Pre-med matters

When Drenushe Krasniqi-Vanmeter ’21 thinks back on how an Earlham education helped her get into four prestigious medical schools, so many experiences and opportunities come to mind that there’s not a single factor in her success.

But one memory definitely sticks out. As a sophomore studying anatomy and physiology, she and her classmates had the rare opportunity to dissect a cadaver, translating what they were learning from their textbooks to the human body. Many undergraduate students don’t have the chance to see or touch a cadaver until they are a couple of years into medical school, especially those at liberal arts colleges, but at Earlham, they do.

Along with that opportunity comes another practice. Before the students touched their scalpels, they spent time in quiet contemplation to become grounded in the moment and thank the person who gave their body so that students could learn.

“For us to get to do that as sophomores in college, that was amazing. That taught me a lot,” said Krasniqi-Vanmeter, who will start medical school this fall at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, one of the top medical schools in the country. “I think it not only motivated and inspired people, but also it prepared you for what it would mean to have a life in medicine.”

Experiences like these, and many others, set Earlham apart when it comes to preparing students for the study and practice of medicine. Graduates of the college have an 82 percent acceptance rate for medical school, which is nearly twice the national average.

The Earlham difference can be attributed to a combination of factors, including its strong curriculum in the natural sciences, unique local and global volunteer experiences and internships that provide a first-hand look at medicine, a network of involved alums who offer mentorship, and a dedicated advising team that has years of experience helping students navigate through the process of preparing for a career in the field. But there’s something else that Earlham brings to the table, a common thread that connects the college’s ethos and values with the study of medicine.

It’s not enough for a student to be academically prepared and do well on their MCATs, if they only have a vague idea of what a career in medicine will look like or why they want to be a doctor, nurse or other professional in the first place, according to chemistry professor and longtime pre-health advisor Mike Deibel.

“We also have this wonderful medical humanities program, and what that really does is bring home the human side of medicine,” Deibel said. “We want students to be successful getting to the career that fits them. But we also want them to start to think deeply about how they want to practice and how they want to be as a health professional. What kinds of relationships do they want to have with their patients and how do they want to influence their community? They can think about all that as they craft where they’re going.”

A truly ‘Epic Advantage’

Some Earlham students start college already knowing that they want to go into the sciences or medicine, while others discover an aptitude and interest as undergraduates. Either way, they are able to participate in a broad range of medical opportunities while still enjoying thoughtful teaching and personalized advising. It’s a winning combination that prepares them well for medical school and beyond.

“We want to create health professionals who are people centered and have taken advantage of the liberal arts education, who understand empathy and compassion, and what it takes to interact with people who are unlike them,” said Peter Blair, professor of biology and director of the Center for Global Health. “And so we’ve been intentional as we have developed programs.”

One of those is the Center for Global Health, which is part of Earlham’s Epic Journey, the intentionally-designed and student-driven experience that combines best-in-class advising and experiential learning opportunities. Students also benefit from the college’s Epic Advantage, which guarantees that they will all have access to a funded experience that will help them figure out their careers. Thanks to donors, these experiences are free to students up to $5,000. 

The Epic Advantage makes it possible for many students to have a global health experience, such as summer trips to Peru and Costa Rica. Faculty lead these trips, which connect students with medical teams doing campaigns in underserved areas through carefully vetted partner programs. Students stay with families so they can practice language skills and learn about other cultures.

“We want to make sure that our students are getting authentic, real and trusted experiences with the local communities there,” Blair said. “We’re going there and learning from others.”

Other experiences available to students include robust health externship and community medicine programs, through which pre-health students can gain practical experience volunteering, job shadowing and training.

A student interested in physical therapy might, for example, spend eight weeks working with physical therapists at the NCAA Sport Science Institute in Indianapolis. “And they say, ‘Oh, you don’t have to pay me. My college will pay me a stipend that covers my living expenses,’” Blair said. “That’s one of those unicorns that we have right now that every student at Earlham can take advantage of.”

Discovering a calling 

Sarah Dickman ’22 just finished her first year at the University of Cincinnati Medical School. The idea of a future in medicine didn’t occur to her until she was a college sophomore. That’s something that is not that unusual at Earlham.

“I don’t think I’m the only one who has had this experience of being almost converted into a pre-med student,” she said. “I think it’s just because the professors do such a great job of presenting really difficult material in the sciences in a really digestible way, and they make it exciting. I think it has more of a drawing-in effect, rather than scaring people off.”

Dickman, a biochemistry major and student-athlete from Richmond, was captivated by her science courses. At first, she considered going into animal or ecological biology, but her experiences working as a pharmacy technician in a local hospital and participating in a community health coach program where she was able to do home visits with an emergency medical services provider helped change her direction to medicine.

“I really enjoyed feeling when I finished for the day that I had done something meaningful in someone else’s life,” she said.

She learned more about how Earlham is special once she did get on the pre-health track.

“At a lot of other schools, it seems that there’s a checklist, and it’s what you do to get into medical schools, whereas I never felt like that at Earlham. They really encourage you to explore your passions and the things that you love,” she said. “Everything was tailored to me. All of my experiences, all of my advising, it was all tailored towards my passions while also setting me up for success in the application process.”

“At a lot of other schools, it seems that there’s a checklist, and it’s what you do to get into medical schools, whereas I never felt like that at Earlham. They really encourage you to explore your passions and the things that you love.”

— Sarah Dickman, Class of 2022

That meant she felt supported as she juggled rigorous coursework with sports, continuing to play volleyball and run track for the College. She also got to know her community better through the home visit program, which aims to check up on people in the Richmond community who are frequent users of the emergency room.

“It was a unique experience because I got to go into people’s homes in my own community and the surrounding communities and sit with them and talk with them about their health concerns,” Dickman said. “We wanted to make sure they were doing OK and see if we could help make their lives easier in some way. I really do think that experience opened my eyes to my own community even more.”

Global and local perspectives

Cyrus Buckman ’18 recently finished his medical and MBA studies at Stanford University in California, where he is a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. He plans to do his medical residency in the U.S., likely in the field of psychiatry, and hopes to return to practice one day to his home country, Ghana.

At Earlham, Buckman participated in several experiences that helped him get a clearer sense of his own path. In one, he and other students traveled abroad to explore safe medication delivery and needle exchange programs. They started with a visit to needle exchange programs in Chicago, then went to the U.K. and Iceland to understand ways that those countries supported people at risk for drug misuse and addiction.

He went on an Epic Advantage-funded global health trip to Peru, where he assisted medical practitioners as they provided free health care services such as blood sugar tests, blood pressure checks and physician referrals to people living in rural areas.

Buckman also did an externship at Reid Health, where he shadowed several different doctors with varying specialties. Earlham did a good job organizing the program, he said, helping him get placements and free transportation to and from the hospital — which he has heard from medical school classmates is not a universal expectation.

“Those were all experiences that I thought helped me get a better sense of what medicine looks like, not just in the U.S. but also in other countries,” Buckman said. “There are lessons from other locations we could implement in the U.S., and things in the U.S. that we could take to other places, all with the goal of ensuring that all people everywhere are getting good access to health care resources.”

He believes that all those experiences helped him stand out on his medical school applications. The Stanford Medical School, one of the country’s top medical schools, has an acceptance rate of just over 1 percent.

“On applications, people are looking for experiences where you’ve had a chance to be in a hospital, you’ve had a chance to work with physicians, and you’ve gotten a preview for life as a physician,” he said. “I felt prepared while going into the application process, and a large part of that is thanks to the support that I received as an undergraduate.”

This story was written by Abigail Curtis for the Earlham College Office of Marketing and Communications. The story originally appeared in the fall 2025 edition of Earlhamite magazine.

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About Earlham College 

Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion foster a collaborative learning community that inspires and motivates students with transformative opportunities and experiences so they can become catalysts for good in a changing world. Located in Richmond, Indiana, Earlham is one of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 75 national liberal arts colleges and offers one of the top 20 classroom experiences in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.