OCS also holds several groups meetings with students, which Michelson says is even more advantageous.

"There's myth of...the premeds being very isolated and not very supportive," she says. "There's a lot students learn from each other when we do the workshops."

Mock Interviews

In past years, OCS conducted mock medical school interviews for juniors and seniors to help prepare them for the real thing, Michelson says.

However, with 200 undergraduates applying to medical school and past alumni also applying, Michelson says she suddenly found herself confronted with about 500 to 600 applicants, all of whom were eager to have a mock interview.

"I can't do mock interviews with 500 to 600 people," she says. "[There were] people calling in August and booking for November...and I just felt like it wasn't fair to the students," she says.

Michelson says the interviews became too difficult to do by herself and they were eventually discontinued.

She says it is a better idea to have these interviews conducted in the houses, some of which have 12 pre-med tutors available.

Adams is one of the houses which offers mock interviews for its students.

"I think Adams House is one of the only houses that does mock interviews," says Samia Mora '92, who has been a pre-med advisor in Adams House for three years.

The house is holding mock interviews for its juniors and seniors next week.

"We feel that this is an opportunity for students at Adams to have one run-through...as well as to make them think about the issues of students' applying to medical school," she says.

Problems with the System

Despite the avenues of support that are available, students and advisors say the main problem they see with the advising system is its decentralization.

"The biggest problem with the system is the lack of uniformity between the houses," Mora says