Are you pre-med or thinking about being pre-med at the University of Iowa? Look no further! The University of Iowa is a great place for pre-medical students to foster their own growth. When looking at colleges to attend as a pre-medical student I was hoping to find a university that had a community of pre-medical students rather than the cut-throat competitive nature. For me, the University of Iowa answered this calling and now I am a fourth-year (senior) pre-med student who just got accepted into medical school!

Keep reading for some of my favorite pre-medicine resources, student organizations, and experience-building tips and opportunities that I have used! This is a really long post, because as a pre-medical student, there are a lot of resources out there for you. I wish I got this information all from one place (it would have made college so much easier, and the pre-med curriculum is tough enough as it is), so take this as your one-stop shop for resources I so highly recommend to any pre-med I run into:

1. Pre-med advisorEvery student at the University of Iowa gets an advisor for their major, but all pre-med students are also assigned a pre-med advisor. This is someone who specializes in the pre-med journey rather than one specific area of study. As a first-generation and out-of-state student, my pre-med advisor has been my go-to person for all of my academic questions since day one, actually before that! Before I even had my first day of college, she met with me to get to know me and help me pick out my classes. Since then, she has been the most influential person I have met in college, no joke. She not only helps me stay on track with required coursework and planning for pre-med things like preparing for the MCAT, networking, and shadowing, but she also has supported me when the pre-med journey got hard and guided me to opportunities I would have never known existed. Some of these opportunities have been super influential in my journey to medical school, and I will share them below. But, the moral of the story, get to know and bond with your pre-med advisor. The more you do, the more they can help you curate your pre-medical path to your needs and desires.
2. MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-Health Students)MAPS is a student organization curated to bring pre-medicine, pre-dental, pre-physician assistant, (pre-) nursing, (pre-) pharmacy, public health, and more health-focused students together. Contrary to popular belief because of their name, you do not have to have a minority identity to be a part of this group. This student organization is meant to be a safe space for all health-focused students to come together, learn from each other, and pursue learning experiences in multiple health fields. During my time at the University of Iowa, MAPS had more diverse activities and resources than some of the other pre-medical organizations, so I spent most of my time attending their meetings compared to other organizations like Medicus (talked about below).
   In MAPS, I had the following opportunities:
   1. Support group meetings: a place where pre-health students can share their fears, troubles with the current semester, resources and study strategies that worked or failed for them, and more!
   2. Hands-on training: MAPS often partners with residents and physicians at UIHC to allow members to get an inside look at what it is like to be a physician. I learned how to conduct an official eye exam with all the fancy equipment, stimulate removing a cataract from an eye, stimulate laparoscopic surgery, conduct a real ultrasound, learn to suture, and more! This was probably one of the most valuable things to my pre-med journey because it was more than a guest speaker. Guest speakers are common for pre-med students to hear from, but you can only learn so much from listening. From doing a hands-on activity just like these as a pre-med student, I was filled with excitement for the future and my interests were broadened.
   3. Guest Speakers: the hands-on trainings don’t replace the guest speakers by any means, these people are still so valuable! MAPS sponsors all pre-health students, so there is a wide variety of guest speakers that have come to speak with the members of MAPS. From physicians, nurses, dentists, students, public health employees and advocates, and more, MAPS gave me the ability as a pre-medical student to hear more about the job and tasks of others in the health field. Sure, I enjoyed the physician guest speakers, but hearing from more career paths promotes the understanding of the interconnectedness of the health field, something crucial for a future physician to understand.
   4. Socials: MAPS holds socials for members to take a break from school and all the pre-health curriculum. Learning to take a break is a necessity for the pre-health field, and what a fun way to get to know some of your peers outside of class!
   5. Workshops: MAPS partners with the Pomerantz Career Center to bring members workshops tailored to professionalism, building a good resume, writing your personal statement, and more! These were some of my favorite meetings as a pre-med because I was doing something that I had to do anyway, but I was doing it with people I got to know well and was able to have some fun with it.
   6. Tours: MAPS partners with students in the health graduate school programs to provide overviews and tours of their related areas of study. Students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine provide tours of the medical school and the hospital!
   7. Job shadowing: MAPS helps connect members to physicians’ job shadowing experiences. Through MAPS I was able to shadow an ER physician and clinical gastroenterologist.
   8. Conference and program promotion: MAPS provides members with lots of information about educational opportunities outside of the student organization itself. Attending some of these was very beneficial to me and I will talk more about them below!
3. MedicusMedicus is the largest pre-health organization on campus and is specifically for pre-med students. Like MAPS, this organization is great to get to know your peers in the same discipline. During my time in medicine, the pandemic was going on (and MAPS had more opportunities), so my experience was limited to hearing guest speakers and doing a virtual suture clinic. I’m sure post-pandemic the organization has expanded to more diverse events though so it is definitely worth checking out!
4. UI Pre-Health ConferenceThis annual conference is great for bringing together all of the different health tracks. Learning the interdisciplinary ways of medicine is invaluable to a pre-med, so I would highly recommend networking here with non-pre-medicine peers and professionals in other fields like nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and more. This year, registration closes on March 31st, and the conference is held on April 7th from 9am-4:30pm.
   At the conference, you will be able to gain insight into post-graduate plans and education, attend workshops, hear from a variety of guest speakers, learn about on-campus programs and organizations, and more. I attended this conference every year I was available and always gained some new insight and networks. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to network at events like these! I know it can be awkward, but amazing things can come from it. One year, the keynote speaker’s story and job resonated with me and I wanted to ask a few more questions about how she got to where she is today. I emailed her after the conference, we set up a time to meet over coffee, and I got all my questions answered. She even asked if I wanted to job shadow her! How crazy is that? Normally the pre-med student has to ask for an opportunity like that. Anyway, I job-shadowed her work multiple times over a period of a few months and got to know this physician well enough for her to write me a letter of recommendation for medical school. The moral of the story, network and make something of your networks!
5. SHPEP (Summer Health Professions Education Program)SHPEP is a program for freshman and sophomores to explore the health field while boosting their knowledge in the core sciences during the summer. This program is one that I could scream from the rooftops how good it is for all pre-med and pre-health students. SHPEP brings together the different disciplines of medicine through guest speakers, connecting class concepts, hands-on activities, and more. Each campus this program is offered at is slightly different, so each location has a unique perk. For example, I completed the program (virtually because of COVID-19) at the University of Louisville, and here, completion of the course gives you semester hour credits on your degree application. Other locations have other incentives like proximity to a beach or an automatic medical school interview.
   In my time in the program, I had an assigned partner to study with and complete activities with. The cool thing was she was a pre-dental student so we went to teach each other about our own perspective tracks and it really built in the concept of interdisciplinary health.
6. Mobile ClinicMobile Clinic is a unique program at the University of Iowa. Largely run by medical and undergraduate students, Mobile Clinic brings interdisciplinary healthcare to disadvantaged communities within the Iowa City area. There are multiple locations and jobs pre-medical students can volunteer in, each job with its own unique training. Some of the training you can do on your own time online, and others you need to be in person with a designated trainer.
   I trained myself in the EMR and scribe position, and through MAPS had a training set up to be certified for labs and vitals. The lab, vitals, and scribe positions are my favorites, each with its own unique benefit. For lab and vitals, you get 1:1 patient experience and for the scribe position, you get to talk with medical students and physicians in your downtime!
7. VolunteerAs a pre-med you should have a well-rounded resume, however, you should not be seeking out experiences just to get resume fillers. I enjoy volunteering just about anywhere, and I am a firm believer that everyone can find a love for volunteering if they find the right organization for them. Directly related to medicine, I have volunteered with Mobile Clinic as mentioned above, but I am also a hospital volunteer. At the hospital, I am an operating room volunteer where I stock surgical supplies, sterilize rooms after surgery, and prepare for the next. I enjoy being on this unit so much that I also took a leadership role here as the unit mentor. Every unit has a mentor position, so if you are looking for volunteer and leadership experience, becoming a hospital volunteer may be great for you!
   Also in the realm of service and leadership is another student organization I am a part of. Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity is a student organization built on the principles of leadership, friendship, and community service. I have a lot more non-medical service hours and leadership hours from this organization than anything else on my resume, and that is okay! I found this organization and how passionate I am about it, the service we do with the children’s museum, Boy Scouts, food pantry, etc., and the connections I have made, allow me to stand out from other pre-med students who just have medical experiences. So, the overall lesson is to find a volunteer experience you are passionate about, and it doesn’t have to be in the medical field.
8. Job ShadowAs mentioned previously, I job shadowed a physician I met through networking, and from her, I got most of my shadowing hours. However, I got some shadowing in some other ways, too! From my volunteering at the hospital, I developed connections with surgeons and anesthesiologists and was able to shadow them, and from my membership in MAPS, I was able to shadow an ER physician and clinical gastroenterologist.
   One thing I never did was cold-call a physician. Sure, you can look up a physician’s email and send them a bit about yourself in hopes they will respond and allow you to come in, but in reality, job shadowing rarely goes directly through the physician. There is often paperwork through a different office that must be filled out. Because of this, I have yet to hear someone who cold-called a physician actually have that action result in a job shadowing experience. However, do not let this deter you if you do not know any physicians, medical schools want to see that you have job shadowed! You can’t go to school for so long just to find out you don’t like the job you have been training for. Again, networking is going to be your biggest winner here. Without networking, I would have not had any shadowing experience. So, go to conferences, participate in student organizations, and always always always have an elevator pitch about yourself ready to go (you never know who you will meet and where)!
9. ResearchI have been in the same research lab for 3 years, and it has been one of the best experiences for my pre-medical journey. Research can be on anything you are passionate about, in the science field or not. For me, my research is in the field of microbiology. As a pre-med student, I love studying the “little” things like pathogens that make up the bigger picture in medicine and treatment. In my research lab, I get to do just this, so it continues to fuel my passion for medicine.
   Although I started my research position unaffiliated with OUR (Office of Undergrad Research), I ended up applying and earning a research fellowship through this office for the research I was already planning on continuing. Within this fellowship, I got the opportunity to present my work at poster sessions, earn grants for my lab, and I got paid, again all while continuing to build my passion for the connection of pathology and medicine.
   I take the time during summer break to go home, and so I also take a break from my research lab. However, I use this time to still stay busy, yet I switch it up a bit. I have participated in the UI Premed Student Summer Research Internship and the 1st Generation Student Brain Research Workshop. Both programs I highly recommend in the realm of research!
10. StudyAs a pre-med, you should know you will be studying a lot!! During my first 3 years of college, I didn’t realize how much I was studying until I hit my final year and had less rigorous classes. Here are a handful of resources I found useful at the University of Iowa in regards to classes:
    1. Supplemental Instruction– great for large introductory classes!
    2. TAs- TAs are an underrated resource. If you have a TA for your class, they should be talking to the professor about material that students should know, aka insider information to what may be on an exam.
    3. Professor Office Hours- all professors at the University of Iowa are required to have office hours. Here you can simply build a connection with your professor or talk about course material and concerns. Again, information straight from the source for exams!
    4. The Writing Center– great for spell-checking your lab reports
    5. University of Iowa Libraries– We have 8 libraries on campus, many of them specializing in an academic subject. When completing major class projects, the librarians are a great resource to help find potential sources and references.
    6. Anything major specific!- Different programs have lots of niche learning opportunities. Definitely ask around in your program to see what is accommodated to your major.
    7. Discussion- In many classes, attendance in discussion is mandatory for grading. However, in many of the chemistry pre-med courses, discussion is optional. You should most definitely still go! I am a firm believer that showing up to class is one of the best things you can do as a pre-med to stay on track, and this includes going to discussions. Going to discussion can kind of count as you’re studying for that class for that day, so you might as well stay on top of your material!

Hopefully, you find these resources helpful in your pre-med journey at the University of Iowa. Being a pre-medical student is a long journey, but it is so fulfilling. You should be proud of your progress every step of the way!