MBS Brochure 2018

Master of Biomedical Sciences | MBS Program

Table of contents

One degree – many paths to success

About Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.......................................... 1

Medical student Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Why earn your MBS?...................................... 2 Locations............................................................ 3 Alumni spotlight............................................... 4

Research lab technician

Curriculum.......................................................... 6

University of Pittsburgh

Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student

Alumni spotlight............................................... 8 Student engagement................................... 10

Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

Outcomes...........................................................11 Alumni spotlight..............................................12 Featured faculty..............................................14 MBS class profile........................................... 16 Apply...................................................................17

Vaccine research technician Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is committed to non-discrimination in all employment and educational opportunities.

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals

PhD student Genetics, Genomics and Development Program, Cornell University

About Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Geisinger Commonwealth educates aspiring physicians, scientists and the healthcare team members of the future to serve society using a community-based, patientcentered, interprofessional and evidence-based model of education that is committed to inclusion, promotes discovery and utilizes innovative techniques.

Our students learn in an environment created specifically to address the medical and scientific realities of the 21st century. Geisinger is a pioneer in technologies and techniques ranging from fully integrated electronic health records and care delivered by multidisciplinary teams to bioinformatics and an unparalleled genomics program.

Geisinger Commonwealth embraces these advances while meshing them with the age-old philosophy of biomedical science: care and concern for community. Our curriculum encourages students to take a person-centered approach to problem-solving, and we inspire our learners to meet change with confidence and an open mind. These qualities, coupled with superior communication skills fostered in innumerable small groups and professional interactions, will serve you well in any career in medicine or science.

Whether you are seeking to position yourself for further graduate study, attend professional school (such as medical, dental or optometry), gain entry into a healthrelated field or advance within your organization, Geisinger Commonwealth’s Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) program prepares students to succeed.

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Why earn your MBS? Academic rigor

Real-world education

Enhanced credentials

Career focus

Geisinger Commonwealth emphasizes excellence. Our curriculum is rigorous, intensive, comprehensive and recognized, which means education institutions and employers know a Geisinger Commonwealth degree means an exceptionally qualified candidate.

Our intensive biomedical curriculum includes elective courses that allow you to choose a personal path to success.

Between our two campuses, we offer a range of experiences which include research, corporate visits and mentoring from faculty, research scientists, business executives and entrepreneurs.

Highly qualified educators and research scholars will guide you through the MBS curriculum, which closely models courses typically found in the first year of medical school.

Our professional development course will help you craft your personal statement and curriculum vitae (CV), practice interviewing skills and gain insight about your career options from a variety of health professionals.

Research experience

Standardized test prep

Explore opportunities to take part in community health research, which emphasizes proposal writing, survey design, ethics, data management and analysis, qualitative research and field investigation.

The Princeton Review MCAT, DAT or GRE prep course will prepare you for professional school. These comprehensive courses are offered at no additional charge.*

Personal attention Our MBS students learn in an intimate, close-knit environment.

We provide personalized advising to help you make the best academic and professional choices. Geisinger Commonwealth offers a host of personal, academic and referral services to enhance your interpersonal and educational experiences.

Student-centered schedules At our Scranton Campus, students attend classes full-time and complete the degree in approximately 10 to 12 months. At our Doylestown Campus, students earn their degrees in as few as 16 months through a flexible-format program, attending evening classes.

*Students who achieve a benchmark score in the MCAT or other standardized exam may elect to opt out of the Princeton Review and take an additional elective course.

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* Students who achieve a benchmark score in the MCAT or other standardized exam may elect to opt out of the Princeton Review and take an additional elective course.

Locations Choose between two unique learning environments — a fully accredited medical school or an internationally renowned research institute.

MBS–Scranton Medical Sciences Building 525 Pine St., Scranton, PA 18509 In Scranton, classes take place full-time in Geisinger Commonwealth’s LEED Silver–certified Medical Sciences Building, complete with research facilities boasting state-of-the-art technology and a Clinical Skills and Simulation Center.

MBS–Doylestown Baruch S. Blumberg Institute at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County 3805 Old Easton Road, Doylestown, PA 18902

Scranton Campus

In Doylestown, Geisinger Commonwealth teams up with the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute (BSBI) to offer evening classes as part of a flexible-format program inside the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County, an innovative, market-minded biotechnology incubator.

The Biotech Center, operated by BSBI, is a multipurpose, state-of-the-art research facility that maximizes synergies between nonprofit scientists and their commercial colleagues. BSBI is the home of the largest concentration of nonprofit scientists working toward cures for hepatitis B and liver cancer.

Doylestown Campus

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Alumni spotlight Sotonye Douglas, MBS ’18 Scranton Campus When Sotonye Douglas looks at histology slides, chances are what she sees is unlike anything her peers would describe. To her, the bloom of stain on a specimen and the wavy, irregular patterns are reminiscent of great works of art. Dense, irregular connective tissue, for example, reminds her of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. “I am detailoriented, and art requires you to notice everything,” she said. “I see connections other people don’t.” Such perception is good for art, but, as Sotonye has learned, it’s also an incredibly useful superpower for a doctor.

Growing up in Brooklyn, a few things inspired Sotonye’s career choice. One was an indulgent pediatrician. “I used to ask Dr. Tanya to let me see what she was doing,” Sotonye said. “She always let me.” The other was a second-grade teacher who insisted that her students be their best. “She pushed me to read on a fifth-grade level. She made

me realize I can do things, but I can’t half-do them. I think if she were alive today, she would be proud of me.”

Sotonye was already interested in art, and just before high school she got a crash course in human anatomy that sparked her interest in something else. “The anatomy models looked like sculptures. It was amazing to me. I fell in love with the intricacies of the human body. That, coupled with memories of my pediatrician, made me want to be a doctor. I thought, ‘I want to put in the effort and do this.’”

In addition to scholarly interests, high school and her undergraduate years at SUNY Albany revealed another facet of Sotonye’s personality: a flair for leadership. “I was involved in Student Association, which is the student leadership for University at Albany. I held the positions of intern and multicultural assistant director.” At GCSOM’s Scranton Campus, her leadership has left an

* The Student National Medical Association has chapters based at allopathic and osteopathic medical schools throughout the nation. SNMA programs are designed to serve the health needs of underserved communities and communities of color.

In addition, SNMA is dedicated both to ensuring that medical education and services are culturally sensitive to the needs of diverse populations and to increasing the number of African-American, Latino and other students of color entering and completing medical school.

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indelible mark. “When I visited the Scranton Campus, I fell in love,” she said.

“I knew in my heart, ‘This is right,’ but when I looked for the SNMA* [Student National Medical Association] table at the orientation week Club Fair, I found out the chapter wasn’t active.” That’s when Sotonye started “talking to people and taking names.” She wanted to build something to “show the diverse presence is here and it’s supported.”

The student coalition she helped gather worked to reinstate the school’s Minority Association of Pre-medical Students (MAPS) chapter and formed a new club, called Association of Multicultural Students in Medicine, that includes

both MBS and medical students.

Sotonye served as president of both executive boards. The reinvigorated clubs advocated for funding to attend conferences, engaged in volunteer work and organized the school’s first Freedom Seder, an event whose popularity destines it to be an annual celebration. Because of this work, Sotonye received the 2017–2018 SNMA National MAPS Member of the Year award, which recognizes one individual out of thousands of MAPS members across the nation and the Caribbean.

Moreover, GCSOM’s MAPS chapter won the 2017–2018 SNMA national MAPS Chapter of the Year award.

Michael Scharf, MBS ’17 Doylestown Campus Michael Scharf has been involved in medicine since he was 17 years old, but his decision to become a doctor took some time. “I was an EMT in high school,” Michael said, explaining that he was performing CPR and “stopping the bleed” at the same time that most kids are just getting a driver’s license. He loved the work — and especially the other members of the team — but when he went to the University of Delaware, Michael was still unsure what role he wanted to play.

As a college student, he continued to work in emergency medicine, but this time as an ER technician. The difference between an EMT and a technician is location: the EMT is in the ambulance, while the tech is waiting at the hospital. “After graduation, I was working 80 to 90 hours a week in the Emergency Department and I loved it,” he said.

“I liked the urgency and the teamwork. For instance, when I would do CPR, we’d have to screen for effect.

So I’d do the compressions and then stop now and then for a pulse check — whenever we’d find one, that was a great day for me. It was a privilege to be a part of a fine-tuned machine with everyone working to their utmost ability.”

Despite his deep admiration for his team, Michael realized he wanted to do more. He liked the fast pace of his emergency work, but he also realized how much

he liked to fix things. “I restore classic cars,” he said, “and I realized that I enjoyed having the right tools and applying them. I began to think about how being a doctor is the same way, only knowledge and skill are the tools doctors have to have on hand.”

Because he had been out of school for a time, Michael knew he needed to brush up on his academics and gain the knowledge necessary to take the Medical College Admission Test® before he even thought about applying to medical school. Fortunately, a friend suggested he look into Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, which was holding an open house at its Doylestown Campus. “I like the emphasis on research,” Michael said. “Dr. [John] Kulp impressed

me — everyone did. So I chose GCSOM, and it was a great experience. The curriculum is nearly identical to year one of medical school, and I liked that our input was accepted. The program really is open to continuous improvement. Faculty really care about your feedback and want you to experience success. I was never concerned about being left behind. If you are studious and diligent, success is destined to happen.”

Success did happen for Michael. After using his gap year to work as a teaching assistant in Doylestown, Michael was accepted into GCSOM’s MD Class of 2022. He hopes to pursue general surgery so he can fix things with the knowledge and skill he will acquire as a medical student.

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MBS curriculum Whether you pursue a Geisinger Commonwealth MBS degree at the more intense pace of the Scranton Campus or along the more flexible timeline at the Doylestown Campus, you are choosing one degree with many paths to success — that comes with two campuses dedicated to student achievement.

Full-time format (Scranton Campus) • 10- to 12-month program • Day and evening classes • Traditional and virtual course formats

Flexible format (Doylestown Campus) • 16-month program • Evening classes • Traditional and virtual course formats

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Core courses

Electives

Biochemistry

Bioethics

Management

Cell Biology

Cancer Biology

Neuroscience

Human Genetics

Community Health Research

Pharmacology

Physiology Professional Identify Formation for Healthcare Careers

Emergency Medical Technician

Princeton Review (required for the MBS-Scranton program)

Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Readings in Basic Science

Histology

Seminars in Biomedical Sciences

Immunology Integrated Group Learning Laboratory Techniques

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Alumni spotlight Moses Moua, MBS ’18 Scranton Campus Moses Moua majored in biology at Hiram College in Ohio just because it was a subject he enjoyed. Like many young 20-somethings, he wasn’t thinking much about the future. “I didn’t even decide on a major until the end of my third year, when I started getting pressure from the college to decide. Then, when I graduated, I realized I had no plan,” he said. Moses decided that until he had one, the best course was to indulge his desire to help people while also seeing the world. He joined AmeriCorps and traveled the country as a team leader, aiding in disaster relief, working with disadvantaged youth and even assisting with energy conservation projects. “It was an amazing experience,” he said. “And it confirmed for me that I am really oriented toward serving others.”

After AmeriCorps, while doing post-baccalaureate work at Adventist University of Health Sciences in Florida, Moses found his calling. “I met a nurse instructor from the school who ran a free clinic called Shepherd’s Hope.

I asked if I could volunteer at the clinic, to which she said they could really use help. On my first day, she told me to go in, chat with the doctor and if he needs help, to help him.” Moses got a bit more than he bargained for. It was the first time he had set foot in a clinic and he didn’t expect to do anything besides fetch papers, but the doctor expected hands-on help with patient care.

After a series of clumsy misadventures — including

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spraying topical anesthetic into his own face — he was feeling flustered. Yet despite this comically inauspicious start, Moses and Dr. Tom Stanford developed a close bond over the next five years of volunteering at the clinic. “He is a grandfather to me,” Moses said. “He calls me every other week from Florida, and whenever I am down there, I spend most of the time with him. He really cares for people. He takes time to communicate with his patients and taught me how to love and care for them, too.”

Moses meshed so well with Shepherd’s Hope that he went from volunteer to manager of the clinic’s 50 doctors, 200 nurses and 300 volunteers in a paid position he held for a year. Despite Moses’ love for his work, Dr. Stanford’s example made him yearn for something else. He knew he wanted to study medicine, but having been out of school for so long, Moses also

knew he needed to look at an MBS program.

“I chose Geisinger Commonwealth because I knew that the same professors who taught medical students also taught the MBS students. So I would be getting the same instruction. Not all schools have that. I also knew the program in Scranton would be intense, and I wanted that. Plus, I am a native Pennsylvanian and have some family nearby,” he said.

Now that he has earned his MBS, Moses said, “It’s been an amazing experience — a true growth process.

I learned a lot about myself. For example, because of the intensity of the program, I know I can succeed. The professors make this program unique. They really care about the students. I never experienced that in school before. They go out of their way to make sure you succeed, and that’s what makes the school and program invaluable.”

Josephine Sinamano, MBS ’18 Doylestown Campus Josephine Sinamano took part in virtually every student experience offered at GCSOM’s Doylestown Campus. From planning blood drives to spearheading recycling efforts at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center where the campus is located, Josephine has been at the forefront. So when she names her most valuable Doylestown experiences, she has a wealth of memories to sort through — but she doesn’t hesitate to cite the two things that helped her grow most as a student.

The first was how involved the students were encouraged to be with the Hepatitis B Foundation and its population health efforts. “I got to do screenings in Philadelphia and offer education to at-risk populations about incidence and prevalence. This was a great experience for students,” she said.

The second is the groundbreaking research in which she’s been invited to participate. “One of the best things about the Doylestown Campus is the seminar series it holds every Thursday. It’s not just for students — the talks are geared for the whole science community. I went to every one, and I was so interested. I found I could actually understand what was being discussed and ask meaningful questions.”

Roshan Thapa, MD, assistant professor at the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, presented one of the seminars

Josephine attended. His lecture was on the different ways flu virus was being used to study cell death. “I approached him after the session and told him how interested I was in his research. He remembered my questions and invited me to work in his lab.” Josephine even intends to spend her gap year before medical school working in Dr. Thapa’s lab.

Among her projects with Dr. Thapa, one involved examining hepatitis B virus surface-protein-mediated liver cell death when stimulated by a new class of targeted drugs that specifically induce cancer cell death and block “pro-survival” signaling in cancer cells.

Her second project studies the possible therapeutic use of regulated cell death in liver cancer immunotherapy using interferons to cause cell death. Interferons are small secreted proteins with powerful antiviral and cytotoxic properties that induce death in susceptible cells. In this project, Josephine independently handles multiple hepatic cell lines, cultures them and performs cytotoxic assays. Assays measure proliferation, viability and cytotoxicity to monitor the response and health of cells in culture after treatment with various stimuli.

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Student engagement Diversity

Academic advising

Students get involved with Safe Zone training, Geisinger Commonwealth’s Regional Education Academy for Careers in Health – Higher Education Initiative (REACH-HEI), Minority Association of Pre-medical Students (MAPS) and diversity and inclusion events.

Acedemic advisors provide guidance to help students achieve their academic goals and develop their professional identity. Advisors discuss students’ strengths and weaknesses, goals, study skills, professional engagement and academic planning.

Students attend professional identity formation workshops, guest lectures and research seminars at our Doylestown Campus. These experiences connect classroom learning to real-life applications.

Service

Research

Volunteer opportunities include regional healthcare clinics and centers, local nonprofits, blood and food drives, healthcare certifications, wellness programs and REACH-HEI.

Students can pursue research opportunities with our faculty members or participate in our laboratory boot camps offered at our Doylestown Campus.

Career services Geisinger Commonwealth offers career fairs, networking opportunities and individual career coaching.

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Cocurricular support

Outcomes Our MBS graduates have been accepted to health professional schools (MD, PhD, DO, veterinary and dental schools), including: • Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine • Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine

Alumni of our MBS program have also had successful researchoriented careers, including: • Clinical research assistant, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

• Boston University School of Medicine

• Clinical research coordinator, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

• Cornell University’s Genetics, Genomics, and Development PhD Program

• Laboratory technician, Deibel Laboratories, Bethlehem, PA

• Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

• Pathology clinical laboratory coordinator, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA

• George Washington University of Medicine & Health Sciences • Indiana University School of Medicine • Midwestern University • Penn State College of Medicine • Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine • Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy • Sidney Kimmel Medical College • Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine • University of Illinois College of Medicine • University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine

• Post-baccalaureate IRTA, clinical coordinator, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD • Quality assurance analyst, Allen Flavors, Edison, NJ • Research technician, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, PA • Research technologist, College of Medicine at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA • Senior clinical research assistant, Proove Biosciences, Irvine, CA

• University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine

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Alumni spotlight Austin Amos, MBS ’15 Scranton Campus As an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, Austin Amos was more interested in football and lacrosse than academics. “I didn’t really know for sure what I wanted to do,” he said. So while he majored in biology, he excelled at sports. After graduation, while he was volunteering at Pittsburgh hospitals, Austin realized he had a calling to become a doctor. All he needed was a way to burnish his academic credentials.

After working at the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program for a year, Austin was looking for a program that would offer the rigors of a medical school curriculum as a means to prove to himself that he could succeed and to strengthen his application. He had the good fortune to speak with Michelle Schmude, EdD, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s associate dean for admissions, enrollment management and financial aid. “Dr. Schmude is amazing,” he said. “I wouldn’t be in medical school today if it weren’t for her and the rest of the faculty and staff at GCSOM.” Dr. Schmude explained the MBS program to Austin, and he was convinced it was the right path for him. “The huge advantage of the program is that it so closely mirrors the first year of medical school. It’s a good way to ease back into school and get into the right frame of mind for medical school,” he said. “Another plus is how close you get to your peers. I loved my classmates, and am friends with many of them still.”

With the academic push he got from the MBS program, Austin said he “crushed” the Medical College Admission Test and was invited to interview at more than 10 medical schools. He is now a third-year medical student at the University of Central Florida. “The MBS program at Geisinger Commonwealth changed my life,” he said. “I would tell anyone that if you take the program seriously and perform well, you’ll succeed.”

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Sagar Bhatt, MBS ’17 Doylestown Campus A well-known aphorism says that 80 percent of success is showing up. According to Sagar Bhatt, that’s only 20 percent correct — showing up is only useful if you ask questions. That’s how Sagar leveraged weekly guest lectures at GCSOM’s Doylestown Campus into his rewarding career in drug development at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson.

Doylestown MBS students are invited to seminars by eminent scientists held every Thursday at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center. The speakers are CEOs, researchers and physicians from around the globe. Sagar was already interested in drug discovery, so he went to every session determined to learn everything he could.

“It really opened doors,” he said. “I learned what to expect from a science career and to be fully developed in that career. It was more than the science. I got contacts I could reach out to and talk to about how they got where they are and what I needed to do to succeed.”

As a working student, Sagar also found the flexibility of the Doylestown program attractive. “I found the flexibility of the program attractive because I could hold a full-time job and work in the biotech industry to gain valuable experience simultaneously. I knew it would be difficult, but it helped me build a robust résumé very early in my career without sacrificing time just for school and work experience separately,” he said. “It was a challenge, but I found that if I worked hard, it was manageable. Plus, I loved going to lectures and classes at the Doylestown Campus. With all of the connections it has to the biotech industry, it was extremely helpful to me.”

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Featured faculty Chari Cohen, DrPH, MPH Associate Professor of the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute Vice President for Public Health and Programs at the Hepatitis B Foundation Chari Cohen, DrPH, associate professor at Geisinger Commonwealth’s Doylestown Campus, is gratified when her students express enthusiasm for the handson experiences they get identifying, screening and educating those at risk for hepatitis B. As vice president of Public Health and Programs for the Hepatitis B Foundation, it’s her life’s work, but Dr. Cohen also believes the public health approach is the future of medicine.

“Public health research is geared toward surveillance and testing — mapping out the epidemic, identifying where it is, what the risk factors are and learning what barriers prevent testing and treatment. It’s part of the program to be accurate — if we underappreciate the epidemic, we can’t fight it,” she said.

In the case of hepatitis B, Dr. Cohen said Philadelphia has a very large high-risk population. Her research shows stigma is a big barrier to simply getting people screened, so the public health team at the Hepatitis B Foundation and their community partners have launched a series of initiatives to “move the needle from shame to testing.” And she’s brought her GCSOM students

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along for the experience. “They help us plan programs and volunteer at screenings,” she said. “They conduct surveys and collect data. They talk to the people who show up at community events, and that’s helpful because they are so enthusiastic and dedicated. People see that and respond.”

Dr. Cohen said the public health perspective taught in Doylestown is unique in an MBS program. “It’s very unusual outside of an MPH program,” she said. “But

it’s an important perspective. In classes like Histology, students get a piece of the picture. I come in with the globe. Population health is how we take the data we collect and use it to make a better future. It really is the big picture — as doctors, when my students look at one patient, they’ll know this person represents a population, such as a neighborhood or a workplace. I think having public health training will change the way they treat every patient who walks through their door. If you want to see the future, this is it.”

Brian J. Piper, PhD, MS Assistant Professor of Neuroscience There is an apocryphal tale about Michelangelo describing sculpture as simply removing parts of the stone that aren’t statue. The process the story illustrates — patient acceptance of uncertainty until a form emerges from the fog of infinite possibilities — is a good metaphor for scientific discovery. Whatever the term, Brian Piper, PhD, says it’s how he thrives. He prefers to focus on areas where competing or even contradictory facts make a single answer unlikely. “Our society likes extremes, black-and-whites,” he said. “But there are shades of gray. I like the ambiguity. For example, I conduct research concerning opioids, which have both medical benefits and potential for misuse. I also research ethical questions, particularly conflicts of interest not revealed in scientific journals. I find it interesting because, on one hand, we get products with great promise to improve evidence-based medical care, but there’s a downside when industry doesn’t report its financial incentives.”

Dr. Piper’s interest in the gray areas of opioid research was sparked during his undergrad days as a psychology major studying children whose mothers “used” during pregnancy.

The experience persuaded him to switch to neuroscience, and he’s been studying

neuro chemicals ever since. Since coming to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, however, and embracing its community-focused mission, his research has branched out in new ways. For example, he’s lending his expertise to a unique project to discover the health needs of the Scranton area’s Latino population led

by Ida Castro, Geisinger Commonwealth’s vice president for Community Engagement and chief diversity officer. The population health project involves our medical students leading teams of REACH-HEI participants, armed with iPads and visiting neighborhoods to conduct a survey Dr. Piper designed. The survey will delve into issues related to health, nutrition and substance abuse that affect this “hidden population” in northeast Pennsylvania.

Dr. Piper has another unusual summer project.

He and a team of GCSOM students have a grant to analyze Scranton’s wastewater and look for opioid “signatures.” These varying chemical compositions will reveal how much of the area’s opioid use comes from prescribed versus illicit sources. For this connoisseur of gray, the study will reveal welcome bits of black and white.

“Right now, we are relying on self-reported information,” Dr. Piper said. “The analysis will give us actual data.”

Hands-on education As a neuroscientist, Brian Piper, PhD, believes that teaching and learning should be informed by new discoveries about the brain. So when cognitive research empirically proved the traditional “sage on the stage” teaching model doesn’t work, he was more than happy to cede his spotlight to his students. “Education is in a transitional period,” he said. “Whatever is new and is proven, I’m open to it.”

Dr. Piper says evidence shows today’s students like to be handson and to participate in their own learning. It’s a trend he likes because it mirrors patient-centered healthcare. “Students learn and retain more when they make information their own,” he said.

“We’re finding many ways for students to handle and deal with and creatively apply information. For example, when I teach bioethics and we discuss health disparities, the students themselves have valid insights to share. There’s tremendous value to listening to lived experiences.”

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MBS class profile • Total applications: 812 • Enrolled: 101

• Students who are underrepresented in medicine: 30

• Gender (male/female): 43/58

• Disadvantaged students: 21

• Pennsylvania students: 46

• First-generation-to-college students: 50

• Northeastern and north-central Pennsylvania students: 23

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Apply today Requirements

Application process

Non-degree students

1.

1.

Are you interested in MBS courses, but not sure you want to enroll in a degree program? Prospective students can enroll as non–degree-seeking students.

A bachelor’s degree from a U.S. or Canadian accredited undergraduate college or university (must be completed before enrollment in MBS program)

2. The following coursework*: • General biology with laboratory (one year/two semesters) • General chemistry with laboratory (one year/two semesters) • Organic chemistry with laboratory (one year/two semesters) • General physics with laboratory (one year/two semesters) • English and English composition (one semester) 3. U.S. citizenship or permanent residence *College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) credits may not be used to fulfill any of the above course requirements. AP credits can be used toward required courses.

Submit your completed application through Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s application portal: apply.graduate.som.geisinger.edu

2. Request official transcripts for all undergraduate and graduate coursework completed. Transcripts can be mailed to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, 525 Pine St., Scranton, PA 18509, or emailed to admissions@som.geisinger.edu.

3. Standardized test scores are optional, but can be uploaded with your application material. You can upload MCAT, DAT or GRE scores.

Applicants are expected to submit all required application materials. Course credits earned in the non-degree status will be considered if you apply for full admission into the MBS program, and course grades will be transferred should you be accepted.

Contact us Phone: 570-504-9068 Text: 570-600-1142 mbs@som.geisinger.edu geisinger.edu/gcsom

4. Submit one committee letter or three letters of recommendation. Letters can be uploaded from your letter writer or sent directly from the letter writer to admissions@som.geisinger.edu.

242-853-9/18-HDAV/BF

525 Pine St. Scranton, PA 18509

570-504-7000 geisinger.edu/gcsom mbs@som.geisinger.edu