Student Spotlight: Claire Alcus, Current 2nd Year Postbac Student

Claire (she/her/hers) is a second year postbac student here at Columbia. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2018 with a degree in Neuroscience, Claire worked at a healthcare-focused investment bank. During this time, Claire immersed herself in the mergers and acquisition department of the life-sciences region of the business. While having the opportunity to work with biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies and medical tech companies, Claire soon realized that the part of work she found most interesting was the medical related part. She found that she most enjoyed working with others who were entrenched in the clinical and patient services sides of healthcare. After about a year at working in the finance field, Claire pivoted her goals to enrolling in and completing Columbia’s postbac program. 

Claire notes that as an undergraduate neuroscience major, it has been a refreshing change of pace to re-apply herself to the sciences. Claire has found that she brings a similar mindset from her time working to her studies, and she has felt this has allowed her to improve her time management skills and see overall success within the program. Throughout the unquestionable difficulty of the program Claire has enjoyed the opportunity to prove to herself that she is able to handle the challenges of the pre-medical course load.

Claire's biggest piece of advice to incoming postbac students: lean on a strong support system. Claire recognizes the “lifeline of support” that has helped her through this program, specifically her fellow postbac peers. She states that “the friends I have made in this program have been the absolute lifeline in getting me through this program in more ways than just academic help.” She encourages new students to befriend older students in the program as well as utilize the resources of the program as a whole.