A Profile of  NUPSP Medical Students

Northwestern undergraduate students accepted into NUPSP are scholars of distinction who share a proven commitment to service and pursuit of a medical career.  They have demonstrated their dedication to scholarship and medicine through research, community outreach, and clinically-oriented activities.  

Students accepted into the program share outstanding Northwestern undergraduate academic credentials of 3.7 and higher, representative of a wide range of majors such as anthropology, communication science, religion, biological sciences, biomedical engineering and psychology.  They are National Merit Scholars as well as named academic scholars; one received 8 scholarships during her first 2 undergraduate years at Northwestern.  Our NUPSP scholars have engaged in undergraduate research in basic science and clinical areas, including:  biological anthropology, rehabilitation engineering, psychoacoustics, ovarian cancer, endocrinology and reproduction, otolaryngology, and cellular proteins and aging. Many have had scientific papers published; several through research conducted at the National Institutes of Health.   

NUPSP students have extensive leadership and service activities.  Our NUPSP leaders include:  a President of Northwestern’s premedical society, a residential college President and a Vice President, a 2-time gold medal winner in the U.S. Collegiate Ski Association snowboarding competition, a Site Leader for a health care and rehabilitation center, a Youth Group Leader, a cancer camp counselor supervisor and a Special Olympics coach.  Their medically-oriented service activities have involved volunteering in an emergency room, coordinating triage activities in a community health clinic, serving as a cancer camp counselor, reading to nursing home residents, working with pediatric Aids patients, and participating in domestic and international mission trips.  Three have traveled to China to study Chinese culture and language as well as eastern medicine and rural public health practices.  Another worked at a free clinic in rural Bolivia while a fifth learned about public health in Greece.

NUPSP students include elementary school tutors and mentors, several pianists and University choir singers, Gateway Science Program facilitators, an intramural basketball champion, and Habitat for Humanity and homeless shelter volunteers.