College pre-health students are more likely to be accepted into medical schools than their peers, the latest data shows.

A study of medical school (MD) admission rates for College alumni over the last decade indicates at least a 10 percent higher acceptance rate than the national average. In 2015 alone, our acceptance rate was 17 percent higher compared to the national. Admissions rates for other post-graduate professional health institutions follows or supercedes the MD average.

Dr. Tracy Farone, professor of biology, has noticed a great interest in pre-health careers from parents, applicants, current students, faculty, alumni, and the GCC community-at-large since she joined the faculty in 2010.

“The majority of our biology majors pursue careers in health related fields, as do a number of other students in various majors such as: biochemistry, chemistry, psychology/sociology, exercise science and a variety of other majors,” Farone said. On average, approximately 300 students across campus identify themselves as having an interest in some type of health related field, she noted.

Farone developed a pre-health advising program about three years ago to provide increased and benevolent direction for biology students interested in health-related fields with the primary goal of helping them understand what is needed to become a competitive health school candidate. She also began researching, collecting and gathering data from various resources to develop a more accurate picture of Grove City College students’ and alumni plans and progress.

“I wanted to answer all the common questions that parents, applicants, current students, faculty and alumni have in relation to pre-health,” Farone said. “What is Grove City College’s medical school acceptance rate? To which health schools do our students matriculate? How many students apply to health schools? And how in the world do you ‘get in’ anyway?”

Over the last two years, Farone has made progress answering those questions and others, as she has met with hundreds of biology students and other majors. She’s working with the College’s Pre-health Professions Advisory Committee to train faculty in other key departments to help them provide and expand pre-health advising for their students.