Brendan Michel '10: Improving Career Direction

by James Forkan

University College is just what the future doctor ordered. Brendan Michel ’10, who graduated from University College’s post-baccalaureate Basic Sciences for Health Professions certificate program, now is pursuing an M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

Hoping to secure a residency in surgery after his projected 2015 graduation, Mr. Michel said his career objective is to practice clinical medicine as a cardiothoracic surgeon in North Carolina, his home state. “More specifically, I am hoping to serve the rural areas of North Carolina while also maintaining a practice in an urban area,” he said.

“It was not until I was in my sophomore year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) that I decided I wanted to attend medical school, once I completed my bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering,” Mr. Michel said.

The reason he wanted to study medicine? “I want to work with people on a regular basis and unite my knowledge of engineering with the field of medicine. I never viewed it as switching fields because medicine, similar to engineering, is a science that is a conglomeration of all other areas of study,” he said.

“Art, biology, chemistry, physics, writing, mathematics and every other field one can possibly think of play some part in medicine. I wanted the human condition to play a larger role in my career,” he said. “While designing pumps, aircraft and race cars is appealing, I want my career to include more human interaction.”

Mr. Michel said, “I learned a lot at RPI, but the program I completed did not prepare me for medical school.” He still needed to take biology, chemistry and organic chemistry classes to fulfill the prerequisites for medical school. He said he then began “looking for an affordable and reputable post-baccalaureate premed program to obtain my prerequisite classes for medical school.”

He chose Adelphi’s program because “it not only had the characteristics of the post-baccalaureate program I was looking for, but it also had a science department with a good reputation,” Mr. Michel said.

Throughout his year at Adelphi, where he was a resident, “I had nothing but good experiences with all of the faculty,” he said. “In fact, almost all of the faculty I interacted with wrote me letters of recommendation and gave me sound advice for the MCAT [Medical College Admission Test] and the admissions process.”

Mr. Michel said, “I had to study harder than most for the MCAT because I did not have an extensive background in the biological sciences or chemistry. But because I had learned the material so well from Adelphi, I was able to grasp those areas and proceed to score very well on the MCAT.”