Tulane University College Essay Eleanor Smeallie

Maybe my primitive attempts at making “medicine” from crushed berries in my backyard as a child were a foreshadowing of my current interests. More recently, AP Biology, where we explored the inner workings of life and the small details that shape it, helped clarify what excites me academically. My research on autoimmune chromosomal diseases struck my interest in a way no project had before. Having a sister with Crohn's Disease, I felt personally disappointed in the lack of medical cures to combat her insidious symptoms. My work in Alexandria INOVA Hospital’s CAT Scan room further ignited my interest in disease, as I greeted seemingly healthy-looking patients, then watched the shapes of their abnormal organs appear on the screen.

Both of these experiences, along with a passion for science my whole life, has made my interests in epidemiology, medicine, and public health clear. As an incoming freshman at Tulane, I would love to join the Undergraduate Public Health School. If accepted into the Public Health Program, I would work my hardest to achieve the proper recommendations and academic standards so that I could join the five year combined BSPH and MSPH program in Tropical Medicine. Tulane University’s combined masters program...