Jeff Welder ’07

Jeff Welder ’07 says his Cornell education prepared him well for the first-year rigors of medical school at the University of Iowa.

“Cornell did a great job preparing me for medical school,” he says. “The courses in biochemistry and molecular biology really pushed me to figure out how I learn best. So when I was hit with a lot of new information in med school, not only did I have a fabulous science background, but I knew how to take it all in.”

Welder majored in BMB and philosophy at Cornell, with a minor in chemistry. He says Cornell’s small classes and One Course At A Time schedule created opportunities not available to other students he’s talked to.

“I think the professors in the biology and BMB departments really go out of their way to make sure each student has a valuable experience,” he says. “Students from larger universities are shocked to hear that in one class with Professor Tepper we actually created and ran our own lab experiments.”

Welder says two summers of research, first at Cornell and then at the Maine Medical Institute, also gave him a leg up in graduate school. And he says the block plan prepared him well for the intensive coursework in medical school.

“The block program is the most rational approach to learning ever,” he says. “How hard can medical school be when you’ve already had to take Organic Chemistry in just over three weeks?”