{"id":1706,"date":"2021-02-01T12:20:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T12:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2021-02-01T20:42:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T20:42:52","slug":"starting-medical-school-as-a-biomedical-sciences-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/starting-medical-school-as-a-biomedical-sciences-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Medical School as a Biomedical Sciences graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Eva Wachtelaer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I’m Eva Wachtelaer. Since primary school, I knew that I wanted to learn all about the human body. However, choosing between studying Biomedical Sciences or Medical School after secondary school wasn\u2019t an easy choice for me. Unfortunately, I did not pass the Medical School admissions examination, and thus this decision was made for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enthusiastically started studying Biomedical Sciences<\/a> at UAntwerp and I quickly discovered that the curriculum perfectly matched my interests. I learned about the human body, both on a macroscopic and on a microscopic level, and really enjoyed classes such as anatomy, immunology, pharmacology and pathology. I rapidly gained an enormous amount of knowledge and had the opportunity to do internships in labs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I also loved about Biomedical Sciences were the classes that covered topics in great detail and enabled me to truly understand physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms. For example, histology, molecular & cellular sciences, embryology, and metabolic pathways. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the end of my first Bachelor year of Biomedical Sciences, I felt that I had gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and felt better prepared to re-take the entrance examination for Medical School. So, in my second Bachelor year I re-sat the Medical School entrance examination. I wanted to prove to myself that I could pass this examination. Well, I passed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got into Medical School, but now what?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although I was very happy about my entrance exam results, I now had to make a difficult decision again. Would I continue on with Biomedical Sciences and start the Master\u2019s program, or would I start Medical School? As I was only one year away from achieving my Bachelor\u2019s degree, I postponed making this decision with one year. Two things happened during that third year that made choosing between the two even harder. First, I found out that one of the Master\u2019s programs of Biomedical Sciences was specifically focussed on neurosciences<\/a>. I was very enthusiastic about this program, as I had been interested in the brain since secondary school and really enjoyed the neuroscience classes during my Bachelor years. Also, I did my Bachelor\u2019s thesis internship in a neuroscience laboratory, and I was fascinated by the research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n