PreMD Tracker: The Ideal App for Pre-Med Students

by Alyssa Higgins

It’s freshman year and hundreds of Pitt pre-med students flock to the pre-health advising sessions where, upon learning of everything medical school applicants need to have on their resumes, start to panic, start to rethink their career plans and look for the nearest exit. Frantically trying to keep up in biology class is hard enough, but navigating the nation-wide pre-medicine curriculum on top of that is nearly impossible.

To alleviate this stress, University of Pittsburgh alumn, David Eisenberg, and Peter Malamas from Johns Hopkins University created the PreMD Tracker, a free app designed to guide students to successful medical school applications.

The app helps students stay organized by keeping all the necessary information—completion of required classes, extra-curricular activities, GPA and letters of recommendation—in one place. Students can also explore helpful links and tips on a range of topics such as whether or not to retake a class or how to find an undergraduate research position.

The app targets freshmen and sophomores who are just starting their pre-med journeys. “I was feeling scatterbrained too often throughout the [medical school application] process,” said Eisenberg, “I didn’t really learn what I was supposed to be doing until after I was done. Students should be able to be more prepared.”

Eisenberg and Malamas, now both medical students at The Commonwealth Medical College and NYU School of Medicine respectively, relied on their pre-med experiences to design the app, and they constantly returned to one question: “What do I know now that I should have known during my freshman year?”

The app is not simply a checklist. Rather, it exists to make students more aware of the kinds of activities they should be involved in and, more importantly, guides them in the right direction.

It is, of course, possible to get into medical school without this app, but as Eisenberg says, it’s also possible to walk when you can drive—there are easier ways to get where you are going.

The app is not a replacement for advisors, but a tool to be used in conjunction with them. Advisors are often hard to reach, and advising sessions are often short but packed with an overwhelming amount of information. The PreMD tracker summarizes this information. You can even export your completed activities to a spreadsheet for yourself and your advisor.

The most popular feature is the activities tracker. This allows students to keep track of completed hours of clinical experience, research, community service and leadership.  You log your hours, and the app calculates a visual representation of areas you may be lacking in.  

The PreMD Tracker is an accessible tool that keeps pre-med students organized, aware and on the right path. It lays out what will be expected of prospective medical students, as well as how to complete, document, and track one’s progress during the medical school application process. It truly is the ideal app for all pre-med students.