The Envoy

Hunter College’s pre-health program has a high student success rate, with 100% of its committee letter recipients getting accepted to professional graduate schools for the 2023-2024 cycle.

Many of these recipients matriculated to leading institutions in the country, including Harvard Medical School, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, and Weill Cornell Medical College.

However, Hunter’s pre-health students still face an underlying problem: lack of availability in class registration. 

Some prerequisite and introductory courses have limited seats, leaving students uncertain about their schedule for the upcoming semester. This often manifests in delayed registration appointments, an inability to successfully enroll, or being bound to inopportune and incompatible class time slots. 

Consequently, pre-health students are exposed to the risk of delayed graduation and a discouraged attitude toward pursuing a career in the medical field. 

Mariam Gadimova, a first year pre-health student at Hunter College, said that she was assigned a late registration date and kept changing her schedule to a less convenient one. 

Gadimova does not mind having a delayed graduation, but she is concerned with the late times of her schedule. 

“I don’t want to be going home at 11 pm because the train is unsafe at that time,” Gadimova said. This sentiment is especially pertinent given the numerous safety concerns that CUNY students have surrounding the MTA. In 2024, the number of homicides in New York’s transit system doubled from the year prior.

However, another pre-health student, who asked to go off the record, has been able to enroll in courses with students from the Macaulay and Yalow programs. 

“I think a lot of it was luck,” the student said.

Hunter’s course catalog lists a myriad of science courses, but their availability in Schedule Builder is, at times, not accurately reflected. Students are often disappointed to see that these courses are closed or are restricted to certain programs such as Macaulay Honors College, Yalow Scholars, and Early College Initiative.

“The only problem I had was registering for the Macaulay class since there are only a few slots for that, but the rest I had no problems with,” said Franxalier Causapin, a first-year pre-health student at Macaulay Honors College.

Seats for required pre-health courses often get filled up quickly on Schedule Builder. (Photo Credit: Robert Emmanuel Dy)

The concern of whether or not Hunter’s stellar pre-health achievements represent the entire student body certainly sheds light on scholarship and program advantages that benefit a select few. Students who do not have these advantages are more likely to have issues with class registration. Those who have encountered this issue often face heightened difficulties obtaining a committee letter due to being behind in their academic journeys.

These advantages lead to gaps between students who are in such programs and students who are not. Therefore, shouldn’t the pre-health department provide accommodations to ensure that students who do not have these advantages can catch up and diversify the pool of committee letter recipients?

“I’ve gotten a lot of freshmen mentees that have been put into college algebra like MATH101 and in order to even start your pre-med requirements you need to start General Chemistry. In order to do general chem, you need a whole bunch of math classes” said a pre-health peer advisor who requested anonymity.

In addition, meetings for academic advisors are appointment-based, and finding a time to meet with them is scarce. As of March 2024, Hunter College has 18 academic advisors, with an advisor-to-student ratio of 1 to 900, which is inadequate when students’ special needs are taken into consideration.

Navigate, a platform used by Hunter for students to schedule appointments with academic advisors, shows a lack of availability by advisors. (Photo Credit: Robert Emmanuel Dy)

Nonetheless, the pre-health advising office has no authority over class registration. Therefore, the whole institution and other offices, such as the registrar, should address this issue. Students beyond the pre-health program also face this dilemma, but it is especially common for pre-health students looking to apply for professional graduate schools.

Some students however, do feel supported by the pre-health department.

“I think the pre-health office really does all the best that they can do, given like, there are so many students here who are all pursuing pre-PA, pre-health, pre whatever,” said Anita Artamoshina, a third-year former pre-health student who recently switched to pre-law.

Moreover, Artamoshina also gave a few suggestions for how the department can further ensure their success.

“Maybe having more than two pre-health advisors. Maybe there’s three now [at the time of this article, there are three pre-health faculty advisors]. I think it was very hard to always find a time to meet with them because they were always so booked,” Artamoshina said.

The aforementioned anonymous pre-health peer advisor also emphasized the need for a better planning system for pre-health freshmen’s schedules.

“[Students] get stuck their whole freshman year completing math classes and that delays the date of their graduation and their plans. I think it starts from that,” said the peer advisor.

With a surplus of challenges that come in pre-health students’ ways, one can only wish that registration for classes is not one of them. 

However, it seems that the only initiative a pre-health student can take is to prepare for a variety of schedule combinations, whether or not they are desirable. 

Additionally, students can visit the pre-health advising office frequently to gradually build a sense of familiarity and support from the department. In doing so, pre-health faculty advisors can address students’ concerns individually in their academic journey.

“I think if you go consistently, you will start to feel supported. You just have to show up and show your face,” the pre-health peer advisor said.