Med school applicants check out WSU campuses

SPOKANE – This week at WSU Spokane, more than 50 applicants for the University of Washington WWAMI program will be interviewed to see if they will be admitted to medical school.
This is the first time that Washington state students have gone through these interviews at a location outside Seattle. It gives some prospective students a look at the Riverpoint Campus and the Spokane community before they have to indicate at which campus location—Spokane, Pullman or Seattle—they want to study for their first year.
A panel of local doctors and medical school faculty are asking applicants tough questions about why they want to go into medicine. Participants include Kathy Tuttle, nephrology; Alisa Hideg, family medicine; Jim Bingham, family medicine; and Matt Hollon, internal medicine.
 
Also participating are John McCarthy, family medicine, and Deb Harper, pediatrics – both UW faculty based at the Riverpoint Campus who oversee third-year and fourth-year clinical rotations throughout eastern Washington. Also participating is David Acosta, family medicine, a UW faculty member based in Seattle.
In addition to meeting with the panel, applicants will tour the Riverpoint Campus with students who are already in their first year of medical school studying at WSU Spokane, and will get to sit in on two classes – Introduction to Clinical Medicine and Microbiology and Infectious Disease.
Applicants make it to the interview stage based on GPA, scores on the MCAT and their demonstrated interest in medicine as described in a personal statement. This interview is a critical next step – many students don’t make it into medical school on their first try and keep applying. 
To learn more about the process and what the screening committee looks for, contact John McCarthy from WWAMI Spokane at McCartJF@iehsa.org, or 358-7798. For more information on WWAMI Spokane, contact director Ken Roberts at kenroberts@wsu.edu, or 358-7516.