http://cbs4.com/local/fau.florida.atlantic.2.776656.html

BOCA RATON (CBS4) ? Florida Atlantic University has been recognized as one of the top four year colleges in the nation for minority students earning masters degrees.

According to the magazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, FAU was ranked as number in 2006-2007 for conferring master's degrees in biological and biomedical sciences on Hispanic-American students; a 150 percent increase from 2005-06.

"The increase Florida Atlantic University has seen in its diverse student population correlates with the emerging opportunities the university has to offer," said FAU President Frank T. Brogan. "Our graduate and undergraduate students are receiving a quality education in a first-class learning environment."

Overall, FAU ranked 19th in the nation for the number of master's degrees conferred in biological and biomedical sciences on minorities overall, up 33 percent from 2005-06.

FAU ranked 42nd in the nation in conferring master's degrees in health professions and related clinical sciences on Hispanic-American students, up 44 percent from 2005-06.

FAU also was ranked 64th in conferring master's degrees on Hispanic-American students within all disciplines combined, a 10.5 percent increase compared with the 2005-06 academic year.

In addition, for the first time, FAU ranked 46th in conferring mathematics and statistics master's degrees to all minorities.

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SeminOWL2006 said

…Overall, FAU ranked 19th in the nation for the number of master's degrees conferred in biological and biomedical sciences on minorities overall, up 33 percent from 2005-06.

The Master's in Biomedical Science program is very popular… for most people, it's essentially a "transition" program from undergrad to medical school; something to show medical school admissions committees that you can handle med school-level work.

Not many universities offer this kind of program and the only other one I know of in Florida is at Nova Southeastern University (NSU), where a certain score in the program allows you pretty much guaranteed access to their medical school. The difference in costs, however, is around $20,000 (NSU is expensive)

One of the draws of this program in the early days was the ability to take Gross Anatomy over the summer… you know, an actual medical school course. Then some friction between the med school and the graduate school arose, the cadavers became expensive and long story short, it's not currently offered. In fact, because of the budget crisis, there are some people in this program that are taking graduate level physics or psychology classes because there just aren't enough graduate biomedical classes offered for the 70+ students in the program.

But we're all going to finish and go on to medical school anyway (or pharmacy or dental, whatever). Most everyone I've talked to in the program has gotten in somewhere, so it's very successful in that respect.