I think it's rather easy to take for granted the benefits of being in a top 20+ university with lots of money to burn, when you're used to them.
I'd kind of picked up on this earlier. American University has some nice buildings (I'm a big fan of their library, in particular, which is well designed and has lots of light. It's a library you'd actually want to work in, rather than one where you'd want to pick up what you need and run out asap), but most of the buildings seem a bit small, old, and/or run down. Even the library has a noticeably smaller collection than the other schools I've been at to date. The facilities and labs are certainly decent enough to do what needs to be done, but they don't seem particularly pleasant or modern on the whole.
The pre-med advising system sort of struck me as another example of this. The office was a small hole in the wall, and the advisor didn't seem particularly interested. There was a dog in the office even, and while I have nothing against dogs, I don't think that's particularly professional.
We had a brief chat... not a conversation. Essentially I was handed out a sheet for new college freshman that told me nothing particularly new, and I've already seen when I was an undergrad. To be fair, I'm probably partly at fault. I could have pushed for more dialogue, but I felt brushed off enough that I decided to head out after getting the most immediately pressing information. I don't know if it's because I'm a non-degree student (bad reason to ignore me... I'm still a paying student), because they'd met with 1000 new freshman who all wanted to do premed right off the bat without a good reason, because they were just having an off day, or... whatever. I wasn't particularly happy though.
What I did learn was that I only have to take this one Calculus course. Also, I need to register for Gen. Chem and Gen. Bio in the Fall (although I knew that part). I have some other questions... some pressing, others not so much. Do I need to take genetics, do I need to take cell bio, when do I start getting ready for/registering for the MCAT, how many miscellaneous upper level science courses do I need beyond the fundamental prereqs, if any, etc, etc.
Right now, I'm thinking I'll e-mail the lady I spoke with back at Emory's medical school though. She seemed more approachable to me, even though my problems weren't her responsibility. I still have her business card though, and might as well make good use of it. I might see if I can work with the pre-med advisor at Vanderbilt as well, being an alumni.
For now, I'm going to register for General Biology and Chemistry, and I'm going to get started on my second Calculus test.
