PreHealth Spotlight: Adam Provost

Class year: 2018
Major: Biology

While good grades and a good test score were definitely important, I would recommend getting as much experience outside the classroom as possible.

Vitals

• First Year Student at New England College of Optometry
• Volunteered at VA Hospital, Leeds, MA
• Boltwood Project Team Member
• Medical and Fire Services Intern, Northampton, MA
• Established mentoring relationship with local Optometrist

When I came to UMass, I knew I was interested in health care, but really had no idea what specific field I wanted to go into. I utilized the resources provided to me through my pre-health advisor and independent research to find out more about different healthcare professions, and found optometry to be the most interesting to me. I then reached out to people in the profession to learn more before deciding to pursue optometry school.

As an undergrad, I participated in Biosci Club and studied Biology with a minor in Microbiology. I think that the club and minor helped make me more confident in my decision to pursue a career in healthcare, as I was initially hesitant to pursue such a large commitment. Exposing myself to different realms of the sciences helped to reassure me that healthcare was what I really wanted.

If I were to give my advice to someone considering any kind of healthcare-related graduate school, I would say to do research on the institutions that you are interested in and try to best prepare yourself to handle their curriculum. The required Pre-Med courses at UMass are fantastic and will certainly prepare you for the OAT/MCAT/DAT or any other admissions test, but there are many other courses that would be advantageous to you in a future graduate program. Classes like Anatomy and Histology may not be extensively covered in your admission testing, but they will almost definitely be a part of the first-year curriculum at whatever school you choose after UMass. Take advantage of the great faculty UMass has while you can, and you will do yourself a huge favor in reducing the stress of your first year by already being familiar with a lot of the content.

Further, I would begin working on my resume builders as soon as possible. While good grades and a good OAT score were definitely important for me, during my first interview I was told that once I reached the interview stage my grades were no longer a consideration and that my acceptance would be based purely off of my interview/non-academic resume. This definitely came as a surprise to me, so I would recommend getting as much experience outside the classroom as possible to better prepare yourself to display your capabilities in a non-academic fashion.

My last piece of advice is to prepare as far in advance as possible for the application cycle and to just tackle a little bit of the application process every day. Getting into optometry school (or any other graduate school) is a lot of work, and can certainly feel overwhelming at times. If you can try to make a game plan and stick to it, it will make things like studying for the OAT and finishing your applications feel much less stressful. Developing these skills now will also help in graduate school, as the biggest difference for me has been the volume of work delivered. The most challenging part isn’t understanding class content, rather it has been keeping up with everything while having more and more information delivered every day. If you can learn to plan ahead now and manage your time well, you will certainly be able to succeed at whatever school you go to. UMass Amherst has great tools for its students, and will certainly prepare you for success in whatever path you choose.

Published October 2018