To boost efforts to reach out to Qatari high schools, Office of Admissions staff at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) are going to the students, and inviting students to visit them.

In two schools, the admissions office has established fixed office hours, and college faculty, staff and medical students are discussing the study of medicine with high schoolers. And recently, two school parties were welcomed to the college.

On two days during February, 18 young women from Al Bayan Scientific School and eight students from Omar Bin Al Khattab Educational Complex for Boys -- the main feeder schools for the medical college -- spent several hours at the college at the invitation of Imad Makki, director of the WCMC-Q Foundation Program. Almost all the visitors were Qatari nationals.

The Foundation Program, introduced in 2007, extends the premedical phase by a year for those applicants who would benefit from a longer period of preparation before applying to the medical program.

"By organizing these events, we hope to get the young people familiar with medicine and to show them that WCMC-Q is their medical college," Makki said. "We want them to take away the message that, once they enter Weill Cornell, we will give them all the support we can to help them succeed."

The visitors met faculty, pitched their questions to Qatari premed students and found out what it's really like to study at the college. There was much student-faculty interaction, and the students tried their hand at using lasers in the laboratory, supervised by physics professor Roger Hinrichs. Admissions staff members were also on hand to explain the online application system introduced in fall 2007.

"I learned a lot from the visit," said Khalid Al Saegh, who had already applied to the premedical program. "I didn't know about the Foundation Program before [I came]. When I applied, I didn't think I had a chance. Now, I think my chances are greater."

Saleh Al Neshwar, a counselor at Omar Bin Al Khattab school, was also positive.

"What concerns the boys most is the rigor and intensity of the program, as well as its length," he explained. "It's important for them to hear about the supportive system that helps students to succeed and to go back and spread the word. When they see how students from the same school have made it to the premedical and medical programs, it takes away some of the concerns they have."