Greetings, my name is Aum Bhatt and I am a second year at USF. I am pursuing a Biomedical Sciences degree while completing Pre-Med requirements (part of the college of Arts and Sciences), and I am also in the Judy Genshaft Honors college. I love to walk around campus and check places out, and I have taken a variety of classes, so at this point I am pretty knowlegeable about practically any area open to the public, even those not directly related to STEM. I am also knowlegeable about various ameneties, events, and clubs on campus as I frequent many of them myself. I also have experience when it comes to managing credits and filling in holes of knowlege from High School, as I have graduated from IB and taken AP classes. Since I have lived in Tampa for many years I also know much of the area surrounding USF like the back of my hand. I have also visited various dorms and had lengthy discussions on various topics with other students from fraternities​/​sororities to the rigors of various majors. Feel free to ask me any and all questions!

Hometown

Tampa Florida

Major(s)

Biomedical Sciences

Minor(s)

Psycology, Computer Science, Public Health

Clubs, organizations & involvement

Lifelong Learners Vice President

Describe your college experience

As a child of immigrants, the system of the US came as quite a shock. For starters, students who want to go to med school go straight in after High School, while the U.S. requires you do a Bachelors and take certain classes first. I originally signed up as a health sciences major until I found that those who also admit to the Honors college when entering USF and pursue a biomed major can enter a 3 year track for the Morsani college of medicine. I managed to change my major to Biomed and get into the honors college. I later found that in general and particularly at USF, SAT​/​ACT scores are a very big factor in admission to the university overall and into the honors college, luckily my 1540 got me through everything (note- they use superscore, so they combine the best reading and math scores from all of your attempts). Besides the few hiccups at the start, things have been going well. There are surely some hard classes like Physics or Organic chemistry, however usually when it can seem impossible to get an A, passing is still reasonable to accomplish. Outside of academics, campus life is also great. They hold events during the time one might have classes, particularly on days where most students have classes like Wednesday. However many events are later into the day once most classes are over, which can be annoying for commuter students but works great for those who live on or near campus. As vice president of a club, I learned a lot about the admin side of USF as well, from booking locations to applying for funds. On top of standard meetings, I also planned various other events from talks with nonprofit recruiters to free trips to the local Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).

Tip for future students

I think that students should do their best to finalize what major they wish to follow before entering USF, so that they can investigate which classes they can complete in highschool to get college credit. At first I thought my high school physics teacher was terrible, however he was heavenly compared to almost every USF physics professor, and I wish I would have finished physics in High School. Another tip is that SAT scores are very heavily considered in applications to USF, especially for STEM majors, however they are less important for those pursuing the arts.

Favorite class

Biology II, the was difficult but had many fun Dissections and other hands on interaction, while the lecture was done by a wonderful professor who absolutely loved the topic, and in fact exam averages were always above 80% since his teaching skills were amazing. A close second would be practically any of my honors classes, they felt like a reprieve from the other classes.

Career goals

I am hoping to either enter Medical​/​Osteopathic School to become a doctor or go for a masters program to go into research.

Ideal way to spend a free night

I spend my free nights reading, watching shows​/​Anime, or gaming. I also like to go out on walks . I do go out to restaurants or movies at night but usually only in the prescence of company.

High school or secondary school

Hillsborough High School (IB Programme) Tampa, Florida