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After Graduation

At CBU we strive to give each and every student the best opportunity for success. Sometimes that means helping you get into professional or graduate school to further pursue their ambitions. Sometimes that means helping you determine a "plan B" if your initial plan was not really suited to your talents and/or initial expectations. Othertimes, it means helping you determine what are the possibilities out there that match up with your interests and talents.

• Shool of Science graduates go on to medical, pharmacy and other professional schools.
• CBU graduates are accepted into various graduate schools including the local University of Memphis, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Cornell, Tufts, Arizona, Hawaii and Rochester.
• CBU graduates find challenging jobs after graduation. Companies that have hired our graduates recently include major established firms like FedEx, Google, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Buckeye Technologies, and also recent start-up companies like Luminetx (now Christie Medical).

CBU students are accepted into competitive research programs. These programs give you the experience that is an advantage in getting into the professional or graduate school or the experience required for the workplace:

• MHIRT (Minority Health International Research Training) grant administered by CBU provides paid summer research opportunities in Brazil, Thailand and Uganda. Several CBU students each year participate.
• POE (Pediatric Oncology Education) program at St. Jude has accepted several CBU students over the past several years.
• Memphis Zoo Biodiversity Fellowship, funded by the Assisi Foundation, has supported several CBU students for the whole year.
• Several other CBU students have participated in summer research projects at institutions such as the Universities of Texas, New Orleans, and Vanderbilt.
• Haiti Medical Missions provides an opportunity for students to spend spring break or fall break helping out at a clinic in Haiti.

Success Statistics

In the last five years (classes of 2008 to 2012), we had: 

• 32 of our graduates accepted into medical school (82% acceptance rate) 
• 25 of our graduates accepted into pharmacy school (96% acceptance rate) 
• 14 of our graduates accepted into physical therapy school (88% acceptance rate) 
• 14 of our graduates accepted into nursing school (93% acceptance rate) 
• 20 students accepted into various other health professional schools such as dentistry, veterinary, optometry, occupational therapy and chiropractic. 
• 27 of our graduates accepted into graduate programs (100% acceptance rate).

In reviewing these percentages, please note that we do not pre-screen our applicants to the various professional or graduate schools as some institutions do. Some of our students were initially rejected but were accepted in a following year. If a student was accepted in one area and rejected in another, we only count the acceptance and not the rejection since we concentrate on student success.

For comparison purposes with medical school acceptances at UT, East Tennessee, U of Arkansas and nationwide (data for 2009, see data from aamc):

• UT-Memphis accepted 165 out of 1,352 applications (12% acceptance rate).
• East Tennessee Quillen accepted 66 out of 1,445 applications (5% acceptance rate)
• University of Arkansas accepted 165 out of 1,701 applications (10% acceptance rate).
• Nationwide, 18,390 are accepted out of 42,269 applicants (43% acceptance rate).

For pharmacy schools, the average acceptance rate is about 12% for each school, but since students often apply to more than one school, we obtained information that 50.2% of all PharmCAS applicants received at least one acceptance.

Applying to Professional School

To get into competitive professional (e.g., medical, pharmacy, dental) schools, there are five things that are important:

1. Grades: At CBU most of our science courses have labs associated with them, and the instructor for the lecture is usually the instructor for the lab. Our professors have at least 10 office hours each week to help students both with their coursework and with advising for their career plans.
2. Entrance tests (e.g., MCAT, PCAT, DAT): The excellent courses supported by well equipped labs prepare our students for these tests. In addition, the CBU Career Center offers practice tests to try to help prepare our students.
3. Experience in the field: At CBU we provide our students with many opportunities to gain experience (see a slide show) in their chosen field. In the freshmen Principles of Biology courses we have a discussion section that spends some time talking about what it takes to get into various fields. In the Junior year we have a Junior Seminar course that brings researchers onto campus to talk about their research. All of our majors have a senior capstone research or internship course. This experience is viewed very positively by the various health professional schools.
4. Recommendations from your professors and the supervisors of your work in the field: At CBU you are encouraged to really get to know your professors. If you take advantage of this, the professors will be able to write very specific letters of recommendation for you.
5. Interviews: As part of the admissions process for professional schools, students are required to attend an interview. At CBU we help students prepare for this opportunity by holding mock interviews staffed by our alumni and other health professionals. To help and guide you in your preparation for pursuing any of the health careers, we have a Pre-Professional Heath Director, Dr. Stan Eisen. He has a very extensive set of web pages on the various health careers and what it takes to get into these professional schools.