A new advising pilot housed in Biomedical Engineering is helping U-M engineering students and alumni navigate medical, dental, PA, PT, optometry, veterinary and other health professional pathways with more structure, coaching and support.
For many engineering students interested in health care, the path to medical school or another health professional program can feel daunting.
Which courses are required? Does AP credit count? When should students take standardized tests such as the MCAT, DAT or OAT? How do shadowing, clinical experience, research, service and engineering design work fit into an application? And perhaps most important: How does a student tell a compelling story about why engineering led them toward patient care?
To help answer those questions and more, the University of Michigan Department of Biomedical Engineering has expanded pre-health advising for BME students and, through a College of Engineering partnership, for engineering students more broadly.
The effort is being led by Frankie Quasarano, an Undergraduate and Pre-Health Advisor who serves in a hybrid role supporting both BME academic advising and pre-health advising for the College of Engineering. The position is part of a two-year pilot supported through a cost-share between BME and the College of Engineering — a structure that reflects both the high number of BME students pursuing health-related careers and the growing need for such advising across engineering.
“BME has the highest percentage of engineering students who work toward a pre-health profession, so it made sense for the role to be housed here,” said Dani Koel, BME Student Services Manager. “But we also knew this need extended beyond BME. After our first year of data, about 32 percent of the students receiving pre-health advising were outside of BME, which is very much in line with the way the pilot was designed, as 30% of the role’s financial support is from the college.”
Before the pilot, engineering students interested in pre-health pathways often relied on short 10 minute drop-in advising sessions through LSA, downloadable documents, internet searches, Reddit threads, classmates or informal referrals.
“There was support, but it was not at the capacity students needed,” Koel said. “We knew there was a real need for more substantial, formally dedicated pre-health advising for BME and for the College of Engineering.”
Quasarano saw that need firsthand while previously advising undeclared engineering students.
“Students interested in pre-health did not always have a clear place to go for quality, accurate information,” Quasarano said. “Even if they found checklists online or talked with classmates, they still were not necessarily receiving the kind of pre-professional advising this complex pathway requires. It is much more detailed than asking, ‘What classes do I need to take?’”
That “more” is where Quasarano sees the advising role having the greatest impact.
“One of the things I love about pre-health advising is that it is as much academic coaching as it is advising,” Quasarano said. “We can absolutely talk through requirements, timelines and standardized tests, but the deeper work is helping students reflect on why they are pursuing this path, what they are learning about themselves, and how their experiences are shaping their goals.”
Pre-health is an umbrella term that includes multiple pathways, including:
Each pathway has its own academic requirements, standardized tests, expectations for clinical or shadowing experience, and application timeline.
“Pre-health is not one-size-fits-all,” Quasarano said. “Each pathway has distinct academic and co-curricular expectations. A student interested in dental school, for example, may need significant shadowing hours, while another student pursuing medicine or optometry may need to think carefully about testing timelines and target-school requirements.”
The advising process also depends on a student’s individual academic record, including AP credit, transfer credit, major requirements and the specific professional schools they are considering.
“A common refrain in pre-health advising is: check your target schools,” Quasarano said. “The checklists are helpful, but students need to know that requirements can vary. Some schools accept AP credit, some want additional coursework, some require specific labs, and others may have writing or behavioral science expectations. Our goal is to help students plan intentionally while also completing their engineering degree.”
For BME and other engineering students, pre-health advising often includes helping students connect their technical training to their future goals in health care.
“Students often ask whether being an engineering major will set them apart,” Quasarano said. “The answer is that the degree alone is not the full story. Where students can really distinguish themselves is in how they talk about engineering in their personal statements, secondary essays and interviews. They need to explain how engineering shaped their interest in medicine or health care.”
That connection may look different for each student. Some may begin with an interest in medical device development and later realize they want more direct patient interaction. Others may be drawn to research, biomechanics, biomaterials, imaging, drug delivery, rehabilitation engineering or health technology design.
“BME students have many opportunities to engage in research and design work that connects directly to health and medicine,” Quasarano said. “Those experiences can help students understand not only what they want to do, but why they want to do it.”
The pilot’s first year showed strong demand.
During the fall 2025 and winter 2026 semesters, pre-health advising appointments increased dramatically. According to Quasarano, each semester had more pre-health appointments than the previous three corresponding semesters combined.
“Fall 2025 had more pre-health appointments than fall 2024, fall 2023 and fall 2022 combined,” Quasarano said. “Winter 2026 had more pre-health appointments than winter 2025, winter 2024 and winter 2023 combined. That really highlights that there was a capacity need that was not being fully met. Students wanted this kind of support, and they are using it.”
“Pre-health advising is definitely a resource I need because I always worry about whether I have everything in my schedule that I need,” said Eli Lebowitz, a rising junior in BME who is exploring medical school after graduating in the future with his bachelor’s degree. “It’s a big help to have my course plan checked. Advice with choosing courses and registration are always really helpful, but it’s also nice to have a resource to consult to double-check everything else with, including my extracurriculars and choosing a minor.”
Esther Gao is not at the beginning of the pre-health process; she is a recent BME graduate and current BME Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate Studies (SUGS) student who has already gone through one application cycle. “I didn’t really know that the pre-health advising program existed formally at first,” she said. “I knew that Frankie was a new advisor designated for pre-health, and when I was applying last year for MSTP and MD-PhD programs, I talked to him about that process.” Pre-health advice has become more valuable over time for her, especially as she reflects on her preparations to submit strong applications.
“I think the biggest help from Frankie has been writing help,” Gao said. “Going into the last application cycle, I knew what I was doing, but I didn’t initially have that much writing support, and I didn’t have that much time either. Now, I have a lot more time to ask for writing advice. Pre-health advising has also been really good for selecting classes, and it has provided emotional support in helping me focus on why I want to go into medicine. After my first cycle, it was pretty hard to have to restart the process.” Having an advisor who understands both the logistics and the difficulty of the process has helped Gao regain momentum.
Because “pre-health” is not a major, minor or transcript designation, tracking the total number of engineering students on a pre-health path is challenging. Students may enter U-M with an interest in medicine, change direction, return to the idea later, or pursue a health professional program after working in industry.
A survey sent to approximately 1,300 engineering students who had previously indicated an interest in health or medicine received a response rate of about 30 percent. Of those respondents, 132 said they were actively pursuing pre-health and 52 said they were considering it. Quasarano estimates the true number of engineering students actively pursuing or considering pre-health is likely higher, potentially around 400.
“Pre-health is not something we can simply run a report on,” Koel said. “A student can be pre-health one semester and change their mind the next. That makes having a dedicated advising structure even more important, because students need a place to explore the path and make informed decisions.”
In addition to one-on-one appointments, Quasarano has developed several resources to make pre-health information more accessible.
Those include:
The Canvas resource replaced an older site and now serves as a central hub for students exploring pre-health pathways. It includes information on academic planning, professional school requirements, standardized testing, experiences such as shadowing and clinical exposure, and other resources.
“The Canvas site gives students a place to start,” Quasarano said. “It helps them think through the logistics and the details, so advising appointments can go deeper. We can make sure they have what they need, but we can also talk about the bigger questions behind this major life decision.”
Koel said that a combination of practical information and individualized conversation is essential.
“This is a huge life decision,” Koel said. “Students need accurate information, but they also need someone knowledgeable to talk with as they think through what this pathway means for them.”
A major goal of the advising pilot is to reach students early, especially first-year and undeclared engineering students who may not yet know how to begin exploring pre-health.
Quasarano has worked with the Engineering Advising Center to provide advisors with a pre-health “primer” so they can point interested students toward resources and encourage them to connect.
“The earlier we can have the conversation, the better,” Quasarano said. “But that first conversation is not about handing a student a four-year plan and saying, ‘Here is everything you must do.’ It is more about asking, ‘Tell me why you are interested in this. Where did that interest come from? How do you want to explore it?’”
That approach also helps students avoid thinking of pre-health as a checklist.
“My biggest advice to students is to move away from simply asking what boxes they need to check,” Quasarano said. “Instead, I encourage them to be intentional about choosing courses, activities and experiences that genuinely spark their curiosity and help them grow. Do not become an EMT just because someone else did. Ask whether that experience fits your interests, your goals and the kind of impact you hope to have. I remind each student to participate in activities that fill their cup.”
Students Lebowitz and Gao reiterated the advice to start early.
“I would tell students to start planning immediately,” Gao said. “I remember making my four-year pre-med plan as a freshman and trying to fit in all of my classes, and that was so stressful that I instantly made an advising meeting because I was panicking. Everything turned out fine, but I would definitely tell students to get those classes in order early and have a conversation about expectations for extracurriculars and everything else that medical schools expect.”
She also said students should talk early with advisors about why they want to become doctors, because that reflection becomes important later when writing personal statements and building a coherent application story.
“It definitely helps to think earlier about why you want to be a doctor, because that is so important for writing your personal statement,” she noted. “Creating that reasoning and creating that story for yourself early on is really helpful.”
Lebowitz agreed with implementing a proactive approach. “The one thing I would recommend is making plans early,” he said. “They don’t have to be concrete plans, but it helps to start planning out the four years during your first year. You can plan out a couple of different schedules that could work because doing engineering and pre-med is a lot of credits to fit in. You’ll likely have to take some summer classes, so knowing what is required early on is important.”
At the same time, students who discover an interest in pre-health later in their undergraduate years — or even after graduation — can still seek advising.
Although not the target audience, Quasarano has met with a small handful of alumni, including a BME graduate working in industry, who is now considering a career change into health care.
“Pre-health advising is not only for first-year students,” Quasarano said. “I have met with alumni who are asking, ‘Where do I go from here?’ The path may look different after graduation, but we can still talk through coursework, experiences, timelines and next steps.”
Pre-health advising also helps students understand application timing and standardized testing. Depending on the pathway, students may need to prepare for the MCAT, DAT, OAT or other assessments. Some professional schools also use situational judgment tests such as Casper or AAMC PREview.
“These are very involved conversations,” Quasarano said. “We work backward from a student’s intended application cycle and talk about when they should take the exam, what coursework will help them prepare, and how much time they should set aside for dedicated studying.”
The advising process can also help students identify experiences they may not realize are relevant. Quasarano recalled working with a student who had extensive lifeguarding experience but had not planned to include it in a professional school application.
“To me, that was absolutely relevant,” Quasarano said. “That is why I try not to assume students know what counts. I ask questions about what they have done, how they have explored their interests and what they have learned from those experiences.”
Those reflective conversations can later help students prepare for essays and interviews.
“A common question I ask is, ‘Tell me the origin story of your interest in health and medicine – why are you interested in pursuing this pathway?’ “ Quasarano said. “Then I tell students we are going to revisit that question over time. We will look at how their answer changes and evolves as they gain more experience.”
“Recently, this summer, I’ve been having more frequent meetings with Frankie,” added Lebowitz. “We set a couple of deadlines and goals for me because I had a few paths in mind. One of them was making a decision about which minor to choose, and another was related to capstone. Based on the capstone I picked or the minor I picked, one would sort of help determine the other. We put together deadlines for reaching out to my PI and for putting together different minor schedules, and we’ve been checking in on that. It’s been really helpful.”
As the pilot continues, BME and the College of Engineering will use data from appointments, surveys and student engagement to assess the program and determine how to scale support.
Koel said the early response has already demonstrated that the need is real.
“This is a pilot, and we are collecting data to understand how students are using the service,” Koel said. “The answer so far is: absolutely, they are using it. It has been very popular, and that tells us that this support matters.”
For Koel, the success of the effort also reflects Quasarano’s leadership.
“We have the right person in this role to grow this work,” Koel said. “Frankie has done an incredible job building resources, connecting with students and creating a strong foundation for pre-health advising in engineering.”
Quasarano said the first year has focused on understanding the landscape, identifying student needs and building infrastructure. The next phase will be about continuing to refine and expand.
“This past year was about setting the foundation,” Quasarano said. “Now the goal is to keep growing, keep assessing what students need and keep making sure engineering students know that pre-health is a viable path for them.”
University of Michigan Engineering students interested in pre-health advising can:
For students still deciding whether pre-health is the right path, Quasarano encourages curiosity, reflection and conversation.
“You do not need to have everything figured out before meeting with an advisor,” Quasarano said. “That is what advising is for. We can talk through your interests, your questions and your next steps together.”