School offers different path to medicine

NEW YORK, July 30 (UPI) -- A number of students are pursuing medical school through a program that bypasses "hard science" prerequisites and rigorous entrance tests, educators say.

The Humanities and Medicine Program at the Mount Sinai medical school in Manhattan offers places to about 35 undergraduates a year if they study humanities or social sciences instead of the traditional pre-medical school curriculum, and maintain a 3.5 grade-point average, The New York Times reported Friday.

For generations of pre-med students, the traditional path has always been organic chemistry, physics and the Medical College Admission Test, known by its dread-inducing acronym, the MCAT, the Times said.

Medical professionals have been embroiled in a debate about whether pre-med courses and tests create doctors who know their science but perhaps graduate without the sense of mission and interpersonal skills that make for well-rounded, caring, inquisitive healers.

A study by the Mount Sinai School compared results for 85 students in its program with those of 606 traditionally prepared classmates, and found that their academic performance in medical school was equivalent, the Times said.