Baylor University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Medical Humanities – on the pre-med track
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Biracial: Half White and Half Hispanic Heterosexual Female
Summary
I’m in the Baylor Medical Student Association (BMSA).
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Biracial: Half White and Half Hispanic
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Public school in El Paso, TX with a graduating class of about 640 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Medical Humanities – on the pre-med track
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I’m in the Baylor Medical Student Association (BMSA).
What impact has the BMSA had on your experience?
It’s had a good impact. It just prepares me for getting ready for medical school and allows me to have an environment where other people are also pre-med, so it’s kind of like a support group.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
I probably have two exams every other week and then also a pre-lab and post-lab due every week for my Chemistry class. I also have to do a lot of online work, like online quizzes and problem sets.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
Something they do well is the pre-med courses weed the students out so you’re in classes only with people who can handle pre-med by your junior year. Freshman and sophomore year, the classes do a good job of weeding out the students who are not really serious about doing that and keeps the students who are. I like that they weed out students because, in the long run, medical school is going to be harder than college so if the student can’t handle what’s going on in college they’re definitely not going to be able to handle what’s going on in medical school.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I think it’s pretty competitive, but I also think that it’s collaborative. I think that a lot of the students that are really serious about pre-med are the more competitive ones and they aren’t as collaborative as the ones that aren’t that serious. I also think that the competitive students tend to collaborate with each other rather than collaborate with the students that aren’t as serious as them.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re very accessible. You can email them or go to their office hours whenever. When I have a question, I go to the professor before the TA.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I was initially a Health Science Studies major, but Health Science Studies is kind of a broad major for a bunch of different pre-health studies. I didn’t like that because I wanted to focus more on pre-med and I noticed that in Health Science Studies they would focus more on pre-physical therapy and stuff like that. I wanted to do something that mainly focused on medicine, so I switched to Medical Humanities. Medical Humanities focuses on the ethical part of medicine and I really like that because I think it’s good to have an education no the humanities and ethics portion of medicine as well as the science portion.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you are a Christian, it’s a really good place to keep up with your faith and have an environment of other people who are like-minded.
2) It prepares you well for the future and it gives you a lot of resources to help you succeed.
3) The professors are really easy to reach out to. They will answer your emails and work with you if you have a problem.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If you are not affiliated with Christianity or any religion in general it might be a little overwhelming coming to Baylor because a lot of it is about being Christian and loving God.
2) If you want a really fun college experience where you party a lot, this is not going to be the school for you.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Brooks Flats with three other roommates. It was an apartment-style dorm and I really liked that.
Sophomore: Off-campus apartment with three roommates.
How was transitioning from living in El Paso to Waco, TX?
The transition wasn’t very hard. I’m pretty good at making new friends and meeting new people, so that wasn’t too much of an issue for me. Being away from my family was hard, but after a couple of months I got into the swing of things and now I really like it.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
Freshman year I felt a lot safer on campus than I do this year because freshman year they had security escorts, which I think was a really good thing, especially with all the recent sexual assault stuff that’s been happening at Baylor. But, this year they took away the security escort system and implemented a bus system, but it took me like 25-minutes to get my location so I don’t like the new bus system. [See Baylor Lariat article, “Students deserve more from Baylor’s bus system.”]
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I usually just hang out with friends. My friends and I sometimes go on weekend trips to Austin and Dallas. This past weekend, my friends and I went to a concert in Houston and it was only about a three-hour drive away. Most of the stuff I do on the weekends I do outside of Baylor. I tend to go out from Thursday to Saturday. I don’t go to a lot of events on campus, like fraternity parties and stuff like that, just because they don’t interest me as much. The main thing we do around campus is go to Shorty’s on Thursdays and occasionally go to fraternity parties.
How happy are you with the weekend options? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m pretty happy with them. I sometimes find myself bored driving around Waco when there’s not much to do or we’re just having a night in, but, other than that, I pretty much like everything. There’s always at least something I can do.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
One of my closest friends was my roommate freshman year. One of my other best friends I met in a chemistry lab and we’ve had a lot of classes together. My other best friend I met because she was my next-door neighbor freshman year and we had a mutual friend.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Baylor?
I don’t think it’s a huge party school. But, I do think there is a really good balance between social life and academic life which I like a lot because you can’t just party all the time, you have to work too. If I go to the library on a Saturday, I’ll see a lot of people I know there too and I won’t feel like I’m missing out on a lot.
To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Almost all of my closest friends are not White, so I think there is a pretty good blend of different races. All of my friends are heterosexual, but I’ve met a lot of people who identify with different sexualities, so I think there is a pretty good blend.
How has the Christian affiliation of Baylor impacted your experience? How strong is it?
I think the Christian affiliation on campus is a little too strong sometimes. Baylor really tries to emphasize Christianity and almost impose that on their students with the mandatory religion classes and chapel. I think that those classes are really unnecessary because a lot of students don’t identify as Baptist or Christian or a religion at all. I know that Baylor is a private school and that’s what you’re getting yourself into by going to Baylor, but I think that the mandatory classes are a bit extreme. [About 26% of students identify as Baptist, 16% identify as Catholic, and 17% identify as Christian with no affiliation.]
What is the impact of Greek life on the social scene?
Baylor is not one of those schools where Greek life runs the campus, but I do think that Greek life is a large part of Baylor and a large portion of people are involved in Greek life here. A lot of the social events are run by the fraternities and sororities, so it does have a fairly large impact. [About 20% of undergraduates are involved in Greek life.]
How do you like the size of Baylor in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How was transitioning to a school with [about 14,000] students?
I really like the size of Baylor. It’s a school where it’s large enough that you don’t know everybody and where everybody isn’t connected with each other. But, it’s also small enough where since I’m pre-med I know a lot of pre-med students because we consistently have classes together. You have a general idea of who everybody is, but you don’t know everybody’s business.
How would you describe the South Asian community on campus? How strong is it?
I don’t think it’s that strong only because it’s not as big as other communities on campus. I have seen and heard that it’s growing, which is awesome to hear, so I think we are starting to make a larger appearance on campus. The community is also very accepting and the school has been so accepting of us. It is just hard sometimes because there are so many people who are not South Asian.
How would you describe the student body?
People who are super motived and super determined in their own field. They are very passionate about what they want to do and what they want to achieve. As a whole, the student body is passionate about the school’s culture and representing Baylor. It’s a really good environment.
What has been the effect of the sexual assault issues on the overall campus feel?
I think it makes people feel a little bit more unsafe than they should on a college campus. I personally don’t feel that safe walking around campus at night alone. I know whenever I go to a frat party or something I have to be ultra-aware of my drink and have a buddy with me because I know that sexual assault mainly happens at fraternity houses or with football players. When I do go to a frat party, it’s at a fraternity where I know a lot of the people in it and I know they try to watch out for the girls there too. There are more good guys than bad guys on campus, but you just have to watch out for the bad guys.
Careers
Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
I have not, but I know a lot of students take an Excel course.