Located in the heart of Detroit, Wayne State University is an urban research university. To me, the best part of my experience at Wayne State has been getting to learn about the rich history of Detroit not just through ordinary lectures in the lecture hall but by getting the opportunity to explore and experience the city of Detroit myself. I feel like my positive experience at Wayne State has been driven by the strong network of connections with my peers that I have been able to build and sustain. By joining pre-health oriented organizations at Wayne State, I was able to build this network with like-minded individuals, and this network has been helpful since it has provided me with a group of friends that I can rely on for studying. In addition to this strong network with my peers, I feel that the academic resources that Wayne State has to offer have been a crucial part of helping me succeed.

Networking

I feel like student organizations at Wayne State were key for me to expand my network with peers. Health-oriented organizations such as the Pre-Professional Medical Society (PPMS) helped me meet like-minded individuals with similar life goals. These new connections I was able to form helped me greatly as it helped me to build everlasting connections with people that I know I can depend on/rely on. The great thing about PPMS is that while helping me build this network of connections with my peers, it also helped me start to form connections with professionals at the yearly Networking Dinner as well as find volunteer opportunities in my area. Also, although I personally was not a part of Delta Epsilon Mu (DEM), the pre-health sorority/fraternity on campus, I heard from a lot of friends that DEM was also helpful in terms of building resumes for applying to medical school as it helped them find volunteer and research opportunities that they otherwise would not have. DEM also helped them find a close-knit family of friends that they knew they could trust and even rely on if they ever needed help with any classes.

Math Resource Center

The MRC (Math Resource Center) is a free math tutoring resource available to all Wayne State students enrolled in math classes. The MRC is a very valuable resource that helps prepare students for their math exams, and I feel that by utilizing this resource while taking a statistics class my freshman year helped solidify the material I was already learning in the course as well as provided me with tips and tricks to understanding statistics in an easier, more understandable way. The MRC is equipped with tutors almost 24/7, and the great part about this resource is that the tutoring is provided either by graduate teaching instructors that teach math courses at Wayne State or by students that have previously taken the course.

Warrior Writing, Technology, and Research Zone (WRT Zone)

Has writing that essay got you bogged down and confused? Well, don’t fear: the Warrior Writing, Technology, and Research Zone is available to help ease your worries. The WRT Zone is a valuable academic resource. The WRT Zone is filled with tutors that specialize in helping with essay writing for classes, preparing for oral & visual presentations, providing advice about personal statements, as well as giving tips for project proposals. Additionally, the WRT Zone provides students with access to a plethora of books, research articles, and journals via the Virtual Reference kiosk. These valuable resources can be used as references in essays. And if there are any doubts about how to properly cite materials, there is also help available at the WRT Zone for learning how to reference materials.

Academic Success Center: Peer Mentoring/SI Leadership Sessions

For almost every course at Wayne State, there is additional supplementation and help available through peer mentoring and SI Leadership Sessions. Peer mentors are students who have taken the courses before and can aid with understanding difficult or complex parts of the material covered in lecture via supplementation offered in discussion classes or even on a one-on-one basis if you so choose. SI Leadership is similar to peer mentoring as the SI Leaders are also students who have taken the courses before and excelled at them. SI Leadership sessions help reinforce the material provided in lecture as the SI leaders hold review sessions during the weeks leading up to exams in the classes so that students can get practice and familiarize themselves with material that may prove to be a struggle sometimes. I found that for me personally, SI sessions were very helpful for the organic chemistry I and II courses. The SI sessions definitely helped clear away any lingering doubts or confusions that I had when reviewing material from my organic chemistry I and II lectures prior to exams. Another helpful aspect was that the SI leaders and peer mentors for the chemistry courses have extra office hours held at the Chemistry Atrium where students can drop in according to the flexibility of their course schedule. At the Chemistry Atrium, the peer mentors provided us with step by step guidance of how to approach complex chemistry problems as well as helpful hints, tips, and mnemonics to remember for our exams. The sessions at the Chemistry Atrium were particularly helpful as they were often held in groups, which helped to view material from different perspectives. Learning the chemistry concepts in groups exposed me to new avenues of thinking and ways of critically solving problems

Overall, I think that Wayne State has many great academic resources to offer, and that is just one of the many reasons why I would convince people to Go Warrior Strong!!!