Biomedical Graduate Programs

Biomedical Science (MS)

Our mission is to empower students to develop the aptitudes needed to enroll in competitive medical doctorate (MD), osteopathic doctorate (DO), or physician assistant (PA) programs and to achieve lasting success as a physician or physician assistant.

The Wake Forest Master of Science program in Biomedical Science fosters a diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational experience for all students, with an emphasis on enrolling students who have been educationally and/or socio-economically disadvantaged.

Program Overview

Our innovative master’s program provides you with rigorous, foundational graduate-level biomedical science coursework, the novel opportunity to create, design, lead, and complete an independent mentored scholarly project centered around your ideas that emphasizes peer mentorship, and individualized academic strategic plans for life-long learning with one-on-one academic coaching from Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty. From its origins as a post-baccalaureate program, our transformative master’s program is of incredible value to empower you to achieve and succeed in your future career.

Our vision is to empower our graduates to be exceptional, visionary, and transformative leaders in healthcare who will advocate for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

We live our values of Critical and Creative Thinking, Service, Accountability, and Fearlessness.

Our Dedication to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

We highly value broad diversity of thought and experience in our students and faculty, as we believe such diversity contributes to and enhances the educational experience of all students and best prepares them to be transformative leaders in healthcare. Our program cultivates equitable access to biomedical education through our commitment to non-discrimination and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion for all students.

What Sets Our Program Apart

Core curriculum that is aligned with first-year coursework in physician and physician assistant programs that is taught by faculty at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine
MCAT or GRE preparation that is aligned with our core curriculum
1-calendar-year plan of study including an independent mentored Capstone Project
Personal Academic Coach who will empower you to design and implement lifelong learning strategies to optimize your academic success in your coursework, Capstone Project, and MCAT preparation
Opportunities to develop close relationships with Wake Forest University School of Medicine faculty and clinicians across the Atrium Health Enterprise
Long-standing, successful track record of empowering our students to achieve their goals, with an 89% success rate for our graduates achieving admission into the physician or physician assistant program of their choice

Our program’s primary location in Innovation Quarter within downtown Winston-Salem, alongside the Wake Forest University School of Medicine at the Bowman Gray Center for Medical Education, ensures that you will have a competitive edge when applying to any medical (MD/DO) program or PA program. Our program’s secondary location within the main campus of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital fosters close relationships with clinicians and patient care.

In addition to the Wake Forest University School of Medicine MD and PA programs, our graduates have enrolled in medical (MD/DO) and physician assistant programs at Campbell University, Drexel University, Duke University, East Carolina University, George Washington University, Michigan State University, Morehouse College, University of California at Davis, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Cincinnati, University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina, West Virginia University, and Wright State University, among many others.

Admissions

We welcome applications from U.S. and international students who have completed, or are scheduled to complete, their bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution based in the U.S. prior to their enrollment in our program. Our program is open to all applicants meeting this criterion. We encourage first-time applicants to medical (MD/DO) or physician assistant (PA) programs as well as those who are reapplying. We encourage applications regardless of whether students have taken the MCAT yet. Applicants who are educationally and/or socio-economically disadvantaged are highly encouraged to apply, including those who are first generation in healthcare or the biomedical sciences.

Our application review is holistic and designed to see your full potential, rather than just focusing on what you have accomplished so far. We consider applicants’ potential for successfully gaining admission to the MD, DO, or PA program of their choice after completion of our program, and their potential to be exceptional, visionary, and transformative leaders in healthcare.

Our program admits approximately 50 students a year with students entering our program in either the summer (May) or fall (August) academic terms.

In order to better get to know who you are and what you are passionate about, we ask for both a required written personal statement and an audio and/or video statement during the application process.

The written personal statement includes 3 prompts, all of which should be answered:

Why you feel that our program is the appropriate program for you
Obstacles/challenges that you have experienced and how you have dealt with them
A description of the future you hope to achieve

The audio and/or video statement includes a single prompt and is limited to 5 minutes of content (100 MB maximum file size):

How will you contribute to the diversity of your cohort and to the healthcare community in general?

Enrolled students need to commit to a minimum of 3 academic terms (summer, fall, and spring OR fall, spring, and summer) for in-person learning in this Winston-Salem Innovation Quarter-based program. Students join the program in either the summer (May) or fall (August) terms, allowing you to have a high degree of flexibility to plan the timing of your degree pursuit around your personal circumstances.

View the full list of application requirements and the deadlines for individual academic terms. No standardized test score is required for admission into this program.

Competitive applicants

We consider all submitted applications and do not apply application minimums. Our program is very competitive, and accepted students who are successful generally have many of the following attributes:

- An undergraduate overall GPA of 3.0 or above

- An undergraduate science GPA of 3.0 or above

- If taken, an MCAT score >500

- Completion of generally accepted minimum premedical coursework, including 8 semester hours each in:

- General biology
- General chemistry
- Organic chemistry
- Physics

Note: Premedical coursework from community colleges is discouraged because it is difficult to adequately assess the quality of that preparation.

Competitive applicants are interviewed by the admissions committee to assess fit for the program.

Curriculum

Our program’s innovative curriculum is modeled after MD/DO/PA programs and is designed to meet the diverse needs of our students to ultimately improve their biomedical knowledge base and empower them to be successful throughout their training and careers. It is important to us that we meet students where they are, so our courses offer flexible and innovative approaches to learning, including incorporating aspects of a virtual learning environment that is still based on in-person learning. This allows us to empower students who work part- or full-time or commute to Winston-Salem from surrounding areas and still foster a diverse and thriving culture. Full-time students complete the program in three academic terms over one calendar year.

What makes our curriculum special?

Consider some of the key attributes that help our program stand apart from others:

All coursework taught by faculty of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, many of whom also teach the MD and PA curricula
Clinical faculty within the Atrium Health enterprise, including Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Atrium Health Charlotte
An independent, mentored, Capstone Project that intersects with at least one of the five major scholarly domains in academic medicine:
- Advocacy
- Community engagement
- Medical education
- Quality improvement
- Research
MCAT or GRE test preparation that runs longitudinally with the curriculum

Curriculum Requirements

Students complete all core courses and have flexibility to add electives that they feel will enhance their opportunities to add distinction to their MD, DO, or PA program applications and enhance their Capstone Project. These electives are thematically grouped so that the electives build off of each other. Graduation from the program requires formal training in ethics and a cumulative 3.0 GPA across all Wake Forest coursework. Finally, successful completion of the program requires students to successfully complete their Capstone Project.

Learn More About The Program Curriculum

Capstone Project

Imagine a world where your ideas matter.

Imagine a world where you get to do the scholarly work that you want to do.

Imagine a world where someone coaches you every step of the way to show you how to actually do scholarly work.

Now imagine that world is a reality. Our students have the incredibly novel opportunity to create, design, lead, and complete an independent, mentored scholarly project as principal investigator. Students conceptualize an idea that they are passionate about and that addresses a problem in healthcare or the biomedical sciences into a Capstone Project. They design and implement the project to address the problem and disseminate their results, all within the year-long master’s program.

Capstone Projects intersect with at least one of the five domains of scholarship in academic medicine:

Advocacy
Community engagement
Medical education
Quality improvement
Research

Our rigorous and innovative Capstone Catalyst course empowers students to think critically and creatively as they identify and solve problems in healthcare and the biomedical sciences and learn how to serve the community with accountability and empathy through their Capstone Projects. We teach our students to embrace any apparent failures they may face as educational opportunities that will help them transform into fearless leaders in healthcare.

Academic Coaching and Strategies for Academic Success

Students complete the Strategies for Academic Success (SAS) longitudinal course over the duration of the program. SAS empowers students to develop and implement individualized academic strategic plans developed for life-long learning with one-on-one academic coaching. The course empowers students to strive for lifelong learning autonomy through self-reflection and creative adaptation to develop dynamic strategies that they can apply throughout their education, training, and future careers. SAS synergizes with our academic coaching program to further develop your individualized academic approach and cultivate a culture of being the best version of yourself.

SAS modules include:

Desired behaviors for academic success
- Stay engaged
- Self-reflection
- Study strategies
Cognitive load theory applied to coursework
MCAT strategies
Study to retain
Be the boss of the tools

Leadership and Faculty

Led by Andrew South, MD, MS, the program faculty are clinical, research, and teaching faculty from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Atrium Health Charlotte enterprise, as well as select faculty from outside the institution.

Andrew Michael South, MD, MS

Program Director, Biomedical Science
Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Nephrology

Bernard Roper, PhD

Admission Chair, Biomedical Science MS, Internship and Experiential Learning Director, Biomedical Graduate Programs

Janel Darcy Hunter, MD

Curriculum Chair, Biomedical Science
Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Endocrinology

Yenya Hu, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, General Internal Medicine

Kiri Wiggins Bagley, MD

Academic Coach, Biomedical Science
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Nephrology

Candace Yvonne Parker-Autry, MD

Academic Coach, Biomedical Science
Assistant Professor, Urology

More Resources

These degree programs are administered by Wake Forest University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and located on the Bowman Gray Campus alongside Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

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Research Focus Areas

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Biomedical Science (MS)

Program Overview

Our Dedication to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

What Sets Our Program Apart

Admissions

Curriculum

What makes our curriculum special?

Curriculum Requirements

Capstone Project

Academic Coaching and Strategies for Academic Success

Leadership and Faculty

Andrew Michael South, MD, MS

Bernard Roper, PhD

Janel Darcy Hunter, MD

Yenya Hu, MD, PhD

Kiri Wiggins Bagley, MD

Candace Yvonne Parker-Autry, MD

More Resources