Pre-Law

A liberal arts education prepares you for the rigorous course of studies of law school.  Unlike many professional degree programs, law schools do not prescribe a set curriculum for students interested in studying law, but seek students with well-developed analytical, communication and interpretive skills.  As such, any undergraduate major in the liberal arts can provide the necessary background to meet the expectations of law schools.

Salem College offers you an advising program that will help you prepare for law school.  Tina Flowers serves as the pre-law adviser and is available to work with you to develop a broad liberal arts program of studies that will provide the appropriate preparation for professional studies in law. 

If you are interested in law school you should see Tina Flowers early in your academic career to ensure that you take advantage of the many services and programs provided by the College.

In particular, Salem’s January Term program offers you the opportunity to obtain practical experience in areas related to the legal profession through law office and government internships, court internships, research and independent study.

Pre-Med

In recent years it is becoming more evident that the very best preparation for medical school is a broad-based liberal arts education, coupled with the appropriate work in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. This is just one reason why graduates of the Pre-Med Program at Salem achieve such high levels of success.

The pre-med Program offers you a highly supportive atmosphere along with an uncommon level of personal attention and advising. The program gives you many opportunities to test yourself so that you may choose wisely in deciding whether or not you want to attend medical school. The program incorporates excellent classroom instruction as well as offers you access to state-of-the-art lab resources usually reserved for graduate students  and many opportunities for internships in clinical medicine and/or medical research.

If you are like most pre-med students, you will major in biology or chemistry, although students from psychology, mathematics, economics, French and German have entered the program. You will be highly intelligent and hard-working, with a deep and genuine concern for the well-being of others. You will seek out a rigorous academic curriculum and take advantage of a wide array of internships, independent study in areas related to medicine and volunteer opportunities in medical settings.

Some of the internship programs completed by recent pre-med students at Salem include stints in women’s health at the Family Practice Obstetrics; forensic pathology, animal research, medical technology, general and pediatric surgery and emergency room medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; emergency room medicine, South Baldwin Medical Center; neonatalogy at Forsyth Medical Center and Brenner Children’s Hospital; physician’s assistant at Club Haven Family Medicine; medical and surgical dermatology at New River Dermatology and pediatric surgery at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Professors in the program have a deep appreciation for their roles as personal advisors and mentors to you, their student. They come from various scientific majors within the College, embrace the fact that they teach their own labs (as opposed to teaching assistants) and are highly accomplished scholars. Together, they foster a supportive and collaborative learning environment in which your student experience is the top priority.

Every Salem graduate who has entered medical school has completed the four-year program, in many cases with distinction. A number of our graduates have placed in the top five to 10 percent of their respective medical school classes, including one student who finished first in her class at Harvard Medical School. Graduates often go into such specialties as pediatrics, family practice, obstetrics/gynecology, anesthesiology, and even psychiatry, as well as other positions as physician assistants, medical technologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, genetic counselors and pharmaceutical company representatives.